A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



ment ot ^^24 for the two earlier benefactions. 

 This £2^, with another £\0, made the income 

 in 1828 /34. The school in the seventeenth 

 century sent boys to the universities. In 1865 

 it was a small boarding-school, but it came to an 

 end in 1890, and the endowment has been com- 

 bined with that of the Dean School in Newton 

 erected in 1 699 and endowed by John Stirrup, 

 which also received part of the endowment of 

 Lowton School, founded in 1 75 1. Out of the 

 funds exhibitions tenable at secondary or tech- 

 nical schools have been established. 



WHALLEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL ^ 



The grammar school which had long existed 

 in Whalley was continued in 1548 by warrant 

 of the Commissioners under the Chantries Act 

 of Edward VI dated 20 July, 1548, and the 

 master, William Thurlow, was also continued 

 with a stipend of ^^13 16;. id. to be paid out of 

 the crown revenues of the Duchy, the endow- 

 ments of the school as a chantry school being 

 confiscated. The payment, which had ceased 

 during Queen Mary's reign, was revived by a 

 decree of the Exchequer in Michaelmas term, 

 1 57 1, for the benefit of Peter Carter, then 

 master, and his successors. The master was 

 appointed by the inhabitants of the parish of 

 Whalley, but in later years the seven townships 

 of the parish other than that of Whalley came 

 to be excluded. 



Whalley was one of the three Lancashire 

 grammar schools (Middleton and Burnley being 

 the others) to which Dean Nowell left an en- 

 dowment, since lapsed, for thirteen scholarships 

 of 5 marks apiece (j^3 ts. 8d.) at Brasenose Col- 

 lege, Oxford. 



John Chewe, about 1629, gave j^io and Sir 

 Edmund Assheton £jO, which sums were in 

 I 77 1 invested in land at Great Harwood. 



In 1825, under the Rev. Richard Noble, the 

 school was still a grammar school, though there 

 were only I2 boys. The present buildings were 

 erected in 1725. By three schemes under the 

 Endowed Schools Act, 3 August 1886, certain 

 other charities contributed some ;^700 to im- 

 proving the buildings, and a representative govern- 

 ing body was constituted. The average number 

 of boys in attendance is 25. The endowment 

 is now £s5 i^- ^d. 



KIRKHAM GRAMMAR SCHOOL i> 



This school was already in existence in 1 55 1, 

 when Thomas Clifton of Westby left ' towards 

 the grammar scole xx^.' ^ On 19 September, 



' Ciar. Com. Rep. xv, 52. 



'' Baines, Hist, of Lanes, iv, 389 ; Fish wick. Hist, of 

 Kirkham (Chet. Soc. xcii), 135 ; Char. Com. Rep. xi, 

 236. 



' Piccope, Lanes. Wills (Chet. Soc. liv), 76. 



1 55 1, at a meeting of the 'thirty men,' a kind 

 of select vestry, it was agreed 



that 40/. taken out of the [parish] clerk's wages should 

 be paid to the schoolmaster, and that four of the thirty 

 men, in the name of the rest, take possession of the 

 schoolhouse in right of the whole parish. 



One Richard Wilkins, ' now schoolmaster,' 

 was placed in the house ' for one whole year and 

 longer, at his and their liking.' 



A manuscript entitled 'A brief relation touch- 

 ing the Free School lately erected at Kirkham, its 

 beginning, progress and miscarrying, truly related,' 

 now lost, but a copy of which was taken by 

 William Langton about 1798, is a chief source 

 of information. It tells how 



' Isabell Bireley (sic), wife of Thomas Birley, bom 

 in Kirkham, daughter of John Coulbron, an ale house 

 keeper all her life and through that imployment 

 attayned to a good personall estait, being moved with 

 a naturall compassion to pore children, ... in the 

 yeare 1621, having gotten a good stock of money into 

 her hands,' repaired to the church where ' the thirty 

 men of the parish being assembled with ^^30 in her 

 aporon, telling them that she had brought that money 

 to give it towards the erecting of a free schole for pore 

 children, to be taught gratis, . . . wishing them to take 

 it and consider of it, [as] they were . . . the most like 

 persons to move their several townshipps to contribute 

 everyone something ' towards the accomplishment of so 

 charitable a work, 'and not doubting but their good ex- 

 amples in their contributions would be a strong motive 

 to excite others. This was thankfully accepted and . . . 

 everyone was forward to promote it, especially Mr. 

 John Parker, of Bredkirk, one of that companie, being 

 at that tyme one of the earl of Derbie's gentlemen and 

 somewhat alyed to the said Isabell. He forwarded it 

 very much, sparing neither his paynes of body nor his 

 purse ; for that end he traveled all the parish over to 

 every particular towne and house, earnestly persuading 

 them to contribuit ' to so good a use. ' Sir Cuthbert 

 Clifton gave ^^20 ' ; 



other gentlemen ;^26, and altogether a total 

 amount of ^^ 170 14J. was secured. 



With this sum either a new school was built 

 or the old one altered and enlarged. Thomas 

 Armestead was elected schoolmaster, chiefly 

 through the influence of Isabell Birley. About 

 1628 he was succeeded by one Sokell. Hitherto 

 the school had been controlled by the ' thirty 

 men ;' but now the above-mentioned subscribers, 

 who were Romanists, thought that they ought to 

 take a share in the management. 



The ' thirty men,' being in some way depend- 

 ent on them, retired from the management with 

 one exception : * only Mr. Parker he joined in 

 with them.' 



Isabell Birley and her friends accordingly 

 appealed to the bishop, who made the follow- 

 ing order for the future election of feoffees : 



604 



Apud Wigan, 31 July, 1628. 

 That the whole parish or so many as shall appear at 

 some day prefixed . . . shall elect six or nine lawful 



