,
appearing to us to be ye poorest schollar that stood candidate for ye
said gift" was allowed the Shute Exhibition of L5. He also received L7
of the Burton Rents, and in May, 1698, as much as L9 10_s._ 0_d._ With
these sums he was enabled to go to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he
gained a Scholarship and by the year 1698 in March, which under the new
style would be March 1699, he had returned to the School as Usher, in
succession to Richard Akinson. He taught for fifteen years and received
as usual, just half the Headmaster's stipend, the amount varying between
L23 and L27. On March 12, 1712, the following entry occurs: "Recd of ye
Governors of ye free Gramar School of Gigleswick ye sum of two pounds
eighteen shillings and sixpence for ye use of my brother Wm. Foster, now
Curate of Horsefield," but it turns out to be a payment of that part of
the Exhibition to which he was entitled, up till the time he had left
Cambridge, presumably in the previous June.

John Armitstead's receipts end in 1704, and he died in 1712. It is
impossible to determine the worth of a Master, when so few documents
remain to judge him, but the Governors of 1768 thought fit to refer to
"the artful and imperious temper of Mr. Armitstead." Their particular
grievance was that in 1704 the Governors had a balance of L230 with
which they purchased a farm called Keasden. This they let and its
profits went to the Master and Usher, and in 1712 the "easy, complying
disposition of the Governors" was persuaded to allow the Master to
collect the rents of all the lands belonging to the School and simply
enter a receipt "of the wages now due to us." Consequently no accounts
were kept from 1704 till 1765, and because there was no reserve fund
presumably no repairs were done. The Master collected the rents and with
his Usher divided the spoil. He even seized the L15 which remained over
from the purchase money of the Keasden farm. Nor was this all. Up to the
year 1705 the Master paid for the expenses of the Governors' Meetings
but in that year the Governors were persuaded to deduct sixpence in the
pound from the Exhibitions given to the boys going up to the
Universities. This deduction continued till the nineteenth century.
Judging then from the opinions of the Governors fifty years later, John
Armitstead was not wholly an altruist. It is still more unfortunate that
his evil lived after him.

The number of Scholars, who went up to Cambridge in his time thoug