“But quick and live they cut him down,

And butcher him full soon;

Behead, tear, and dismember straight,

And laugh when all was done.”

The free school of Carleton was founded towards the close of the seventeenth century. On the 17th of May, 1697, Richard Singleton, John Wilson, John Davy, and six others recited in an indenture between them, that Elizabeth Wilson, of Whiteholme, by her verbal will of the 22nd of September, 1680, declared it to be her wish that the interest of a fourth of her goods, which amounted to £59 2s. 0d., should be used by the overseers of Carleton for the purpose of procuring instruction for so many of the poorest children of the town of Carleton as they should think proper; and that one-quarter of her estate had been invested in land, and the annual revenue therefrom employed according to her last directions and desire. William Bamber, by will dated 13th of October, 1688, bequeathed £40 to his wife Margaret Bamber, and Richard Harrison, vicar of Poulton, to the intent that they should lay out the sum in land or other safe investment, not to yield less than 40s. per annum, half of which was to be given, at their discretion, amongst the most needful of the poor of Great Carleton, and the other moiety to be expended in purchasing books, or obtaining tuition for such poor children of the same place as they might select. After the deaths of the two original trustees, the will directed that the bequest should pass under the management of the vicar of Poulton, for the time being, and the churchwarden of Carleton. The money was invested on the 11th of May, 1689, in a messuage and appurtenances, a barn, and several closes, called the Old Yard, the Great Field, the Croft, the New Hey, the Two Carrs, and the third part of a meadow, named the Great Meadow, all being situated in Blackpool, and containing by estimation six acres and a half. The property was immediately leased to the vendor, John Gualter, at a rental of 40s. a year. By an indenture, dated the 31st of December, 1706, between Sir Nicholas Sherburne, of Carleton, Hambleton, and Stonyhurst, and John Wilson, with three others, of Carleton, it appears that Sir Nicholas leased to the latter, and their assigns, the school-house, newly erected at a place called the Four Lane Ends, in Great Carleton, and the site thereof, for a term of 500 years from the foregoing date, at the nominal rent of 1s. per annum; and John Wilson, with his co-trustees, covenanted that the same should be used for no other purpose but that of a school, excepting that Sir Nicholas Sherburne and his heirs should have free liberty to hold the courts for the manor of Carleton within the building. Margaret Bickerstaffe, by her will of the 19th of April, 1716, left £20, the interest of which she directed to be employed by her executors in educating some of the poor children of Carleton. On the 2nd of February, 1737, Richard Butler and Richard Dickson, trustees for the sale of certain estates for paying the debts of James Addinson, conveyed to George Hull, John Sanderson, and others, and their heirs, in consideration of £42, a close in Thornton, formerly called Rushey Full Long Meadow, and now Wheatcake, comprising one acre, in trust, to hold the same and pay the annual proceeds to the master of the Four Lane Ends school “for his care and pains in teaching such poor children of Carleton as should be appointed each year by the chief inhabitants or officers of the township.” The money seems to have been given by some persons not wishing to disclose their names, and who selected George Hull, John Sanderson, and five more, as their agents in the matter, and as first trustees of the charity. When five of the trustees had died, it was ordained that seven fresh ones should be elected, and the two remaining be relieved of their trust. John Addinson, in return for £20, given by some person, to the inhabitants of Carleton, conveyed to the same parties a close called the Rough Hey, in Thornton, containing half an acre, to be dealt with and used as in the previous case. It is very likely that the £20 here concerned was the sum before mentioned as the legacy of Margaret Bickerstaffe. All the premises belonging to the school were vested in six new trustees by a deed, dated 3rd of June, 1777; and at the visit of the school commissioners in 1867, the attendance of boys was 50, and of girls 20, being somewhere about the usual average of later years. The trustees manage the school property, and appoint or dismiss the master.

POPULATION OF GREAT AND LITTLE CARLETON.

1801.1811.1821.1831.1841.1851.1861.1871.
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The area of the township embraces 1,979 statute acres.

Meretun, or the town of the Mere, was estimated by the surveyors of William the Conqueror to comprise six carucates of arable land, and shortly afterwards Sir Adam de Merton held half of it, on condition that he performed military service when required.[111] Somewhere about 1200 William de Merton, a descendant of Sir Adam, was one of the witnesses to a charter, concerning a local marsh, between Cecilia de Laton and the abbot of Stanlawe.[112] In 1207-8 the sheriff of Lancashire received orders to give Matilda, widow of Theobald Walter, her third of the lands at Mereton, which her late husband had held up to the time of his death in 1206, at first for 12s. per annum, and subsequently for one hawk each year.[113] According to the Testa de Nevill, Henry III. held three carucates of the soil of Mereton for a few years, as guardian of the heir of Theobald Walter, and in 1249, during the thirty-third year of the reign of that monarch, Merton cum Linholme was in the possession of Theobald Walter, or le Botiler as he was afterwards called, the heir here mentioned.[114] Marton descended in the Botiler, or Butler, family until the time of Henry VIII., when it was sold by Sir Thomas Butler to John Brown, a merchant of London, in company with Great Layton, of which manor it had for long been regarded as a parcel, although in 1323, Great Marton was alluded to as a distinct and separate manor held by Richard le Botiler.[115] Marton was purchased from John Brown by Thomas Fleetwood, esq., of Vach, in the county of Buckingham, whose descendants and heirs resided at Rossall Hall; and after remaining in the Fleetwood family for many generations the manor of Layton, with its dependency Marton, was again sold, and this time became the property of Thomas Clifton, esq., of Lytham Hall, Sir P. H. Fleetwood, bart., being the vendor.