A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Hugh Whalley was the next master. On 

 31 January, 1620— I, he is described as 'gentle- 

 man ' when his son was buried. So he was not in 

 orders. In September, 1622, he appears on the 

 Gild Roll as schoolmaster with two sons. ' The 

 next name on the Roll,' says Colonel Fishwick,^" 

 ' is William Walton, who is described as the 

 horse trainer of the borough; the Latin word used 

 to express the trade is " hipodidasculus." ' But 

 ' hipodidasculus ' is not a trainer of horses but of 

 boys, an usher, and the entry bears testimony to 

 the growth of the school in numbers, an usher 

 being now required. In 1636 Whalley went 

 on to Kirkham Grammar School. 



Roger Sherburne succeeded and appears as 

 schoolmaster [ludimagister) on the Gild Roll of 

 1642. He probably departed in 1649. On 

 9 September, 1650, one of the bailiffs, William 

 Curtis, having publicly refused to pay his half of 

 the sum of j^ 1 3 6f. %d. to the master, ' to the 

 great affront of the Corporation,' was ordered 

 forthwith to pay it ' to Mr. Robinson, now 

 schoolmaster, and on default to be leavied of his 

 goods.' We may presume that Mr. Robinson's 

 political and religious views were not pleasing to 

 the recalcitrant bailiff. Perhaps as a consequence 

 of this and to provide the augmentation which 

 here as elsewhere cheered the hearts of the 

 scholastic profession under the Commonwealth 

 it was ordered by the corporation, 16 July, 

 1652, 



that the sum of ^^22 of current English money shalbee 

 paid unto the said Schoolemaster yearely. . . . out of 

 ye Reveneues of this Towne by the Baylives thereof, 

 yearely, for the tyme being, in liew of theis somes 

 following, formerly payable by them forth of the 

 Revenewes of this Towne, vizt. /6 13/. 4a'. formerly 

 payable to the Schoolemaster, ^5 6s. Sd. usually 

 payable to ye BaylifFes for their yearely fees and 

 weekly wages, and 40/. yearely payable to the steward 

 of this towne, and £6 yearely payable to ye usher of 

 the said Schoole ; and also the said Steward haveing 

 the benefitt of the Corts and other profitts formerly 

 accustomed to ye said Steward (excepting th'fore- 

 menconed some of 40/.) is to allow and pay to the 

 s.Tid Schoolemaster yearely, if his availes will amount 

 to soe much, the some of 40/. 



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

 gives us the name of Mr. Winckley as master in 

 1656, Elisha son of John Clarkson, draper, of 

 Preston, being admitted as a sizar there at the 

 age of fifteen on 23 April, 1661, having been 

 six years under Winckley. He was of a Preston 

 family, and was probably John Winckley, 

 curate of Garstang in 1641 and then of 

 Brighton. 



The Gild Roll of 1662 gives William Yates 

 as ' pedagogus,' possibly meaning usher. In 

 1666 the corporation built the school, which 



served for nearly 200 years, at the bottom of 

 Stonygate, near to the churchyard. It is described 

 in 1686 as 'a large and handsome schoole house,' 

 and in 1824 as 'two good school rooms, one 

 above and one below.' The White Book of 

 the Corporation records on 6 September, 1675, 

 Richard Taylor as late schoolmaster, when 

 William Barrowe, of St. Alban's Hall and 

 Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was appointed. 

 He resigned in 1677. 



George Walmesley, of Jesus College, Cam- 

 bridge, B.A. 1675, was appointed master 

 10 May, 1677. He became M.A. 1679, and 

 being about to take orders was required in 

 November, 1680, to resign before 7 February 

 following. This he did before 6 December, 

 1680, when Richard Croxton, of Emmanuel 

 College, Cambridge, was appointed head school- 

 master, 



to have his allowance and sallary ^^30 per annum. . . 

 beside the profits of a close of ground in Preston 

 belonging to the said school and to apply himself 

 wholly to the duties of his office but not to be obliged 

 to renounce his function in the ministry." 



The close referred to was one in Broadgate in 

 Preston, which Bartholomew Worthington had 

 by will 18 December, 1663, given, after his 

 wife's death, for the augmentation of the yearly 

 wages of the masters of the free grammar school 

 of Preston. It was leasehold for ninety-nine 

 years, but fifteen years later the freehold was 

 acquired by the corporation. It was an acre 

 and a half, and was sold at various dates from 

 1802 to 1805 for money and chief rents pro- 

 ducing about £ss a year. In 1780 it had been 

 let at ;fi2 a year. 



Richard Croxton was in 1689 a nonjuror 

 and therefore was removed from the mastership. 



Thomas Whitehead, of Jesus College, Cam- 

 bridge, was appointed 30 September, 1659, but 

 either never took up the office or liked it not, as 

 on 4 November of the same year Thomas 

 Lodge, head master of Lancaster Grammar 

 School, was elected ; he held office for nine 

 years. 



A distinguished master followed, Edward 

 Denham, scholar of Eton and fellow of King's, 

 Cambridge, elected 19 September, 1698, and 

 resigning on appointment as head master of 

 Macclesfield Grammar School, 6 July, 1704. 

 He died in prison in Chester Castle under a 

 charge of murder in 1717. On his election the 

 town council promulgated some ' Orders to be 

 observed in Preston School.' These fixed the 

 school hours at 6.30 a.m. (in summer) or 7.30 

 (in winter) to 1 1 a.m. ' or longer if the business 

 of the Schoole require,' and i p.m. to 5 p.m. 

 winter and summer ; there was to be no school 



'" Fishwick, op. cit. 

 collection. 



p. 124, from Dodsworth's 



" Wallace, End. Char. 33, from White Book of the 

 Corporation. 



572 



