SCHOOLS 



trust deeds or early records are in existence. In 

 1 64 1 -2 a Mr. Worthington was master : he was 

 perhaps succeeded by Symon Karsley or Kearsley, 

 who left Leigh in 1656 for a similar post at 

 Stratford, and was followed by John Battersbie. 

 In January, 1655-6, he styled himself ' Scholae 

 Leighensis Praefectus ' in a Latin elegy written 

 by him upon the death of John Atherton, esq., 

 high sheriiFof the county. Mr. John Ranicars, 

 of Atherton, by will dated 16 August, 1655, left 

 a rent-charge of ^5 upon two pieces of land in 

 Leigh to ' the trustees of the school at Leigh . . . 

 and towards the maintenance of a free school at 

 Leigh, to continue for ever for the use of the said 

 free school.' A further endowment of £(} per 

 annum from his landed property in Pennington 

 was added in 1681 by Mr. Richard Bradshaw 

 of Pennington, who had also given a house ' to 

 keepe thescoole in.' Other small bequests in sub- 

 sequent years increased the school endowments. 



In 1719 Ralph Pilling, educated at Heskin 

 School near Chorley and at Manchester Grammar 

 School, appointed master of Leigh School about 

 24 June, 1699, proposed rebuilding the school. 

 Sixty subscribers contributed about ;^8o among 

 them, of which Pilling's share was ;^io.^ 



Mr. Pilling left to the school a library of which 

 some six score volumes still remain, the most in- 

 teresting of which is Melancthon's Proverbs of 

 Solomon {1525), bearing on the title page the 

 autograph of Archbishop Cranmer. 



Mr. Pilling's schoolhouse, after serving its 

 purpose for two centuries, was superseded by a 

 new house bought in 1889 by means of a legacy 

 of ^600 by Mr. E. H. Heaton of Wigan. In 

 1895 the present head master, Mr. W. H. Leek, 

 was appointed. In 1 898 the school had outgrown 

 its building. It is now conducted in the Tech- 

 nical Schools erected in 1894. It is a dual school, 

 with some 220 boys and girls in attendance. In 

 1904 Mr. E. Marsh, an old pupil, bequeathed 

 ;^3,ooo for the provision of scholarships tenable at 

 the universities of Liverpool or Manchester. The 

 Lancashire County Council propose to take over 

 the financial responsibilities of the school. 



CARTMEL GRAMMAR SCHOOL « 



The grammar school had no formal founda- 

 tion that can be discovered : it was a parochial 

 school under the control of the churchwardens 

 and sidesmen of the parish who engaged a mas- 

 ter and paid his salary with the interest on small 

 benefactions and quarterage from all but very 

 poor scholars. For the history of the school we 



' This is commemorated in an inscription above the 

 school porch in which the line of Martial, ' Sint Maece- 

 nates non deerunt esse Marones ' is quoted not inappro- 

 priately. The line (with ' ecce ' for ' esse ') appears on 

 the school arms. 



' Baines, Hist, of Lanes, v, 638. 



are dependent on the parish accounts, the trust 

 deeds having disappeared. In 161 9 the school 

 was called the free school in the parish accounts. 

 In 1635 the quarterage was id. for grammarians 

 and ^d. for petties. In 1664 the master's stipend 

 was ;^20. In 1 7 1 1 the quarterage was raised to 

 IS. 6d. for Latin, and is. for English, poor 

 scholars still being taught free. These moneys 

 formed the usual cockpence payable at Shrove- 

 tide ; they might be increased by special gratui- 

 ties. In 1 7 14 the school seems to have become 

 entirely free. 



The bequests made to the school from time to 

 time were invested in land near Cartmel. In 

 1862 a considerable sum was spent in erecting 

 the head master's house and in alterations to the 

 school buildings. 



An inscription upon the monument of Thomas 

 Preston, esq., states : ' Ecclesiae pauperibus et 

 pauperum filiis in Schola Cartmellensi Collegioque 

 Sti. Johannis Cantab, educandis legavit.' At- 

 tempts to discover to what this inscription refers 

 have hitherto proved fruitless. 



Edward Law, sometime bishop of Carlisle, 

 was partly educated at Cartmel. The school is 

 now carried on under a scheme of the Charity 

 Commissioners as a dual school, with 15 boys 

 and 1 3 girls in attendance. The present income 

 from endowment amounts to ;^I25, and the 

 school receives some support from the Lancashire 

 County Council. 



MERCHANT TAYLORS' SCHOOL, 

 CROSBY 1 



In 1 6 18 John Harrison, a native of Great 

 Crosby and a member of the Merchant Taylors' 

 Company, London, left ^500 by will to the 

 master and wardens of the company for the 

 erection of a grammar school in Great Crosby : 

 certain houses in London were also left to the 

 company, the income from which was to be 

 applied in part to the upkeep of the school. 

 The school started in 1620 with one master and 

 one usher at salaries of ^^30 and ;^20 per annum 

 respectively. The first head master was one John 

 Kidd, M.A., who 'applying himself to the 

 ministry * of Sefton parish neglected the school. 

 A committee of the court in 1648 conse- 

 quently found the boys 



very unready and raw in their answers and in their 

 grammar rules, and not above two scholars in the 

 school which could perfectly read a chapter of the 

 Bible. 



Mr. Kidd complained of 



the situation of the school in the most desolate and 

 obscure angle of the country ... the rude behaviour 

 of the people, their almost incorrigible and incurable 



' C. M. Clode, Memorials of the Guild of Merchant 

 Taylors (Lond. 1875). 



611 



