A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



time becomes a mere record of school bills. 

 It ceased altogether on the passing of a private 

 Act in 1760 which cost ;^6oo. A few 'gents' 

 mark the register in Purnall's first year ; one of 

 the earliest of them, Millington Massey of 

 Dunham, admitted 2 October, 1 749, becoming 

 senior wrangler in 1759. Richard Pepper 

 Arderne of Stockport, admitted 20 June, 1752, 

 was twelfth wrangler in 1766 (with Dr. Arnold, 

 also from Manchester, senior wrangler), solicitor- 

 general in 1783, Master of the Rolls 1788, and 

 Chief Justice and Lord Alvanley in 1 801. At 

 school on 9 December, 1759, he took the title- 

 role in a performance of Addison's Cato in the 

 theatre, which began at 6 p.m. The performance 

 of plays by schoolboys became very popular about 

 this time, theatricals proving an effective sub- 

 stitute for the old rhetoric. Twenty-five ad- 

 missions are the total for 1753. John Crewe, 

 who became Lord Crewe, admitted in I754) 

 can only partially be claimed as a Mancunian, 

 since he went on to Westminster, then the great 

 school of the aristocracy, particularly of the Whigs. 

 The school gradually increased ; 36 entries 

 marked the year 1756. At this period the 

 second week in January seems to have been the 

 favourite time for entering new scholars, not, as 

 now, after the summer holidays. Though not 

 numerous, a good many more gentlemen begin to 

 mark the register, though the two most suc- 

 cessful, Cyril Jackson, dean of Christ Church, and 

 William Jackson, bishop of Oxford, both used it 

 only as a preparatory school for Westminster. 

 Purnall died 16 April, 1764. 



Charles Lawson, having already been the 

 second master for fifteen years, then ruled for 

 forty-three years, making a total service of fifty- 

 eijht years. He only ceased to attend school 

 the day before his death, at the age of seventy- 

 nine, on 19 April, 1807. This was pre-emi- 

 nently the era of protracted head-masterships, to 

 the ruin of many schools. His palmy period 

 was from 1770 to 1786, 44 boys being admitted 

 in 1770, the same number in 1775, and 65 in 

 1780, and they were drawn from a wider area 

 and a higher class, especially from Wales and 

 Derbyshire. The total number of scholars must 

 have been about 250. This increase brought 

 about ■\ rebuilding of the school on the old site 

 in 1776-7, the upper school being made 96 ft. 

 long by 30 ft. wide, and some 25 ft. high. The 

 lower school was partly beneath the upper, and 

 about half its size. In 1790 the entries had 

 fallen again to 21, and we find the same number 

 in 1800. Among the pupils of this year was 

 Ashurst Turner Gilbert, bishop of Chichester, 

 who gave a racy account ^^ of the peculiarities 

 Lawson had developed, particularly his way of 

 addressing everyone in the third person, with the 

 prefix of 'Psha, blockhead.' Thus, meeting 



young Gilbert just before the holidays, he in- 

 quired : ' Psha, blockhead, where does he go 

 these holidays ? * ' Haslingden.' ' And how is 

 he to get to Haslingden ? ' 'I sliould walk.' 

 ' Pray, then, can he ride ? ' ' Yes. ' ' Psha, 

 well, then, he shall have my horse." Oddly 

 enough, Lawson never took orders, though it 

 was reported that he had been made deacon 

 before the canonical age, and had accompanied 

 the Pretender to Derby. 



Jeremiah Smith, of Corpus, Oxford, was ap- 

 pointed high master on 6 May, 1807, the salary 

 then being ;^240 a year, gradually raised to 

 ^500 by 1834, when Whatton wrote; the 

 second master, the Rev. Robinson Elsdale, re- 

 ceived from ;^I20 to ^^300 a year. Carlisle, 

 in 1 81 8, says there were two assistant masters 

 besides the usher, and a master of the lower 

 school, and there were 140 boys in the upper, 

 and 30 to 40 in the lower school, the lattet 

 having fallen in numbers through ' the establish- 

 ment of the National and Lancasterian schools.' 

 There was considerable boarding accommodation 

 at 50 guineas a year, but few boarders. 



In 183s the total income from endowment 

 had risen to £2,778. But from that time, 

 owing to mills being established beyond the 

 limits of the manor of Manchester, the school 

 mills steadily decreased in value, till thirty years 

 later the income from them was less than a 

 tenth of what it had been thirty years before, 

 viz. £27^- Fortunately, the other endowments 

 of the school had increased in value through the 

 growth of the town and yielded about £2,°00 a 

 year. In 1849 ^ Chancery scheme abolished 

 boarders and restricted the school to be a free 

 school. 



In 1859 *^^ governors had the good fortune 

 to secure the services of Frederick William 

 Walker, who, by a curious coincidence, was 

 destined to re-create the only two schools which 

 have definitely retained the title of high for head 

 master, Manchester and St. Paul's, London. He 

 was a Rugbeian and Corpus man, who got firsts 

 in classics and seconds in mathematics at Oxford 

 in 1852—3, and showed his versatility by being 

 also Boden Sanskrit scholar and Vinerian Law 

 Scholar. He set to work to reorganize the 

 school. On 7 August, 1867, a new scheme 

 was made by the Court of Chancery, which, 

 while retaining 250 free places, after a long 

 local struggle, imposed fees of 12 guineas a year 

 on other boys. Already by 1869'° there were 

 113 paying scholars. ^^ 10,000 was spent on 

 new buildings. When Mr. Walker passed on 

 to St. Paul's in 1876 the school numbered 808, 

 of whom 250 were free scholars. 



Samuel Dill, fellow and tutor of Corpus, suc- 

 ceeded. A scheme under the Endowed Schools 

 Acts, which became law 30 April, 1877, reduced 



'' Manci. Schol Reg. i, 1 24. 



" Schools In J. Rep. xvi, 325. 



