Founded by Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor & Man (and so became known as Bishop Wilson's School). D. Robson, Some Aspects of Education in Cheshire in the Eighteenth Century, Chetham Soc., 3rd. ser., vol. 13 (1966), 26-7, 37, 108, 112-3, 126, 128, 144, 146, 171; Gastrell, Notitia Cestrienses, I, 160-1. ee also http://www.r-alston.co.uk/school.htm, citing Crockford's Scholastic Directory for 1861.