A History of Giggleswick School from its Foundation, 1499 to 1912. Edward Allen Bell
the meyntenance of a Scholemaister there for certen yeres, whereupon one Thomas Iveson, preist, was procured to be Scholemaister there, which hath kept a Scole theis three yeres last past and hath receyved every yere for his stypend after the rate of £4, which is in the holle, £12."
"And so remayneth £12 13s. 4d."
John Malhome was probably the brother of William, who in 1516 had sent James Smith to be a boarder at the School, and, as he was a resident in the neighbourhood and was a "preist," perhaps a chantry priest at Giggleswick, his interest in the School is not unnatural.
Thomas Husteler had an even more adequate reason for leaving money to pay the stipend of a Schoolmaster, for he had been priest of the Chantry of the Rood, and had been wont to "pray for the sowle of the founder (James Carr) and all Cristen sowles and to synge Mass every Friday of the name of Jhesu and of the Saterday of our Lady." He had also to be "sufficientlie sene in playnsonge and gramer and to helpe dyvyne service in the church."
Thus in addition to his chantry duties he had to perform the double office of Grammer and Song Schoolmaster, and the work proving too heavy for him he left money to provide the maintenance of a second Master. Thomas Iveson received this money and probably acted either as an Usher or as Song Schoolmaster. Many schools in England employed a Master to teach music but during the sixteenth century a change was gradually taking place. Many Song Schools ceased to exist and everywhere the song master became of less importance. In 1520 Horman had written "No man can be a grammarian without a knowledge of music;" Roger Ascham, although he quoted with approval Galen's maxim "Much music marreth man's manners" considered that its study within certain limits was useful; and in 1561 Mulcaster declared that all elementary schools should teach Reading, Writing, Drawing and Music. Music then was no longer a part of the general curriculum, but was chiefly restricted to the Cathedral Choir Schools, where the young chorister had a career opened up for him either in the church or as a member of a troupe of boy-actors. It is therefore of some interest to find that in 1548 the Master at Giggleswick had a knowledge of plainsong as well as grammar.
Chapter II.
1553–1592.
GIGGLESWICK Church had been given to the Priory of Finchale by Henry de Puteaco about 1200, and Finchale was a cell of the Prior and Convent of Durham. So from that date till the Dissolution of the Monasteries the Priors continued to appoint the Vicar. When however in 1548 the church became vacant the rights of the convent were vested in Edward VI and he appointed to the office one of his chaplains John Nowell.
Nothing is known of him. He may have been the brother of Alexander Nowell, a prominent divine both under Mary and her successor, and for a time Head Master of Westminster, Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford, and for over forty years Dean of S. Paul's. This Alexander was a leader of education; he wrote a Catechism that became a school text-book and he assisted to re-found a free school at Middleton. It is not a wholly unsound conjecture, if we suppose that the John Nowell, who assisted to re-found Giggleswick was, if not a brother, at least a member of the same family as Alexander whose home was at Whalley.
We know at least that he was Vicar of Giggleswick till 1558. During his first five years Richard Carr, assisted for a time by Thomas Iveson, was continuing to teach in the small and irregular building of James, his uncle; and as a stipend he was receiving annually £5 6s. 8d.
This money ceased to be paid after 1553, in which year on May 26 Edward VI "of happy memory" was pleased to grant a Charter to the School and to endow it with property. This he did at the humble petition of John Nowell, vicar, Henry Tennant, gentleman, and other inhabitants of the town and parish of Giggleswick in Craven.
Quite forgetful of the School's previous existence for over half a century, he ordains that "from henceforth there may and shall be one Grammar School … which shall be called the Free Grammar School of King Edward the Sixth of Giggleswick, and the same School for ever to continue of one Schoolmaster or Headmaster and of one Under Master or Usher."
This limitation of the teaching staff to one Headmaster and one Usher led to serious qualms of conscience among the Governors in the last decade of the eighteenth century, when the revenues and numbers of the School had been very greatly increased. They then added to the number of the staff and discovered that they had contravened the Charter of Edward VI, and this difficulty was one of those that led to the application in 1795 for new Statutes.
It was to be a "free" school, not in any restricted, unusual sense of the word, not free from ecclesiastical interference, that did not come till the nineteenth century, not free from temporal interference, that has never come, but free from fees, giving gratuitous teaching. The Charter was an English document translated into Latin. Hence it is not a question whether the word "libera" can ever be understood in the sense of gratuitous. The Latin word is used as being not the exact, but the nearest equivalent of the English. The Free Grammar School undoubtedly meant exemption from fees and all other meanings are heresies of the nineteenth century, fostered only too willingly by those guardians of Grammar Schools, who were not eager to fill their class-rooms with boys from the locality free of charge and so to exclude the sons of "strangers" who were ready to pay for the privilege. The Charter then named eight men of the more discreet and honest inhabitants of the Town and Parish of Giggleswick to be Governors of the said School. They were:
John Nowell, Vicar.
William Catterall, of Newhall.
Henry Tennant, Gentleman.
Thomas Procter, of Cletehop.
Hugh Newhouse, of Giggleswick.
William Browne, of Settle.
Roger Armisted, of Knight Stayneforde.
William Bank of Fesar.
The Vicar, for the time being, must always be a Governor and with one other he had the sole power of summoning the rest to a meeting. Collectively they could appoint the Headmaster and Usher, make elections to their own body, when any other than the Vicar died or left the neighbourhood, and make statutes and ordinances for the government of the School with the advice of the Bishop of the Diocese. If the Vicar should infringe the said statutes they could for the time being elect another of the inhabitants into his place. They were a corporate body and could have a common seal.
An endowment was provided for them out of the confiscated property of S. Andrewes College, Acaster, in the parishe of Styllingflete in the Countie and Citie of York. Acaster had been founded about 1470 and consisted of three distinct schools, Grammar, Song and Writing, the last intended to "teach all such things as belonged to Scrivener Craft." The property included land in North Cave, South and North Kelthorpe and Brampton. A further grant was made of land in Edderwick, Rise and Aldburgh which had formed part of the endowment of the Chantry of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the parish of Rise and Aldburgh.
These lands were situated in the East Riding and their whole value amounted annually to £23 3s. of which they had to pay an annual rent to the King of sixty-three shillings. The Trustees were further allowed to purchase or receive gifts of land, etc., for the maintenance of the School, provided that such additional endowment did not exceed the clear yearly value of £30.
The grant does not sound over-generous, but it is necessary to multiply money to twenty times its value, in order to obtain a clear estimate of it in this century. On such a computation it would amount to £400 a year after paying the King's rent, and in addition, it would be possible to acquire by gifts or legacies another £600, making a possible income of £1,000. The Common Seal that the Governors used is of an origin altogether obscure. It represents presumably the Virgin and Child while below is the figure of a man praying.