Harrison of Freckleton, and John Wilding of Kirkham; and then and there the gentlemen elected themselves feofees, as also they elected Mr. Edward Fleetwood, the vicar."[1]
After the death of John Wilding in 1634, as his widow, Isabell, found herself growing more infirm, she waited on the feofees with the intention of supplementing her original donation of £30 with an additional one of equal value, if she found them "favourable to her in something she willed of them, whereas Mr. Clifton gave her harsh words and such as sent her home with much discontent and passion." When she died in 1637, it was discovered, as the manuscript from which we have been quoting informs us, that she had "left the £30 by will to buy land with, and the yearly rent to be divided to the poor of the town and parish of Kirkham."
During the struggles between king and parliament, the school was closed for several years, and re-opened with fresh governors or feofees. At that epoch the inhabitants were kept in a state of constant excitement and alarm by visits from either the royal or parliamentary forces, but fortunately no collision ever took place in the neighbourhood.[2]
By the will, dated 1655, of Henry Colborne, of London, a native of Kirkham, his trustees were requested to purchase the lease of the rectory of this town, and invest the profits, with the exception of £100 per annum, for sixteen years, in lands for the benefit of schools; the purchases were to be settled on the Drapers' Company of London. In 1673, £69 10s. was obtained for the school, being the rent of lands bought in the metropolis by the Colborne trustees, £45 of which sum had to be paid to the head master, who was required to be "a university man, and obliged to preach once a month at least in the parish church or in some of the chapels;" £16 16s. of the remainder was apportioned to the second master; and £8 to provide an usher.[3]
In 1673 it was decreed by the Court of Chancery that the expense and duty of preserving the school-house in proper repair should devolve upon the township of Kirkham, whilst the election of masters should rest exclusively with the Drapers' Company.[4]
