of Gray's-inn, esq., and Elizabeth, his wife, who was the widow and sole executrix of Richard Higginson, being desirous that the object of the founder should be carried out, paid to John Bonny and others in trust £200, to be invested in land and the annual income thereof devoted to the maintenance of an able and learned schoolmaster at the before-mentioned school of Bispham. The costs of a chancery suit in 1686 reduced the donation to £180, but the trustees made up the sum to the original amount and reimbursed themselves by deducting £5 per annum from the salary of the master for four years. In 1687, Henry Warbreck conveyed in consideration of £200, to James Bailey and five other trustees of the charity, elected by a majority of the inhabitants, the closes known as the Two Tormer Carrs, the Two New Heys, the Great Hey, the Pasture, the Boon Low Side, the Little Field, and 35 falls of ground on the west of the Meadow Shoot close, amounting to about 14 acres, and situated in Layton, "for the above-named pious use; and it was agreed, that when any three of the five trustees, or six of any eight which should hereafter be chosen, should happen to die, the survivors should convey the premises to eight new trustees to be chosen, two out of each of the respective townships of Layton, Warbreck, Bispham, and Norbreck, by the consent of the major part of the inhabitants of those townships, and that the said trustees should from time to time employ the rents for and towards the maintenance and benefit of an able and learned schoolmaster, to teach at the school at Bispham."[1] In 1817, Thomas Elston, and George Hodgson, of Layton, Robert Bonny, and William Bonny, of Warbreck, William Butcher, junior, and James Tinkler, of Bispham, and Thomas Wilson, and Joseph Hornby, of Norbreck, were appointed trustees at a public meeting convened by William Bamber and William Butcher, the two surviving trustees. The newly elected governors were directed "to permit the dwelling-house and school to be used as a residence for the schoolmaster and a public school for the instruction of the children of the parish of Bispham-with-Norbreck, in reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, and the principles of the English religion, gratuitously, as had been heretofore done, and to hold the residue of the premises upon the trust mentioned in the
- ↑ Charity Commissioners' Report.
