A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



conditions, so that men of qualit)' will not send their 

 children hither, neither is there any fit to give enter- 

 tainment to such and for myself have tabled some and 

 could never get payment. 



In spite of this complaint he was dismissed. The 

 great fire of London created a crisis in the school 

 history ; the London property was destroyed and 

 salaries were cut off until it could be rebuilt. 



For the following two centuries the foundation 

 was nothing more than an obscure village gram- 

 mar school. The London property gradually 

 increased in value, and in 1847 produced an in- 

 come of ;^775, the savings on which in 1874 

 amounted to ;^3,500. In 1861 the company 

 limited the school to 70 boys and made it 

 strictly Church of England, compelling the 

 28 foundationers to attend church on Sun- 

 days. In 1867, when the Schools Inquiry 

 Commission visited, there were no boys in the 

 school above fourteen. 



The rapid extension of Liverpool and the 

 suburbs of Waterloo and Crosby created a demand 

 for educational facilities, and under the advice of 

 the late head master, the Rev. Canon Armour, to 

 whom the present development of the school is 

 chiefly due, the trustees bought a site and 

 advanced or borrowed the capital for the erection 

 of the present buildings, the old school beiny; used 

 as a girls' high school. The average number 

 attending the boys' school is about 280, and 

 under the present head master, H. Cradock- Wat- 

 son, esq., who was appointed in 1903, the 

 prosperity of the school has been well main- 

 tained. 



BISPHAM FREE SCHOOL ' 



There was a school in Bispham in 162 1-2, as 

 the schoolmaster, Mr. Bamber, contributed to a 

 fund raised in the diocese of Chester in February 

 of that year. A deed concerning the sale of a 

 piece of land also gives evidence of another 

 schoolmaster thirty-three years later. The free 

 school was founded by Richard Higginson of 

 London, prob.ibly a native. He built the school 

 and bequeathed by will, dated 25 July, 1659, 

 ^^30 a year for the master and usher out of two 

 messuages in Paternoster Row, London, belone- 

 ing to the dean and chapter of St. Paul's, which 

 had been bought from the Commissioners for the 

 Sale of Dean and Chapter Lands. On the Restora- 

 tion this was lost. The testator's widow then 

 gave ;^200, with which 14 acres situate in 

 Layton were bought. In 1824 the rent 

 amounted to £yo a year and the school was free 

 to all children of the parish of Bispham, who 

 were taught reading, writing, accounts, and Latin 



' Baines, Hij/. of Lams, iv, 422 ; Char. Com. Rep. 

 xi, 2 2 2 ; Fishwick, Hist, of Bispham (Chet. Soc. New 

 Ser. x), 67. 



grammar if required. The attendance varied, 

 according to the time of the year, from 30 to 60. 

 In 1865 the Endowed Schools Commissioners 

 found the school buildings in a very dilapidated 

 condition. Eventually the school was transferred 

 to a neighbouring temperance hall pending the 

 erection of a new building. The school is now 

 elementary. 



BURY GRAMMAR SCHOOL' 



A free grammar school was founded in Bury 

 by Henry Bury in 1625. The school was re- 

 endowed by the Rev. Roger Kay, rector of 

 Fittleton in Wiltshire, * for the glory of God, 

 and for good litterature and ingenious education,' 

 by an indenture dated 6 May, 1726. This in- 

 strument settled on the trustees and neighbouring 

 persons various estates and rent-charges in the 

 parishes of Rochdale and Whalley. The income 

 was to provide a salary of ;^50 for the master, 

 and ;^20 for the usher, and exhibitions to 

 St. John's College, Cambridge, and Brasenose 

 College, Oxford. The statutes provided that — 



the master shall, upon his being elected . . . actually 

 seal, execute, and deliver, to the Trustees and governon 

 of the school, a Bond of five hundred pounds, not to 

 serve the curacy of the Church of Bury while he con- 

 tinues Master of the School, nor do any Church-offices 

 for the Rector or Curate there within schole hours 

 except administering The Holy Sacrament to a sick 

 person or private Baptisme to a child in danger of 

 death, and this only and at no other time but in the 

 absence or sickness of the Rector and Curate. 



The usher was similarly bound over in ;^200. 



Yet . . . these bonds shall extend to the Curacy of 

 the Parish Church of Bury only, and not to the 

 chapels within the Parish ; neither if the Master or 

 Usher officiate at a Chapel within the said Parish or 

 elsewhere, shall a Sunday's exchange with the Rector 

 or Curate of Bury upon occasion be deemed or taken 

 for a forfeiture of their Bond. 



School hours were to be from 7 till 1 1 a.m., and 

 from I till "5 p.m. in the summer, and from 8 

 till 1 1 a.m., and i to 4 p.m. in the winter. 

 Saturday was a half holiday, and on Thursday 

 school ended at 3 o'clock. ' During all which 

 time I order the Master to be present in the 

 Schole with the Usher.' The scholars were not to 

 ' use any unlawful games, nor frequent ale-houses,' 

 and if refractory were to be solemnly expelled 

 after three warnings. Roger Kay regarded the 

 school exhibitioners as a possible source of income. 



Whenever a scholar is chosen into either of my Exhi- 

 bitions, I desire . . . that whenever it shall pleas 

 God to bless him with good Preferment in the world, 

 by which I mean a hundred pound a year or upwards, 

 that then within seven years ... (or sooner) he 

 woud . . . make a handsome Present in money to 



)I2 



' School Statutes, Bury 1863. 



