SCHOOLS 



In 1627 Peter Burscough added /lOO to the 

 school stock, and other benefactors ^130 more. 

 In 17 18 the Rev. Thomas Armetridding, for- 

 merly vicar, gave ;^200, and his widow in 1728 

 £^0, the whole sum amounting in 1746 to 

 /413 lent on bonds. John Brastin by will 

 19 July, 1792, gave ;^200. In 1826 the 

 school had become purely elementary and so 

 remained in 1867,° * though a boy or two may 

 generally be found learning Latin.' In 1892 

 Mr. Arthur Leach visited the school as Assistant 

 Charity Commissioner, and in the result by a 

 scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts, 19 May, 

 1898, the endowment, including ^^3 17;. lod. 

 from the Duchy, was made applicable to exhibi- 

 tions tenable at Balshaw's School, Leyland. 

 This was originally a charity school founded by 

 Richard Balshaw, of Golden Hill in Leyland, by 

 deed of 14 June, 1782, and further endowed 

 by Ellen Fisher by deed 10 July, 1829. By a 

 scheme of 19 May, 1898, this school, with an 

 endowment of about ;^37S, was made a second- 

 ary school for boys, and, if the governors think 

 fit, for girls also. The disastrous experiment 

 of setting up an independent girls' school was 

 tried by the governors, against the advice of the 

 commissioners. It proved a failure and a loss, 

 and was discontinued after about three years. 

 The grammar school now flourishes as a mixed 

 school, with 116 scholars — 63 boys and 53 girls 

 — paying tuition fees of £4. a year, under Mr. 

 F. Jackson, an elementary schoolmaster, with 

 two assistant masters and two assistant mistresses. 



THE BOTELER GRAMMAR SCHOOL, 

 WARRINGTON ^ 



Warrington Grammar School was founded by 

 Sir Thomas Boteler, knt., of Bewsey, whose 

 family had held lands near Warrington from a 

 date very shortly after the Norman Conquest, 

 while he himself fought at Flodden. His will, 

 dated 16 August, 1520, states that he had 

 ' delyverit into the custody and kepyng of the 

 righte reverende Father in God John Abbotte of 

 Whalley fyve hundrethe markes in golde,' and 

 continues : — 



It is my full will and mynde that my executors should 

 have the disposicion and orderyng of the said sume 

 ... to purchase and obteyne lands tenements or 

 rentes to the yerely value of ten pounds above all 

 charges or as myche thereof as should be unprovidett 

 and purchasede by him and therewith to found a fre 

 gramer scole in Weryington to endure for ever and to 

 susteyne and beire the charges of the same and the 

 residue ... to dispose for his soule and his wyfFe's 

 soule. My executors durying theire severall lyves and 

 after theire decease my heires from tyme to tyme shall 



' ScAools Inj. Rep. xviii, 306. 



' Trans. Hist. Soc. Lanes, and Ches. viii (Lond. 1856), 

 51 ; Baines, Hist, of Lanes, iii, 674 ; Char. Com. Rep. 

 XX, 166. 



denominate name and appoynt an honeste preste, 

 groundely lernede in gramer, to be maister of the said 

 scole, whiche shall say masse pray and do dyvine ser- 

 vice at the paroche churche of Weryngton for [the 

 souls of him and his family], and all statuts and 

 ordinaunces concernyng the fundacion of the saide 

 scole shall be made and stablysshede by [him and his 

 executors], 



A codicil, 27 February, 1522, recites that 



his trusty servaunts, Sir William Plumtre and Rauf 

 Alyn, at his costs and charges to his use and to the 

 performance of his last will had purchased certen 

 messuages lands and tenements in Tyldesley and 

 Weryngton. 



Sir Thomas died 27 April, 1522. The foun- 

 dation of the school was effected by an indenture 

 of 16 April, 1526, to which the schoolmaster. 

 Sir ' Richard Taylor, among others, was a party. 

 After a preamble to the effect that there was a 

 scarcity of schools in Lancashire, where men's 

 sons might learn grammar and to live godly and 

 virtuous lives, 



that perchance they might happen to be the very 

 clear lanthorn of good example in virtuous living to 

 all the country thereabouts to the good encrease and 

 use of vertue and expulsion of all vices, 



the indenture grants a house in Warrington and 

 an adjoining croft as the schoolhouse of War- 

 rington, and lands in Lancashire and Cheshire 

 are vested in the feoffees to the use of the school- 

 master. ' Statutes and Ordinances of the said 

 Free School ' were then set out : — 



First it is ordeynd that the said schoolmaister shall 

 teach any scholar coming to the said school after 

 Wittington's Grammar' and making or after such 

 Form and Grammar which shall be most used to be 

 taught hereafter in Free Grammar Schools and the 

 same to be taught freely and quietly without tailing 

 any Reward Stipend or Schole-hire or any other 

 thing by Promise grant or covenant before made, 

 any * Feriall day, except three Feriall days next 

 before the Feasts of the Nativity of our Lord God, 

 Easter and Pentecost, and other three Feriall days 

 next after the said Feasts, except the school-master 

 shall happen to have any reasonable let or impedi- 

 ment. Provided alwais that it shall be lawfuU to the 

 school-master and any other school-master for the time 

 being to take of any scholar of the said school learning 

 grammar four pennys by year that is to say in the 

 Quarter next after Christmas A cock penney and in 

 any of the three other Quarters in the year one Pota- 

 tion Penny and for the same Potation pennys that the 

 said schoolmaster for the time being shall make A 

 Drinking for all the said Scholars in any of the said 

 three Quarters in the year. 



* ' Sir,' of course, translates dominus, the clerical 

 title. 



' Robert Whittington, head master of Magdalen 

 College School, author of numerous grammatical 

 works printed by Wynkyn de Worde and Pynson from 

 I 5 1 3 to 1522. 



* ' Any,' probably ' every ' as is noted in the Trans. 

 58. 



601 76 



