class="c6">190

Bankwell 194 Walter Morrison, M.A., Esq. 198 The Chapel Exterior 200 The Chapel Dome 204 James Carr 204 The Chapel, East, Interior 208 The Chapel, West, Interior 210 The Gate House 212 W. W. Vaughan, M.A., Esq. 216 Joiner's Shop 218 Athletic Shop 218 G. B. Mannock, Esq. 220 Officers Training Corps 224 R. N. Douglas, M.A., Esq. 228

Chapter I.

The Foundation.

GIGGLESWICK School for over four hundred years has lived a life apart, unconscious of the world outside: but its life has not therefore been a placid one. Real dangers have continually assailed it, real crises have been faced. Most schools have been founded with a preliminary grant of an endowment, with which to afford a proper maintenance to Master and Scholars. But Giggleswick was not one of these. Its actual origin is obscure but this at least is sure, it existed before it was endowed. It was the private enterprise of one man, James Carr, who in 1518 "nuper decessit."

Nineteen years before, the same James Carr was a capellanus in charge of the Rood Chantry, which he himself had founded. The date of its foundation has not reached us, but the fact of its existence, and consequently the probable existence of the Grammar School, is certain in 1499.

In that year two-and-a-half acres of arable land in Settle and a meadow called Howbeck ynge were let to one William Hulle by the indenture of the cantarist. The cantarist or chantry priest was James Carr. Six years later, Hugh Wren, William Preston and James Carr, capellani, were made joint owners of "unum messuagium et unam bovatam terræ et prati."

These two possessions conclusively prove the existence of the Rood Chantry and the presence of James Carr during the last year of the fifteenth century, and from that year Giggleswick School may date its birth. The name Carr is variously spelt. Skarr, Car, Carre, Karr, Ker, all appear, but no importance is to be attached thereto. Spelling as part of the equipment of an educated man is one of the less notable inventions of the nineteenth century. As a family the Carrs come from Stackhouse, a village quite close to Giggleswick, but their recorded history begins with this generation. The father of James is nameless, but his eldest brother Stephen was living at Stackhouse in the year 1483, when he leased a plot of land from the Prior and Convent of Finchale. It was therefore not unnatural that James should found a chantry in the neighbourhood of his family home.

The purpose of a chantry was the offering up of prayers for the souls either of the founder or of such as he might direct. We do not know the original cause of James Carr's Chantry or for whose soul he prayed. But in 1509 he received a legacy from his brother Thomas, who was vicar of Sancton. The gift consisted of "unam calicem argenteam" and with it there was a request "ut oretur pro anima mea et parentum meorum diebus Dominicis." Henceforth this was his duty. But a weekly service of prayer on Sundays would be a poor occupation for a man, even though he had clearly another Mass to say as well. And he endeavoured to dispel the monotony of his chantry by teaching. He followed a common practice of chantry priests, but he had some additional qualifications for the work. He belonged to a local family of some importance, he had a certain income of his own, and he was prepared to take boarders as well as to teach the boys in the village.

The unique character of his enterprise declares itself very soon. He was so successful a teacher that he could no longer find it possible to carry on his work in his own house or possibly "like a pedant that keeps a school in a church," he required a building larger and more convenient. In other words he was prepared to take a risk and to invest his own capital in buildings. It is the only instance that has been recorded of what Mr. A. F. Leach calls a Private Adventure School. It was not endowed from an outside source before 1553, but until the year 1518 was the private property of James Carr. He endowed the Rood Chantry with lands producing six pounds one shilling a year, and the successive chantry priests carried on the teaching that he had begun.

On November 12, 1507, a lease had been entered into