FIRST STATUTES.--More than one hundred years later, Oct. 20, 1676, the Governors issued their first statutes. No tenant of school property might be a Governor. The house, then occupied by the chief schoolmaster, with a barn and croft in New Street,[3] a close called the Lower Leasowe or Broom close, in the “foreign” of Birmingham, and the pit on the lower side of the Leasowe, were appropriated to the use of himself and his successors for ever; while the usher’s house, with the garden, use of the pump, and other appurtenances, a barn and croft in New Street, and Kimberley’s croft in Moor Street, were similarly appropriated to the usher. The salaries of the chief master and usher were to be £68. 15s. 0d. and £34. 6s. 8d. respectively. There were appointed also a chief master’s assistant; an English master, to teach in a distinct school fifty boys[4] to read English; and a scrivener, to teach twenty boys to write and cast accounts. The first two were to be unmarried, but the Governor reserved the power of allowing the scrivener to marry. £30 per annum was allowed for repairs to the school and masters’ houses, payment of dues, etc. Another statute permitted the Governors, when their funds allowed, “to set out to Poore Tradesmen, when they come out of their apprenticeship, or others who want stock to manage their trade, £10 a piece, _gratis_, for 6 months, on good security;” but no record exists of this having been acted upon. SCHOLARSHIPS.--£70 a year was devoted to forming seven scholarships of £10 a year each, tenable at any college in either University.[5] Children from the manor had the preference; then those from adjacent places, who had spent the last three years in the school; failing such, the poorest and most capable, to be selected from the upper form by an independent body.[6] At the end of the reign of Charles II., the charter was surrendered to the Crown, probably under a writ of “Quo warranto;” a new one dated February 20, 1685, being granted by James II. Six years later, a decree in chancery was obtained annulling the new charter, and restoring the old one. THE SECOND BUILDING.--In 1707, the old Gild Hall was removed, and a new building erected, consisting of a centre and two wings, the latter coming close up to the street, enclosing three sides of a small quadrangle, comprising a dwelling house for the head master, one large and two small school rooms, and a library. A separate house for the second master stood behind. A large tower in the centre was “ornamented with a sleepy figure of the donor, Edward VI., dressed in a royal mantle, with the ensigns of the garter, holding a Bible and a sceptre.” In 1756, a set of urns was placed on the parapet, to relieve the stiff air of the building.[7]