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. 1. He shall observe all the statutes of the schoole. 2. And particularly the writing master shall hereafter be chosen by ye Governours at the usuall day of meeting in March and ye time to be appointed by the Master, as has been formerly practic'd. 3. That the masters shall, upon receipt of any moneys from Northcave, Rise, etc., acquaint at least one of ye Governours, when such moneys are paid to them, give the said Governour or Governours an acquittance under their hands, and ye moneys receiv'd to be entred into the schoole booke and the private acquittance given to be delivered back to the masters on the day of meeting in march aforesaid. 4. That ye masters shall take the rents of the Keasden lands, when due, and give an acquittance for the same to the Governours on the usuall day of March. 5. Whereas ye statutes enjoyn that the Governours, when they meet about ye business of ye school, shall be content with moderate charges, it is agreed that those moderate charges on ye usuall day of meeting in March shall not exceed at any one meeting the sum of one pound per Annum. To ye above written articles, I, John Carr, A.B., give my consent and promise to observe them. JOHN CARR. 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.