Part 13

There was a very noteworthy Council at Watermillock, called the Head Jurie, and Mr. W. Hodgson, a former schoolmaster in the parish, did good service some years ago by transcribing the records of that body, from 1610 to more than a century later. They performed all the duties--and more--now delegated to Parish Councils; indeed they seem to have had control of everything pertaining to the government of the parish. Among the contents of the book on "Paines and Penalties laid by the Head Jurie" is this entry concerning a Court held in 1629:--

"We find for a good amongst ourselves that all the inhabitants within the hamlet of Weathermelock shall amend all the church ways and all other ways yearly, and every year, upon the first work day in Christmas, if the day be seasonable, at ye sight of ye Constables and Churchwardens for the time being upon paine of sixpence of everyone that maketh default. And alsoe all as aforesaid shall meet and mend the peat way always upon Whitsun Wednesday, and everyone to meet where his way lyeth, and everyone to send a sufficient man to the sight of the Constable for the time being upon paine of sixpence of everyone that maketh default. And that the Constable be there upon paine of sixpence to see who make default."

In the old manorial halls fools or jesters were frequently to be found among the members of the households. The late Dr. Taylor suggested that when Yanwath Hall was a very important link in the chain of Border defences, such a servant was kept; and Mr. R. S. Ferguson once reminded the members of the Archæological Society that, in 1601, both the Mayor of Carlisle and Sir Wilfred Lawson kept fools, as probably did also the Bishop of Carlisle. The Mayor's fool got a coat for Christmas, while Sir Wilfred's appears in the accounts of the Corporation as being "tipped" for bringing messages to Carlisle. A fool was also kept at Muncaster Castle.

There was a custom very common in connection with the apprenticeship system at the beginning of the century. In a pamphlet written by John S. Lough, a former Penrith printer, appeared this paragraph:--"Burying the Old Wife is a custom still prevalent among the operatives in the north at the expiration of the term of apprenticeship. The late apprentice is taken into a room adjoining that where the party is met to celebrate the loosening, and after an old woman's cap is put on his head, the body is enveloped in a white sheet. He is then taken upon the shoulders of his comrades into the banqueting room, round which he is carried a few times, in not very solemn procession, and finally placed upon the boards whereon the figure of a grave is chalked. A kind of funeral service is gone through, and the old wife is buried."

"The simple annals of the poor" in the two counties contain many pathetic accounts of their condition and treatment ere the public conscience was awakened to the necessity of a more humane method. Here, as in many other parts of the country, the poor were often let out to contractors. Among the churchwardens' accounts at Hayton for 1773 there is a copy of a contract between the churchwardens and Thomas Wharton, of The Faugh, "for letting the poor for a year" to the latter. The Rev. R. W. Dixon, vicar of the parish, about twenty years ago went into the history of this transaction. A vestry meeting was called for the purpose, and conditions were entered into between the churchwardens and the overseers on the one part, and Thomas Wharton on the other. The parish overseers were to find bedding and apparel for the paupers, but Wharton was to mend their clothes and stockings, and be allowed 5s. for the purpose. A child not a year old was to be counted as one person with the mother, and be fed and clothed by the parish; and if a pauper died in the house he was to be buried at the expense of the parish. Wharton was to find sufficient meat, drink, washing, lodging, and firing for the paupers, to the satisfaction of the parish officers, who had authority to visit the house as often as they pleased. He was to receive a yearly salary of £12 10s., and a weekly allowance of 1s. 2d. for each pauper, but if a pauper stayed under a week a deduction was to be made accordingly. On these terms Wharton was declared master of the workhouse.

The children who used to attend the ancient Robinson's School at Penrith were sent out each day to beg, and that there might be no mistake as to their identity, each was obliged to wear what was locally called "the badge of poverty."

It is decidedly an unfortunate thing, from the point of view of the antiquary, that so many of the old plague stones which used to be found in different places should have disappeared. Penrith had two; and one of them remains, but from observations occasionally heard it is to be feared that only a small proportion of the townspeople have an idea of the use of the old font-like erection. It is interesting to quote the account given by a Penrith land surveyor and innkeeper, who wrote more than a century ago[22] on this subject:--"Nearly half-way between Eamont Bridge and Penrith stands an house, called from its situation Half-way House, but formerly _Mill_ or _Meal Cross_, from the following circumstance. During the dreadful plague which visited this country in the year 1598, and almost depopulated Penrith (no less than 2,260 in the town falling victims to this merciless disease), the Millers and Villagers refused to bring their commodities into the town to market for fear of infection. The inhabitants, therefore, were under the necessity of meeting them here, and performing a kind of quarantine before they were allowed to buy anything. This was said to be almost at the option of the country people. This much is certain: No man was allowed to touch the money made use of on these occasions, it being put into a vessel of water, whence they had a method of taking it without touching it with their fingers. For this purpose they erected a cross which remains to this day. For greater conveniences they erected a cross at the town's-head, and erected shambles, etc.; the place still retains the name of the Cross-green: they built a third cross near the Carlisle road a little above the second, where black cattle, sheep, hoggs, and goats were sold; and it retains yet the name of the Nolt-Fair [Nolt: Oxen, cows, etc.], and continues to be the market for cattle."

The road was widened and improved in 1834, when the water trough was found, and afterwards placed where it now stands. There was a somewhat similar structure in the park at Eden Hall, and is said to mark the site of the former village. The base is still retained, but some decades ago there was put a memorial cross upon it. Going over the border of Westmorland a short distance are other reminders of these old-time epidemics. In the parish registers of Hawkshead it is stated that in 1721 the sum of 1s. 6d. was paid to the apparitor for a book concerning the plague. Here is material for several queries. Was there an outbreak of some disease which obtained that name so late as 1720, or was the volume meant for a record of what had gone before? Again, if the book was ever written, what became of it? The records of the le Flemings, the Earls of Lonsdale, the Earls of Westmorland, and others published by the Historical Manuscripts Commission abound in references to the plague.

A stone in the remote hamlet of Armboth, above what is now the great reservoir of the Manchester Corporation, marks the place where the local commerce was carried on when personal intercourse was dangerous on account of the plague. The custom existed after the epidemic had passed away, the people from the fells and dales continuing to take their webs and yarn to what is still known as "the Webstone."

The registers of Dalston are particularly valuable for purposes of local history, partly owing to the fact that Rose Castle, the residence of the Bishops of Carlisle, is in that parish. There are also many other ways in which they are interesting. One of the earliest houses mentioned in the books is Bell Gate or Bellyeat. Miss Kupar, who closely studied the records of this and some other parishes, wrote a few years ago with regard to this house: "The people will have it that a bell hung here to announce the arrival of the pack-horses _en route_ for Keswick, and some maintain that it served to warn the neighbourhood of the approach of the moss-troopers."

Although the old custom of ringing the curfew is gradually dying out, in several places in Cumberland and Westmorland the practice is kept up still. In the hall at Appleby Castle there is an interesting reminder of the custom. This is the curfew-bell which was found in the tower at the Castle, and it finds an honoured place now among the family possessions. When swung to and fro the bell is found to have a very sweet tone, but while it was vigorously rung in the evenings long ago the burgesses would not have any difficulty in hearing its loud and peculiar warning note. The inscription is not very easy to decipher, but it appears to run thus:--

"Soli Deo Gloria. Pax Homibus, S.S. Fecit, 1661. W.S."

Nothing is known at the Castle as to the maker, though it is possible that experts in bell-lore might be able to trace its record from the inscription.

Old School Customs.

The chequered histories of the old schools at Appleby, Kirkby Stephen, Kendal, Crosthwaite, Carlisle, Penrith, and several other towns in the two counties, would suffice to make a large book of an interesting character. Some of the rules which governed the institutions in bygone days were decidedly quaint. The nineteen long paragraphs which make up the "Constitutions, Ordinances, and Statutes for the Free Grammar School at Kirkby Stephen," as drawn up in 1568 by Lord Wharton, included this curious stipulation:--

"I will that the said Schoolmaster shall have and receive yearly £12 as his Hire and Wages, at two Terms of the year, if he teach in manner and form following, viz., At the Feast of Pentecost and St. Martin, by equal portions, by the hands of my Son, Heir, and Heirs, and the Governours. And the said Schoolmaster shall, within ten dayes after he hath taken upon him and be installed in the said Office, before the said Governours, or two of them, and before my Son and Heir, or Heirs of my House of Wharton, for the time being, and in presence of the Churchwardens and Twelve men of Kirkby-Stephen Parish, or six of them, in the Parish Church there, make this Oath following: 'I do swear by the holy Contents of this Book that I will freely, without exacting any money, diligently teach and instruct the Children of this parish, and all others that resort to me, in Grammar and other Humane Doctrine, according to the Statutes thereof made; And shall read to them no corrupt or reprobate Book, or Works set forth at any time contrary to the Determination of the Universal Catholic Church, whereby they might be infected in their youth with any kind of Heresy or corrupt Doctrine, or else be induced to an insolent manner of Liveing; And further shall observe all the Statutes and Ordinances of this School, now made or that hereafter shall be made, which concern me; and shall do nothing in prejudice thereof, but help to maintain the same, from time to time, dureing my abode herein, to the best of my power. So Help me God, and the Contents of this book.'"

At six o'clock in the morning, and at the same hour in the evening, master and scholars had to march from school to church, for prayers, afterwards going to the tomb which Lord Wharton had erected in the quire and sing one of fifteen psalms. This was the order for working hours:--"And the same Scholemr., every Work-day at the least, shall begin to teach from Six a Clock in ye morning in Summer, and from Seven a Clock in Winter; and so shall continue in teaching until Eleven a Clock. The self same thing shall he diligently do after Dinner, from One of the Clock till Six in Summer and five in Winter."

The history of Appleby School extends over nearly four and a quarter centuries. In 1478 Thomas Whinfell, one of the chantry priests, was bound "to keep yearly a sufficient Grammar School, taking of the scholars of the said school _scolagia et custumaria secundum antiquam consuetudinem scoloe prædictæ_." Old school-boys living within the present decade remember that the _scolagia et custumaria_ included a cockpenny, which had to be paid by each boy on Easter Tuesday, for the purpose of enabling the master to provide the pupils with a cock-fight. One of the regulations for Kendal School was that it should be "free to all boys resident in the parish of Kendal, for classics alone, excepting a voluntary payment of a cockpenny as aforetime at Shrovetide." The "Literary Rambler," who contributed a series of papers to the _Kendal Chronicle_ in 1812 (when the custom was commonly observed), remarked:--"A stranger to the customs of the country will suspect something whimsical in this name, but it has its foundation in reason; for the boys of every school were divided into parties every Shrovetide, headed by their respective captains, whom the master chose from amongst his pupils. This was probably done in imitation of the Romans, who appointed the _principes pivenum_ on certain occasions. These juvenile competitors contended in a match at football, and fought a cock-battle, called the captains' battle, in both which contests the youthful rivals were not more interested than their parents." Though the barbarous sport had disappeared, the payment of a cockpenny survived certainly until the middle of this century. This is shown by Mr. W. Sayer, who, in his History (1847), says that the endowments of Bowness (Westmorland) School, "together with a cockpenny given by each scholar on Shrove Tuesday," amounted to about £60 per annum.

George Smith, a relative of Dr. Smith who became Bishop of London, built and endowed the school at Asby, and left £10, the interest of which (about 12s.) was to be disposed of on St. George's Day yearly for ever in the following manner: 6s. to the poor of the parish; 5s. to be spent in ale by the feofees of the school; and the remaining shilling to purchase a football for the scholars. A custom which seems to have been peculiar to Appleby was for each pupil leaving to pay half-a-guinea towards the library, and Mr. R. E. Leach, the headmaster, some years ago compiled a most interesting list of these donations. It was also an occasional occurrence that "old boys" gave money when they were married.

It was by the ancient Parochial Council of Sixteen that the first attempt to supply elementary education in Torpenhow was made, it being recorded that on May 12th, 1686, a resolution was passed in favour of founding a free school for the Bothel district. The "sixteen" from time to time drew up various rules for the conduct of the school, one of which would greatly astonish the present generation of certificated masters, because, in 1689, the master of the institution at Bothel (locally pronounced "Bohl") was ordered to "keep school from 6 in the morning till 11, and from 1 till 6 from Lady Day till Michaelmas," practically the same rule as was enforced by Lord Wharton at Kirkby Stephen.

An instance of the uncertain position occupied by the village schoolmaster in former days may be found among the records of Holme Cultram. In 1607 there being some controversy concerning the payment of the parish clerk or sexton, which previously had been paid in no regular manner, and the clerk claiming to be paid in meal, though no certain measure of it had been ascertained, it was agreed and ordered by the sixteen men, with the consent of the other parishioners, that for the future there should be one person who should be both parish clerk and schoolmaster, and that he should have for his wages for every copyhold tenement and lease within the parish paying above 18d. rent, fourpence, and for every cottager and under-tenant twopence, to be collected yearly at Easter by the clerk, who was to be chosen by the sixteen men and approved by the ordinary. In addition, the schoolmaster was to have a quarterly sum for each scholar as the sixteen men from time to time directed. That scheme was recorded in 1777 as being still in operation.

In another place it has been shown how the sworn men had often a great share in the selection of the churchwardens and other officials. Their duties also extended to the procuring of money for educational purposes. It was ordered by Commissioners in the thirteenth year of Elizabeth, concerning the endowed school at Keswick, "that whereas two pence for every fire-house hath been paid to the parish clerk yearly, and also certain ordinary fees for night-watch, burials, weddings, and, moreover, certain benevolences of lamb wool, eggs, and such like, which seem to grow up to a greater sum than is competent for a parish clerk; the eight men shall herafter take up the said two pence a house for the use of a schoolmaster, paying thereout to the parish clerk yearly 46s. 8d." In the time of King James it was found on inquiry by a Commission of Pious Uses, "that the eighteen sworn men had from time immemorial laid a tax for the maintenance of the schoolmaster, and other occasions of the parish, and appointed the schoolmaster, and made orders for the government of the school, and that the inhabitants had by a voluntary contribution raised a school stock of £148 2s. 3-1/2d., nevertheless that Dr. Henry Robinson, Bishop of Carlisle, Henry Woodward, his Chancellor, and Giles Robinson, brother of the said Bishop, and Vicar of Crosthwaite, had intermeddled, and that the said Bishop, sometimes by authority of the High Commission for Ecclesiastical Causes, sometimes as a justice of the peace for the county, and sometimes by his power as ordinary, had interrupted the orders of the eighteen men, and had committed thirteen of them to prison. Therefore the commissioners restore the eighteen men to their authority concerning the appointing of a schoolmaster, and the government of the school."

Among the curious bequests known to have been made at various times by residents in the two counties, not the least noteworthy was that of the Vicar of Raughton Head, Mr. Sevithwaite, who, at his death in 1762, left £20 to the school; and another £20, the interest whereof, after the death of his widow, was to be laid out yearly in purchasing Bishop Beveridge's "Thoughts upon Religion," and the Bishop of Man's "Essay for the Instruction of the Indians," to be given to the poor housekeepers of the parish.

Among the curiosities of tenure in addition to those already mentioned in a previous chapter, was that of surrendering by the rod. In the summer of 1750 "John Sowerby surrendered to the lord of the manor (of Castle Sowerby) by the hands of his steward _by the rod_ a messuage at Sowerby Row ... to the use and behoof of Joseph Robinson and his assigns according to the custom of the manor; conditioned to pay yearly to three trustees £5 for the use of a schoolmaster within the liberty of Row Bound to be chosen by the trustees." As in most other places, the schoolmaster had to teach certain children for a very small sum per quarter, and the parents in better circumstances had to pay 2s. 6d. per quarter for each child.

How faithfully some of the clerical schoolmasters performed their duties during long periods may be proved from numerous sources. One entry, a burial, will suffice--from the Mardale register of 1799:--

"Richard Hebson, in ye 75th year of his age. He was 53 years master of the Free School at Measand, and 51 years the pastor of this Chapelry. Singularly remarkable for his faithful, assiduous, and conscientious discharge of the duties of both these stations."

At the beginning of the eighteenth century there were in the diocese of Carlisle few schools other than those held in the all too frequently dilapidated parish churches. In most cases the curates were the only schoolmasters, and it was as an encouragement to those clerics that the parishioners took it in turn to provide the curate with a "whittlegate." Much interesting information about the old-time schools and schoolmasters may be found in Bishop Nicolson's Visitation Miscellany. One man, who afterwards became examining chaplain to Bishop Law, used to keep school at Sebergham in a mud hut. Of another cleric, the Rev. T. Baxter, who was incumbent of Arlecdon in the first half of last century, it is recorded, in Mr. W. Dickinson's "Reminiscences of West Cumberland," that he "taught the parish school in the chancel of the parish church, on an earthern floor, without fire either in summer or winter." Bishop Nicolson's descriptions speak eloquently of the poverty of some parishes:--"The quire at Warwick, as in many other places, is shamefully abused by the children that are taught in it. Their present master is Thomas Allanson, a poor cripple, remov'd hither from Rockliff, who has no settled salary, only 12d. per quarter and his diet, and would be thankful for ye commendum of ye clerk's place; which, he saies, would bring him an addition of about six shillings p. an."

Of Irthington he wrote:--"The quire is here (as before) miserably spoil'd, on the floor, by the school boyes; and so vilely out of repair in the roof that 'tis hazardous comeing in it."

Crosby-on-Eden was a little better than the former place:--"Mr. Pearson, the school master, has no certain and fixed salary. He teaches the children in the quire; where the boys and girls sit on good Wainscot Benches, and write on the communion table, too good (were it not appointed to a higher use) for such a service." Here is a picture with regard to Cumwhitton, not calculated to make people really wish for the old days about which some grow enthusiastic:--"The south window is unglazed and starves the whole congregation as well as the poor children; who are here taught (for the present) by the parish clerk, a man of very moderate qualification. Mr. Robley, their new curate, is not yet resident among them; but will shortly come, and take the office of teaching out of this illiterate man's hand."

In a parish not far from the Cumberland border--Allendale--the curates of West Allen High and St. Peter's Chapels were certainly as recently as 1835, and probably still later, obliged to teach the miners' children for 1s. 6d. per quarter each, in consideration of certain annual payments. These were five shillings from each miner of one description, and half-a-crown from those of another, which they, in common with the incumbent of Allenheads Chapel, received as ministers of the respective chapels.

It was certified in 1717 that while at that time there was no divine service performed in the parish of Clifton, some three miles from Workington, "formerly every family in the two hamlets [of Great and Little Clifton], being about forty in number, paid 6d. each to one that read prayers, and taught the children to read, and the rector gave £2 a year, and officiated there every sixth Sunday, but that these payments had then ceased for above 40 years last past."

Reference was made in a previous paragraph to the custom of whittlegate as applying to schoolmasters. From the former chapter on church curiosities it will have been noted that the clergy occasionally had recourse to that method of supplementing their scanty incomes. As it often happened that the schoolmaster and parson were one and the same individual, difficulties were thereby removed. At any rate the following extract from Clarke's "Survey" of over a century ago has an interesting bearing on the subject. Writing of Ambleside, of which the Rev. Isaac Knipe, M.A., was curate and schoolmaster, he remarks:--