Trustee Problems

By 1858, all the original Trustees and those that had been appointed to replace them had died, and the sole remaining Trustee was Samuel Fox, who was one of the many who had signed the petition in 1828, and was believed to be a distant descendant of the original donor John Fox. Not only was the school in disrepair but the rent had remained at £13 13s for 75 years, despite considerable rises in rental values in the area. An application had been made to the Charity Commission for ten new Trustees to be appointed. The old Trustees were also blamed for allowing the Duke of Norfolk to sell the freehold of the land on which the school stood without protecting their interests and the charity thereafter having to pay £1 per annum ground rent instead of the original one shilling.

According to the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of Saturday 2nd May 1858, a meeting was held at the schoolhouse on 30th April 1858 attended by most of the local families to discuss the school and the way it was being run. There was a motion before the meeting to apply to the Charity Commission for 10 trustees to be appointed. It was proposed that Thomas Marshall, of Fulwood Hall, and Samuel Fox (Junior) be proposed as two of the ten, new, trustees. The existing trustee, Samuel Fox (Senior), however was not happy. He applied to withdraw his son’s nomination as a trustee on the grounds that “he would wish him to keep better company”. This was refused as the meeting wanted to keep a descendant of one of the original Fox benefactors as a Trustee. Other names were then proposed and 16 candidates were put forward so the matter went to a vote to narrow the number of proposed new Trustees down to 10. Samuel Fox (Junior) tied receiving the equal fourth highest number of votes (49) tying with Thomas Marshall. There was a fair degree of rancour at the meeting as Samuel Fox (Senior) felt he was being personally criticized and pointed out that the rent was now £200 per annum. His opponents though stated that the increase had only come about after they had approached the Charity Commissioners and that the farmer, to whom the land had been let, had sublet it to a family member for £250 p a. The implication was that Mr Fox may have received a back-hander for taking such a supine role on behalf of the School Charity but it was not explicitly stated as such and eventually the antagonists decided to shake hands once the matter of the proposed new Trustees was settled.