SCHOOLS 



post mortem concerning his property,^' taken at 

 Wigan on 13 January, 1578-9, mentioned 

 no mill except in general words. It does not 

 appear in the subsequent history of Lancaster, 

 though it is said to have been seen depicted in 

 an old print of the town not now forthcoming. 

 Its situation, no doubt, was somewhere near the 

 former boundary between the township of Bulk 

 and the borough, near where the lines of the 

 Midland Railway now lie. 



It is certain that the corporation conceived 

 itself to be the lessee of the mill, burdened with 

 the obligation of maintaining the school so far as 

 the rents permitted. 



The next definite mention of the school is in 

 the will of Randall Carter, of Southwark, 

 citizen and tallow chandler, bearing date 18 

 April, and proved 20 April, 1615. He be- 

 queathed to John Marshall and Richard Year- 

 wood, both of St. Saviour's, Southwark — 



as feoffees in trust towards the maintenance of an 

 usher in the Free School of Lancaster in the county of 

 Lancaster, one annuity of ^^lo per annum to be 

 issuing out of my lauds, tenements, and hereditaments 

 in Whitecross Street, in St. Giles without Cripplegate, 

 during so long time as the said Free School shall be 

 maintained and the said annuity so employed. 



At an inquisition^* held at the courthouse 

 of St. Clement Danes on 14 February, 1666-7, 

 under a Commission of Charitable Uses, the jury 

 found that Carter had died on 20 April, 1 61 5, 

 and that Yearwood's heir at law Edward Payne, 

 by deed dated 5 February, 1666-7, ^^^ '^°'^~ 

 veyed the annuity to the governors of the Free 

 Grammar School of St. Saviour's, Southwark, 

 and that John Harrison, of Lancaster, was and 

 had been usher in the Free School of Lancaster 

 and diligently had employed himself in the said 

 place from the 5 th day of May, which was in 

 the year of our Lord, 1656, unto that time. The 

 will and inquisition show that the school had 

 been resumed before 1615, and was then a 

 going concern. 



The register of St. John's College, Cambridge, 

 affords evidence that the school was carried on 

 during the Civil War, for John Houseman, 

 admitted 28 April, 1640, from Sedbergh, is re- 

 corded as having been previously at Lancaster 

 School for three years, under Mr. ' Scholecroft ' ; 

 and on 12 April, 1654, were entered Augustin 

 and Richard Schoolecroft, sons of James Schoole- 

 croft, clerk, 'bred at home' by their father. 

 He ceased probably in 1663, as on 20 June, 

 1664, two boys, bred at the grammar school 

 under Mr. Holden for one year, were admitted. 

 As one of these came from Tunstall he must 

 have been a boarder. 



"Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vol. xiv, No. I. 

 " Wallace, End. Char. Lanes. 



The school next appears in the corporation 

 books, which record the appointment, 6 Novem- 

 ber, 1680,'° to the head-mastership of Thomas 

 Lodge, * now present schoolemaster of Hever- 

 sham,' at a 'yearly sum of thirty pounds of lawful 

 English money . . . out of the Towne's Re- 

 venue.' His duties were to commence on the 

 first of January following. It is stated further 

 that Mr. Lodge's salary shall continue, ' if he 

 shall happen to fall into sickness or any other 

 distemper and continue for the space of six 

 months or under,' so long as he provides a sub- 

 stitute. On 23 August, 1 68 1, there were 

 ' presented in presence of the Maior, the Bay- 

 liffs, & others of the Corporacion & Burrough 

 of Lancaster, for the use of the ffree schoole 

 scholars there by Mr. Thomas ffoster,' fifty- 

 three volumes of classical works.'" 



In the winter i68i-2 the condition of the 

 school buildings demanded attention. At a 

 meeting of the town council on 3 1 January — 



Whereas the ffree Schoole of the Burrough afore- 

 said is much out of repaire and darke and the number 

 of SchoUers there so many that the said Schoole is too 

 litle ; And for the repairing amending and enlarging 

 whereof and for erecting of a Roome for a Library 

 for the said Schoole and retirement of the Schoole- 

 master It is ordered that Joshua Partington, Sen., 

 Thomas Baynes, Robt. Carter, John Yeats Younger 

 & Richard Stirzaker shall as shortly as they can 

 assesse the sume of Thirty pounds or thereabouts 

 upon ffree Burgesses and other Inhabitants within the 

 said Burrough and such as have Estates there & 

 Stocks of money or goods according to the rates of 

 the Assessments for the last Quarterly paymt for paying 

 & disbanding the forces since 29 September, 1677: 

 that the same may be repaired amended & enlarged 

 for ye creditt of the Towne. 



Accordingly the school was rebuilt, probably 

 on its former site, on the west side of the church- 

 yard. The headstone of the door, bearing the 

 date 1682, now lies in the grounds of the 

 present school. 



Thomas Lodge sent boys to St. John's Col- 

 lege, Cambridge, from 1682 (12 October) to 

 1685 (16 February), all as sizars. In 1701, 

 Laurence Herdman, who went up as a sizar on 

 17 June, is recorded to have been under Mr. 

 Bordley. 



In 1700, 'Giles Heysham, merchant, left to 

 the town of Lancaster £ 1 00, which was applied 

 to augment the Usher's salary.' It is possible 

 that the corporation, having made use of this 

 hundred pounds, resolved to set apart a field on 

 the west side of the town, which had formed 

 part of the wastes belonging to the corporation. 



" W. O. Roper, * Lancaster School,' Trans. Lanes, and 

 Ches. AnAq. Soc. xiv, 1897, pp. 12, 13. 

 '* See, for the detailed list, ibid. 13, 14. 



565 



