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, declare[P2: 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, 1607, 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
