Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/228

 reading, and other school learning, according to the best of his capacity, all such children of the inhabitants of the townships of Poulton and Hardhorn-in-Newton as shall be sent to the said School, and behave themselves with care and good manners, without any other payment or reward, except what the said children or their parents shall voluntarily give." The testament then proceeds to direct that when any two of the seven trustees died, the five surviving should at the cost of the estate appoint two other of the "most able, discreet, and sufficient inhabitants in Poulton and Hardhorn within three months," and that such a practice should be observed as occasion required "to the end that the said charity may continue for ever according to the true intent and meaning of this Will." The Trustees were invested with power to dismiss any schoolmaster and appoint a successor, regarding whom there was the following clause:—"All School-*masters on appointment shall give bond with one or more sureties for good conduct, and be at duty from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m, except from the 1st November to 1st February, in which quarter alone shall they attend on all school days from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.; the afternoons of Thursday and Saturday to be holiday."

The schoolhouse is a whitewashed building, a single story high, and has four windows in front, with one at each end. It stands in the township of Hardhorn-with-Newton, about half a mile from the town of Poulton, and has the annexed inscription fixed on the wall facing the main road:—"This Charity School was Founded and Endowed by Mr. James Baines, of Poolton, who died the 9th January, 1717. Rebuilt 1818." The lands bequeathed by Mr. Baines have been exchanged for others of greater value across the river Wyre. The attendance at present is small.

Mr. Baines also left £800 to six trustees to be laid out in land, half the annual income or interest from which he directed to be devoted to the "maintenance, use, and best advantage of the poorest sort of inhabitants of the township of Poulton, which receive no relief by the Poor-rate," and "for putting out poor children of the said township apprentices yearly though their parents receive relief by the Poor-rate." The other moiety he directed to be devoted to similar purposes in the townships of