Ingram was an energetic man at the beginning of his Headmastership and supported by an able Governing Body and a growing revenue, he had wished to enlarge the numbers of the School and to increase its efficiency. Advertisements had been put in the Leeds, London, and Liverpool papers "for the encouragement of the School," money had been annually distributed among the Scholars to create emulation, the English Department had been strengthened and it had been decided to teach English grammatically. Books had been bought more lavishly than ever before, and also globes celestial and terrestrial, as they were "considered to be of great use in every department of the School."
The numbers of the School increased sometimes to such an extent that four masters had to be engaged but this was never more than a temporary expedient. The Charity Commissioners issued a report in 1825 dealing with the School, in which they gave the numbers of the School as sixty-three, of whom twenty-three were taught by the Master and forty by the Usher. It gave no record of the number in the English Department. These boys had a feeling of distinct hostility against the Grammar School boys. They were of a less wealthy class, they lived in the neighbourhood and they were receiving the priceless boon of a practical and elementary education. The Grammar School boys on the other hand were not all natives of the place. About twenty-one came from the Parish, ten were members of families who had come to reside there, and the rest were wholly strangers. They were compelled to learn Writing and Mathematics, which they did not consider liberal sciences, and they had to use the same door of entrance and exit as their enemies. This hostility developed into open strife and partly accounts for the continual glazing bills that the Governors had to meet. From 1783-1792 they had been fairly constant amounting to about a pound a year, but in 1803 5s. reward was offered to anyone giving information about persons breaking School windows, and in 1834 the bill was over £7. It was a very difficult position. The Report of 1825 recommended that the elementary education should be continued but if possible in another building because it supplied a certain need and, if discontinued, would arouse an even greater hostility in the locality. At the same time it distinctly recognized that such endowment was probably illegal.
It has already been noticed that the revenues of the School were expanding. In 1802 the Governors received over £800 from the North Cave Estate, which five years later was valued at £1,287 but was not let at this valuation. At the time of the Report of 1825 the rental was considered to be about £1,140. The Exhibition Fund had also risen from £26 in 1801 to £37 15s. in 1821, and twice it reached £40. The money at this period was given as a rule to one person for four years and at the end of that period as re-assigned. There was no examination, the boy or his father applied to the Governors and the claimant could receive it, even if he had already been three years resident in the University. The increased income had been obtained by the purchase of Government Stock. Between 1810 and 1814 Navy five per cents. were bought to the extent of £1,190, and in addition to this the Governors had paid off the debt of £1,120, which had been incurred owing to the enclosure of Walling Fen. They were paying Ingram £510 a year, John Howson, M.A., who had been a former pupil of Paley and had become Usher on John Armstrong's death in 1814, received £205; and William Stackhouse £150. They had built a house for the Headmaster and had repaired one for the Usher.
All boys were admitted into the School for whom there was room, but they now had to bring a certificate of good character for the previous year. The boarders lodged with the Usher and with people in the neighbourhood, notably one John King and Mrs. Craggs. These boys paid boarding fees. When the Governors issued an advertisement for a Writing Master in 1792 they gave the salary as £30 but "as much more can be made by quarterage." Is it possible that quarterage can mean taking boarders? It is not certain whether Ingram took boarders, but he probably did. His house was built gradually. Although the land was bought in 1800, the mode of a building for Master, Usher and Assistant was still being discussed in 1802. In October of the same year John Nicholson was commissioned to erect it at a cost of £700. It was finished in 1804, and Nicholson undertook to repair a house for the accommodation of the Usher or Assistant at a cost of £250.
USHER'S HOUSE.
CRAVEN BANK.
Carr, the Writing Master, was complaining bitterly of the "numberless inconveniences" he had suffered, and in January, 1805, was looking forward to living at last in a good house, though he was not quite sure whether he would "live to enjoy it." But by March he had not got into it and working himself up into a fit state of indignation delivered himself of the following letter to Thomas Paley, one of the Governors: