SCHOOLS 



tion of their stipends. Also, as she understood 

 the stipends of the principal and fellows were 

 very small, she gave 6s. 8d, a week for the 

 improvement of their commons, 131. ^.d. to the 

 principal, 101. to the vice-principal, and the rest 

 for the other fellows. The payments prescribed 

 amounted to ^^65 3/. 4^., leaving j^i ioj. 

 unappropriated, no doubt as a margin for expenses, 

 legal and other. From the beginning this sur- 

 plus was carried to the general college account ; 

 as well as the whole surplus of the improved 

 rents after the falling in of the lease in 1686. 



The school continued to be carried on in the 

 old school till 1586, when Dean Nowell bought 

 the field on which the school now stands, and 

 thereon 



built a fine school house of stone in Her Majesty's 

 name, with lodging for the schoolmaster * and usher 

 to the value of the whole above noted 2,000 marks 

 and above. 



By deed 20 November, 1597, Nowell, then 

 himself principal of Brasenose, conveyed the site 

 and buildings to the college as governors of the 

 school. 



Difficulties very early arose with the under 

 lessee of the lands of Upbury, Sir Edward Hoby, 

 chiefly as to his paying rent partly in kind ; since 

 he was in arrear with that, a petition to the 

 Lord Keeper ensued. In this it is stated that 

 Dean Nowell had to advance money to carry on 

 the school and maintain the Middleton scholars, 

 and that ' near 200 scholars are taught ' in the 

 school. The school was therefore in a very 

 flourishing state at that time. 



But the usual result of endowment consisting 

 of fixed charges instead of lands, the increase of 

 which rose with the value of money, followed. 

 In 1609 the 13 scholars had ceased to be drawn 

 from Middleton School, and the endowment was 

 practically considered as one for any school in 

 Lancashire. 



In the time of the Commonwealth the school 

 was in danger of losing even its fixed endow- 

 ment of ;^28 a year under the first Elizabethan 

 letters patent. This sum being a charge on the 

 dean and chapter of St. Paul's, and paid by 

 them, there was some difficulty, when deans and 

 chapters were abolished, in obtaining payment. 

 Eventually, however, it was charged on the 

 revenues of the sequestrated rectory of Whalley 

 by order of the trustees for ministers and school- 

 masters, commonly called the Trustees for 

 Plundered Ministers. On 29 September, 1652, 

 Mr. Lawrence Steele, the receiver, was ordered 

 to pay Brasenose College the sum of ;^28 ys, 2d., 



* Not ' scholars,' as ' scholmr ' has been misread 

 by a mistake repeated in End. Char, for Middle- 

 ton, p. 12. The sum of 2,000 marks includes the 

 whole of the endowment, not the school buildings 

 only. 



and also twice that amount for two years' arrears. 

 He, however, demurred for reasons not explained, 

 and so by a further order of 16 March, 1652, 

 William Farmer was ordered to pay it, and 

 Mr. Stockdale, his successor, paid it afterwards 

 up to 1658, and presumably to 1660. When 

 chapters were restored after the Restoration the 

 payment was renewed by the dean and chapter 

 of St. Paul's. 



In 1 710 the scholarships had through change 

 in the value of money so depreciated that 

 Brasenose College consolidated the 13 into 

 one. 



For many years before i8i8 the mastership, 

 owing to the smallncss of the master's stipend, 

 had been filled by a curate of the parish. From 

 1778' it was held by the Rev. James Archer, 

 who gave a ' commercial education . . . having 

 seldom fewer than from 40 to 50 pupils under 

 his care, who are boarded and lodged in the 

 village.' Day boys were charged £\ 4;. a year. 

 The usher's department was practically an ele- 

 mentary school at id. a week, the usher's pay 

 from the college being ;^io a year. The 

 master was paid by the college only the original 

 sums of ;^I3 bs. 8d. and ^i, under the two 

 letters patent, and received also j^5 ioj. 8d. 

 from the crown in virtue of the continuance 

 payment in respect of the old Langley endow- 

 ment, alleged to be ^^3,000 a year. The 

 college admitted 'considerable value, but not 

 j^3,ooo a year.' In point of fact it was only 

 ^^536 in 1802, and half a century later £583. 

 In 1827 ^n information was brought by the 

 attorney-general against Brasenose College claim- 

 ing a proportionate share of the increased revenues 

 for the school. Because there was no trust declared 

 of the surplus, and it was shown that in the 

 donor's own time as principal it had been applied 

 by the college to its own purposes, the in- 

 formation was dismissed, as well as the subse- 

 quent appeal to the House of Lords ( 1 3 August, 



1834).'' 



When Mr. Bryce reported on the school to 

 the Schools Inquiry Commission in 1867,' he 

 described it as 



with the exception of that of Oldham the most woe- 

 begone in all Lancashire. It stands in a hollow on 

 the bank of . . . the Irk, . . . once a clear trout 

 stream, now black and fetid with the refuse of dye 

 and print works . . . Inside is a big bleak room 

 with an exceedingly small stove. The walls are 

 covered with a dirty whitewash ; the floor is flagged 

 and the children's clogs rattle over it ; there is little 

 furniture, and that old and battered. On the day of 

 my visit there were 34 children, 21 boys and 13 

 girls. 



' Carlisle, op. cit. i, 707. 



" J((. Gen. V. Brasenoie College, Clark and Finnelly, 

 295. 



' ^ch. Inq. Rep. xvii, 337. 



577 



73 



