a result, the people of Hitchin wanted James Lawrence in the job, and he was forced back into the Mastership by order of a local judge and the people of Hitchin's support. It was not an unmitigated disaster, but Lawrence could not do the job with the same gusto that Finch had. In 1730 the Reverend Mark Hildesley was appointed in Hitchin. He enjoyed teaching the boys, but at the same time helped to give them wisdom in life. He left in 1755 when he became Bishop of Sodor and Man. The School entered into debt after the Chancery suit of 1709, and after the death of James Lawrence in 1741 a London lawyer called Dodson seized property for debt repayment, became receiver of the trust property and appointed a new Headmaster – John Lyle – to teach at the salary of £17, a very low sum at the time for a Master. The School became more associated with the local church in 1750 when Lyle became the Parish Clerk, with the boys attending church on Wednesday and Friday mornings with Edward Radcliffe. When protests broke out about this, the Lord Chancellor ruled in 1750 that Dodson had to be paid a further £63 in debt repayment with his understudy John Lyle to resign and a new Headmaster – Richard Snell – to be appointed. The Board of Trustees was enlarged to 21, some from outside Hitchin. But in 1779, Snell was deemed incapable of the "Duties and Business of his place" by the Board of Trustees, and a new Master, William Reynolds, was chosen. An unfortunate man, he had been lame from his youth and had to have "an iron up his leg to be able to walk at all". But in his time, truancy was reduced significantly if not stopped. Visits from the School Carpenter also became rarer. When Reynolds died in 1819 the School had returned to normal. One unfortunate incident occurred in that same year, when Paynes Park was deemed not to be a part of the Boys' School. There were numerous protests, some from men of Hitchin, some from the students, but despite this Paynes Park was taken away and the Boys' School was forced to share Butts' Close with other Hitchin boys. The succeeding Headmaster was the Reverend Joseph Niblock, writer of "The New Improved Classical Latin and English Dictionary" in 1825. It was