ioners, it will be seen, oblige themselves to add £8—2—8 to this £5—4s, and "to keep and maintain a commodious Schoolhouse," having already "of late at their great charge built and decently furnished a spacious schoolhouse, with other necessary rooms for a Schoolmaster." The endowment is still paid by the Duchy of Lancaster "at the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel," the Master until within the last four or five years having a yearly notice to attend personally at Pontefract to receive it. The Chancellor of the Duchy still excercises his right of appointing the Master, or, practically, has confirmed the nomination sent to him from the Parish, with a request that he "will be pleased to appoint the master so nominated."
The amount by which the Parishioners here promised to increase the stipend must be regarded as part of its endowment, making the total income from that source £13 6s. 8d. As in the case of the sums mentioned in the Endowments of the Benefice, this sum would represent a very much larger money value when it was given than it does at the present time.
Within the present century, John Lisles, when master, is remembered to have lived in the "loft" over the school, which has since been removed. Other masters since his day to the present have been Mr. John Hayton, Mr. Backhouse, Mr. Hoyle, Mr. Steane, Mr. William Moxon, Mr. Joshua Barraclough, Mr. Butterworth, and the present master, Mr. George McWhan, appointed in 1872. There is a memorandum now before me stating that "it was resolved at a town's meeting, that, Mr. John Hayton having given notice of his intention to resign, Mr. George Backhouse of Thurgoland be appointed, and the Parish agree to make up the stipend due from the Duchy of Lancaster to £10 per annum, and allow him to live rent-free in the Town's house now inhabited by the Rev. John Goodair, so long as he shall continue his office, and no longer. (Signed) W Spencer Stanhope; James Wigglesworth."
The School was united to the National Society Jan. 30, 1862.
The old Endowed School has, since 1872, been used, under the care of Miss Ashton, as an Infants' School, a convenient playground having been added to it.
