The Burton-in-Kendal Grammar School foundation, together with other foundations, Cockfield. is now administered under a Scheme made under the Endowed Schools Acts, and Hutton's dated the 26th March 1878, by clause 2 whereof it is provided (inter alia) as Charity follows: The part of the endowment applicable for purposes not educational shall be administered by the governing body hereinafter constituted, in the same manner in which such part would have been administered if this Scheme had not been made. Such part shall consist of- (a.) The sum of 20s. to be yearly paid as heretofore to the overseers of the poor By clause 30 of the same Scheme it was provided as follows: "From and after the date of this Scheme the foundation shall for every purpose, except as herein provided, be administered and governed wholly and exclusively in accordance with the provisions of this Scheme, notwithstanding any former or other Scheme, Act of Parliament, charter, or letters patent, statute, or instrument relating to the subject matter of this Scheme." By minute of the 28th October 1895, the Cockfield Parish Council purported to appoint four persons to be trustees of the Charity in place of the overseers and churchwardens. On this being notified to the Charity Commissioners the latter informed the parish council by letter, dated 28th November 1895, that in view of the provisions of the Scheme made on the 26th March 1878 under the Endowed Schools Acts, the overseers alone and not the churchwardens of the parish were the trustees of the Charity, and that accordingly under the provisions of section 14 (2) of the Local Government Act, 1894, within which the Charity fell, the parish council could only appoint a number of trustees in place of the overseers, not exceeding the number of overseers displaced. In pursuance of this communication, by resolution of the Cockfield Parish Council of the 30th December 1895, two persons were nominated to be trustees of the Charity in place of the overseers. The Charity is now distributed by the two appointees of the Cockfield Parish Council to the poor of Cockfield township in money doles of 2s. 6d. to 3s. 9d. each. The township of Woodland no longer participates, and does not appear within living memory to have participated, in the administration and benefits of the Charity. Yet by the terms of the founder's will the Charity is applicable for the parish, and not merely the township of Cockfield, and as regards the share of Woodland, this township, at the date of the Report of 1829, so far from being excluded, actually received the whole of the Charity to the exclusion of Cockfield township. The representatives of the Woodland Parish Council present at the Inquiry desired that directions should be given by the Charity Commissioners in regard to the future administration of the Charity. Charity of a Donor Unknown (see page 1). continued. a Donor The yearly sum of 5s., constituting the endowment of this Charity and issuing out of Charity of a farm called Fold Garth, in Woodland, has not been received for many years. As stated in the Report of 1829, the origin of this payment is not known. In accounts rendered to the Charity Commissioners for the year 1862-1863 by the churchwardens of Cockfield, the yearly sum of 58. is entered as received from Timothy Tarn and paid to two poor people in Woodland. By Order of the Charity Commissioners of the 2nd March 1866 (being the Order above mentioned in the case of Hutton's Charity), the rector and churchwardens of Cockfield were appointed to be the trustees of the Charity, and the yearly payment was vested in the Official Trustee of Charity Lands. The date of the last payment of the yearly sum of 5s. is uncertain, but there is no evidence of its receipt later thau that afforded by the accounts for 1862-3, above mentioned. Inquiries in the matter were addressed by the Charity Commissioners, through their department of accounts, to the churchwardens in 1894 and the following years, but nothing could be elicited except that the payment had not been received for a great number of years. The present tenant of the Fold Garth Farm is Mary Elizabeth Tarn, and the owner is Lord Barnard. It was stated by the agent of the Raby Estate that he had no knowledge of the payment, which had always been made by the tenant, and not in pursuance of any provision contained in the title deeds of the property. Unknown. Cockfield. Charity of a Donor Unknown continued. National School. In the above circumstances it does not appear that the Charity could now be recovered at law. Intimation has, however, been received from Lord Barnard since the Inquiry that he is willing in future to make the payment himself. National School. By deed poll dated 19th December 1864 (enrolled in Chancery 11th January 1865), the Most Noble Harry George, Duke of Cleveland, lord of the manor of Cockfield, voluntarily and without valuable consideration, under the Schools Sites Acts, conveyed to the Rev. H. C. Lipscomb, rector of Cockfield, William Thomas Scarth, land agent of the said Duke, and Ralph Dent, land agent of John Bowes, of Streatlam Castle, Esquire, the principal landowner within the said manor of Cockfield, their successors, heirs, and assigns, a piece of waste land situate on the town green of the village of Cockfield, with the schools and other erections thereon as the same were then enclosed with a stone wall, containing in length from east to west 81 feet, and in breadth from north to south 82 feet, and bounded by land of the Duke of Cleveland on the south and by the town green on the east, west, and north, with the appurtenances, excepting minerals, upon trust for a school for the education of the poorer class in the parish of Cock field or the neighbourhood thereof, which said school should as far as might be (subject to the trusts, rules, and regulations therein contained), be in union with the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, and be open to the inspection of the inspectors appointed in conformity with the Order in Council dated 10th August 1840, subject to and upon the trusts following: 1st. The number of trustees of the said schools or school, and the said land and premises held therewith as aforesaid, shall be three (that is to say)—the said Harry Curteis Lipscomb, rector of the said parish of Cockfield and his successor or successors being rector for the time being of the same parish, the said William Thomas Scarth and his successor or successors being the chief land agent of the lord of the said manor of Cockfield for the time being, and the said Ralph Dent and his successor or successors being the chief land agent of the owner or proprietor for the time being of Cockfield Hall estate, now the property of the said John Bowes within the said manor of Cockfield by virtue of their respective offices (such trustees respectively being always of the Protestant religion), and in case of any vacancy in the trust by the death, resignation, or incapacity to act of any of the said trustees, the remaining trustee or trustees for the time being of the said school and premises, or the legal personal representatives of the last surviving trustees, shall or may appoint some proper person or persons of the Protestant religion, who shall be for the time being such rector or chief land agent respectively as aforesaid, to succeed to any such vacancy. 2nd. The trustees shall hold meetings in the schoolroom at least once in each year on the thirtieth day of June at two o'clock in the afternoon, or if that day should fall on a Sunday, then on the Saturday preceding, the rector for the time being of the said parish, if present, and in his absence the senior trustee present, according to the date or order of his appointment, shall be the chairman of such meeting. Two trustees shall form a quorum at any meeting, but in the absence of the two lay trustees the rector of Cockfield for the time being alone shall be a quorum for all purposes of this Charity. 3rd. Any trustee may summon a special meeting upon giving three days' previous notice by letter through the post or otherwise. No notice need be given for the regular yearly meeting. 4th. All matters and questions shall be determined by the majority or quorum of the trustees present at any meeting. In case of equality of votes, the chairman of the meeting shall have a double or casting vote. 5th. A minute book or proper books of account shall be provided by the trustees, and kept in a suitable chest, or in some other convenient and secure place of deposit to be provided for that purpose by the trustees. A minute of the entry into office and appointment of every new trustee, and of all proceedings of the trustees, and all matters determined by them at each meeting, shall be entered in the minute book and signed by the chairman. 6th. The trustees shall be at liberty to receive any annual or other subscriptions and donations for the purposes of the schools or school, and subject to any special directions or conditions which may be attached to any such subscriptions or donations by the subscriber or donor, such subscriptions and donations respectively, as well as all annual or other income of the school, shall be paid to and applied by the trustees for the support and benefit of the said schools or school in accordance with the provisions herein contained. 7th. Proper accounts shall be kept of the receipts and expenditure of the trustees in respect of the schools or school in the books to be provided for that purpose, and such accounts shall be examined and passed by the trustees annually. 8th. The trustees shall or may at their leisure permit the schoolhouse to be used for any parochial meetings or purposes not inconsistent with the purposes of the school, provided that in such case or cases the ordinary business of the school shall not be interrupted thereby. 9th. The schools or school and premises shall be maintained and kept in repair by the trustees, the expense of which and of the management of the schools shall be paid and defrayed by the trustees out of the income arising from subscriptions, head money or quarterly pence, or any other source, 10th. The appointment of the master or mistress of the said schools or school shall be with the Cockfield. trustees, who upon the occurrence of any vacancy or vacancies shall or may give public notice by advertisement in any of the local newspapers, or by any other efficient means, inviting persons who National may wish to be candidates to apply and send testimonials to the trustees. School 11th. Each master and mistress shall be a member of the Church of England, and previously to continued. entering into office shall be required to sign a declaration in the following form :-" I, A. B. declare " that I will reside constantly in the parish of Cockfield unless excused by a majority of trustees in 66 "writing, and discharge always to the best of my ability the duties of master (or mistress) of the boys' (or girls') school at Cockfield, and that in case I am removed from or required to resign my said office by the trustees or a majority of them, I will acquiesce in such removal or requisition, " and will therefore relinquish all claim to the office and its future emoluments, and will deliver up "possession of the school to the trustees." 12th. The master and mistress shall personally instruct the children free of any charge except such head-money (if any) as herein-after mentioned, and shall devote his or her whole attention to the duties of the schools or school. 13th. The secular instruction at the schools or school shall comprise reading, writing, spelling, English grammar, arithmetic, history, geography, and such subjects of general and useful knowledge as may from time to time be directed or authorised by the trustees, and the girls shall be taught needlework. The religious instruction shall comprise the Bible and Bible history and the Church catechism, and shall be consonant with the principles of the Church of England, but in the case of dissenters who have any conscientious scruples as to the Church of England catechism, and request in writing that their children shall not be taught or instructed in the same, then such children of dissenters shall not be required to receive instruction in the said Church catechism. 14th. So far as the extent of accommodation will admit and subject to the control and approval of the trustees, the schools or school shall be open to the children of resident inhabitants of the parish of Cockfield and its neighbourhood of all religious denominations from the age of five years, and to adults resident within or near the same parish who shall apply to be admitted on the written permission or authority of the trustees, or any two or one of them, or of the master of the said school for the time being if authorised in writing by the said trustees, or a majority or quorum of them, to grant such admission, but not otherwise. 15th. Lists of the names of the scholars at the said schools or school, specifying their ages and the date of their admission, shall be entered in a book or books for that purpose by the master and mistress for the inspection of the trustees. 16th. In case any of the scholars shall be guilty of gross misconduct or insubordination, or shall wilfully transgress the rules of the school, the master or mistress may report the case to the trustees, who, after due inquiry, may order the admonition, suspension, or expulsion of the offender. 17th. The trustees may, if they think fit, direct that any sums not exceeding 6d. per week or 5s. per quarter for children, and any reasonable sum or sums weekly or quarterly for adults, shall be paid by each scholar attending the schools as head money, such payments to be made in advance weekly on Monday mornings or quarterly as the trustees shall direct, and shall be paid to the master and mistress, who shall respectively keep an account of all such payments, and pay over the same to the trustees, if required. 18th. The payments for head money shall be appropriated by the trustees to the payment of the salaries to the master and mistress, and providing books and stationery, and for the purposes of the school. 19th. Subject to the foregoing provisions, the general regulation and management of the school with respect to the course of instruction, hours of attendance, holidays, and all other arrangements, shall be fixed and determined from time to time by the trustees, or a quorum, who shall have the power to make, revoke, and alter all such byelaws for the regulation of the concerns of the said schools or school as they may think proper, of which a minute shall be entered in the book to be kept for that purpose, and signed by the chairman. 20th. There shall be paid by the trustees to the master and mistress out of the income of the schools, including the sums to be received for head money, such annual salaries as the trustees shall from time to time determine, and the funds of the Charity will permit. 21st. A copy of this Scheme shall be kept with the books of accounts and other documents belonging to the schools, and every parishioner or other person being a subscriber to the funds of the schools, and having occasion to inspect the same, shall be at liberty to do so upon making an application for that purpose to the trustees. By indenture dated 6th October 1899, and made between the above-mentioned Rev. H. C. Lipscomb, rector of Cockfield, of the one part, and the said H. C. Lipscomb, Herbert Legard Fife, and William Henry Ralston, of the other part, reciting in part the above-mentioned deed of the 19th December 1864, and reciting that W. T. Scarth and Ralph Dent were both dead, and that they had been respectively succeeded in their offices as chief land agents of the lord of the manor of Cockfield for the time being, and of the owner for the time being of the Cockfield Hall Estate, by the said H. L. Fife and W. H. Ralston, who were both of the Protestant religion, the premises were conveyed to the parties thereto of the second part upon the trusts of the said deed of the 19th December 1864. By deed poll dated 7th October 1899, the Right Hon. Henry De Vere, Baron Barnard, under the School Sites Act, 1851, voluntarily and without valuable consideration, conveyed Cockfield. National School continued. to the Rev. H. C. Lipscomb, rector of Cockfield, Herbert Legard Fife of Staindrop, land agent, and William Henry Ralston of Streatlam, land agent, a piece of land containing by admeasurement 68 square yards, being part of a field called Noble Nook Pasture in the parish of Cockfield, bounded by the playground of Cockfield Schools on the north, and delineated on the plan drawn on the now-reciting deed, with the appurtenances (excepting minerals), for the purposes of the said Act, and to be applied as an extension of the site of the school in the parish of Cockfield, and for additional buildings thereto, and for no other purposes whatsoever, upon the trusts and subject to the conditions and stipulations contained in the above-mentioned deed poll dated 19th December 1864. The last-mentioned deed was not enrolled in the Supreme Court within six months after its execution, in accordance with the provisions of the Mortmain Act, 1888, section 4 (9); it is understood, however, that since the Inquiry enrolment has been effected under section 5 of that Act. The The Lipscomb School. By deed poll dated 30th June 1897 (enrolled in the Supreme Court on the 15th July following), the Rev. Harry Curteis Lipscomb, of Staindrop, honorary canon of Durham, under the School Sites Acts, voluntarily and without valuable consideration, conveyed to the minister and churchwardens of the parish of Cockfield and their successors a piece of land, containing by admeasurement 214 square yards or thereabouts, situate at Cockfield and bounded on the north by the high road and on the east by the village green, and delineated on the plan drawn on the now-reciting deed, together with the buildings erected thereon, and then for more than 50 years past used as a school, and together with the appurtenances, upon trust to permit the said premises to be for ever thereafter appropriated and used for a school under the title of the "Lipscomb School," for the education of children and adults (when permitted by the trustees), or children only of the labouring, manufacturing, and other poorer classes in the ecclesiastical parish of Cockfield, the said school to be always in union with the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church; provided that the said minister and churchwardens and their successors should and might from time to time thereafter, with the consent and at the request of the National Society testified by writing under their common seal, but not otherwise, convey for educational purposes, but not otherwise, to any body corporate or bodies corporate or person authorised by law to accept the same, the whole of the estate or interest thereby vested in them, or any smaller interest in the said school, in such manner and upon such terms as the said Society should as aforesaid direct; and subject thereto the said school to be under the control of a committee to consist of the minister for the time being of the said parish or ecclesiastical district of Cockfield, his licensed curate or curates if appointed by him upon the committee, the churchwardens of the said parish if members of the Established Church, the respective owners for the time being of the Raby and Streatlam estates, being respectively of full age and of sound mind and members of the Established Church and contributors of not less than 51. annually to the funds of the said school and of the National School in Cockfield comprised in an indenture of the 19th December 1864 (provided that the said owners might respectively nominate in writing fit persons, being members of the Established Church, to act in their places as members of the said committee for any specificd period determinable on their ceasing to be themselves qualified to act as members of the said committee, but that no such nomination should take effect until it had been notified in writing to the said minister), and of every other contributor of not less than two guineas annually to the funds of the said school and of the said National School; provided that any contributor, being a company or body corporate, or other like body, might nominate in writing a fit person, being a member of the Established Church, to act in their place as a member of the said committee, but that no such nomination should take effect until it had been notified in writing to the said minister; provided always that the religious instruction to be given in the said school, and the entire control and management of any Sunday School held in the school premises, should be vested in the said minister for the time being, or in his absence in the officiating minister; and that in case any difference should arise in any matter respecting the religious instruction given in the said school, an appeal might be made to the Bishop of the diocese, whose decision in writing should be conclusive. This school is used as an infant school. 7 LOST CHARITY. Charity of George French (see page 1). - The circumstances under which this Charity has been lost are, so far as can be ascertained, as follows: From 1834 to 1851 the minutes of the vestry of Cockfield contain various entries relating to the property, including an entry from which the following is an extract :- "At a meeting of the freeholders and ratepayers of the township of Cockfield, held on the 22nd August 1843, Resolved that immediate proceedings be taken against the tenant of the house at Newcastle, and that an execution be taken for rent due At an adjournment of the above meeting on the 5th September 1843, it was resolved that the town sergeant or some other competent person should be employed to carry out the resolution of the preceding meeting, and six individuals agreed to advance the necessary funds. The next entry, which is undated, but belongs apparently to the year 1845, is as follows: "At a meeting of the committee for managing the estate at Newcastle, it was resolved that the rent offered by Mrs. Ridley for the house be accepted, and that Mr. Stanwix, of Keverstone, one of the churchwardens, and Mr. Stanwix, of Cockfield, be deputed to arrange the letting of the said house, and that all expenses attending that arrangement be defrayed out of the first rents received." There is nothing in the minute book to show the result of the measures above referred to, and the next and last minute relating to the property is as follows: "Thursday, January 16th, 1851.-In pursuance of the above notice a meeting was held in the vestry on January 16, 1851, when it was resolved that Mr. Hodgson, of Staindrop, solicitor, be empowered to obtain possession of the house at Newcastle and to defray the expenses attendant thereon, past, present and future." On the 2nd November 1855 the Charity Commissioners (through their department of accounts) received a letter from John Stanwix and Thomas Lamb, churchwardens of Cockfield, from which the following is an extract: "The house at Newcastle (French's Charity) is adversely held by a person who claims it as her own. She was permitted to enter without agreement as to rent, and we have been unable legally to eject her. A considerable sum has been expended in law, but we have received no rent for several years A lease was granted for 21 years, but we have not yet put the lessee in possession." In 1863 the then churchwardens of Cockfield, Messrs. Robert Calvert and Simpson Walker, junior, submitted the above vestry minutes to the Charity Commissioners and stated that no rent had since been received from the house. In these circumstances, the Charity Commissioners, by letter dated the 15th January 1864, recommended that an application should be at once made by the acting trustees of the Charity to the occupier to deliver up possession of the property at Newcastle, and also invited the churchwardens to apply for an Order of the Commissioners for the appointment of legal trustees, who would have the right to recover the property at law. In pursuance of the Charity Commissioners' recommendation, Mr. Calvert and Mr. Simpson Walker visited Newcastle, and communicated the result of their investigations to the Commissioners in a letter received by them on the 25th January 1864, which was supplemented by a letter received by the Commissioners on the 27th January 1865, signed by Mr. Robert Summerson and Mr. Simpson Walker, the then churchwardens. It appears that the house was with difficulty identified by Mr. Calvert and Mr. Walker as No. 15, Back Row, Westgate Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It was stated that in pursuance of the vestry minute, dated 22nd August 1843, the tenant, a Mrs. Wishart, was 'ejected, and the letting of the premises entrusted to a house agent; the latter, however, again let the house to Mrs. Wishart, and she contrived to retain possession, despite any such steps taken by the parish as are referred to in the above letter received by the Charity Commissioners on the 2nd November 1855. It was further stated that Mrs. Wishart died and left a married daughter in possession, and that the latter, in or about the year 1859, sold the house for 257. to a Mr. Hoyle, a solicitor in Newcastle, who, or whose firm, in 1864 claimed a possessory title to the premises. The property was stated to be then let at 3s. 6d. a week. In these circumstances, on the occasion of their visit, the churchwardens served a notice on the tenant of their claim to the property, warning him not to pay rent to any other person. Cockfield. French's Charity. |