Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/149

LORD CREWE'S CHARITY. Amongst the many charitable bequests of the various Bishops who hate filled the See of Durham, none stand more conspicuous than those of Bishop Crewe. Hutchinson says, " Many men have been canonized for much inferior works of beneficence than those of this prdata" Lord Crewe married for his second wife Miss Dorothy Foster, daughter of Sir William Foster, of Bamborough, in the county of Northumberland. On the death of his last surviving brother, in 1697, he succeeded to the barony and family estates of Stene, and was the first person in England summoned to attend Parliament both as Baron and Bishop. In the year 1715, Lord Derwent- water's insurrection in Northimiberland took place. The Bishop's brother-in-law, John Foster, Esq., who was general of the rebel army, forfeited Bamborough and his other estates to the crown. They were purchased by Lord Crewe, and demised by him to charitable purposea Amongst the many bequests, made by him in this neighbourhood may be mentioned the gifk of ten pounds per year to the livings of Witton-le-Wear and Hamsterley respectively, and also thirty pounds annually to that of St Andrew's Auckland. He also added sixteen pounds annually to the income of the alms-people in Bishop Cosin's almshouses at Bishop Auckland He also, by his will, dated June 24th, 1720, directed his trustees "to pay twenty poimds yearly out of the rents of the estates therein mentioned to a schoolmaster, to teach gratis to read and write thirty such poor boys of the parish of Bishop Auckland, and for such length of time, as the minister, church- wardens, and vestrymen of the said parish should direct and appoint; and to pay the further sum of thirty pounds yearly for the clothing of the said thirty poor boys, in such manner, and with such distinction of habit as the said minister, churchwardens, and vestry should direct" And he further directed " that his said trustees should nominate the schoolmaster to teach the said thirty poor hojB, subject to such orders, removals, and regulations as to the said trustees should seem meet" There was no building or school-house provided by the Bishop in which the Blue Coat Boys (as they were called) were taught, but an old woolcomber's shop, situated in a yard known at that time as " Matthew Forester's Yard," and which stood behind the premises now occupied by Mr. F. Everitt, in Newgate-street, was used as a school-room. The schoolmaster was a true type of that class to whom the education of the yoimg of the poorer classes at that time was usually entrusted, and who in general bore a striking resemblance to Tom Hood's "Irish Schoolmaster" — No chair he hath, the awful Pedagogue, Such as would magisterial hams imbed, But sitteth lowly on a beechen log, Secure in high authority and dread: Large, as a dome for learning, seems his head, And like Apollo's, all beset with rays, Because his locks are so unkempt and red, And stand abroad in many several ways : — No laurel crown he wears, howbeit his cap is baize. And soe he sits amidst the little pack, That look for shady or for sunny noon. Within his visage, like an almanack, — His quiet smile foretelling gracious boon : But when his mouth droops down, like rainy moon, * With horrid chill each little heart unwanns, Knowing, that infant show'rs will follow soon. And with forebodings of near wrath and storms They sit, like timid hares, all trembling on their forms. Digitized by Google