A History of Giggleswick School from its Foundation, 1499 to 1912. Edward Allen Bell
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.
There is only one other record of the School during the next thirty years but it is a very important one, for it shows that the School was not restricted to the village but encouraged boarders from distant villages and towns. About the year 1516 William Malhame writes to his brother John:
"Brother, I will Sir W. Martyndale to be Parish Priest at Marton, and to have like wages that Sir W. Hodgson had: and I will Sir W. Hodgson to have vj markes yearly during his life, to tarry at Marton and pray for mee and my father and mother's sawles. They both begin their service at Midsomer next coming. I am content that James Smith go to Sir James Carr to scoule at Michelmas next comyng, and also I am content ye paye for his bord, which shall be allowed ye ageane. From London ye second day of Aprill.
"By your Brother Wm. Malhame.
"To his Brother John Malhame."
In September 1518, the Craven with Ripon Act Book describes James Carr as one who "nuper decessit" and his will was proved. No trace of it has been found but we know from the Chantry Commissioners' Report in 1546 that he had endowed the Chantry School with a rental of £vi xijd.
The Commission had been appointed to ascertain the chantry property which might be vested in the King. There were two excellent reasons for the change. Many avaricious men had already on various pretexts "expulsed" the priests or incumbents and taken the emoluments for themselves. Such private spoliation could not be allowed. And in the second place Henry VIII had involved himself in "great and inestimable charges" in the maintenance of his wars in France and Scotland. He needed money and he saw an easy way to getting it. The Chantry Commissioners made their report, but before many chantries were taken by the King, he died. At once the Chantries Act, which was only for Henry's life, is dissolved naturally.
Edward VI, "monstrificus puellus," was a precocious child of nine years old when he succeeded to the throne. The first "Injunctions" issued in his name gave distinct promise for educational bodies, as they comprised an order, compelling all chantry priests to teach the children reading and writing. Thus at one stroke of the pen he converted a body of men, who had insufficient work to do, into National Schoolmasters. Such a measure would tend to improve the quality of the chantry priests, who would no longer run "unto London, unto St. Poules" seeking for a chantry of souls, seeing that the toil of a Schoolmaster would be their lot.
But within a year a fresh Chantries Act was passed and a new Commission appointed by the Protector and his Council. The Act contained a prefatory statement which maintained that "a great part of superstition and errors in Christian religion has been brought into the minds and estimations of men" and this "doctrine and vain opinion by nothing is more maintained and upholden than by the abuse of trentals, chantries, and other provisions made for the continuance of the said blindness and ignorance." They therefore determined to dissolve the chantries and at the same time continue Grammar Schools, where they existed. The results belied the early promise. The clauses relating to the endowment of Grammar Schools have gained Edward VI a widespread fame as a founder of most of the schools in England. But that fame has been wholly fictitious.
Henry VIII had wrought great damage to elementary education, although he had professed "I love not learning so ill, that I will impaire the revenues of anie one house by a penie, whereby it may be upholden." But it has been calculated that in 1546 there was probably one school for every eight thousand people, whereas three hundred years later, the proportion was thrice as small. Yet Edward VI did not found one school in Yorkshire, and many, which had previously existed, he deprived of all revenue. So diminished were the means of education in 1562 that Thomas Williams, on his election as Speaker of the House of Commons, took occasion to call Queen Elizabeth's notice to the great dearth of schools "that at least one hundred were wanting, which before this time had been." In other words in a period of less than thirty years the number had decreased by a third. And this was in spite of a six years' reign of Edward VI., the supposed progenitor of schools.
In the report of the Commissioners of 1548 Giggleswick is recorded as having three chantries. There was the Chantry of Our Lady, the incumbent of which, Richard Somerskayle, is described as "lx yeres of age, somewhat learned" and enjoying the annual rent of £4. The Tempest Chantry with Thomas Thomson as incumbent 70 yeres old and "unlearned." The Chantry of the Rode, "Richard Carr, Incombent, 32 yeres of age, well learned and teacheth a gramer schole there, lycensed to preach, hath none other lyving than the proffitts of the said chauntrie." The net value of the chantry was £5 15s.
Richard Carr was a nephew of the founder and from the description of his two fellow chaplains he was evidently superior to the ordinary chantry priest. They were "unlearned," "somewhat learned," he was "well learned" and "lycensed to preach." For all that the chantry lands were taken from him, but the School was not dissolved: he was maintained as a Schoolmaster by a stipend of the annual value of £5 6s. 8d. charged on the crown revenues of York "for the good educacyon of the abbondaunt yought in those rewde parties."
The population of Giggleswick, which as a parish included Settle, Rathmell, Langcliffe and Stainforth, was roughly 2,400 and at the beginning of the nineteenth century was unaltered. Such a population was too "abbondaunt" for one man to teach, particularly if he took boarders, and it is not surprising to find in the report of 1548 the following paragraph:
"A some of money geven for the meyntenance of scholemaster there. The said John Malhome and one Thomas Husteler, disseased, dyd gyve … the some of £24 13s. 4d.