EDUCATION IN BLACKPOOL AND DISTRICT 105 



About the same time, the Rev. James Barker, ' to testify his love of his 

 native town of Kirkham,' directed by his will (proved 7th November, 1670), 

 that his executors should purchase lands and tenements sufficient to bring in an 

 annual income of £30, to augment the salary of the schoolmaster, and to make 

 some provision for an exhibition to a poor scholar of the town for his main- 

 tenance at the University. £530 was spent in purchasing land at Nether 

 Methop in Westmorland. The value of this property must have appreciated 

 in value. (In 1720 the coppice woods were cut and sold for £630, which 

 sum was invested in the purchase of lands at Kirkham.) A Private Act of 

 Parliament was passed in 1813, authorising the trustees to sell the Westmorland 

 estates (purchased with Barker's money) for the sum of £11,500, and to 

 purchase another estate at Broughton, Preston, for £14,500. (£3,000 was 

 provided by the trustees themselves, who were authorised to take some portions 

 of the estate specified in a schedule to the Act, for themselves, in satisfaction 

 of the sum advanced.) Other endowments in support of this school have 

 been made at various times, including an addition of over 20 acres of land when 

 Fulwood common was enclosed. 



Bispham School. — Richard Higginson, of St. Faith's, London, founded a 

 school at Bispham, probably soon after 1649. During the period when 

 Cromwell was ' Protector ' of England, Mr. Higginson purchased two houses 

 in Paternoster Row, which had belonged to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's. 

 (These were purchased from the ' Commissioners for the sale of Dean and 

 Chapter lands.') 



By his will dated 25th July, 1 659, Mr. Higginson left several sums of money 

 to the parish of Bispham, including a payment of £30 a year, charged on these 

 houses, which was to be used towards the maintenance of a schoolmaster and 

 usher at the school which he had recently founded there. When Charles II. 

 was restored to the Throne in 1660 apparently the property was returned to 

 the Dean and Chapter, for no rents or annual payments could be obtained for 

 the use of the school. 



After Mr. Higginson's death, his widow married John Amherst, of Gray's 

 Inn. As Mrs. Amherst did not wish her first husband's legacy to be lost, 

 she, with her second husband, gave £200 to be laid out in the purchase of 

 lands to be employed for the maintenance of ' an able and learned school- 

 master ' at the school at Bispham. According to the Returns for 1865-8 

 there were 36 acres of land then belonging to the school. 



As in the case of the Kirkham endowments, the lands so purchased 

 appreciated in value, and at various times authorisation was obtained for the 

 sale of portions of the land (in 1894, £6,000 was received for some of the land) 

 and the proceeds invested in Consols. All lands have now been sold, except 

 the site on which the school stands. 



Changing Conditions. 



With the Restoration of Charles II., there was a great change. Those in 

 power were determined, for political reasons, to have no Puritan schoolmasters, 

 and the repressive Conformity legislation followed ; and it was ordered that 

 no one could teach without a licence from the Bishop. 



