SCHOOLS 



The usher, Mr. Boardman, was appointed in his 

 place. 



Under his successor, the Rev. Thomas Bayne, 

 the school recovered its prestige. In 1829 a new 

 school was built with accommodation for 1 20 boys. 

 Mr. Bayne was, in 1842, succeeded by the Rev. 

 Henry Bostock. In 1862 further rebuilding took 

 place. The Rev. O. H. Gary next held the 

 ' post for nearly twenty years (1863-80). He 

 resigned on the coming into operation of a new 

 scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts (6 Sep- 

 tember, 1880). The present head master, the 

 Rev. E. J. Willcocks, of St. Catharine's College, 

 Cambridge, 39th Wrangler in 1869, who had, 

 since 1871, been second master, was appointed 

 in 1 88 1. Much enlargement has taken place 

 during his tenure of office. With five assistant 

 masters, he has over 120 boys. The tuition fees 

 are j^ 1 2 a year. There are two exhibitions of 

 £20 and one of ^^50 a year tenable at Oxford 

 or Cambridge, and eight scholarships tenable in 

 the school. 



ST. MICHAELS-UPON-WYRE 

 GRAMMAR SCHOOL 



A school which was cut off in the flower of 

 its youth was that of St. Michaels-upon-Wyre, a 

 parish which stretches for 1 1 miles north of 

 Preston and east of Kirkham. This was a chantry 

 school, thus reported by the Chantry Commis- 

 sioners ^ of Henry VIII : 



The Chauntrie in the paroch church of St. Myghell 

 upon Wyre. Willyam Harrison, preist, Incumbent 

 there, of the foundacion of John Butler, to celebrate 

 there in the saide church for his sowle and all chrysten 

 sowles and the incumbent thereof to teache gramer 

 skole. The same is at the altar of Saynt Katherine 

 and the same preyst doth celebrate there and kepe 

 gramer skole accordinglie. Sum totall of the rentall 

 ^5 15J. 8 J. Reprises 5/,' and so remanyth over 

 £S 10s. id. 



The Certificate of the Commissioners of Ed- 

 ward VI is CO the same effect. 



The John Butler who founded this chantry 

 seems to have been the one who died 28 April, 

 1533. The Butlers had been settled since at 

 least the early fourteenth century at Rawcliffe 

 Hall. By deed,' 3 December, 1528, John But- 

 ler had enfeoffed Sir Alexander Osbaldeston, knt.. 

 Sir Henry Farrington, knt., and others of his 

 estates in Out Rawcliffe and elsewhere to the 

 uses of his will, in which he says : 



Whereas I the said John Butler have afore this tyme 

 begon to make and estable a chauntry and servyce at 



' Leach, Engl. Schools at the Reformation, 118. 



* It appears from the Ministers' Accounts in 1 549 

 that this 5/. was for the jointure of the wife of Robert 

 Stannal from land at Stannal forming part of the 

 endowments. 



' Henry Fishwick, Hht. of Parish of St. Michaels-on- 

 JVyre (Chet. Soc. New Ser. 1891), 54. 



the church of Seynt Michel upon Wyre and have 

 appropriated the same chauntry to the altar of Saynt 

 Katheryn within the said church, which chauntry and 

 servyce is not yet fully fynysshed according to the 

 fundaccons of the said chauntry, therefore I the said 

 John Butler will and declare that the foresaid feoffees 

 shall stand and be seised of after my decease certain 

 parts of the said premises of the yerely value of 

 5 marks above all charges. 



The feoffees were to accumulate the income till 

 they had 40 marks and then to buy land worth 

 £1 6;. 8^. a year, if he did not during his life 

 finish the said chantry. It may be doubted 

 whether the testator was not merely augmenting 

 an existing chantry, as ^^i 6j. 8c/. would have 

 been only a quarter of the endowment. Mr. 

 Fishwick conjectures * that the chantry was in 

 honour of Katherine, second wife of Nicholas 

 Boteler, living in 1440, great-great-great-grand- 

 father of John. But as she died sine prole this is 

 not probable. The dedication to St. Katherine 

 was a very common one for a grammar school 

 chantry, as she was the mediaeval equivalent of 

 Lady Jane Grey, and supposed to have been past 

 mistress of the ' seven liberal sciences.' The 

 chantry is at the east end of the north aisle. 



Mr. Fishwick says ' the latter part of his [the 

 chantry priest's] duties could hardly have been per- 

 formed, as there was no school of that description 

 then in the parish, or if there was, all subsequent 

 trace of it is lost.' But in view of the express 

 finding by the two sets of commissioners that the 

 foundation was duly observed, it is idle to assert 

 that it was not. Moreover, the Schools Contin- 

 uance Commissioners, finding that ' a Grammer 

 scole hathe beene continually kept in the parish 

 . . . with the revenues of the chauntry of St. 

 Katherine,' directed by a warrant of 1 1 August, 

 1548, 



that the Grammer scole in the said parish . . . shall 

 continue. And that William Harrison, scolemaster 

 there, shall continue in the same rowme and have for 

 his wages yearly ^^5 10/. 



The chantry lands were leased by Queen 

 Elizabeth in 1595 to the then owner of Raw- 

 cliffe, Henry Butler, a recusant, and in 1606 

 the fee simple was acquired by him. 



In 1641-2, among those who refused to sign 

 the solemn declaration to maintain the Protestant 

 religion against all Popish innovations was 

 ' Richard Fletcher, schoolmaster.' 



WINWICK SCHOOL 1 

 The Free Grammar School here was founded 

 by Gwalter Legh, in the time of Henry VIII, 

 who gave £10 2l year. Sir Peter Legh, in 

 161 9, added a like sum, having previously pro- 

 vided a building. A hundred years later another 

 Peter Legh, of Lyme, substituted an annual pay- 



* Ibid. 53«. 



' Char. Com. Rep. 



603 



