A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



when he was sentenced for treason after the 

 battle of Worcester, recall Cromwell's devotion 

 to VVolsey after his fall, and procured him a 

 new patron in the Speaker Lenthall, to whom 

 he became chaplain and preacher at the Rolls. 

 After the Restoration he turned again, in 1667 

 became dean of Salisbury, and ended as bishop 

 of Chichester (1674-8). 



Nehemiah Painter, not identified, followed. 

 There seems to be a gap before John Wickes 

 in 1652, who took his M.A. degree in 1661 

 and B.D. 1670. 



William Barrow, who followed, achieved a 

 record in length of tenure, holding for forty-six 

 years, from 1675 toi72i. The school must 

 have been full in his time, as in 1685 there 

 were three masters — the high master, the second, 

 and the petties' master — receiving ;^6o, ^^28, 

 and ^\2 a year respectively. In 1690 there 

 was a rebellion at the school, probably arising 

 from a ' barring-out.' 



The boys locked themselves in the school and 

 were supplied by the town's people with victuals and 

 beds, which were put in through the windows. They 

 even got firearms and ammunition, with which they 

 fired at the legs of those who attempted to get in. 

 This rebellion continued a fortnight." 



At the end of the seventeenth century there 

 was founded what was for a long time practically 

 an exhibition endowment of the school, the 

 Hulme Exhibitions. William Hulme, of Kears- 

 ley, by his will 24 October, 1691, five days 

 before he died, gave lands at Heaton Norris, 

 Ashton-under-Lyne, Redditch, and Manchester, 

 after the death of his wife, to James Chetham, 

 William Hulme, and William Baguley, and their 

 heirs, 



to the intent and purpose that the clear annual rents 

 . . . shall be paid and distributed to and amongst 

 such four of the poorest sort of Bachelors of Arts 

 taking such degrees in Brazennose College in Oxford 

 as from time to time shall resolve to continue and 

 reside there by the space of four years after such 

 degree taken ; such said Bachelors to be nominated 

 and approved of by the Warden of the collegiate 

 church of Manchester, the rectors of the parish 

 churches of Prestwich and Bury . . . my will and 

 mind being that no such Bachelor shall continue to 

 have anything of this my exhibition but only for the 

 space of 4 years to be accounted from the time of 

 such degree taken. 



There can be no doubt that what Hulme 

 intended was to encourage what is now called 

 post-graduate study. Until after the Restoration 

 the normal period for study at Oxford was seven 

 years, the B.A. degree being taken at the end 

 of four years, and the M.A. degree after another 

 three years. But the modern practice of leaving 

 the university immediately the B.A. degree is 

 taken seems to have been coming into vogue. 



Hulme, according to James Grundy," his 

 physician, said that the county, 



especially this part of it where he lived, sent more 

 scholars to the University than any other like county 

 or place, but that many that sent their sons were not 

 able to maintain them in the University any longer 

 than to make them B.A.'s and then such young 

 scholars are necessitated to turn Preachers before they 

 are qualified for that work, which is the occasion that 

 we are not so well provided with orthodox and able 

 ministers as other counties ; therefore that he designed 

 a considerable part of his estates towards the main- 

 tenance of 4 such Bachelors of Arts that were Lanca- 

 shire scholars. 



This account was given in an affidavit, the 

 object of which was to establish that Hulme 

 meant to restrict the exhibitions to Lancashire 

 lads. This was supported by other witnesses, 

 but parole evidence could not of course control 

 the plain words of the will, which left the 

 exhibitions open. Nevertheless the electors, being 

 all of the immediate neighbourhood of Man- 

 chester, settled the form of nomination for 

 candidates in the terms : — 



N., son of N.N. of N., in the county of Lan- 

 caster, and Bachelor of Arts of Brasenose College in 

 Oxford. 



The first exhibitioners were elected 25 June, 

 1692. For many years the endowment was 

 practically attached to the school, and was a 

 great attraction from the school to Brasenose 

 College. 



Barrow's very long reign was followed by 

 Thomas Colborn's very short one, from 1720 to 

 1722. John Richards, who took his M.A. at 

 Corpus 17 March, 1721, began his head-master- 

 ship 23 April, 1722, and held till 1727. 



The earliest extant feoffees' minute book 

 begins in his time. An early entry records the 

 fact that at a meeting held ' att the Bull's head ' 

 a commission of bankruptcy was ordered by the 

 feoffees to ' be endeavoured and presented against 

 Charles Beswick, Glover, late Receiver,' who 

 apparently had appropriated school funds. The 

 feoffees' dinner bill on this occasion amounted 

 to ;^2 5j. 5,5?, We learn that Mr. Kenyon at- 

 tended the feoffees' meetings regularly as counsel 

 for the school, receiving the fee of a guinea. On 

 17 December, 1725, he was ordered 



to state a case upon the Foundacion and Articles of 

 the Free Schoole and for the masters' behaviour as 

 required by the said statutes and of the Feoffees' 

 power given to make Bylaws .... to increase or 

 diminish the sallarys according to the merritt or 

 neglect of the masters and what are the proper 

 methods to proceed against the masters in case they 

 neglect the School and still insist upon having and 

 enjoying all the Revenues, and take Mr. Lutwich and 

 Mr. Fazackerley's opinion. 



" Whatton, op. cit. 



586 



" Whatton, op. cit. li, 57 



