SCHOOLS 



schoolmaster, appoint him to declare and confess his 

 faults in English openly first before all the school and 

 afterwards to write a declaration in Latin against such 

 faults as he is found guilty in ; and he that is too 

 sturdy to take these corrections shall be banished 

 without any further bearing with him. 



The governors were to see that a register 

 containing the names of the scholars was kept 

 as well as a record of their after careers. 



As to the scholars : 



No kind of staff dagger nor weapon shall they wear, 

 except a penknife ; nor go to the fencing school ; but 

 their chief pastime shall be shooting and that in 

 honest company and small game or none for money. 

 At meat they should not be full of talk, but rather 

 hear what their elders and betters say : if they be 

 asked a question they shall reverently take off their cap 

 and answer with as few words as may be ; they shall 

 not eat greedily nor lye on the table slovenly. 



The school hours were of the length usual, from 

 6 to 12 a.m. and from i to 6 p.m. The terms 

 were from the first Monday after Easter week to 

 the Saturday before Midsummer Day ; then, after 

 a break of ten days, until the Saturday before 

 Michaelmas Day ; after a further interval of ten 

 days until St. Thomas's Even, before Christmas 

 Day ; and from the day following Twelfth Day 

 until the Wednesday next before Easter. Some 

 few days in these terms were special holidays. 



The master and usher were to divide their 

 scholars into forms : ' commonly either of them 

 may teach three forms and ten or twelve in 

 every form.' Great stress is laid upon oral Latin 

 teaching. Erasmus's and Petrarch's Dialogues 

 are recommended, with continual practice in the 

 formation of sentences. 



After this your scholars may be brought to the reading 

 of Terence his Adelphl or Selectae Epistolae Ciceronis, 

 and then to some verse as Psalmi Buchannini, Epistolae 

 Ovidii or Ode Horatii. 



Verse writing is to be practised. The Greek 

 Grammar is then to be begun and the first texts 

 prescribed are Tabula Cebetis, Isocrates and 

 Euripides. Latin was to be spoken on all 

 occasions. 

 In 1577, 



Rye Barnes, appoynted Bysshoppe of Dureham, did 

 deteyne and with-hold from the feoffees suche copi- 

 holde landes within his diosseces as was geven by his 

 late predecessor, and the feoffees in defence thereof 

 weare urged to suche expenses as followeth. 



In i6i2 commissioners appointed by the court 

 in a Chancery suit reported that the number of 

 scholars had greatly diminished, 'and alsoe the 

 accompts shewed unto us are kepte looselie 

 in scatteringe papers and not entered as they 

 ought to be.' In i6i6 investigations showed 

 that the master, John Ainsworthe, and the usher 

 had been guilty of embezzling the school income 

 by means of forged letters of attorney. They 



were dismissed. In 1626 the school was repaired, 

 and in 1639 a lawsuit concerning the payment 

 of a rent-charge was so costly that, as stated by 

 counsel, * the school was utterly ruined and 

 deserted both by master and scholars.' 



In 1 7 1 4 the governors were able to rebuild the 

 school out of surplus income. In 1789 they 

 built houses for the masters from the same 

 source. In 1827 some of the original school 

 property in Durham was sold and an estate 

 purchased at Wheelton near Rivington. The 

 income at that date was ^^308 9J. 8^. In 1873 

 the school was united with the Blackrod Gram- 

 mar School and in 1881 the endowment was 

 re-organized by a scheme under the Endowed 

 Schools Acts, the old building being converted 

 into an elementary school and the existing school 

 erected at the Horwich end of the township. 

 The present head master, Mr. E. J. Bonnor, 

 was appointed in 1904, and the numbers in 

 attendance, about thirty, have been increased 

 by the re-organization of the school as a dual 

 school with the support of the Lancashire County 

 Council. 



BLACKROD SCHOOL 



By will dated 18 September 1568 'John 

 Homes, cytyzen and weyver ' of London, left 

 certain tenements in London and a rent-charge 

 of j^8 on these 



to be employed by trustees upon a lerned and dyscrete 

 Scolemaster which shall Teache affree gramar Scole 

 within the Towne of Blackrode in the churche there 

 or as nere unto yt as they shall thynk mete. 



He also left j^5 for a scholarship to Pembroke 

 Hall, Cambridge ; in 1829 this had accumulated 

 to j^2,574 65. 6d. in 3 per cent, consols. 

 Elizabeth Tyldesley left rents to the school in 

 1627 amounting to £140 4.S. 



It was united with Rivington School in 1873. 



BURNLEY SCHOOL^ 



There was a chantry of St. Peter in Burnley 

 church endowed with copyhold lands of which 

 in 1548 the Chantry Commissioners found 

 ' Summe totall of the rentall .... iiij It. xiijj. 

 iiiji. Reprisez none. Gilbert Fayrbank, incum- 

 bent,' who had held at least from 1535, when 

 he was assessed to a subsidy, 'of the age 66 

 years.' These lands were confirmed by the 

 manorial courts of Higham in 6 Edward VI 

 and of Ightenhill in 5 Elizabeth, with the consent 

 of royal commissioners, for the use of Gilbert 

 Fairbank for life, and after his death for the use 

 of a schoolmaster and the support of a free 

 grammar school in Burnley. It is pretty certain 

 therefore " that under him the chantry was not a 



' Lanes. Chant. (Chet. Soc. lix), 150. 

 ' Baines, Hist, of Lanes, iii, 373. 



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