The purpose of a chantry was the offering up of prayers for the souls either of the founder or of such as he might direct. We do not know the original cause of James Carr's Chantry or for whose soul he prayed. But in 1509 he received a legacy from his brother Thomas, who was vicar of Sancton. The gift consisted of "unam calicem argenteam" and with it there was a request "ut oretur pro anima mea et parentum meorum diebus Dominicis." Henceforth this was his duty. But a weekly service of prayer on Sundays would be a poor occupation for a man, even though he had clearly another Mass to say as well. And he endeavoured to dispel the monotony of his chantry by teaching. He followed a common practice of chantry priests, but he had some additional qualifications for the work. He belonged to a local family of some importance, he had a certain income of his own, and he was prepared to take boarders as well as to teach the boys in the village.
The unique character of his enterprise declares itself very soon. He was so successful a teacher that he could no longer find it possible to carry on his work in his own house or possibly "like a pedant that keeps a school in a church," he required a building larger and more convenient. In other words he was prepared to take a risk and to invest his own capital in buildings. It is the only instance that has been recorded of what Mr. A. F. Leach calls a Private Adventure School. It was not endowed from an outside source before 1553, but until the year 1518 was the private property of James Carr. He endowed the Rood Chantry with lands producing six pounds one shilling a year, and the successive chantry priests carried on the teaching that he had begun.
On November 12, 1507, a lease had been entered into between "the Right Reverende ffader in Gode, Thomas, Prior of Duresme and Convent of the same on the one partie and James Karr, preste, on the other partie" by which the said James was given a seventy-nine year lease of "half one acre of lande with the appertenance, laitlye in the haldyng of Richarde lemyng, lyeng neir the church garth of Gyllyswyke in Crawen within the countie of york." He and his successors contracted to pay a full or rack-rent of xijd. of lawful English money every year and an additional vjs. viijd. as often as it might be desired to extend the lease. It was also provided that "whensoever the same James Karr shall change his naturall lyfe that then it shalbe lawful, as ofte tymes as it shalbe nedful, to the vicar of ye churche afforsaid for the tyme beyng and kyrkmasters of the same, heires, executors, and assignes to the said James Karr, jontlie, to elect one person beyng within holye orders, to be scole master of the gramer scole afforsaid." Such Schoolmaster had not only to be within "holye orders" but also to receive a license to teach from the Prior of Durham. Not till the nineteenth century was teaching a grammar or classical school regarded as a profession independent of the Church.
The half acre that he thus obtained was ordered to be enclosed and James Carr agrees that he will keep or cause to be kept there "one gramer scole" building it "at hys awne propyr charges and costes."
The Gentleman's Magazine in 1786 contains a letter from a correspondent describing the school that Carr built. It was low, small and irregular and consisted of two stages, whereof at that period the upper one was used for writing, etc., that is to say for elementary education, probably reading, writing and arithmetic; the lower stage on the other hand was used for advanced teaching. This would include the elaborate classical curriculum common to almost every school and to which we shall return later. On the North side there was a small projecting building, which before 1786 had contained a tolerable collection of books but at that time they had been dispersed. The date of the completion of the building is fixed by an inscription on a stone which was placed almost above one of the doors and is still preserved in the modern Big School.
Alma dei mater, defende malis Jacobum Car:
Presbiteris, quoque clericulis domus hec fit in anno
Mil' quin' cen' duoden'. Jesu nostri miserere:
Senes cum junioribus laudent nomen Domini.
Kindly Mother of God, defend James Car from ill. For priests
and young clerks this house is made in 1512. Jesus, have mercy
upon us.
Old men and children praise the name of the Lord.
The inscription is an ingenious but not altogether happy example of Carr's ability as a writer of Latin Hexameters.
Above this stone slab was an ornamented niche, which at one time contained an image but of which no knowledge can be obtained. It may have held a statue of the Virgin and Child and be the origin of the school seal, as a writer in the Giggleswick Chronicle, March 1907, suggests, but the chantry was not dedicated to the Virgin, it was the "Chaunterie of the Rode" and as such we should expect to find a crucifix with the Virgin standing by it.
