[3] These chantries, constituted to celebrate masses for the souls of their founders, were also endowed (as deeds of 1478 and 1518 [WSMB/A] and 1533 show)[4] with monies to enjoin the chaplain to teach a free grammar school in the borough, initially in the church itself, as a part of his duty.

The property was described in the sale as "on the west side of Kirkgate extending in length to a certain narrow lane called School-house Gate".

[citation needed] In consideration of the loss sustained by the dissolution of the chantries in the time of Edward VI, Queen Mary granted to the school at Appleby a yearly rent charge of £5 10s.

These legacies enabled the Borough to purchase Royal Letters Patent, endowed by Queen Elizabeth I in 1574, and so provide a firm basis for the continued establishment and survival of the grammar school, "with ten governors, who are to appoint successors, nominate the master and usher, make statutes for the regulation of the school, and receive lands and possessions, so as they exceed not the clear yearly value of £40" (though this limitation has been greatly exceeded).

[citation needed] The incumbent headmaster in 1574, John Boste, later a Catholic convert and martyr (canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales) was followed in 1580 by Reginald Bainbrigg, a considerable scholar, who made tours of Hadrian's Wall in 1599 and 1601 and corresponded with William Camden and Sir Robert Cotton on antiquarian matters.

[citation needed] Fruitless proposals were made by the governors to rebuild and amend the existing buildings, and in 1887 construction of a new school was completed at Battlebarrow,[5] on the outskirts of the town, on a site provided by land purchased from St Anne's Hospital[6] and Lord Hothfield.

[7] In the early 1950s, because of the large size of the catchment area and problems students would face under adverse weather conditions, there were Government proposals for comprehensive education to be provided on larger sites, for pupils of all academic abilities, offering modern and technical courses.

Were it not for the sudden death of his father in 1743, on reaching the age at which the two older boys had made the long voyage from Virginia, George would have most certainly followed in their footsteps.