A Narrative of the Rise and Progress of the Charity School, or Blue Coat Hospital, in Liverpool, made by Mr. BRYAN BLUNDELL, Treasurer, from the Year 1709, to near the Time of his Death in 1755. He relates how wonderfully the good Providence of God has done for this School since its Institution in the Year 1709.

Mr. Robert Stithe, one of the Rectors at that time, and myself, were very intimate. I was then master of a ship in the foreign trade. We agreed to use our best endeavours to found a Charity-school, and applied to the Mayor, and some of the most respectable inhabitants, who joined in the business, and subscribed some twenty, some thirty, and some forty shillings a-year, to the amount of sixty or seventy pounds per annum. We then built a little school-house, which cost thirty-five pounds, and appointed a master, at twenty pounds per annum, which was paid out of the money collected at the sacraments, and took nifty poor children into the said school, cloathed and gave them learning. Mr. Robert Stithe was then made Treasurer; and I went to sea on my employment, telling Mr. Stithe that I hoped to be giving him something every voyage for the school.

In 1718 Mr. Stithe died; from 1709 to the time of his death I had given him two hundred and

Efty pounds on my several voyages; two hundred pounds of which he had put out to interest. When I came home, and found he was dead, it gave me much concern for the school, as Mr. Richmond, the other Rector, was much indisposed at times, and not able to undertake such a charge. I therefore determined to leave off the sea, and undertake the care of the school, and was chosen treasurer in 1714; at which time there was two hundred pounds at interest, which was all the stock the school had. In a little time I saw some of the children begging about the streets; their parents being so poor as not to have bread for them, which gave me great concern, insomuch that I thought to use my best endeavours to make provision for them, so as to take them wholly from their parents, which I hoped might be promoted by a subscription. I therefore got an instrument drawn out for that purpose on parchment, went about with it to most persons of ability, and many subscribed handsomely. On the strength of which I went to work, and got the present Charity-school built, which has cost between two and three thousand pounds, and was finished in 1718; at which time I gave, for the encouragement of the charity, seven hundred and fifty pounds, being a tenth part of what it pleased God to bless me with, and did then pur、 pose to continue to give the same proportion of whatever he should indulge me with in the time to come, for the benefit and encouragement of the said charity. So great has been the mercy and

providence of God in prospering me in business, that I have made up the seven hundred and fifty to two thousand pounds, which I have paid to the use of the school; and my children (six in number, the youngest of them now near thirty years of age) are so far from wanting or being worse for what I have given to the school, that they are all benefac. tors to it; some of them more than one hundred pounds at a time. I may truly say, whilst I have been doing for the children of this school, the good providence of God hath been doing for mine, so that I hope they will be benefactors to this charity when I am in my grave. In 1726, ten more children were taken into the school. In 1735, the sixty children were taken to lodge and diet wholly from their parents. In 1742, ten more children were admitted, which made our number seventy. In 1744, Mr. Foster Cunliffe gave one thousand pounds for the use of the school, which was put out to interest to the Corporation at 5 per cent. Our stock by good Providence encreasing, and being very desirous of seeing one hundred children in the place before I died, I got a second instrument drawn on parchment in 1747, and solicited subscriptions to enable us to take in thirty children more. Accordingly two thousand pounds was subscribed, upon which we determined to trust the good providence of God, which hath always made up our deficiencies; and in 1748, we took in thirty children more, so that there now are seventy boys and thirty girls in all one hundred-a sight

I much and earnestly desired to see before I died. The charge is now seven hundred pounds per annum, towards which we have, by the blessing of God, attained to a stock or income of four hundred pounds a-year, the other three hundred pounds comes in by gifts and legacies, so that we have never yet wanted at the year's end, but always continue encreasing a little. I have now been treasurer thirty-seven years, in which time more than four hundred children have been put out apprentices, mostly to sea, in which business many of them are masters, and some mates of ships; several of them have become benefactors to the school, and useful members of society.

We take the children into the school at eight years of age, and put them apprentice at fourteen, and give forty shillings apprentice fee with each. The method observed with the children in the school is as follows, viz. one half of the day the boys are employed in picking oakum by which they earn fifty pounds a-year; the girls are employed in spinning cotton, and earn about twenty pounds per annum; in all about seventy per annum towards their maintenance: the other half of their time is applied to their instruction in reading, writing, and common arithmetic.

It is so useful a charity, that I have frequently wished to see as many charity-schools as we have churches in town, which are four, and I yet hope the good providence of God may bring it to pass in the next generation.

Soon after the school was built in 1720, we ap: plied to get a charter, but it was not granted, the school not being upon a Royal foundation.

In August, 1739, we obtained a decree in chancery, by which the school is vested in fifty trustees, any twelve of which make a committee, who meet quarterly at the school, to admit the children, and do other necessary business.

So far Mr. Bryan Blundell's narrative.

Mr. Treasurer Bryan Blundell died in the year 1755, and his son Richard Blundell, Esq. was appointed Treasurer in his room.

1759, twenty more children were admitted, which made the number 120.

1760, Mr. Richard Blundell died, and his brother Jonathan Blundell, Esq. was made Trea

surer.

1763, eighty more children were admitted; made the number 200;-150 boys and 50 girls. 1770, twenty more boys admitted; made the number 220.

1779, twenty more boys admitted; made the number 240.

1781, ten more boys admitted; made the num ber 250.

1783, ten more boys admitted; made the number 260;-210 boys and 50 girls.

The children are wholly taken from their pa rents, and subsisted by the charity,