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.
269 308 356 319 378 400 363 433
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
