As the present vicar of Giggleswick the Rev. John Clapham was appointed in 1783 and in 1793 refused to act as Governor, has been a little obnoxious to the rest of the Governors, they wish a Statute may be prepared empowering any two of the Governors from time to time to call a meeting of the Governors respecting the sd School. And that any new elected Governor may be sworn before any two Governors at such meeting to be true and faithful towds the sd School.
The whole of the Governors are perfectly unanimous in this business, except the Rev. John Clapham, the vicar, who has not attended lately the meetings of the Governors, tho' he has always had regular notice given him of every meeting that has been held, and he gives no reason why he does not attend the meetings and concur with the rest of the Governors in the Trust.
Bishop Watson, of Llandaff, was also consulted. He had already been connected with William Paley, the Headmaster's son, and had been his examiner for his degree, and suggested the insertion of the "non," when the Master of Christ's had been scandalized by the subject on which Paley had intended to write his theme.--"Aeternitas poenarum contradicit divinis attributis." In the matter of the new Statutes his friendly counsel had been sought by John Parker, of Marshfield, Settle, one of the Governing Body. The Bishop recommended that twelve leaving Exhibitions should be established of £30 for four years, and the remainder to be disposed of "at the discretion of the Governors, to such young men as had been distinguished by obtaining Academic or Collegiate Honours during their residence in the University." "Some appropriation of this kind," he added, "if you take care to get a good Master will make Giggleswick School one of the first in the North of England, and I for one prefer a School in the North and situated, as Giggleswick is, out of the way of much corruption, to either Eton or Westminster. As to French and Mathematics being taught at a great Classical School, I do not approve of it; the Writing Master should make the scholars quite perfect in common Arithmetic, and in vulgar and decimal fractions, and that knowledge will be a sufficient basis to build Mathematics upon. Greek and Latin require so much time and attention before they can be well understood, that I think there is no time at School for any other language."--Oct. 18, 1794.