One point of interest remains connected with this period: it is a curious slip of paper without date, which contains an invitation to the reader, whoever he may have been, to visit the writer J.N. in the country. It is written on the back of some of Armitstead's accounts, with an alternative version by its side, which was no doubt a revised copy of the theme after correction by the Master:
| Ex animo rogo ut rus venias quod cupio tuo frui sodalitio tum quia tua frequentia haud parvam ferat consolationem parentibus natu grandioribus, persuasum habeto alii qui potentiores sunt et pluribus abundant divitiis plura in te conferant beneficia sed nemo libentiori et promptiori est animo tuum promovere honorem quam humillimus servus. J.N. | Permultum cupio rus venias et quod vehemens est desiderium tuo frui comercio, tum quod tua frequentia admodum esset consolabilis parentibus senilibus, certum habeto alii tum potentiores tum divitiores plura tibi faciant beneficia sed nemo et libentior et promtior est tuam ornare dignitatem quam servus humillimus. J.N. |
The money left to the School by Josias Shute was in part intended to be paid to the poor of the parish, together with two further sums of five shillings left by William Clapham and nine shillings by Mr. Thornton for the same purpose. It is difficult to note the payment of these sums, for they were as a rule added together and entered as "For the Poor Fund," but in 1695 there was paid to:
| £ | s. | d. | |
| John Grime Wilkinson | 00 | 02 | 00 |
| Wm. Nelson | 00 | 01 | 00 |
| Bryan Cookson | 00 | 07 | 00 |
| J Robinson | 00 | 01 | 00 |
| Mary Pert | 00 | 01 | 00 |
| Thos. Cocket | 00 | 01 | 00 |
| Ric. Harrison | 00 | 01 | 00 |
| £00 | 14 | 00 |
Shute's surplus was certainly given to the poor in some years but there is no consistent record and by the scheme made under the Endowed Schools Acts it ceased. In 1692 "Arthur, son of Joshua Whitaker, of Settle, appearing to us to be ye poorest schollar that stood candidate for ye said gift" was allowed the Shute Exhibition of £5. He also received £7 of the Burton Rents, and in May, 1698, as much as £9 10s. 0d. With these sums he was enabled to go to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he gained a Scholarship and by the year 1698 in March, which under the new style would be March 1699, he had returned to the School as Usher, in succession to Richard Akinson. He taught for fifteen years and received as usual, just half the Headmaster's stipend, the amount varying between £23 and £27. On March 12, 1712, the following entry occurs: "Recd of ye Governors of ye free Gramar School of Gigleswick ye sum of two pounds eighteen shillings and sixpence for ye use of my brother Wm. Foster, now Curate of Horsefield," but it turns out to be a payment of that part of the Exhibition to which he was entitled, up till the time he had left Cambridge, presumably in the previous June.
John Armitstead's receipts end in 1704, and he died in 1712. It is impossible to determine the worth of a Master, when so few documents remain to judge him, but the Governors of 1768 thought fit to refer to "the artful and imperious temper of Mr. Armitstead." Their particular grievance was that in 1704 the Governors had a balance of £230 with which they purchased a farm called Keasden. This they let and its profits went to the Master and Usher, and in 1712 the "easy, complying disposition of the Governors" was persuaded to allow the Master to collect the rents of all the lands belonging to the School and simply enter a receipt "of the wages now due to us." Consequently no accounts were kept from 1704 till 1765, and because there was no reserve fund presumably no repairs were done. The Master collected the rents and with his Usher divided the spoil. He even seized the £15 which remained over from the purchase money of the Keasden farm. Nor was this all. Up to the year 1705 the Master paid for the expenses of the Governors' Meetings but in that year the Governors were persuaded to deduct sixpence in the pound from the Exhibitions given to the boys going up to the Universities. This deduction continued till the nineteenth century. Judging then from the opinions of the Governors fifty years later, John Armitstead was not wholly an altruist. It is still more unfortunate that his evil lived after him.
The number of Scholars, who went up to Cambridge in his time though less than it had been, was still considerable. During his twenty-eight years, as many as twenty-seven went to Christ's alone, including the first Paley who is known to have been educated at the School. The greater proportion always went to Christ's until the last decade of the eighteenth century, but other Colleges received them also, notably at certain periods S. John's.
