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“Straw bonnets” to superior schooling: The “failure” of the charity school movement in the context of nineteenth-century Ireland – a reappraisal

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 48; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00309230.2012.671835

1477-674X

Christopher McCormack,

Religious Education and Schools

Abstract The spectacular growth and equally spectacular decline of the eighteenth-century charity school movement prompts this examination of the contribution made by the movement to nineteenth-century schooling – particularly superior or secondary schooling. Educational historians have argued that the movement was a failure. This paper argues that only in the case of one charity school-type – the charity day school – may failure be safely attributed to the charity school movement. The charity boarding schools, hospitals and asylums were far from being a failure. Indeed, in nineteenth-century Ireland, these schools, in response to social change, advanced from "straw bonnets" to superior schooling. Historians have also noted that the real difficulty surrounding the charity school is that of defining it. For Jones, it was an omnibus term that embraced all schools of a like nature. And indeed charity schools constitute a broad genre of schooling. In order to qualify the received assessment of the charity school movement in terms of "failure", it has been found necessary to classify the charity school types within the broad genre they constitute. The paper assembles a number of charity school types and identifies the charity boarding school as that institution that successfully made the transition to superior status. The characteristics of the superiorisation process are outlined, as are the unique circumstances of nineteenth-century Ireland that facilitated, indeed required, it. Keywords: endowed schoolscharity schoolssuperior schoolsintermediate schools Notes 1[28 Henry VIII, c. 15] "An Act for the English order, habit and language, 1537", in Hyland and Milne, eds. Irish Educational Documents, Vol. 1 (Dublin: CICE, 1987), 38. 2[12 Elizabeth I] "An Act for the erection of free schools, 1570", in Hyland and Milne, 39–40. 3Bodleian Library, Smith MSS, Vol. 20, Queen Elizabeth's letters on behalf of the College of Dublin, dated December AD 1591, in Hyland and Milne, 42. 4[4 Elizabeth I, c. 2] Statute of Artificers, 1563. 5[7 William III, c. 4] "An Act to restrain Foreign Education (1695)", in Hyland and Milne, 46. 6Hedge Schools were the Catholic response to the Penal Laws. They developed a reputation for quality schooling in both classical and commercial disciplines. Not infrequently, Protestants patronised them. Their demise resulted from the introduction of a national system of elementary schooling (1831). They could not survive under the free schooling system provided by the National Board. Persistent clamour for their support kept the issue of superior schooling in the public arena and had to be addressed by a series of Endowed Schools Commissions. 7 Second Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, Roman Catholic Returns, [12], 28 November 1826, 4–18 [Online, 4–18]. 8 General Report of Census of Ireland 1911, Table 2: Comparative View of Houses and Population of Ireland … 1821–1911 (London: HMSO, 1912), 724. 9Seamus Ó Canainn, "The Education Inquiry 1824–26 in its social and political context", Irish Educational Studies 3, No. 2 (1983): 17. 10Endowed Schools Commissions were warranted to inquire into Endowed Schools. Significantly, Charity Schools, as endowed institutions, were included within their inquiry remit. Although the Commissions' brief was limited, their findings served to articulate mainstream schooling policy. For an extended treatment of the work of the many Endowed Schools Commissions, see Christopher F. McCormack, "The Endowed Schools Commissions 1791–1894, as mediators of superior schooling in Ireland", Unpublished PhD Thesis (Dublin: University College, 2010). 11Martin Gorsky, Patterns of Philanthropy: Charity and Society in Nineteenth Century Bristol (Royal Historical Society, England: The Boydell Press, 1999), 3. 12Eric Hopkins, "A charity school in the nineteenth century: Old Swinford Hospital School, 1815–1914", British Journal of Educational Studies XVII, No. 2 (1969): 177. 13Ibid, Footnote 1. 14M.G. Jones, The Charity School Movement: A Study of Eighteenth Century Puritanism in Action (London: Frank Cass, 1964), 215. Jones noted that, "the peculiar political and religious conditions prevailing in Ireland in the eighteenth century were responsible for the tragic failure of the Irish charity school movement". 15The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) was established in 1698 to promote the establishment of charity schools. It articulated the philosophic rationales for charity schooling at the time. It established rules of governance respecting building, funding, curriculum, appointments of masters and mistresses. The schools of the SPCK were informed by an Anglican ethos, and comprised a majority of schools in the elementary charity tradition. 16W.K. Jordan, Philanthropy in England 1480–1660: A Study of the Changing Pattern of English Social Aspirations (London: Allen & Unwin, 1959), 143. 17Gorsky, Patterns, 3. 18Dorothy Gardiner, English Girlhood at School: A Study of Women's Education through Twelve Centuries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1929), 358. Gardiner, citing Isaac Watts, noted that education was determined "by the station and rank of life in which children are born and placed by the Providence of God". 19 The Right Reverend, the Lord Bishop of Elphin's Charity Sermon, and the Methods of Erecting, Supporting and Governing Charity Schools (Dublin: John Hyde, 1721), UCD Special Collections, 44M 16/3. 20Rev. John Richardson, A Proposal for the Conversion of the Popish Natives of Ireland to the Established Religion (London: J. Downing, 1712), UCD Special Collections, 44F. 10. 21Rev. Edward Nicholson, A Method of Charity Schools (Dublin: Aaron Rhames, 1711), UCD Special Collections, Electronic Ref. M0226479UD. 22Raymond Gillespie, "Church, State and early education in early modern Ireland", in Maurice O'Connell, ed. Daniel O'Connell, Education, Church and State: Proceedings of the Annual Daniel O'Connell Workshop (Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, 1992), 56. 23Rev. Timothy, Lord Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, A Sermon Preached in the Parish Church of St. Anne, Dublin (Dublin: John Hyde, 1723–1724), UCD Special Collections 34/0, 1/13. 24Gillespie, Daniel O'Connell, 55. 25Jones, The Charity School Movement, 227. 26J. Michael Sanderson, "The grammar school and the education of the poor, 1786–1840", British Journal of Educational Studies 11 (1962–1963): 28. 27Jones, The Charity School Movement, 258. 28Gillespie, Daniel O'Connell, 56. 29Rev. Edward Nicholson, A Method of Charity Schools, 30. 30Mary Cathcart Borer, Willingly to School: A History of Women's Education (London: Lutterworth Press, 1976), 150. 31Ibid. 32Gillespie, Daniel O'Connell, 57. 33Ibid. 34Jones, The Charity School Movement, 241. 35R.W. Unwin, Charity Schools and the Defence of Anglicanism: James Talbot, Rector of Spofforth, 1700–08, Borthwick Papers, No. 65 (York: St. Anthony's Press, 1984), 2. Unwin suggested that, "there may be weaknesses in providing a special definition of 'charity school'". The essential distinction to be made is that between charity boarding and charity day schools. 36Michèle O'Dea, "The Charter Schools of the Incorporated Society for Promoting English Protestant Schools in Ireland", Unpublished M.Ed. thesis (Architecture) (Dublin: University College, 2001), 49. 37The term "superior school" was first employed by the Census Commissioners (1841). The Commissioners defined "superior schooling … to include all schools in which any foreign language is taught"; Report of the Commissioners Appointed to take the Census for Year 1841 (1843), (504), xxxviii [Online, 38]. All Census Commissions subsequent to 1841 adopted the term, and constructed their tables of participation levels in the system by reference to it. The term enjoyed broad acceptance. It became synonymous with "grammar" or "secondary" education. The term "grammar" schooling extends at least to Tudor times. The term "secondary" schooling was of relatively modern usage and popularised by Matthew Arnold. The term "intermediate" schooling existed from the early years of the century. Intermediate schooling was robustly theorised by the Kildare Endowed Schools Commission (1858) and adopted ready-made by the Intermediate Education Act (1878). It was unique to Ireland, where it became for almost a century the dominant paradigm that embraced all institutional expressions of superior, second-level, schooling. 38Gillespie, Daniel O'Connell, 52. 39 Report of the Commission of Irish Education Inquiry (1791), Appendix 1, "State of grammar schools on private charitable foundations", included in Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners Appointed to Inquire the Endowments, Funds, and Actual Condition of all Schools Endowed for the Purpose of Education in Ireland [2336-1][2336-11][2336-111][2336-IV], H. C. 1858, 373 [Online, 1714]. 40See Rev. Timothy, A Sermon Preached, 6. 41O'Dea, "The Charter Schools", 48. 42Ibid, 26. 43Ibid. 44Ibid, 53. 45Kenneth Milne, The Irish Charter Schools 1730–1830 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997), Appendix A, 337–344. The Charter incorporating the Society enjoined the Society "to teach the children of the popish and other natives … in the principles of the Protestant religion, established in our said kingdom, and to teach them to write, and to instruct them in arithmetic and such other parts of learning … and to bring them up in virtue and industry; and to cause them to be instructed in husbandry and housewifery, or in trades or manufactures, or in such like manual occupations, as the said Society shall think proper." 46Milne, The Irish Charter Schools, 335. 47The accounts of Howard and Fitzpatrick were delivered to the Committee of Inquiry (1788) and outlined in the Report of the Commission of Irish Education Inquiry (1791). 48Milne, The Irish Charter Schools, 319. 49Ibid, Appendix C, 347–348. 50Ibid, 236. 51Gerard J. Tannam, "The later history of the Charter Schools 1824–1894", Unpublished MA thesis (Dublin: University College, 1954), 55. 52 Third Report of the Commissioners of the Board of Education (1809) 142, 21 [Online, 20]. 53Tannam, "The Later History", 56. Tannam, 67, noted that the "new system benefited a certain borderline class in Ireland – Protestant tradespeople, small farmer and a sprinkling of children from not so well off professional classes". 54Milne, The Irish Charter Schools, 333. 55Rev. Elias Thackeray, Letter of December 1818 to Sir George, Incorporated Society Archive, Trinity College Library, Manuscript Collection, Thackeray Papers, Ms. 5856–7/1/1/1. 56Ibid. 57Minute, 15 January 1824, Minute Book of the Committee of Fifteen, Incorporated Society Archive, Trinity College Library, Manuscript Collection, Ms. 5612. 58Ibid, Minute 23 June 1824. 59 Report of the Commission (1858), 93 [Online, 101], Documents No. 1 Intermediate Education, 16 December 1854. 60Christopher Stray, Classics Transformed: Schools, Universities, and Society in England, 1830–1960 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), 1. 61Joseph Lee, The Modernisation of Irish Society 1848–1918 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1973), Preface. 62Documents No. I, "Intermediate Education", Report of the Commission (1858), 295–296 [Online, 1636–1637]. 63 Report of the Commission 1858 Evidence Q. 10522, 559 [Online, 913]. 64Ibid, Evidence Q. 10515, 556 [Online, 910]. 65 Dublin University Commission (Dublin: Alexander Thom, 1853), 65 [Online, 70]; italics as used in Report. 66W.J.R. Wallace, Faithful to our Trust: A History of the Erasmus Smith Trust and The High School, Dublin (Dublin: The Columba Press, 2004), 18. 67Lesley Whiteside, A History of the King's Hospital (Dublin: The King's Hospital, 1975), 33. 68Ibid, 94. 69Ibid. 70Ibid, 99. 71 Report of the Intermediate Education Board for the Year 1880, 1881, [C. – 2919], 8 [Online, 8]. 72Registry of Dr Foy's School, 1714–1902. The opening page describes it as "a true and perfect register containing the names, surnames, qualities, and places of abode of several persons hereafter named sons and daughters of the inhabitants of the city of Waterford, who have been bound apprentices to persons of honest reputation and conformable to doctrine and worship of the Church of Ireland, as now by law established." 73Registry of Foy's School, "Destinations". 74Ibid, Parental social class origin for the year 1845. 75 Report of the Commissioners to Inquire into the Endowments, Funds, and Actual Condition of all Schools Endowed for the Purpose of Education in Ireland, 1881, H. C [C. – 2831 – 1]. Questionnaire returned to the Commission, 1 March 1879. 76George D. Williams, Dublin Charities, being a Handbook of Dublin Philanthropic Organisations and Charities (Dublin: John Falconer, 1902), 137. 77Minute 30 June 1819, Transactions Book Pleasants Asylum for Female Orphans, Representative Church Body Library, Ms. 12096, 517. 2.1.1. 78Minute 9 December 1852, Transactions Book, Ms. 12097, 517.2.1.2. 79Ibid, Minute 10 September 1863. 80Ibid, Minute 10 May 1868. 81Ibid, Minute 19 March 1868. 82Ibid, Minute 3 September 1885. Transactions Book Ms.12097, 517.2.1.3. 83Ibid, Minute 15 January 1891. 84Ibid, Minute 19 May 1892. 85K.D.M. Snell, "The apprenticeship system in British history: The fragmentation of a cultural institution", History of Education 25, No. 4 (1996): 305. 86J. Michael Sanderson, "The grammar school and the education of the poor, 1786–1840", British Journal of Educational Studies 11 (1962–1963): 37. 87James C. Albisetti, Schooling German Girls and Women: Secondary and Higher Education in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1949), xiv. 88R.D. Anderson, Education in France 1848–70 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975), 11. 89[41 and 42 Victoria], c. 66, "An Act to promote Intermediate Education in Ireland", 16 August 1878, Section 5, The Law Reports, Vol. XIII (London: William Clowes, 1878), 556–561. 90When a witness to the Enniskillen Royal School hearing remonstrated at the prospect of Portora being made an Intermediate school, he was reminded by the Rosse Commissioner (1878–1881) that "Portora is an Intermediate School at present" – that they "give Intermediate education there". 91The Eldon judgement supported the Anglican headmaster in his refusal to extend the classics curriculum to include a commercial stream. 92The Act was a conservative measure that privileged the letter rather than the spirit of the donor's intention and inhibited radical curriculum reform. 93Cockerton sounded the death knell of the London Board high grade elementary schools, by rendering illegal rate-aided superior, as distinct from, elementary schooling. 94A Christian Brother, Edmund Ignatius Rice and the Christian Brothers (Dublin: M. H. Gill, 1926), 481. 95Margaret Bryant, The Unexpected Revolution: A Study of the History of the Education of Women and Girls in the Nineteenth Century (London: University of London Institute of Education, 1979), 76.