Correspondence of Mr. James Foster ... in the matter of the Royal Free Grammar School at Giggleswick

Front matter

CORRESPONDENCE OF ME. JAMES FOSTER, OF WALTHAMSTOW, IK THE MATTER OF THE ROYAL FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL *.T GIGGLESWICK. LONDON 1 BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARfi CONTENTS. PAGES Prefatory Note . . 5 to 6 Digested Abstract or Occurrences at Giggleswick School . 7 to 29 Correspondence of Mr. James Foster with the Governors of the School 31 to 59 Correspondence of Mr. James Foster with the Charity Commissioners 59 to 79 Opinion of Counsel 81 to 85 Further Opinion of Counsel 85 Remarks of the Rev. G. A. Butterton, D.D., Bector of Cleobury North, Salop, and late Head Master of Giggleswick Grammar School 86 Remarks of the Rev. Rowland Ingram, M.A., Rector of Great and Little Ellingham, Norfolk, and formerly FOR SEVERAL Y-EARS VlCAR OF GIGGLESWICK .... PREFATORY NOTE. The Charity Commission was established to deal with matters relating to Charitable trusts and uses, without calling in the tedious and expensive agency of the Court of Chancery.

The Commission was invested with inquisitorial as well as with judicial powers, in order that it might take cognisance of questions of a cumulative character, which, by their very nature, escape the more rigid grasp of the Common Law. In the case of Giggleswick School, the Governors are openly charged with neglect of duty, by which a splendid endowment is wasted, with distinct acts of hostility to successive Head Masters, and with having encouraged their subordinates in a course of disobedience and contumacy whereby the discipline of the School has been damaged and its reputation almost destroyed. The Commissioners, however, will not disturb them selves even so little as to inquire if these things be so : they baffle all applications for redress for this grievous public wrong by telling the applicants that they must draw up these charges in a formal manner, and that the Commissioners will then decide upon them, thus transforming themselves into a court to hear and to determine upon positive evidence, instead of fulfilling their functions as a Board to search out the causes of manifest evils, and to devise suitable remedies.

The following pages will furnish abundant illustration of what has been just stated. To avoid inaccuracies, they were, whilst passing through the Press, submitted for correction to several eminent men. Amongst others, to the Rev. G. A. Butterton, D.D., and the Rev. Rowland Ingram, whose remarks will be found in Appendix C, pages 86 and 87.

Introduction

. DIGESTED ABSTRACT OE OCCURRENCES AT GIGGLESWICK SCHOOL. The endowment of this noble foundation is between £1100 and £1200 per annum. It is now doing little more than occupying the place of one of the National Schools, being so decayed and inefficient that the whole of the munificent endowment is expended in the gratuitous education of forty boys, not one of whom is intended for either of the Universities. All who desire the improved education of the people must deplore the decline of an institution which was originally founded to cultivate the higher branches of knowledge, and which in former times sent forth such scholars as Paley, and other eminent men. The causes which in this case have of late years operated so fatally for the interests of the public are threefold : I. The insubordination of assistant teachers to the Head Masters ; II.

The systematic support given by the Governors to the insubordinate teachers; and, III. A confused and defective scheme of management which was solicited at a time when the office of Head Master was vacant, and was therefore drawn up in accordance with the views of the Governors exclusively, leaving the Head Master utterly powerless and defenceless. As this scheme is about to be superseded, it may be dismissed from further consideration. The first of the causes above assigned for the decadence of the School will be obvious from a summary statement of facts. The present scheme of management came into operation on the 1st of January, 1846, and the first Head Master appointed under it was the Rev. G. A. Butterton, D.D., formerly Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, eighth Wrangler, and third in the First Class of the Classical Tripos in the year 1827.

He filled the office for thirteen years, viz., from January, 1846, to the end of 1858. One of the Governors says of him, " The School was never so prosperous as during his time. It was always full, and boys had to wait a considerable time before they could be taken, and then many clever young men went to Cambridge and Oxford, where they distinguished themselves." The testimony of another impartial witness is, that " Dr. Butterton was one of the most successful and beloved teachers and Head Masters in England, a gentleman as amiable as he is able and learned." It will not be pretended, therefore, that the personal qualities of Dr. Butterton could have justified any opposition to his authority. Nevertheless, the Governors appointed an Assistant Master in direct opposition to his expressed wishes, and sustained the Master so appointed in a course of insubordination and disrespect to the Head Master, which at length became so intolerably offensive that, meek and Christianlike as he was, he was forced to resign his position.

He says himself that his " motives and conduct were publicly called in question ; the Assistant Master pretended to entire independence of him, set his authority at defiance, and insulted him grossly before his own pupils." This conduct will be found precisely parallel with that of which the present Head Master complain^ " After a long struggle," Dr. Butterton continues, " I was driven to relinquish a situation, the annoyance of which injured my health and destroyed my peace of mind." He thus released himself, as he publicly stated afterwards, " from his connection with those who by the impunity they afforded encouraged the lowest teacher in the School to treat the Master with disrespect, and at length to insult him in the presence of his own boys." It was well understood in the neighbourhood, and can be proved by documentary evidence, that the system of annoyance carried or against Dr. Butterton was promoted by one or more of the Governors at that time.

Is there not reason to believe that a similar process has been in operation to force the present Head Master to the same conclusion ? Let the facts speak for themselves. The immediate successor of Dr. Butterton is the Rev. J. R. Blakiston, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge. He came to Giggleswick with a reputation of the highest kind, and with testimonials to his learning and ability as a teacher, from some of the most famous scholars in the kingdom, as well as from clergymen and dignitaries of the. Church. Mr. Blakiston graduated second in the first class in the Classical tripos, 1853, with a high degree in the Mathematical tripos ; he was also a Scholar of his College, and would have been elected a Fellow had he not for private reasons declined to compete, as is tes tified by several Fellows of Trinity College, — and that, too, before the last occasion on which he could have presented himself.

His success as a Tutor at Cambridge was ex traordinary ; among his pupils were a Fellow of Trinity College, a Fellow of Jesus College, four first-class men in Classics, and a Bell University Scholar. As First Classical Assistant Master at Uppingham School he had also great success ; the number of boarders rose during his stay from thirty to eighty. Both parents and boys expressed great regret when he left, and after he came to Giggleswick the head boy was sent to read with Mr. Blakiston and came out in August, 1862, eighteenth on the Indian Civil Service list, containing eighty names. Mr. Blakiston left Uppingham to take the Head Mastership of Preston Grammar School, where he re mained but a short time before coming to Giggleswick. His reasons for leaving Preston are fully set forth in the following testimonial from the trustees.

" We, the undersigned Trustees of Preston Grammar School, regret that its present state is such that the Head Master thinks it his duty to seek a more suitable position. He was chosen out of a large number of candidates in December last, and elected unanimously. Before he commenced his duties, however, the greater part of the boys, including all the more advanced, had been withdrawn to a private school set up by an unsuccessful candidate, under whose teaching as Second Master they had been for some years. Mr. Blakiston thus found himself with few scholars, and those so little advanced, that it must be long, he thinks, ere he can hope for the class of pupils he has a right to expect, or the emolument to which his high standing entitles him. Under these circumstances we think Mr. Blakiston quite justified in endeavouring to better himself, and gladly avail ourselves of this opportunity of expressing our entire confidence in his teaching and discipline, our sense of the exertions by which he has already, in so few months, raised the character of the School, and our great regret at being unable to retain among us a gentleman who has shown himself so efficient a master.

John Humber, Mayor. Ed. Pedder, Alderman & J. P. & D.L. Richd. Pedder, ,, „ Wm. Sh awe, Alderman & J. P. T. Miller, ,, ,, Edmd. Birley, Edward Wilson. Wm. Birley, ,, Some time after the Head Master and Usher had entered upon their duties, the Usher began to conduct himself with an assumption of independence very disrespectful to his superior. He came habitually late into the school, advancing to his seat after prayers had begun, and when spoken to in a friendly way about it, said, " he did not see that he ought to wait outside like a boy," forgetting the more suitable alternative of being in school at the proper time. On many occasions he has left the school two hours before the appointed time, without communicating with the Head Master, and once he absented himself altogether, leaving his class to one of the teachers without any notice to the Head Master.

The insubordination indicated by this conduct soon became openly declared. After the Easter vacation of 1860, when the Usher was absent through ill health, one of his boarders returned to school two days after the regular time without bringing even a line of excuse from his parents. For this the Head Master punished him as he was bound to do by the statutes, viz : — " No scholar or scholars, of what degree soever, shall absent himself from school any day, and especially the days either now or hereafter for exercises to be appointed, without necessary cause or special leave first obtained of the Master or Usher under whom he shall then remain, for his absence that day." The Usher on his return charged the Head Master with exceeding his power, said that had he been at home it could not have happened, and told the Head Master plainly that he had nothing to do with the Usher's boarders, or, in other words, that the authority of the Usher was co-ordinate with that of the Head Master, and superior to the statute.

The Usher evidently assumed that because he was allowed to take ten boarders into his house in like manner as the Head Master, those ten were exclusively under his own control, un mindful of the statute which declares that " such pupils are on no account to receive advantages of teaching or otherioise by means of the said Charity different from the other boys." The Head Master did not complain of these encroachments on his authority, though he endeavoured to avert the evil of such an example before the boys ; for although the Governors were well aware of what was going on, it appeared but too clearly that their sympathies were with the Usher. This forbearance encouraged the Usher to trench still more decisively upon the position of the Head Master, and that in a character and spirit which needs no comment.

On the last day of the Christmas vacation 1860-1861, Mr. Blakiston received a letter from the sister of one of his own boarders named Holroyd, applying for three extra holidays for her brother. Having punished one of the Usher's boarders for over staying the last vacation, the Head Master felt that he could not with any show of justice or with due observance of the 15th statute above cited, permit one of his own boarders to do the same thing, especially as the application came from a person who had no authority over the boy. Mr. Blakiston therefore telegraphed for his immediate return. The next day, Mr. Blakiston received an offensive letter from Mr. Handsley, the boy's guardian, of which he took no notice, and the boy was detained for the three days by Mr. Handsley's authority. There was nothing more said about the matter ; and the Head Master and Usher continued on terms of daily intimacy until after the Easter holidays.

The Usher then informed the Head Master that about six weeks before he had received a letter from Mr. Handsley, stating that the boy Holroyd should not remain in the Head Master's house after Midsummer, and desiring the Usher to take him as a boarder. The Usher further stated that he had agreed with Mr. Handsley to keep this arrangement secret from the Head Master until it could take effect. Mr. Blakiston, astonished at a plan which, to say the least, wore an aspect of so much treachery, remonstrated with the Usher ; pointed out to him its obvious tendency to destroy all authority in the School, by showing parents and guardians a method of punishing the Head Master whenever he felt called upon to discharge a duty displeasing to any of them, and entreated the Usher not to lay himself open to the suspicion of having secretly intrigued for his own advantage against a brother clergyman and colleague with whom he had sat in the same room for many weeks, and for several hours every day, without once hinting at what was going forward.

It was all in vain. The Usher carried out the arrangement with the assumption — afterwards openly avowed — that he was responsible to the Governors only ; thus repudiating altogether the authority of the Head Master, and plainly violating the statute which ordains that the Usher " shall be obedient to the Master in all things concerning his office." The Governors, without calling upon him for any explanation of his secret proceedings, responded to the Usher's tacit appeal by passing a formal resolution on the 31st of March, 1862, in which they completely justify his conduct in taking the boy. The support, both active and passive, given by the Governors to the Usher in this case naturally encouraged him to proceed a step further in his hostility to the Head Master. On the 3rd of May, 1861, a boy named James Edward Wright, the son of a solicitor at Bacup, and a boarder of the Usher's, created a disturbance in the School, for which, as a punishment, he was directed to write out 200 lines of " Paradise Lost."

He brought the task to Mr. Blakiston, who found it very badly written, and in such a way as to disguise the number of lines. Upon counting them, the Master found only 132, when the boy hardily insisted to his face that he had been set only 150, though subsequently, when on oath before the magistrates, he acknowledged that the number set was 200. It is necessary to bear these seemingly minute facts in mind, in order to comprehend the character of the hostility to which this independent and conscientious man exposed himself by merely discharging an imperative duty. Mr. Blakiston punished the boy for this gross violation of truth, but not severely ; and no one who sets a proper value upon truthfulness, or who regards the careful cultivation of the morals of children as an essential part of education, will deny that it was the duty of Mr. Blakiston, standing as he did in the place of the boy's parent, to check at the outset the forma tion of a habit of falsehood, which, if allowed to gather strength, must prove alike ruinous to the lad's honour and happiness.

On Monday, the 13th of May, 1861, this same boy, whilst being examined in the Greek Delectus, was detected in the surreptitious use of a translation, — an act of deceit which he knew to be a grave offence against the rules and discipline of the School ; for this second violation of truth, after so short an interval, he was punished with severity, as it was now evident that without exemplary chastisement the habit would gain a complete mastery over him. The punishment took place about three o'clock in the afternoon, in the presence of the Usher, who acknowledged that he saw nothing in it to call for his interference. The boy ft. " remained in the School till it was dismissed ; returned to the School on Tuesday morning, and stayed till ten o'clock, when the Usher gave him leave to go home, ; s he said he was unwell.

On the same evening the Usher, without saying a word to the Head Master, walked with the boy to the neighbouring town of Settle, and had him examined by Mr. Edward Harrison, a surgeon, who averred upon oath, that he neither prescribed nor suggested anything, though he would have done so had he thought it necessary. On Wednesday, the 15th of May, the Usher, not satisfied with Mr. Harrison's opinion, had the boy examined by Mr. James Hartley, another surgeon, who also averred upon oath that he saw no necessity for a lotion or other prescription. The Usher then got these two surgeons to put their hands to a certificate, to the effect that young Wright exhibited marks of a sharp caning : the boy returned to school as usual on Thursday, and the Usher, without breathing a hint to the Head Master of what he had done or was about to do, transmitted the certificate, with his own account of the punishment. to the boy's father at Bacup.

The secrecy of these proceedings effectually accomplished one object, for Mr. Blakiston not suspecting what was going on, did not of course trouble himself to obtain the opinions of any disinterested medical men from a distance to rehut or correct the certificate of the local practitioners. Mr. Wright, the boy's father, came to Settle, shortly after the receipt of the Usher's letter, and was a guest at the house of Mr. George Stansfeld, a magistrate. He had an interview with the Usher, and on the ex parte information Mr. Wright received, whilst no doubt in a state of violent irritation, he determined to institute legal proceedings against the Head Master. Mr. George Stansfeld signed the necessary process, and afterwards presided at the hearing of the case : his brother-in-law, Mr. John Birkbeck, a Governor of the School, was the other magistrate who signed the summonses.

Mr. Wright says, " Mr. Wood suggested conciliatory means of obtaining, if possible, a promise from Mr. Blakiston not to use such severity for the future."* To suggest conciliatory means to an angry parent, who was at the same time encouraged to believe himself injured, was to throw oil, not on troubled waters, but on fire. • On the 25th of May, Mr. Blakiston was for the first time, and in the most startling manner, apprised of what was preparing for him. He was served with two summonses ; one for a common assault, rendering him liable, if convicted, to a penalty of five pounds; and another, for an aggravated assault on a child under fourteen years of age, punishable, on conviction, with six months' imprisonment, without the alternative of a fine ; both without appeal. The boldness of this proceeding, the immediate consequence of which, if successful, would have been ruin to the reputation and fortune of a first-rate scholar and conscientious clergy man, must be regarded by every impartial person as an outrage not merely upon the ordinary idea of justice, but upon common sense and decency.

The prosecutor and his instigators never believed it possible that the more serious charge could be sustained. The summons for an aggravated assault was, however, well calculated to answer another pur pose. Being publicly known, it was likely to prejudice the defendant in the neighbourhood, and therefore to make con viction for the minor offence appear more reasonable. The summonses were to be heard on the 11th of June ; and it appears on evidence, that on the evening of the 10th * The inference from the Usher's letter in page 19 of "Recent Events," is that this suggestion was made on the evening before the trial. the Usher had a consultation with the son of the attorney for the prosecution, at which it was agreed between them that the Usher must not be called as a witness for the prosecu tion ; but that as corroborative evidence would be necessary, one of the boys must be called ; that the Usher then asked one of the boys, Frank Marriner, to be a witness against the Head Master, once in the presence of the attorney's son, and a second time when alone on Settle Bridge.

The trial took place on the 11th of June, 1861, before Mr. George Stansfeld (Chairman), at whose house Mr. Wright, the prosecutor, had been staying. Mr. William Robinson (a Governor of the School), Mr. John Birkbeck (a Governor of the School, and brother-in-law of the Chairman), and Mr. Walter Morrison, M.P. Mr. Henry Robinson, of Settle, con ducted the prosecution ; and Mr. John Sharp, of Lancaster, the defence. The witnesses examined for the prosecution deposed to the above-mentioned facts. There were no witnesses called for the defence ; and the magistrates, on the evidence of the com plainant alone, dismissed the charge against Mr. Blakiston. This plain statement of facts is sufficient to substantiate the first of the causes above assigned for the decadence of Giggleswick School, viz. : — The insubordination of Assistant Teachers to the Head Masters, extending over a number of years, and affecting not Mr. Blakiston alone, but also his predecessor, Dr. Butter ton, in precisely the same manner.

The second cause viz. : The systematic support given by the Governors to the insubordinate Teachers will appear not less clear from a review of the part taken by them in these proceedings as well as in their subsequent conduct. It is not intended to define the motives of such conduct, though an unprejudiced observer can hardly forbear attributing it to jealousy of the local influence and importance which the office of Head Master would unquestionably confer upon its possessor, were he permitted to exercise unfettered its full authority and privileges. The force of this motive, not the less energetic that it may act unconsciously, will be better comprehended, as well as its common operation upon the Governors, from a statement of their connections with one another, and with the principal parties implicated in these unhappy affairs.

Mr. George Stansfeld, the gentleman who signed the summonses against the Head Master, who presided at the hearing of the case, and at whose house the prosecutor was a guest, is married to a relative of Mr. John Birkbeck (a Governor), who is himself married to a sister of Mr. Stansfeld. Mr. Birkbeck signed the summonses also, and sat at the hearing of the case. Both gentle men are partners in a bank at Settle. Mr. William Robinson, a retired solicitor (a Governor), was formerly a partner in the same bank, and his son is now a partner. Mr. William Robinson sat at the hearing of the case. Mr. Thomas Stackhouse (a Governor), married the niece of Mr. John Preston (a Governor), and the father of the former gentleman married the sister of the latter. The Reverend W. P. Maokesy (a Governor, recently elected) is Incumbent of Langcliffe, and his sister is married to a brother of the before -mentioned Mr. John Birkbeck, who is also a partner in the bank.

The Reverend Mr Pierson, Incumbent of Settle, is married to a sister of the same Mr. John Birkbeck, and the Usher is his Curate. The other three Governors are the Reverend Mr. Coulthurst, Vicar of Giggleswick ; Mr. George Hartley, solicitor, and Mr. C. J. Geldard, solicitor. It is not intended to insinuate that any one of the Governors would in his private capacity have been capable of neglecting duty, or of acting unjustly ; but it would indicate a very im perfect knowledge of human nature, to suppose that men will not in a body do and sanction many things which as individuals they would shrink from. The danger of this is much increased when, in addition to the union conferred by law on such a body, its members are further bound together by domestic and business ties of the strongest kind.

In such a case, the sense of individual responsibility is likely to be lost in the corporate union, and the common objects and purposes which spring from family and business relations must prepare the minds of those who are connected by them to receive rapidly the same views, to accept one another's prejudices, and to support one another in carrying them out. So far has this prevailed at Giggleswick, that some of the Governors, with the view of coercing the dissentients among their number, have held that the minority were bound to join the majority in signing resolutions, &c, and in this manner they have obtained to certain documents the signa tures of some of their members who did not coincide in the opinions expressed in these documents. A striking example of what has been just stated is the fact that, although the Governors as a body have applied for a new scheme as a remedy for the evils under which the School is suffering, yet one of them recently thus expressed his opinion : — " The present scheme has nothing to do with the disrepute and decrease of numbers; that being the case, it is desirable to find out the disease before you apply the remedy."

This is precisely what Mr. James Foster has been all along urging upon the Charity Commissioners. This abandonment of individual responsibility alone can explain the conduct of the Governors of Giggleswick School in these transactions. They knew what was going on in the School for some time, for it was matter of public notoriety ; yet, instead of taking proper measures to purge the Institution of the scandal, they silently encouraged the hostility towards the Head Master. One of the Governors, Mr. John Birkbeck, signed the summonses against the Head Master, without making any attempt to seek from him such explanations as might have saved the School from the exposure of the disgraceful contumacy by which it was torn in pieces. Another of the Governors, Mr. William Robinson, was quite willing to try the Head Master on a criminal charge ; but looked on with equanimity, whilst the most powerful agencies were set in motion against his authority and character.

As Justices of the Peace, they felt no hesitation in permitting a proceeding which, had it been successful, would have irretrievably ruined the Head Master but, as Governors of the School, they encouraged a spirit, and pursued a course of conduct, which might possibly have resulted in damage to the Head Master's position, but must inevitably recoil in disaster upon the noble foundation of which they ought to have been the guardians. They not only permitted the Usher to pursue this course, they encouraged him, and kept his counsel. They knew that he had obtained a medical certificate from a nephew of one of them, and that it could subserve but one purpose : yet they kept it a close secret from the Head Master. He was a stranger, without connections in the place ; his independence of mind and self-respect rendered it easy to isolate him, The whole process was completed before he was made acquainted with even its existence, and it was made known to him then, only through the absolute necessity of serving him with the summonses.

No opportunity was given him of preparing for his defence against a charge that had been long and silently maturing. What can be said of a body of men who could thus take an innocent and unsuspecting man at such a dis advantage ? When the futility and ill feeling of the charge was made obvious by the very evidence adduced to support it, and the Magistrates were compelled to dismiss it, without a tittle of evidence being offered in defence, the Chairman, the prosecutor's host, instead of quietly announcing the decision a of the Bench, added this sting to it : " After long and painful consideration ;" i. e., about twenty minutes.* The Head Master applied to the Usher some nine days after the trial for an explanation of his conduct, and that gentleman, in reply, entirely repudiated his authority, and declared himself responsible to the Governors alone.

The Head Master, therefore, on the 22nd of July, 1861, addressed a memorial to them, in which he set forth the facts of young Wright's case, with the part taken in it by the Usher, aud asked them for that redress to which he was entitled, and which they alone could give him. He reminded them that it was not his interests, but the interests of the School that were at stake; that their own examiners had reported : "At this School, every effort is used to give the boys the fullest advantage of sound learning and religious education ; the books used, and the method adopted, are the best that could be found ; the Head Master and his Assistants are making the most of the material they have to work upon ; " and that. if they allowed this insidious attack upon his position and authority to pass unnoticed, its effects upon the discipline and prosperity of the School would be most damaging.