A History of Giggleswick School from its Foundation, 1499 to 1912

by Edward Allen Bell

IN 1834 the Governors felt some doubt respecting the legality of the last Statutes of 1795 and proposed to bring forward some Scheme to obtain sufficient power for the management of the School. Thereafter for six years the Minute-Books were completely silent on this matter, but in 1840 they noted that the number of boys in the High School learning Writing and Arithmetic under Langhorne was greater than one man could efficiently attend to. The Headmaster was therefore requested to propose regulations such as he might think expedient for making the High School more useful, as subsidiary to the Grammar School, either by insisting upon qualifications in the Scholars previous to admission, limiting the number to be admitted or otherwise, and to submit such regulations for the consideration of the Governors. Presumably some steps were taken, but the Governors were beginning to feel that all was not right, and in 1843 they became more definite. They decided first, "That from the change of Times and other causes, the Education afforded at the Giggleswick Grammar School is at the present time insufficient for general purposes, and more especially for the purposes of Trade and Mercantile Business."

REV. G. A. BUTTERTON, D.D.

It will be as well to pause here and remark this very notable statement. Reformers had been at work before, but their effect had been very slight. They had succeeded in establishing a Writing Master, whose duty it was to give free elementary instruction. Now, forty years later, dissatisfaction was surging in the breasts of the Governors, because the elementary instruction was too elementary, and because its spirit did not pervade the whole School. Now for the first time was it laid down that the business of a School was to train its children so as to fit them in some obvious manner for the work of their life. Latin and Greek and Hebrew had become the touchstone of education, primarily because they were the "holy" languages, and after Religion had long ceased to be the mainspring of education, their intrinsic merits fell into the background. Utility became a more pungent argument. Secondly, the Governors decided that the Endowment and Statutes, together with the particulars of the income of the School, should be laid before a competent Chancery Barrister who should suggest a system of education upon a more extended scale.

The necessity for some alteration in the Statutes was established by the refusal of the Governors in 1844 to accede to Mr. Ingram's desire for a new Assistant. They declared that such an arrangement was not contemplated by the Charter and Statutes and therefore could not be made. An impossible situation had arisen, and the Statutes must be revised. But there was one difficulty. A new Scheme could not be carried out except on the appointment of a new Headmaster or with his willing consent. Ingram was approached upon the subject and declared his readiness to retire on a pension of £300 a year, and with permission to continue to occupy his official residence, Craven Bank. He was seventy-eight years old, and in view of his long service to the School, his request could scarcely be denied. Four years later he died, and like his predecessor, William Paley, was buried in Giggleswick Church, amidst a great gathering of men who came to bear tribute to "his truly Christian character."

His resignation had paved the way for a new Scheme, in accordance with the Act passed in 1841, for "improving the condition and extending the benefits of Grammar Schools." The Scheme was drawn up by the Governors, commented on by Arthur Lynch, Master in Chancery, 1844, and in the next year confirmed by the Vice-Chancellor of England. It will be well to examine the Report in some detail. In the first place the Bishop of Ripon was in all cases substituted for the Archbishop of York, where the latter had jurisdiction. Secondly, the 1795 Statutes were wholly omitted and of the earlier Ordinances of 1592, only such were retained as were in tune with the spirit of the age.

New regulations were also added. The Headmaster must be a Clergyman of the Church of England, and a Master of Arts. He must be a good Classical Scholar and a Mathematician, thoroughly capable of teaching both subjects, and qualified to teach Logic, Rhetoric, English in all its branches, and Moral and Political Philosophy. The requirements in an Usher were less exceptional. He must be a member of the Church of England, but need not be in Orders. He should be capable of taking the higher Classical Forms occasionally, be skilled in English, and rather less advanced Mathematics, and have an elementary knowledge of Modern Science. He was to be appointed by the Governors.

The salary of the Headmaster was to be a minimum payment of £210 and a maximum of £360, with a house; the Usher was to receive a house and £150 and a capitation fee of £2, which was so limited that it was only possible to rise to £210. Each could receive ten boarders. Other Assistants might be employed, but their united salaries were not to exceed £230. The retiring age was fixed at sixty-five, when the Master and Usher would be granted a pension, but the Governors could extend the services of either beyond the age limit, if they so willed. The surplus funds were to be used in such a way as to make the Exhibition money from the Burton Rents, etc., up to £70 a year. The Bishop of Ripon was to appoint an Examiner every Christmas, and receive a Report from him. Holidays were fixed for a month in the Summer and at Christmas, three days each at Easter and Whitsuntide, in addition to the Saturday and Sunday and Good-Friday. Every Saturday and the day of riding the Parish boundaries were to be whole holidays.

Further, the arrangements by which one Master relieved another in case of illness or absence, the place where each Master should sit in School, the disposition of the School into Forms and Classes, the amount of time to be devoted to each branch of instruction—provided always that every boy should learn some Latin and Greek—all these questions of internal arrangement, which were essentially within the province of the Headmaster, were to be agreed upon by the Governors and reduced to writing.

It is almost inconceivable that such a scheme was ever put on paper, yet it lived for twenty years. The Headmaster was bound and shackled beyond belief. He could not appoint or dismiss his Masters, he had no power to admit boys into the School, nor, unless they were "altogether negligent and incapable of learning," could he remove them. He was powerless. Ingram had retired in 1844, and the scheme then had gone forward and been completed before a new Headmaster was appointed. Thus the details of the management of the School were settled, quite irrespective of the point of view of the man who was to be responsible.