John Armitstead ceased to acknowledge the receipt of his wages in 1704 and died in 1712. Just as he had belonged to a local family and had been educated at the School and Christ's College, Cambridge, so was his successor.

John Carr, A.B., late of Stackhouse, was a descendant of the original James and Richard Carr and was thus the third member of the family to hold the Mastership. He had been elected to the combined Exhibitions from the School in 1707, and after taking his degree he was ordained Deacon at York in 1713 and Priest in 1720. On June 18, 1712, as a layman and at the age of twenty-three he entered upon his duties as Master. Seven days later a relative, of what degree is uncertain, William Carr, of Langcliffe, was elected a Governor, and eight years later another William Carr, of Stackhouse, and hence probably a closer connexion, possibly his father, was also made a Governor. In 1726 George Carr was made Usher. The family circle was complete.

After 1704 the position of Usher had been successively filled by Anthony Weatherhead, a former pupil of Armitstead's and a B.A. of Christ's, by Thos. Rathmell from whom there are no receipts but who died in 1712, and by Richard Thornton, who held it for fourteen years. There is no record that he was ever a member of the School as a boy, but it is a legitimate conjecture, when it is remembered that the Thorntons were an old family in the neighbourhood, and one of them figures in the Minute-Book, 1692, as having left nine shillings to the Giggleswick poor.

On the day on which John Carr was elected Master he had to sign an agreement in the following terms:

June 18, 1712.

Conditions on which a master shall be chosen.

It cannot be explained why these regulations were made, but probably the real point of friction had lain in the collection of rents, or perhaps in the choice of the Writing Master. It is clear from the second clause that the original custom has not changed much. The Ancient Statutes of 1592 had given the Master power to appoint a three weeks vacation, when he wished, in order that the "scollers" might "be exercysed in wrytinge under a scriviner" and it is the same in 1712. It proves that, although the School was a free school and was the place of education for the whole township of Giggleswick and the surrounding neighbourhood, it was not a place for elementary education and never had been.

The fifth paragraph bears reference to the agreement made with John Armitstead in 1705, by which the Masters ceased to provide the entertainment at the Governors' Meetings. Henceforward the amount to be expended is limited to one pound per annum.

In 1720 Richard Thornton was allowed to act as Clerk to Charles Harris, Esq., for six months. It does not transpire who Charles Harris was, but the case is somewhat paralleled seventy years later, when in 1793 Robert Kidd is "to take the trouble of keeping accounts, etc., for the Governors and be allowed an additional sum of two guineas per annum."

In 1726 Richard Thornton resigned and George Carr took his place. Nothing worthy of note is recorded until John Carr's death in 1744, save that in 1728 the said John Carr received £1 11s. 8d., "to be laid out in building a little house for ye use of ye schoole," but what it was, is not known. The number of boys going up to the Universities in Carr's time fell off unaccountably, though they included John Cookson whose entry "probe edoctus" in the Christ's College Admission Book testifies to the teaching in the School.

Carr died in 1743 and was succeeded by William Paley. Born at Langcliffe, educated at the School and admitted into Christ's as a Sizar with a Burton Exhibition in 1729-30, William Paley gained a Scholarship there two years later. He became ordained and was made Vicar of Helpston, Peterborough, where his eldest son was born. He remained Vicar for sixty-four years till his death and combined the living with the Headmastership of Giggleswick and for twenty years with a Curacy at the Parish Church.

His family had lived at Langcliffe for some considerable time and from 1670 to 1720 the name is never absent from the School Minute-Book. "Altogether a schoolmaster both by long habit and inclination, irritable and a disciplinarian. Cheerful and jocose, a great wit, rather coarse in his language," Such is his grandson's description of him. "And when at the age of eighty-three or eighty-four he was obliged to have assistance (which was long before he wanted it in his own opinion) he used to be wheeled in a chair to his School: and even in the delirium of his last sickness insisted on giving his daughters a Greek author, over which they would mumble and mutter to persuade him that he was still hearing his boys Greek."

"He was found sitting in the hayfield among his workpeople, or sitting in his elbow-chair nibbling his stick, or with the tail of his damask gown rolled into his pocket busying himself in his garden even at the age of eighty."

In 1742 he married Elizabeth Clapham, of Stackhouse, who was also a member of an old Giggleswick family. She is said to have ridden on horseback behind her husband from Stackhouse to Peterborough. She was the most affectionate and careful of parents, a little, shrewd-looking, keen-eyed woman of remarkable strength of mind and spirits, one of those positive characters that decide promptly and execute at once, of a sanguine and irritable temper that led her to be always on the alert in thinking and acting. She also had a fortune of £400, which in this neighbourhood was almost sufficient to confer the title of an heiress (Some Craven Worthies).

Their son was William Paley, Archdeacon of Carlisle and author of "Evidences of Christianity." Born in 1744 he went to Christ's College at the age of fifteen, with a Burton Exhibition and received a Carr Scholarship, when he entered. As a boy he had been a fair scholar with eccentric habits. His great delight was in cock-fighting and he must have looked forward to each Potation Day, March 12, with considerable joy. There are many anecdotes about him. He is supposed, whilst in company with his father riding on his way to Cambridge to have fallen off his horse seven times, whereupon his father would merely call out "take care of thy money, lad." His mind was always original, indeed he was never regarded as a "safe" man and in consequence he did not attain that high position in the Church that his intellectual achievements entitled him to expect. When about to take his B.A. degree he proposed to write a thesis on "Aeternitas poenarum contradicit divinis attributis," but the Master of Christ's was so distressed that Paley was induced to appease him by the insertion of a "non." In 1765 he gained the Member's Prize as Senior Bachelor with a Latin essay which had long English notes. One of the examiners condemned it, because "he supposed the author had been assisted by his father, some country clergyman, who having forgotten his Latin had written the notes in English." Powell, the Master of S. John's, a learned doctor and the oracle of Cambridge on every question concerning subscription to the faith, spoke warmly in its favour "it contained more matter than was to be found in all the others ... it would be unfair to reject such a dissertation on mere suspicion, since the notes were applicable to the subject and shewed the author to be a young man of the most promising abilities and extensive reading." This opinion turned the balance in Paley's favour (Baker's History of S. John's). It also justified the father's opinion of his son. For when the younger Paley went to Cambridge, his father exclaimed that he would be "a great man, a very great man: for he has by far the cleverest head I ever met with in my life." He became Senior Wrangler.

The highest position he attained in the Church was the Archdeaconry of Carlisle, though he could have become Master of S. John's College, Cambridge, if an University life had attracted him, but it never did. He had left it, while quite young, to become Rector of Musgrave, Cumberland, at £80 a year. In 1805 he died, Giggleswick's most distinguished son.

William Paley was soon to discover the nature of the Governing Body. Charles Nowell, one of the kin of the second founder, was confined in Lancaster Gaol for some offence which is not recorded and there results a neat little comedy:

Twenty years passed and another question arose to engender bitter feelings in the hearts of the Governors and Masters. In 1755 George Carr ceased to be Usher and John Moore took his place. As far as can be known, Moore had not been educated at the School, certainly he had not gone up to Christ's with a Burton Exhibition. For some years Master and Usher worked together for stipends respectively of £90 and £45, according to the regular method by which the Master received double the pay of the Usher. They had been accustomed to make an acknowledgment of "all ye wages now due to us as masters." But the Statutes of 1592 had declared the Master's wage to be £13 6s. 8d. and accordingly the Governors in 1768 proposed to emphasize the additional sum, as being given of grace. They brought forward a draft receipt acknowledging the payment of £13 6s. 8d. "being a year's salary as Headmaster; and likewise from the said Governors £83 6s. 8d. as a gratuity and encouragement for my diligence." This they required Paley to sign, and a similar one was drafted for Moore. Both Masters refused. The Governors then decided that they "cannot consistently with their trust pay the Master and Usher any more money than is fixed for their stipend by the Statutes." Three months later a meeting was called to take into consideration a letter from the Archbishop of York in answer to an appeal from both parties, and the following minute records their decision:

The minute is signed by six Governors and the two Masters and on the next page the receipts are given as they always had been before, though the few pounds extra that each was to have received are not paid. The very "judicious" letter of Archbishop Drummond not only fixed the salary of the Master and the Usher but gives some additional information. The rents had increased to above £140 a year and of this the Master and Usher were to be given £135 and as the rents increased so should the salaries, always leaving a sufficient surplus for the Repairs Fund.

The School, he added, had a small number of scholars, which "may be accounted for by various causes" and was not due to the teaching to which he paid a graceful compliment. He further suggested that the Usher should take it upon himself to teach Writing, Arithmetic, and Merchants' Accounts, the first elements of Mathematics, and the parts that lead to Mensuration and Navigation.

With regard to the Governors, he counselled them to meet annually on May 2, quite apart from their ordinary meetings and make up their accounts and submit a review of the same and of the past year's work to the Archbishop. Secondly they should draw up fresh Statutes. He was anticipating the Governors' action of thirty years later. The Scholars, he noted, had no pew in the Church. Some should be procured and the Scholars should "goe there regularly under the eye of the Master or Usher or some Upper Boy, who should note the absentees." Altogether the word "judicious," applied to the letter by the Governors, was justified.

Largely by the work of Arthur Young, the old system of cultivation by open fields had been changing, and by the beginning of the reign of George III it was chiefly the North of England that still continued after the older fashion. People were content to make a living, they did not concentrate their thoughts on wealth. But in 1764 the tide of reform had reached the Governors' East Riding Estates in North Cave and Rise, and a private Act was passed through Parliament, ordering that the separate possessions should be marked off and enclosed. This Act involved a very considerable expense and the Governors, being unable to meet it out of their income, on August 26, 1766, mortgaged their East Riding Estates to Henry Tennant, of Gargrave. The acreage was three hundred and ninety-five acres one rood and the mortgage was concluded for £1,120 for one thousand years. The whole of the money was at once expended; and nearly £500 was appropriated by what Arthur Young called "the knavery of Commissioners and Attorneys."

The income of the Governors rose immediately, in 1766 their rent receipts amounted roughly to £208 and eleven years later to £347 while in 1780 £400 would be a closer estimate.

The Shute Exhibition rents had also increased steadily. In 1739 they were £9 4s. 6d., twenty-five years later £13 9s. and in 1786 over £15. The Masters' salaries were therefore increased. In 1768 the Archbishop had fixed the minimum of Master and Usher at £90 and £45. A few years later £96 was given and in 1776 the sums of £151 and £75, each with a few shillings. In 1784 a new scheme was evolved, William Paley received £180, John Moore's successor—Smith—£70, and a third Master who was apparently engaged to teach Writing and Accounts, and first appears in 1786, received £20 a year.

Expenditure in every direction increased, and an agent, William Iveson, had to be retained to look after the North Cave Estates, at a salary of £1 10s. Repairs to the School became more extensive, Vincent Hallpike was required to make a "box for the Charter," and the Governors made more frequent journeys to their estates, no doubt as a result of the increased facility and diminished expense of travelling, which was a notable feature of the latter part of the eighteenth century. Further they had engaged a third Master, but whether this was due to a slight decrease of attention paid to the School by the Master—and it is well to remember that he was still Curate of Giggleswick and Vicar of Helpston, Peterborough—or due to a real increase in the numbers and requirements of the School is not stated. Several indications point to an increase in the efficiency of the School. In 1783, an advertisement was drafted and published for the appointment of an Usher, whereas before this time they had been content as a rule to take the most promising of those who had recently left the School. Advertising now gave them a wider field of choice. A Lexicon and a Dictionary were bought in the following year for £1 8s. 6d., as well they might be, for the last occasion on which books are recorded to have been bought was in 1626, when the Governors had expended £3 7s.

The Exhibition fund, which came from the rents of the land given by Josias Shute together with the Burton rents and a rent-charge of 3s. 6d. on Thos. Paley's house in Langcliffe, had been gradually accumulating. Few Exhibitions were given and the surplus was put into the capital account. In 1780 the general fund borrowed £160 from the Exhibition money in order to enclose some new allotments in Walling Fen, in accordance with an Act of Parliament. The result was startling. The first year gave them a new rent-roll of £40, the second year saw this sum doubled.

For a hundred and seventy-five years James Carr's "low, small and irregular" building had sufficed for the needs of the School. "Deep in the shady sadness of a vale" it had witnessed the gradual change of the Reformation, it had inspired one of the leaders of Puritan Nonconformity, it had seen the child growth of a great theologian and, more than all, it had roused the imagination and fostered the mental growth of hundreds of the yeomen and cottagers of the North of England. But now its work was accomplished. Flushed with new-found wealth, full of a vague aspiration after progress, conscious perhaps of real deficiencies in the old building, these late eighteenth century Governors spoiled the "many glories of immortal stamp." Carelessly they destroyed the ancient building, without a line to record its glory or its age. It was left to a nameless "Investigator C," in the pages of the Gentleman's Magazine to tell the world what it was losing. Future dreams oversoared past deeds.

No minutes survive, but the accounts of the year 1787 describe the expenditure on a new building. Three years later the last item was paid for and a new school-house was standing on the site of the old. It was very solidly built and larger than its predecessor. Over the door was fixed the stone on which the Hexameter inscription "Alma dei mater, defende malis Jacobum Kar" etc., was written, and which had already adorned the face of the old building so long. The old division of an upper and lower school was retained, but otherwise details are few. The new School was built at a cost of £276 16s. 8¼d. and served its purpose for over sixty years, when it was then itself replaced in 1851.

With new school buildings, greatly increased revenues and a third Master—Mr. Saul—appointed in 1784 with the privity of the Archbishop of York but not licensed—the Governors were eager to get additional statutory power to increase the teaching staff and pay the surplus money away both in leaving Exhibitions and in gratuities to the Scholars at the School by way of encouragement. There is a letter extant addressed in November, 1794, by the Clerk to the Governors to Mr. Clough, who was requested to lay the whole matter before Mr. Withers and get his legal opinion.

The letter reads as follows, after first quoting the Charter and also the Statutes of 1592, which limited the stipend of the Master to £13 6s. 8d. and of the Usher to £6 13s. 4d.

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.

Meanwhile the matter was developing. In January, 1795, the Governors wrote direct to Mr. Withers, and stated that they desired "power to borrow money for building an additional School," or in the "improvement of the Estates." To this Mr. Withers replied that he considered that annual leaving Exhibitions came within the province of the Governing Body, but they could not borrow money without fresh legislation. He further advised them to repeal all the old Statutes.

The additional School buildings that they proposed were a house for the Master. In March, 1796, the Attorney-General gave his opinion that the power to call meetings could not be taken away from the Vicar, "if he remains a corporate" or member of the Body, that the granting of Exhibitions was ultra vires, and that he doubted whether the provision for the Master to teach Writing, Accounts, etc., "is consistent with the Institution itself, doubting whether the School founded is not a School for teaching Latin, etc.," but possibly it might, he added, be upheld, as a court would be hardly likely to censure the Governors for applying a reasonable sum to that purpose.

The Archbishop of York considered the application, and altered it in one respect only. He decided that it was too dangerous to pay the Master a minimum of £200 and the Usher a minimum of £100, for it would tend to make them "independent of the Governors;" he therefore preferred "to leave it in the breasts of the Governors to reward them according to their merit," but he allowed a minimum to be inserted in each case, for the Master £100, for the Usher £50. A Writing Master was also to be appointed, and such other Assistants "when occasion shall in their judgment require to teach Writing, Accounts, Mathematics, and different branches of Literature in the said School." Their stipend was not fixed, and for this reason. Mr. Saul had been acting as Writing Master since 1784, at the salary of £20 a year. He left in 1790 and was succeeded by Mr. Stannicliffe, who was paid at the same rate. After six months he determined that the salary was not satisfactory and sent in his resignation. The Governors endeavoured to engage a successor, but "finding they could not get a proper person in his room for less than £30 for six months, they all agreed (except the Vicar) to give that sum, and a Master has been employed in the School upon these terms ever since."

In spite of their difficulty in getting a "proper" person, there was no lack of applicants, and one in particular is worthy of reproduction:

He was not selected.

All candidates, or nearly all, sent with their letters of application beautifully written testimonials in different styles to shew their proficiency, one unfortunately made a bad blot. They were also put through an examination in Arithmetic, when they assembled on the day of election. One confessed to being a member "of ye old Established Church," another "hoped to continue so." Finally, Robert Kidd was chosen. His letter of application is particularly interesting, both because of its beauty and because he says: "I have a good circuit for half-a-year, and if attendance from January to middle of the year, or from Midsummer to January will suit at Giggleswick," he would be ready to come. From this he appears to have been one of the old type of Scrivener, who paid regular visits to different Schools, and for whom the Ancient Statutes of 1592 allowed a special vacation to the Scholars. He wrote on April 8, from Whalley Grammar School, and a special messenger was sent to fetch him at a cost of 5s. In the following year he wrote an elaborate address to the Governors, in which he said, "Permit me to say, I have been a faithful labourer and Disciplinarian in your School. You are truly sensible of the Inequality of the Attendance and Salaries. Now Gentlemen, if it be consistent with your Approbation, and the Institution of your Seminary, to make a small adjustment, the Favor shall be gratefully acknowledged." He was accordingly "put to the trouble of Keeping Accounts, etc., for the Governors," and paid an additional two guineas a year.

Archbishop Markham agreed to the alteration of the Statutes with regard to the Governors themselves, and thenceforward a newly elected Governor was to protest and swear to be faithful etc., in the presence of any two Governors, instead of before the Vicar as formerly; and the privilege of summoning meetings was taken away from the Vicar and given to any two Governors. Further, any five, duly assembled, had the power to act and proceed with business, and "the determination of the major part of them shall be final and conclusive."

The Scholars moreover were at liberty to receive annual rewards and gratuities, in such manner as the Governors may deem "best calculated to excite a laudable emulation." Thus in 1798 three guineas were distributed among them in the presence of the Masters and Governors:

Any Scholar who had attended at the School for the last three years of his education could receive an Exhibition with which to attend any English University, provided that the Governors always reserved in their hands a sufficient sum for the necessary Repairs of the School, and also of a House for the habitation of the Master, if and when such a House should be built.

Mr. Smith, who had been acting as Usher but without a license from the Archbishop, resigned in 1792 and Nicholas Wood succeeded him. Possibly he had been educated at the School, for in 1796 a letter was sent to the Archbishop from the Governors saying that they had appointed Nicholas Wood, of Giggleswick, Clerk, to be Usher, and praying the Archbishop to give him a license "subject to the said Statutes and Ordinances," which had been agreed upon.

The new power to grant an increase of salary was soon exercised and in 1797 the Headmaster received £250, the Usher £100, "in case of Diligence and good Conduct" and the Assistant £60 provided that he assisted the Governors when necessary in "transacting the business of their Trust" and taught Writing and Arithmetic to the free School Scholars, "every boy who has been at the free School one month to be entitled." In the following year Robert Kidd was allowed £70 on condition that he "gives due attention on every day in the year, Saturdays, Sundays and one month at Christmas only excepted and that, when any boy is initiated into the ffree School he will not take any pay in case such Boy or Boys should attend his School, altho' they may not have been a month at the ffree School."

The matter of prizes is also taken up and a certain sum, which is not named, was allotted to each of the three head classes and was to be expended on books, which should be given to the best Scholar of each class. No class was to compete which had less than nine boys and they were to be examined once every year in the presence of the Governors.

The Master was required to see that the boys in the higher department of the School had their conversation during School hours in Latin. This was evidently a throw-back to the Ancient Statutes of 1592, when they were at least given the alternative of Greek or Hebrew. Further they said "conceiding that a Boy may improve in writing as much by an exercise as a copy, they recommend that every boy be obliged to write his exercise in the high or Writing School, under the inspection of the Writing Assistant and each exercise to have his (i.e. the Assistant's) initials affixed to signify that such Boy wrote his best, not to signify whether a good or bad Exercise."

It will be remembered that in the house that James Carr built, the lower part was for advanced teaching, the higher for writing. The distinction had apparently continued and the upper portion alone had materials for writing. Certain it is that each portion was wholly distinct from the other, and Usher and Assistant were masters in their own domain. In June, 1797, the Governors decided that attention should be paid to Classics in the Writing Department and Nicholas Wood, the Usher, was asked to undertake the work but refused, whereupon Mr. Clayton an Assistant in the Classical Work was requested to do so and accepted the duty for an additional remuneration of £10.

These two men held an interesting position. Wood certainly had a freehold, and Clayton was difficult to remove, so that in 1798 the Governors decided that an Assistant should "be provided during the summer months to teach the Classical Scholars, unless Mr. Wood and Mr. Clayton in three days signifie that one of them will teach." Fortunately Mr. Wood at once agreed to do so. It referred, no doubt, to the Classical Scholars in the Writing Department, whom Wood had refused to instruct, but when Clayton undertook the work and received £10 for his trouble, Wood relented.

Two months later the Governors issued a pathetic appeal that the "Master's Assistant and Usher be requested to attend better at the School." It was July and only in the previous April Robert Kidd's salary had been raised to £70 on stringent conditions of attendance.

The numbers of the School were growing apace, for twice in 1798 it was resolved to advertise for a Mathematical Assistant. At the same meeting 25s. was allowed to the Master's Assistant "for the purpose of providing fuel during the winter and no collection shall be made from the Scholars." The Staff seem to have been a little difficult. Nicholas Wood refused to sign a receipt in full for his wages when he was only being paid a part, and the Governors resolved to "withold the remainder of his salary."

Robert Kidd and Nicholas Wood left the School in April, 1799, and John Carr, of Beverley, took Kidd's place. Wood's post was filled by Clayton, who was made Usher at a salary of £100 a year, "provided he conducts himself to the satisfaction of the Governors or a majority of them," and agreed to teach five days a week.

Some difficulty arose, and on May 11 there is a minute saying that "Mr. Wood and Mr. Kidd had been settled with." Wood seems to have been dependent on his wife, who could not make up her mind whether she wished to stay or go.

For the post of Usher there were several applicants as well as Clayton, who got testimonials from Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he had behaved himself with "sobriety." One of the applicants went so far as to give an extract in Hebrew writing in order to shew his capacity. The study of Hebrew in the School had perhaps not lapsed. He further stated that he did not consider it necessary to learn Latin and Greek first, in order to get a good knowledge of Hebrew. A sound foundation in English was sufficient, though he hastened to declare that he was perfectly capable of teaching Latin and Greek "with quickness and accuracy."

An advertisement had before appeared with a view to electing a Mathematical Assistant, and was worded thus:

Certain School holidays were fixed at the same meeting. They were to be the 12th and 13th of March (Potation Day and its successor), Monday and Tuesday in Easter Week, Monday and Tuesday in Whitsun-week, two days at Laurence Mass (Lammas), one month at Christmas, and "one month to commence the first Monday after the 5th day of July annually."

But while the difficulties with the Usher and the Assistants were developing, the attitude of the Head Master was not altogether satisfactory. In December, 1798, "Mr. Preston reports that Rev. Mr. Paley refuses his resignation upon such terms as the Governors are inclined to receive ... therefore resolved that the Recorder be applyed to for every matter that the Governors are doubtful about." William Paley was a man of considerable age, and disinclined to believe that he was unfit for his work. The Governors had recognized the possibility that he would not be strong enough for his duties, when in 1797 they had agreed to give him a salary of £250 "for the time that School shall be taught by him or by a sufficient and diligent Assistant." Clayton probably acted as the Assistant. Yet in December, 1798, the Governors' patience was exhausted, for they had already questioned Miss Elizabeth Paley on the subject, and she appears to have given grounds for hoping that her father would resign, but on the twenty-ninth he definitely refused. They waited another nine months, and on September 28, 1799, they adjourned their meeting to October 5, "as the present Master is not considered to survive many days." On September 29 he lay dead.

For fifty-five years William Paley had presided over the destinies of the School and his work may fitly be compared with that of his great predecessor Christopher Shute. Both had taken up their work, when the fortunes of the School were at a low ebb. Shute had watched the careful saving of the School money, until they had been able to purchase "the school-house and yard in 1610 and a cart-road in the same yard and liberty for the schollers to resort to a certain spring to drink and wash themselves 1619, and likewise a garden for the use of the Masters and several other good things." Paley had become Head Master in 1744 when no accounts were kept, when the Master and Usher appropriated all the money from the rents and when the boys were few in number. Rapidly matters began to mend. His own son William left the School in 1759 already a scholar and destined to a lasting fame. Thomas Proctor was a boy at the School between 1760 and 1770, and became a great sculptor. His "Ixion" exhibited in 1785 is still recognized as a work of genius. William Carr, of the same family as James Carr, the founder of the School, won a Scholarship at University College, Oxford in 1782, a Fellowship at Magdalen 1787, and settled down at Bolton Rectory in 1789. His literary tastes brought him the friendship of Wordsworth, and he became famous as the breeder of a heifer of remarkable proportions.

One of Paley's pupils—Thomas Kidd—probably a member of the same family as the Writing Assistant, a family who had lived in the neighbourhood certainly since 1587—wrote from Trinity College, Cambridge, to the Vicar, the Rev. John Clapham, in 1792:

The majority of those that went to Cambridge seem to have gone to Colleges other than Christ's, but of those who went there one, Adam Wall, son "pharmacopolae haud indocti" was Second Wrangler in 1746, and had a distinguished Academic career, his own son William was Senior Wrangler, John Preston gained the "wooden spoon" in 1778, but was afterwards elected a Fellow of his College, while Thomas Paley his great nephew, was Third Wrangler in 1798, and a Fellow of Magdalene. All three were Christ's men. This was a very good proportion of successes, seeing that only thirteen boys went there from Giggleswick in Paley's time.

Not only in the educational improvements, but also in the financial increase of the School property, these years were similar to the beginning of the 17th century. North Cave and Walling Fen were enclosed by Acts of Parliament, and land worth £140 in 1768 was valued at £750 in 1795. The Exhibition Fund had no balance in 1765, while nine years later there was £100 in the bank. A new School had been built, the teaching staff increased and new Statutes made. Surely a great and enviable Headmastership.