The Rev. Rowland Ingram, B.D.
On the death of William Paley the Governors at once began the task of
finding a successor. They inserted in the newspapers an advertisement to
the effect that a vacancy had occurred and that candidates would be
examined by the Archbishop of York in Classics, Mathematics, "or any
other Branch of Literature, his Grace may think proper." The salary was
to be from £100--£300 but no house was provided.
There was a very strong field of applicants. A Fellow of Trinity,
Cambridge, Thomas Carr, founder's kin--a Fellow of Hertford--a Fellow of
Queen's, Oxford--a Fellow of Sidney Sussex, Cambridge--Headmasters of
various Grammar Schools, were all candidates. One Isaac Cook--Headmaster
of Ripon--explained as shewing the high value of his Classical
attainments that when he was elected to Ripon he was examined "with
another candidate in Terence, Cicero, Tacitus, the Greek Testament and
Demosthenes, and wrote a Latin Dissertation."
The Archbishop declined the honour of examining the candidates, but
later recommended that they should appoint to the Mastership his
brother--John Sheepshanks--as one eminently suitable. The Headmaster of
Eton was then asked to undertake the examination and was offered "such
pecuniary or other compliment" as he might wish. As he did not even
answer their letter, they wrote to the Rev. W. Stevens, Headmaster of
Sedbergh, who undertook the duty.
[Illustration: REV. ROWLAND INGRAM, M.A.]
In the result the Rev. Rowland Ingram was elected. He had gained "one of
the first Mathematical honours" and had only just failed to win the
Bachelor of Arts Classical Medal. He was a B.D. and a late Fellow and
Tutor of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He was turned thirty-two (his
brother said he was thirty-four) and after being for some years a
private Tutor at Eton had been appointed in Midsummer, 1798, Headmaster
of Ipswich Grammar School, where he had made a considerable name. He was
certainly the strongest candidate who applied and it speaks well for the
Governors that they elected him, notwithstanding the fact that two old
Giggleswick boys were standing--Thomas Carr and the Rev. Thomas Paley,
the former of whom had a very distinguished academic career, and Paley
had been third Wrangler. Ingram began with a salary of £300 a year and
within six months premises were bought from Mr. Geo. Robinson, on which
it was determined to build him a house.
Troubles arose on the staff almost immediately. John Carr who had
succeeded Robert Kidd at £80 a year declared in June, 1800, that he
would not continue to teach under £100. His request was not complied
with, but the Governors made a compromise. They told him that he must
give reasonable notice before he left the School, but that as his
department consisted of a great number of boys and it was impossible for
him to pay proper attention to them all, they had decided to hire an
Assistant. At the same time they required that "teaching the English
Grammar be encouraged."
The recent and rapid growth of the Writing Department is very
significant. Its growth and the importance laid upon it increased step
by step with the Industrial Revolution. It gave an elementary education
and was confined to practical subjects--Arithmetic, Mensuration,
Merchants' Accounts, etc. Some confusion existed in men's minds about
the primary object of a Grammar School. Giggleswick had not been founded
to give elementary instruction but its duty was to impart a sound
knowledge of the Classics, in order to enable its pupils to go up to the
University with a Scholarship and thence enter one of the learned
professions and preferably become a Priest. The boys were welcomed from
whatever homes they came, and though leaving Scholarships were given
with a preference to the poorer boy, everyone received an education in
the higher branches of literature. Not until 1768 was there any mention
of the necessity of promoting the study of elementary subjects. It is
true that the Statutes of 1592 had provided for a Scrivener to teach
writing but he was only to come for three weeks in the year. In 1768 the
Archbishop of York desired that a more permanent teacher should be
chosen and the appointments of Saul, Stancliffe, Kidd, which have
already been noticed, and of John Carr, of Beverley, were the result.
With the nineteenth century the School rapidly developed in importance.
Kidd had in 1798 been paid £70 a year, Carr in the following March
received £80 and clamoured for £100. In 1801 owing to the increase of
numbers the son of Mrs. Mary Bradley acted as his Assistant for a few
months and later in the year Carr engaged his own son, whom the
Governors allowed to remain, until a permanent Assistant was appointed.
The Governors passed and re-passed resolutions on the question of
providing a permanent teacher and Mr. Clementson was appointed in 1805
and taught the boys in a house built by the Governors but lately used as
a school by Mr. Holmes. The proper School was possibly growing too large
and in 1804, the Archbishop had suggested that English should be taught
in a distinct department. The teaching of English grammatically was an
innovation and a natural response to the needs of the time. Earlier ages
had thought that in order to get a thorough grasp of English it was
first necessary to pass through the portals of the Classics but the
get-educated-quick had no time for such methods. Clementson was paid £50
and, when he demanded an increase, was graciously allowed an additional
£20 "so long as his servitude shall be agreeable to the parties."
For a brief period of seven weeks in 1806 William Stackhouse worked
under Carr at the rate of £30--Clementson having left--and Carr resigned
in January, 1807. In that month he received a last payment of £5 5_s._,
as a reward for examining candidates for the vacant post. One of them,
John Lockwood, was elected but he was required to teach not only Writing
and Arithmetic but also Mathematics. He rejected the offer and
Stackhouse was appointed permanently at £100 a year. In 1809 he received
£150 and continued at this salary till his death or resignation in 1830.
In his appointment English, as a teaching subject, was neglected, but
later in the same year the Archbishop was approached on the propriety of
establishing an English School and in 1809 a minute of the Governors
declared that none were to be admitted into the Writing School, unless
they were able to read and were under eighteen. This points to an entire
cleavage between the Grammar and the Writing School. They were in
different parts of the building and a member of the one was not of
necessity a member of the other. They were both subsisting on the same
foundation, but the Writing School was an off-shoot, a child and an
illegitimate one. Not until the middle of the century did the old School
shake it off and return to the primary objects of its foundation.
Obadiah Clayton, the Usher, began in June, 1800, to shew signs of
insanity. The particular form that it took was the habit of producing
pistols in School. He was put for a time in an asylum and a Mr.
Tomlinson was to be written to as a successor, but as they did not hear
from the Archbishop to whom they had applied for instructions, nothing
was done. Later Clayton returned from the asylum but possibly for a time
took no part in the School work. In 1802 the Governors went to the
expense of 5_s._ 4_d._ in order to get advice on the propriety of
complying with his request that he should attend a private pupil during
school hours and should be allowed to take the globes from the School.
His request was negatived.
Two years later, matters reached a head, his conduct was not considered
consistent and the Archbishop suggested that they should pay him the
statutory minimum of £50 and hire an Assistant. The difficulty lay in
the fact that he held a freehold and could only with great difficulty
be made to resign. Meanwhile, Carr and Ingram were requested to report
upon his conduct. Ingram declared that Clayton's conversation was of a
wild and incoherent nature, but Carr was more minute. He reported that
Clayton did not attend the School much for three weeks and that during
that time he appeared to be in a deranged state of mind and made use of
expressions such as that he had got a letter from his wife in heaven, or
that the roads on which he walked were paved with fire. Although the
immediate cause of his mental derangement was the death of his wife, he
had never enjoyed good health. One of his testimonials from the Tutor of
Magdalene College, Cambridge, had said that he had been compelled to
leave Magdalene temporarily owing to ill health. He continued however to
teach until 1805, when at his own suggestion he was allowed to absent
himself for four years without giving up his license and he received £50
a year. This permission was characterized by the Archbishop as an act of
humanity, but the legality of thus disposing of the Trust money was
seriously questioned. A year later the Governors received a letter from
him, saying that he had had many difficulties and had visited many parts
of England but his "_dernier resort_" was at Bognor Barracks where he
had enlisted as a private soldier and was anxious to be bought out. Some
neighbouring clergy had interested themselves in his case and the
Bishop of Chichester was willing to provide him with a curacy, provided
that satisfactory answers came from the Governors of Giggleswick.
Clayton begged them therefore to say that the cause of his leaving the
School had been "ill-health." He was released from the Army but probably
did not serve any curacy, for in May, 1808, he was acting as a Chaplain
in the Royal Navy, after which nothing more is known of him though he
continued to be paid his salary till 1810. His position as Usher was
filled in that year by John Armstrong, who had been elected as a
Classical Assistant in 1806; the Governors at that time had proposed to
offer £50 as a fit salary, but as no candidate had appeared on the day
of election, it was raised to £100.
Ingram was an energetic man at the beginning of his Headmastership and
supported by an able Governing Body and a growing revenue, he had wished
to enlarge the numbers of the School and to increase its efficiency.
Advertisements had been put in the Leeds, London, and Liverpool papers
"for the encouragement of the School," money had been annually
distributed among the Scholars to create emulation, the English
Department had been strengthened and it had been decided to teach
English grammatically. Books had been bought more lavishly than ever
before, and also globes celestial and terrestrial, as they were
"considered to be of great use in every department of the School."
The numbers of the School increased sometimes to such an extent that
four masters had to be engaged but this was never more than a temporary
expedient. The Charity Commissioners issued a report in 1825 dealing
with the School, in which they gave the numbers of the School as
sixty-three, of whom twenty-three were taught by the Master and forty by
the Usher. It gave no record of the number in the English Department.
These boys had a feeling of distinct hostility against the Grammar
School boys. They were of a less wealthy class, they lived in the
neighbourhood and they were receiving the priceless boon of a practical
and elementary education. The Grammar School boys on the other hand were
not all natives of the place. About twenty-one came from the Parish, ten
were members of families who had come to reside there, and the rest were
wholly strangers. They were compelled to learn Writing and Mathematics,
which they did not consider liberal sciences, and they had to use the
same door of entrance and exit as their enemies. This hostility
developed into open strife and partly accounts for the continual glazing
bills that the Governors had to meet. From 1783-1792 they had been
fairly constant amounting to about a pound a year, but in 1803 5_s._
reward was offered to anyone giving information about persons breaking
School windows, and in 1834 the bill was over £7. It was a very
difficult position. The Report of 1825 recommended that the elementary
education should be continued but if possible in another building
because it supplied a certain need and, if discontinued, would arouse an
even greater hostility in the locality. At the same time it distinctly
recognized that such endowment was probably illegal.
It has already been noticed that the revenues of the School were
expanding. In 1802 the Governors received over £800 from the North Cave
Estate, which five years later was valued at £1,287 but was not let at
this valuation. At the time of the Report of 1825 the rental was
considered to be about £1,140. The Exhibition Fund had also risen from
£26 in 1801 to £37 15_s._ in 1821, and twice it reached £40. The money
at this period was given as a rule to one person for four years and at
the end of that period as re-assigned. There was no examination, the boy
or his father applied to the Governors and the claimant could receive
it, even if he had already been three years resident in the University.
The increased income had been obtained by the purchase of Government
Stock. Between 1810 and 1814 Navy five per cents. were bought to the
extent of £1,190, and in addition to this the Governors had paid off the
debt of £1,120, which had been incurred owing to the enclosure of
Walling Fen. They were paying Ingram £510 a year, John Howson, M.A., who
had been a former pupil of Paley and had become Usher on John
Armstrong's death in 1814, received £205; and William Stackhouse £150.
They had built a house for the Headmaster and had repaired one for the
Usher.
All boys were admitted into the School for whom there was room, but they
now had to bring a certificate of good character for the previous year.
The boarders lodged with the Usher and with people in the neighbourhood,
notably one John King and Mrs. Craggs. These boys paid boarding fees.
When the Governors issued an advertisement for a Writing Master in 1792
they gave the salary as £30 but "as much more can be made by
quarterage." Is it possible that quarterage can mean taking boarders? It
is not certain whether Ingram took boarders, but he probably did. His
house was built gradually. Although the land was bought in 1800, the
mode of a building for Master, Usher and Assistant was still being
discussed in 1802. In October of the same year John Nicholson was
commissioned to erect it at a cost of £700. It was finished in 1804, and
Nicholson undertook to repair a house for the accommodation of the Usher
or Assistant at a cost of £250.
[Illustration: USHER'S HOUSE.]
[Illustration: CRAVEN BANK.]
Carr, the Writing Master, was complaining bitterly of the "numberless
inconveniences" he had suffered, and in January, 1805, was looking
forward to living at last in a good house, though he was not quite sure
whether he would "live to enjoy it." But by March he had not got into it
and working himself up into a fit state of indignation delivered himself
of the following letter to Thomas Paley, one of the Governors:
Sir,
I am very poorly with a cold I have taken by lying in a damp
bed, I thought last night I must have called somebody to my
assistance, I have with difficulty got thro' the fatigues of the
day.
Surely when Nicholson undertook the house, he had not permission
to defer the completing of it _ad libitum_. It was first thought
it would have been done six weeks before Christmas. Mr. N. has
now converted the house into a workshop for the convenience of
his people to carry on the repairs that are to be done to the
dog-kennel: in order to make it habitable for some of Mr.
Armistead's people: and the plasterer has also been absent for
the last two days, I suppose, employed by Mr. N. at Astick. If I
had any tolerable convenience it would be quite another thing;
but I have never had a comfortable place to lie down in since I
have been at Giggleswick, tho' I have been a slave to the
business of the School, and stood much in need of undisturbed
and comfortable rest. I am indeed sorry to trouble you so often,
but not only my happiness, but my life is at stake: and I would
rather leave Giggleswick immediately than go on so any longer.
I remain, Sir,
Yours etc.,
J. CARR.
Monday, P.M.
P.S.--Mr. Ingram could have done a little longer without a
scullery, as well as I can do (if I ever go to it) without a
garden wall and a necessary.
He did not stay many years longer but resigned in 1807. Ingram's house
was known as Craven Bank and in 1829 he added a stable at the cost of
£60. Howson also was having money spent upon his house. In 1817 he had a
new kitchen built at the cost of £100 and seven years later he received
£120 to repair his house, while his salary had already been increased £5
yearly to meet the cost of alterations and repairs.
The closing years of Rowland Ingram's time were not bearing the fruit
that the first decade had promised. But the School turned out at least
one good Scholar--John Saul Howson--a son of the Usher. Born in 1816 he
went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1833, at the age of seventeen.
He won a Scholarship there and also received money from the Tennant
Exhibition Fund. He took some University prizes, and a first class in
both Classics and Mathematics. As Head of Liverpool College for ten
years he did a great educational work, by releasing it from debt and
reforming its system. Later he was appointed Dean of Chester where
eventually he died. As a Churchman he was a notable figure and as a
Christian he will be remembered long.
On the whole the teaching in later years was not efficient. J. S. Howson
relates how before he was eight years old he had said the Latin Grammar
through four times without understanding a word of it. This was a
remarkable achievement but not adequate evidence of supreme genius in
the teacher. Education, like most other things, was everywhere at its
nadir, and Giggleswick was no exception. In the whole of Ingram's time
as Headmaster--43 years--he had three Ushers. One was mad, one died
after four years, and one--John Howson--grew grey-headed with the work.
He had during the same period three Writing Masters, of whom one was
most cantankerous, another stayed twenty-four years, and the third--John
Langhorne--was not wholly a success. He managed the School Accounts from
1839-1845, but they were found to be "so inaccurate and confused" that
Mr. Robinson had to enter them in the book afresh.
The constancy of a staff which from 1814-1831 never varied, and of whom
two were local men, contributed to the depression of the School. Another
contributory cause lay in the constitution of the Governing Body. During
the last decade of the eighteenth century and the first decade of the
next the Governors showed themselves very diligent in the pursuit of the
School's welfare. But as time went on, the increasing revenues created
an increasing thirst for more. The Accounts dealt less and less with
things appertaining to the School, more and more with the management of
the North Cave Estate. Between the years 1810 and 1843 there were not
more than two meetings of the Governors, the minutes of which refer to
the conduct of the School; instead they refer constantly to the growing
balance in the Bank (in 1817 it was over £1,500) and they dissipated it
by gratuities equivalent to half a year's salary to the several Masters
and in profuse expenditure in building and repairs. There was but one
man among them who had known the days when £350 was all they had a year,
and only a tumbledown school to teach in. John Clapham must have looked
back with mixed feelings as he regarded the energy, the efficiency, and
the swelling numbers of that early part of the century and compared them
with later years.
There was one more change of importance in this time. The Potation was
still retained and the cost of the meetings on March 12 grew more and
more. The Governors came to dine but they remained to sup. In 1784
fifteen sat down to a dinner, costing 1_s._ a head, they had eight
bottles of Wine, 12_s._ 6_d._ worth of Punch, and Ale 4_s._ 6_d._ In
1802 ten had dinner at 2_s._ 6_d._ a head, nine had supper. They drank
fourteen bottles of Wine, on Rum and Brandy they spent 15_s._ 6_d._, and
on Ale 4_s._ 6_d._ Similar meetings took place each year. There was also
a change in the boys' share. They probably--there is not always a
record--had Figs and Bread given them every year but, sometimes Ale was
also provided. In 1802 they had 5_s._ 6_d._ worth, and in 1807 they had
some but it cannot be asserted that they always had it and between 1807
and 1825 the practice completely dropped and has never been revived.
Rowland Ingram--old Rowland, as the boys called him--was growing old,
and in 1844 he retired on a pension. His friends and neighbours
determined to give him some substantial recognition of the esteem with
which they regarded him, and in January, 1845, a committee was formed to
decide its nature. In the end a Portrait was painted, and the surplus
was placed in the hands of the Governors, to be expended on the
foundation of a library, to be attached to the School, or in any other
substantial way, such as would seem to them more likely to be
permanently beneficial to the School.