Drogheda Grammar School

County Louth Archaeological and History Society

Drogheda Grammar SchoolAuthor(s): Michael QuaneSource: Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, Vol. 15, No. 3 (1963), pp. 207-248Published by: County Louth Archaeological and History SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27729054 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 03:42

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

County Louth Archaeological and History Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.105 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 03:42:54 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=clahs

http://www.jstor.org/stable/27729054?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


?roa?jeba Grammar ^t?jool

By Michael Quane

I

The monastic and other foundations at Monasterboice and elsewhere in the area,

and the history attached to these institutions, provide sufficient evidence that

Drogheda was a centre of learning long before the coming of the English, by whom

indeed due recognition of this status was given in a marked form from time to time.

As early as 1359, it is stated, consideration was given to the founding of a college or

university there.1 Thomas Fitzgerald, eighth Earl of Desmond, for whose daughter, wife of McCarthy Reagh, the Book of Lismore was compiled from the since lost

Book of Monasterboice, as deputy to the Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Clarence,

sponsored an Act which was passed at a Parliament held in Drogheda in 1465 whereby

At the request of the Commons, because there is no university or general study in

Ireland, which is a work that would advance knowledge, riches, and good government, and also prevent riot, ill-government and extortions in the said land, it is ordained and established and confirmed by authority of parliament, that there be an University in the town of

Drogheda wherein there may be made bachelors, masters and doctors in any science and

faculty and in like manner as in the University of Oxford, which may also have, occupy and enjoy, all manner of liberties, privileges, laws and laudable customs that the said University of Oxford doth occupy and enjoy, so that it shall be not prejudicial to the mayor, sheriffs, or

commonalty of the said town of Drogheda.2

The death of the Earl of Desmond and the appointment of his deadly enemy, John

Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, as Lord Lieutenant, frustrated this project.

During the examination of the various proposals in the reign of Elizabeth I

respecting the siting of an university in Ireland, Archbishop Thomas Lancaster

pleaded that it should be located in Drogheda so that it would be under his personal

i. Lawson, Gazeteer of Ireland, Edinburgh, 1842, p. 336.

2. Carr, Life and Times of James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, London, 1895, p. 5o,quoting from Ware, ii, p. 245, with n.

" the foundation statute, which is in French, may be seen in the

Chancery Records, Edward IV, an 5, Cap. 46. A copy is also preserved in the library in T.C.D. Class E.3.18."

ao7



208 COUNTY LOUTH ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

surveillance because of his residing there and also because of its proximity to his

primatial seat at Armagh. The choice of Dublin as the university centre, successfully advanced by Archbishop George Brown, did not divert Archbishop Lancaster from

his scheme to establish a local centre of higher education in his archdiocese and by his will

" he designed the foundation of a grammar school at Drogheda to be endowed

at his cost; eight scholarships tenable at St. Edmond Hall, Oxford, were to be

attached to it."1 The will gave rise to protracted litigation and the Archbishop's intended establishment of the grammar school was not effected.

It would appear that the dispersal of the monastic communities under the

Tudors resulted in an appreciable diminution of the educational amenities previously available to the residents, and that the Corporation of Drogheda were in some

difficulty in providing adequate alternatives. There is a record of a petition from

that body to the Queen, dated 28th November, 1567, praying to have the customs

of the town free for ten years for the repair of ft their haven, bridge, key, walls and

south gate "

and "

also the abatement or allowance of the rents of the Hospitals of

St. Mary de Urso and St. Lawrence, and the houses of the White Friars and Augustine Friars for the maintenance of a Free School/'2 There do not appear to be any surviv

ing records of schools or teachers in Drogheda from Elizabethan times till those of

the Protectorate. The dominant Protestant minority would undoubtedly have

established a Free School, irrespective of any endowment accruing to it resulting from

the representations made for the spoils of the four suppressed religious houses named

in the petition of 1567. The story of the schooling of the submerged Catholic majority is merged in the story of

" The Hidden Ireland/' The bardic schools certainly

maintained an existence for a long time, Edmund Campion left an interesting account

of a visit to one of them in north Dublin or south Louth about 1570.3 Pressure on

the Catholics was, however, intensified in the opening years of the reign of Charles I

but there is presumptive evidence that friars and priests continued surreptitiously to tend to the religious education of their prescribed brethren, at least till the Rising of 1641. Thereafter, as will be gathered from the following order respecting

" Popish

"

schoolmasters detected in Meath and Louth, conditions worsened :

By the Lord Deputy and Councel of Ireland. Whereas it is informed that severall Popish schoolemasters doe reside in severall parts

of the Counties of Meath and Lowth, and teach the Irish youth, trayning them up in

i. D.N.B. citing T.C.D. MS. E.4.4. Archbishop Lancaster died at Drogheda in December,

1583 and is buried in St. Peter's Church.

2. Cal. S.P.I. Hy. VIII, Ed. VI, Mary and Eliz., 1509-1573, p. 351.

3. Campion (Jesuit martyr) wrote: " Without eyther pr?ceptes or observation of congruitie,

they speake latin lyke a vulgar language, learned in their common schooles of ieachecraft and la we, whereat they begin childre, and hold on 16 or 20 yeres, connyng by rote the Aphorismes of Hypocrates, and the civill institutes, with a few other paringes of those faculties. In these

schooles, they groovel upo couches of straw, their bookes at their noses, themselves lye flat

prostrate, so they chaunt out with a lowyd voyce. . . . The Historie of Irelande . . . unto the yeare

1509 collected by Raphaell Holinshed. London, 1577, p. 28."



( />///////.' //t/7/t "*' '

-V y/ ;

//

j/t/tti/r. So// <>/ ,

'/c 't//ni>/tt///t<?/yj //

-Wi/,/;>///-..-V/v/,v./

Platk VI. FRASMFS SMITH Esquire, Son of Sir Roger Smith of Fdmondthorp in the County of Leicester. Baronet.

From the engraving by George White of the Portrait at Christ's Hospital, London

(Print hind/v presented by Mr. A . li. Popham, lately Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings British Slusenm)



DROGHEDA GRAMMAR SCHOOL 209

Superstici?n, Idolatry, and the evill Customs of this Naci?n, these are to require the Commander-in-Chief of those Counties, and all officers of the Army and Justices of the Peace, and every of them, uppon complaint thereof made, to take order for the speedy suppression of such Schoolemasters, and thereof to make return to this Board in case of Obstrucci?n, that further Order may be given for their due punishment as shall be thought fitt.

Dublin. 19 March, 1654.1

By the following year very stringent measures were designed towards the suppression of such teachers.2 On 21st March, 1655 a general instruction in the matter was issued from Dublin Castle in the following terms :

Whereas by diverse orders and declarations by Authority of this Nation published, popish schoolemasters have been prohibited to traine up youth, or teach them literature, for that instead thereof such popish schoolemasters have made it their principall designe to

corrupt ye youths committed to their charge, and to infuse into them dangerous principles; And it being also contrary to law to permitt such Schoolemasters ye liberty of teaching:

It is now thought fitt and hereby ordered That the Commissioners of Transplantacon lately appointed within ye respective

Precincts in Ireland, doe forthwith make diligent enquiry {by all due waies and meanes) after all such popish schoolemasters and cause them to be apprehended and kept in Safe

Custody until further Order from this Board : And in ye mean time they ye sd. Commissioners are to transmit (close sealed) up unto

ye Councel a list of ye names of ye popish schoolemasters so apprehended and secured, and of ye places where they kept their schooles, and for what time; with what else they shall think fitt for the further consideracon of this Board.3

The appointments made in the precinct of Trim during the Commonwealth period include that of Laurence Jones to be schoolmaster at Drogheda at a yearly remunera tion of ?20

" to commence from ye 24 June, 1657."4 He was in occupation of this

post in 1660 when Charles II returned to England, but the exact duration of his stay in Drogheda has not been recorded. The schoolhouse was in West Street fronting on School-house Green, which was separated from the river by a wall.

II

By an indenture dated 1 December, 1657,5 Erasmus Smith, an Alderman of

London, who held title to large areas in Ireland by virtue of the Cromwellian Act of

i. Commonwealth Records, A.5, folio 99, formerly in P.R.O., Dublin, quoted by Rev. Prof. T. Corcoran, S.J., State Policy in Irish Education, A.D. 1536-1816, Dublin, 1916, p. 76.

2. A letter addressed by Falkland, the Lord Deputy, from Dublin Castle on 14th April gives an inkling on the condition of Catholics in Drogheda about this time and on the

" unreverend

manner "

in which the ordinance of 1628 against the practice of Catholicism was proclaimed in the town?" it was done in a scornful and contemptuous sort, a drunken soldier being first set up to read it, and then a drunken sergeant of the town, both being made, by too much drink, incapable of that task, and perhaps purposely put to it. . . ."?from the Lansdowne MSS., British Museum, quoted in D'Alton, History of Drogheda, Vol. II, pp. 214-5.

3. Archivium Hibernicum, Vol. VI, pp. 187-8. This order involving banishment to Connaught was changed subsequently to one reading:

" Order touching popish schoolemasters to be trans

planted into Connaught. The Councel take into consideration that such persons corrupt the

youth of this Nation to Popish principles. Such Schoolmasters to be secured and put on board such ship bound for the islands of the Barbadoes." ibid., pp. 188-9.

4. Healy, History of the Diocese of Meath, Dublin, 1908, p. 302. Also T.C.D. MS. No. 1040 A list of all the Schoolmasters within this nation, c. 1660.

5. A copy of the Indenture is set out at pp. 440-3 of Appendix B of the Report of the Educa tional Endowments (Ireland) Commission, 1885-86.

B



210 COUNTY LOUTH ARCH OLOGICAL JOURNAL

Settlement of 1653, assigned 2,826 acres of these lands to eighteen trustees for certain educational purposes, chiefly for the maintenance and support of

five school-houses for the teaching of grammar and the original tongue and to write read and cast accounts to be built in the following places, viz., One in the town of Sligo, One other school upon the said Erasmus Smith's lands about Galway. One other school upon his lands in the Barony of Clanwilliam in the county of Tipperary. One other school upon his land in the Barony of Dunluce in the county of Antrim. Another where his lands are deficient (which is ?2,700) shall be fixed.1

And it is the intent that the said trustees their heirs and assigns shall pay and allowT out of the rents issues and profits of the premises the sum of ?40 sterling and not under to one schoolmaster and so to every one of the said five schoolmasters for teaching the poor inhabiting on the premises to read write and cast accounts and grammar as they shall be found capable without any other allowance for the same. . . . And that it shall be lawful for the said trustees their heirs and assigns and the survivor and survivors of them or the major part of them . . . to remove the said schoolmasters and every of them from time to time for insufficiency neglect scandal or roguery.

And that the said trustees and the survivors of them their heirs or assigns . . . shall meet twice every year in some convenient place and agree about the management of the said trust. And shall have power to expend out of the rents and profits of the said lands and

premises for two dinners on the said two days of meeting for themselves forty shillings for each dinner and no more.

The indenture of 1 December, 1657 directed that the trustees were to "

obtain licence from His Highness the Lord Protector under the Great Seal of England for

incorporating themselves in succession," and further that in the event of their not

procuring such licence or Act of Parliament within seven years, "

then it shall be lawful for the said Erasmus Smith and his heirs into all and singular the premises to

re-enter and the same to have again and re-possess as in his former right." The Lord Protector (Cromwell) died in 1658 and in the interval before his death the trustees

delayed in securing the requisite instrument for their incorporation. Charles II, however, readily assented at Breda in 1660 to confirm the Cromwellian confiscations, and in furtherance of this undertaking steps were speedily taken for the passing of an

" Act for the Better Execution of His Majesty's Gracious Declaration for the

Settlement of His Kingdom of Ireland and the Satisfaction of the several Interests of Adventurers, Soldiers, and others His Majesty's Subjects there." The trustees, or rather the acceptable minority of trustees still available, followed the enactment

of the Act of Settlement by the introduction of a Bill whereby the trust would be admitted. An Act of Explanation followed the Act of Settlement, and under both

Acts very special favourable recognition was accorded to the claims of Erasmus Smith. With regard to his charitable trust, the Commissioners administering the

Acts published, on 21 September, 1666, their findings whereby the said Commissioners did thereupon adjudge and decree that the said trustees are, by the said clauses of the said Explanatory Act, as trustees for several charitable uses, and no

otherwise, lawfully entitled unto the said several lands tenements and hereditaments, accord

i. There is some evidence that it was expected that the fifth school would be set up in Athlone as the Commonwealth Records of schoolmasters noted the appointment of 'John Challener att Athlone till further order (or until Mr. Erasmus Smith establish an allowance for him) to commence from ye 24 June, 1657

' a-t ?3? P-a- Healy, op. cit., p. 302.




ing to the tenor of two several Acts of Parliament made in the sixteenth and seventeenth

years of the reign of our royal father, King Charles the First.1

The foregoing award was followed by the issue on 3 November, 1666 of letters patent assigning a new total of 4,240 acres in counties Gal way, Limerick and Sligo to the trustees for the following uses:

i. The building or purchase of three convenient schoolhouses and dwellings for schoolmasters " that is to say in or near the town of Galway and two others in other places in Ireland

by the said Erasmus Smith or his heirs to be nominated within two years next ensuing," and the placing and keeping of

" a schoolmaster in each of the said three grammar schools

to be nominated allowed ordered directed visited and placed, and upon reasonable ground displaced by the said Erasmus Smith during his life and afterwards

" by the trustees.

Payment to each schoolmaster to be at the rate of sixty-six pounds thirteen shillings and four pence yearly on condition that the said respective schoolmasters shall truly and

without demanding any other reward teach and instruct the children as shall dwell on

any of the lands aforesaid or any of the lands of the said Erasmus Smith his heirs or

assigns within two English miles of the said three grammar schools respectively to write and cast accounts and in grammar and in other learning and shall prepare such of them as shall desire the same for the university or college near Dublin.

2. The application of ?50 yearly in the maintenance of five schools "

for teaching and

instructing poor children of both sexes to speak and read English in such places in Ireland ... as the said Erasmus Smith shall by his last will and testament or other writing appoint."

3. Payment of ?100 yearly to the Governors of Christ's Hospital, London.

4. The award of exhibitions of not more than ?8 each p.a. tenable for seven years at the

University or College near Dublin.

5. The application of one-fourth of the residue of income on binding poor men's children as

apprentices to any lawful trades or occupations in Ireland to Protestant masters, and

clothing poor children "

provided also no more than thirty shillings in the year be bestowed in the clothing of any child."2

In the year 1668 the trustees submitted that they were deficient 2,292 and 1,035 acres

respectively in the lands originally designated by Erasmus Smith for his educational foundation. The Commissioners for the hearing of claims under the Acts of Settlement and Explanation adjudicated in their favour,3 and by letters patent of 28 December,

1669 the lands attaching to the trust were increased by 3,981 acres, of which 1,185 were in Sligo, 1,118 in Limerick and 1,678 in Tipperary. This instrument of 1669 is

generally referred to as the Charter of King Charles I. It recited that whereas Erasmus Smith, Esquire, did heretofore intend to erect five Grammar Schools within the Kingdom of Ireland and to endow the same with convenient maintenance for

schoolmasters, and to make further provision for the education of children at the University which should be brought up in the said schools, and for several other charitable uses . . . upon due consideration had of the necessity of settling a more liberal maintenance upon the several schoolmasters, which shall be placed over the Grammar Schools, by making some

provision also for clothing poor children, and binding them out apprentices, it hath been

thought fit, by the said Erasmus Smith to reduce the said five intended Grammar Schools unto three; and yet, nevertheless, to continue and settle the same lands and tenements which at first were intended as a revenue to maintain five Grammar Schools, and other charitable uses, to be a perpetual revenue for maintenance of three schools, intended to be

erected, and for carrying on the several public and charitable uses aforesaid.

1. Preamble to letters patent of 26 March, 1669 infra. 2. A copy of the letters patent of 3 November, 1666 is given at pp. 186-191 of Appendix in

the Report of the Educational Endowments (Ireland) Commission, 1891-2.

3. Fifteenth Annual Report Irish Record Commission, p. 199.




The letters patent,1 accordingly directed the placing of the three Grammar Schools as follows

" that is to say one Free School in the town of Drogheda, another in the

town of Galway, or suburbs, and a third in the town of Tipperary "... And likewise that there shall be three learned, able and sufficient persons to be school

masters of each and every of the said Free Schools and three other able and sufficient persons to be ushers thereof, respectively to teach and instruct the said children in grammar, so as no usher be appointed in any school where the number of the scholars shall not exceed forty, which said schoolmasters and ushers shall, in their respective schools, use their best and utmost endeavours to instruct all such children in their respective schools to write, and cast accounts, and as far as the children are capable, shall teach and instruct them in the Latin Greek and Hebrew tongues, and fit them for the University, if the same be desired. ..

It was provided that the yearly stipend of each schoolmaster was to be one hundred marks and of the ushers twenty pounds. The making of appointments to these posts was reserved to Erasmus Smith during his life, and after his death to the Governors. The first group of Governors, consisting of thirty-two persons, named in the letters

patent, included the Protestant Primate, the Archbishop of Dublin, the two Lords Chief Justices, the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, the Master of the Rolls, the Secretary of State for Ireland, and other individuals prominent in public life. The Governors were a self-appointing body

" to have continuance for ever

" and they were incorpor

ated under the name: The Governors of the Schools founded by Erasmus Smith Esquire and with a common seal engraved

" We are faithful to our Trust.''

During the course of the proceedings connected with the issue of the letters

patent in 1669 Erasmus Smith appointed the first of a long line of masters to the three Grammar Schools carrying his name. This first appointment was to the Grammar School at Drogheda. The master, Joseph Scott, was accommodated

temporarily "

att the charges and cost of the said Corporacon, untill a schoole and house with their accommodacions for a schoole may be built as the said trustees shall find convenient on Schoolehouse Greene as aforesaid."2 The next appointment of a

schoolmaster by Erasmus Smith was that of Elisha Coles, a London lexicographer, to Galway. The Governors received a report dated 3 May, 1679 ^rom a sub-committee

appointed by them in December of the previous year to inquire into both schools. The report reads :

Wee have alsoe enquired into ye condicon of ye schooles at Drogheda and at Galway, wee finde that notwithstanding that there are schooles settled, yet there are very few whose children are taught there by reason that other schooles are permitted in these places, and that those who are of ye Popish Religion will not suffer theire children to be educated in these schooles nor by yor schoolemasters which seems a discouragement to them and will in a greate measure render as well ye charity of the Donour, as yor care in setling and

mainteining these schooles inefectuall if it be not soon prevented. Wee therefore humbly propose yt some effectuall way be taken to ye end that none be

permitted to teach ye Grammar in or neare unto ye townes of Droghedah Galway or Tipperary but what is taught in yor schooles wthout which the ends of yor schooles will be f?rustrated.8

i. Report, op. cit., Educational Endowments Commissioners, 1891-92, pp. 191-7. 2. Council Book of the Corporation of Drogheda, Vol. I, 1649-1702, fol. 122.

3. The Registry Book of the Governors of the Schools founded by Erasmus Smith, Esquire, Vol. I, 1674-1732, p. 19.




On 22 July, 1679 a Committee of the Governors ordered

That the Treasurer doe pay unto Dr. John Coghill the sume of two hundred pounds sterling for ye purchase of a house with a Garden Backside a place whereon to build a schoole, and what other land is thereunto belonging scituate in st lawrence street in Drogheda according to agreement made with him by Mr Joseph Darner for the errecting both of a schoole and house with other conveniencies for ye schoole master and usher.

We are given to understand also by Mr Darner that he hath agreed with Mr William Baron that he should be paid the sume of one hundred and twenty pounds sterling for the erecting and ffinishing of a house for a schoole adjoining to the aforesaid house, he the said William Baron finding all matterialls and workmanshippe, rfifty pounds whereof is now immediately to be paid him, rfifty pounds more when the said schoole is covered, and twenty pounds when finished.

And that the said schoole house be roofed and slated by the first day of November next, and compleated or finished by the first day of January ft'ollowing.1

The minutes of the meeting of the Governors held on 26 February, 1680 has this entry

And as for Drogheah wee have purchased for you from Dr John Coghill two very convenient houses whereon is roorae enough for master and usher and schollers that are

boarders, a good garden and large unwalled yard for ye boyes to play in; ye fiee simple of this cost ?200 sterling and there wee have caused to be errected a very handsome convenient schoolhouse and made some alterations and repayeres upon ye houses ye charges of which new school-house and reparacons comes to about ?150 sterling and ye money is paid and ye deedes perfected by Dr Coghill and ye ?200 is allsoe paid to him.2

A fine of fifty pounds repaid on the surrender of the premises provided by the Corpora tion pending the transfer of the school to the newly-erected building was ordered by the Corporation at its meeting on 4 July to

" bee applied for a stocke for the house of

correction and not otherwise/' The Corporation was at this time at loggerheads with the schoolmaster, Joseph Scott, on matters of religion. At a meeting of the General

Assembly (i.e., the Corporation) on 3 May, 1680, it was "

ordered and agreed by the unanimous consent of this Assembly that Mr Ma}'or be and is hereby desired and authorized to write to His Grace the Lord Primate to move the Governors of the schoole settled in this Corporacon that an able and orthodox Schoolmaster may bee

placed in this town in the stead of Mr. Scott. The Primate, as one of the principal Governors of the Erasmus Smith schools, caused his fellow Governors to make a

visitation on Mr. Scott. They found less than forty pupils in the school and, accord

ingly, dismissed the usher, Moses Lorimeare.3 A copy of their report in special reference to the master was sent to the Corporation and it was brought before the General Assembly at its meeting on 13 January, 1681 :

Consideracon being had of ye replication or answer of Mr Joseph Scott, Master of the Free School in Drogheda, erected by Erasmus Smith Esquire to ye report of ye Revd. Narcissus Marsh, Dr of Divinity, and present Provost of Trinity Colledge, neere Dublin, Enoch Reader of Dublin, Alderman, John Coghill of ye same, Dr of Lawes, appointed by the Honble. the Governours of ye said schoole, to be visitors of ye same, wherein this Assembly doth take

1. ibid., p. 22.

2. ibid., p. 28.

3. This action was required by the Charter of 1669. Lorimears given "

the sume of tenn

pounds sterling ... to supply the necessary charges in removing himself and family from thence."




notice of severall scandalous reflections on an Assembly of this Corporaci?n held ye third of may 1680, and on the Mayor that then was, and on several other of ye Aldermen and Common Councill, of ye same, and therefore have at this Assembly enquired into ye manner of ye calling of that Assembly, and into the legality of ye same, and in the first place it doth

appear by the declaracon of the Mayor, that then was, Alderman Sandeford, in this open Assembly that he was not instigated by the Revd. Deane of Clogher, nor by Dr Coghill, for to call the said Assembly, but being informed, that there wras very suddently to bee a

meetinge of the Governours of the schooles erected by Erasmus Smith Esquire in this King dome, in order to the settling of the said schooles, and the masters of them, and being very sensible that this Corporacon has long complained of the want of an able and orthodox

schoolemaster, he tooke it his duty as Mayor of the towne, to lay hould of that opportunity to endeavour to redresse of soe great an inconveniency and to that end, did cause a generall summons to be given to all the Aldermen and Common Councill-men of this Corporacon, who weare accordingly all of them summoned to be present at that Assembly, as doth fully appeare to this General Assembly upon strict enquiry, and therefore this Assembly doe

hereby publiquely and unanimously declare that it doth appeare fully unto them, that the

suggestion of Mr Scott in his replication or answer, that that Assembly was composed but of a few Aldermen, and very few of ye Common Councill, such as might be supposed most

likely to join with the Deane and Dr Coghill's designe against him, is false and injurious.

As alsoe it doth appeare by the publique declaration of the then Mayor, Alderman

Sandeford, in this open Assembly, that he never did say to anyone whatever, that he was

surprized in the calling of that Assembly, and that he was sorry for what passed there, and that the said suggestion is false and injurious to him, as alsoe it doth appeare by the publique declaraci?n of Alderman Henry Nicholls, and one of the Sheriffs, mentioned by the said Mr Scott, that though he was not present at that Assembly, yett he never did say, or declare, to any one, that if he had been then present, he would not have given his consent thereunto, and that the said suggestion is false and injurious to him. As alseo it doth playnly appeaer upon strict enquiry of this Assembly, that there is not any one of the Aldermen of the

Corporacon that ever yett refused their consent to the said Act of assembly, but on the

contrary, most of the Aldermen that were not present at that Assembly, upon the vein of the acts of that yeare did allow of, and subscribe the said Act of Assembly, without once question ing it, or speaking against it, and therefore, that the said suggestion is alsoe false and injurious to the Aldermen of this Corporacon.

That this Assembly doe hoald themselves oblidged to the Deane of Clogher, and Dr

Coghill for what services they have donne them in this matter, and doe believe, that whatever

they have donne in it proceeded from their kindnesse to this Corporacon, they having heard of the ill-management of this schoole often complained of, by many of the Corporacon to the late Primate in his tyme.

And therefore it is enacted and declared by the unanimous consent of this Generall

Assembly, that the Assembly held by Alderman Sandeford, the third of May 1680, was a faire full and lawful Assembly, according to the lawes and constitutions of this Corporacon, as alsoe this Assembly doe confirme, and allow the Act of that Assembly concerning Mr

Scott, for that they doe believe him not a person able of body for to take such great paynes as that imployment requires, neyther fitt for the educaton of youth, by reason of his total

nonconformity.

And therefore that it is the continued request of this Generall Assembly to His Grace the Lord Primate of all Ireland, that ye said Mr Scott may be removed, and that an able an orthodox schoolmaster may be placed in this school in his stead. And lastly it is enacted and ordered by this Generall Assembly that this Act of Assembly and the declaraci?n of this

Assembly and the severall persons herein mentioned be fourth with transcribed and attested

by the Right Worshipfull the Mayor of this Corporacon, and sent to His Grace the Lord Primate of all Ireland.1

i. Corporation Council Book, op. cit., fol. 189. The Dean of Clogher had complained that Mr. Scott did not attend the State Church, that he conducted a Conventicle and that he induced some of his pupils to attend it. The Dean was therefore obliged to withdraw his son from the school. Mr. Scott had complained that the Dean had placed his son under a Popish schoolmaster in Drogheda and that he

" not only connived at but encouraged the same Popish master."




The Governors sent a copy of the report received on the case of Mr. Scott to the

founder on 27 June, 1680 and asked "

that you would (if you shall soe think fritte) send or appoint another person fittly qualifyed for the supply of that schoole in the

place of Mr. Scott to the end that the said Corporation may receive all due encourage ment and satisfaction, according to your pious and good intentions towards them in the foundation of a schoole in that place."1 Mr. Scott was not, however, willing to

surrender his post as master of the school at Drogheda, and the Governors felt

obliged to submit the " matters controverted to a panel of referees selected from

their number. These were Lord Chief Justice Keating, Lord Chief Baron Sir Joshua Allen and Alderman J. Smith. These upheld the finding that Scott was a Nonconform

ist, and the founder was so informed. He wrote from London as follows to the

Governors :

June ye 6th 1682.

My Lords and Gentlemen?I have received y or letter dated May 23 with a copy of the

Report concerning the present state of the schoole at Droghedah and am sorry you have been put to soe much trouble. I give you my humble thanks for yor carefull inspection of

ye schooles and especially this of Droghedah the letter ffollowing was written before the

receipt of yours which I now humbly present unto you, not doubting but it will be satisfactory to yor honours as it will be to myself if ffollowed.

My end in founding the three schooles was to propogate the protestant faith according to the scriptures avoiding all superstition, as the Charter and the by lawes and rules estab lished doe direct. Therefore it is the command of his majesty to chatechize the children out of Primate Ushers and expound the same unto them which I humbly desire may be observed upon the penalty of f?orfeiting their places.

Now that ye schollars educated in those foundations may be encouraged, I humbly request that it may be comended to the Provoist and ffellowes of Trinity Colledge Dublin to present to yor honours one fittly qualifyed according to the Charter lawes and rules to officiate in the roome of Mr Scott late schoolemaster att Droghedah giving preference to those that have been educated in those schooles, that others educated upon the same founda tions may be encouraged to present themselves worthy of the like choice, if none among them be qualifyed I leave it att large, and as I find their faithfulnes herein, I shall be encouraged to trust them for the future. I desire the Charter may be abstracted as to what doth concearne the duty and priviledge both of master and scholars, and the lawes and rules added thereto and that a table may be fairely written thereof and hung up in the most publique place in

every schoole that neither master nor scholar may pretend ignorance. My lords my design is not to reflect upon any, onely to give my judgement why these

schooles are soe consumptive which was, and is, and will be (if not prevented) the many popish schooles their neighbours, which as succers doe starve the tree, if parents will exclude theire children because prayers chatechisms and exposition is commanded I cannot help it, for to remove that barre is to make them seminaries of popery: therefore I beseech you to command him that shall be presented and approved by yor honors to observe them that decline these duties and expel? them.

which will oblidge

My Lords and Gentlemen

Yor humble servant

Erasmus Smith2

i. Registry Book, op, cit., p. 32. 2. ibid.ip 46. The main sucker schools starving the tree of Protestantism at this time were those

under the Jesuits. Father Stephen Gelosse, S. J., had reopened a school at New Ross after the Restora tion of Charles II. In it there were 120 boys of whom thirty-five (eighteen Catholics and seventeen

Protestants) were boarders. "

This school became famous, and drew scholars from various parts of Ireland . . . the Jesuits were obliged to take the Protestant scholars by their parents. The school flourished for six years, encouraged both openly and privately, by Protestants." Corcoran,

footnote continued on next page.



2l6 COUNTY LOUTH ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

The Provost and Fellows of T.C.D. recommended John Morris, then master of the school at Londonderry, for appointment to the mastership of the school at Drogheda, and the Governors communicated this recommendation to Erasmus Smith by letter

signed by seven members of the Board :

Dublin 7th September 1682.

Sir?Wee have this day according to yor letter directed to us for the supply of the schoole att Droghedah with an able person, approved of Mr John Morris to be the master

upon ye recomendation of ye Provost and ffellowes of Trinity Colledge who doe give him soe

ample a character and have presented him to us under such advantagious circumstances that wee have great reason to believe that by his industry and care that schoole will be one of the most flourishing schooles of this Kingdom and indeed soe great was the care of that

society to answer the trust you were pleased to favour them with in the presenting to that schoole that they have called this gentleman (who was formerly one of theire own society) and much respected amongst for his parts from Deny where he hath some yeares taught schoole with great success and applause, and under very considerable encouragements; to this schoole of yours att Droghedah preferring him unto it for his merits and ffitness without

any application of his before many who vigorously applyed themselves for it, but were not

thought by them soo fitt and deserving. And now that this schoole is happily settled soe another of your schooles is unhappily become void since our last meeting together, by the death of Mr Brenan (the late master of your schoole att Gallway) who was a deserving person and whose losse is much lamented by us and by all the people of that place, for the supply of which vacancy wee prav vour speedy care and direcons who are

Sir

Your affectionate friends and very humble servants

To Erasmus Smith Esquire in London

The new master of Drogheda Grammar School was born in County Tyrone. He

entered Dublin University in 1673 at the age of sixteen. He graduated B.A. in 1674 and M.A. in 1680. His letter of appointment to Drogheda, addressed to him by the

Governors on 7 September, 1682, was as follows:

Sir?the provoist and ffellowes of Trinity Colledge neere Dublin being instructed by the founder of the free schoole att Droghedah (now vacant) to present unto us (who are the Governors thereof) a fitte person to be master of that schoole, have thought fitte to recomend

you unto us for that place, and have given such faire charracter of yor experience abailityes and fittness for that employment, that wee have readily approved of you to be the chiefe

continued from previous page. State Policy in Irish Education, 1916, p. 82. In Limerick the Earl of Orrery (the former Lord

Broghill) was worrying in 1666 over the great insolency suddenly grown unto by the popish clergy?" they have lately set up several schools, where their Jesuits publicly teach in. Though I know they are the best schoolmasters in the world, yet it is to be doubted they teach their scholars more than their books, and imbue them with ill principles. And one Thomas Stretch by name, a Jesuit who lately is turned schoolmaster did in the county hall, with his scholars, act a play . . . the design of it was to stir up sedition." Morrice, The State Letters of Roger Boyle, First Earl of Orrery, Dublin, 1743, Vol. II, pp. 73-4. In Drogheda the Jesuits commenced school at the

beginning of July, 1670 and continued till the end of November, 1673. Reporting on the attend ance at this school to the General of the Society of Jesus at Rome (Father Paul Oliva) Blessed Oliver Plunkett wrote from Dublin on 22 November, 1672:

" In the schools there are 150 boys;

they are, for the most part, children of the Catholic knights and gentlemen; and there are also about 40 children of the Protestant knights and gentry. You can imagine the envy aroused in the Protestant schoolmasters and ministers to see the Protestant children attending the school of the Society." A copy of the Archbishop's letter, which was in Italian, is set out at pp. 360-1 o?

App. I, Pt. V, to the Tenth Report on the Ormonde Mss. Hist. MSS. Commn. 1885.




master thereof, and have nominated and appointed you soe to be. Whereof wee hold our selves oblidged to give you this notice, that you with all convenient speed repaire unto that

place, and apply yourself to yor charge there, which is now committed unto your care by us who are your affectionate friends and servants. (Here follow signatures of seven governors.)

This appointment was followed on December 22, 1682 by the appointment o? Mr. Bernard Doyle as usher in Drogheda School at a salary of ?20 per annum. He had been placed in charge of the school on the departure of Joseph Scott and, as noted in the minutes of the proceedings of the Governors, he had

" taken paines in

keeping the schollars together "

of whom there were "

above forty " when the new

master assumed duty. Bernard Doyle surrendered the post of usher towards the close of the year 1686, and was succeeded by Abraham Bates, a senior sophister of the University. The Governors paid a fee of ?5 to

" one Duxbury who had been

engaged by the master to discharge the duties of the post during the interval between

Doyle's resignation and Bates's assumption of duty. In his letter of 6 June, 1682 authorizing the Governors of the Grammar Schools

to replace Mr. Joseph Scott, master of the School at Drogheda, by " one fitly qualified

according to the Charter, laws and rules to officiate "

in his stead, Erasmus Smith directed that relevant abstracts were to be made from the Charter

" as to

what doth concern the duty and privilege of both master and scholars, and the laws and rules added thereto and hung up in the most public place in every school that neither master nor scholar may pretend ignorance." These laws and directions for

the better government and ordering of the schools were drawn "

under his hand and seal

" and were as follows:1

For the Schools

The schooles are founded as free grammar schooles, in behalf and for the benefit of the children of the tennants to the said Erasmus Smith, as also for the children of the tennants of this corporation, together with the children of the inhabitants residing in and about the townes and places where those schooles are erected, that is to say

1. The child or children of any tennants of the said Erasmus Smith, or to the said

corporation, as also the children of any sub-tenant that is the present occupier of any of the said lands or possessions. These all, and each of them, if sent by their parents or friends, are to be taught free, and exempted from all salaries and payments, in respect of their educa tion, while they remain in any of these schooles.

2. That twenty poore children of the inhabitants of each of these townes, or within two miles distant where these schooles are or shall be erected, are to enjoy the same privileges of their education, in all respects, as the tenants' children.

3. Upon death or removal of any of these twenty before mentioned, three or four of the aldermen of the townes of Drogheda and Galway, respectively ; and in Tipperary, the school master and two or three of the oldest inhabitants upon my lands there, may please to signifie the names of such children to the Governors of the schooles, as are fitted, in their judgments, for this charity, that the number from time to time may be made up.

i. The first mention of these rules in the Registry Book of the Governors is in the minutes of their meeting of 7th July, 1681 at which the appointment of John Shaw, first master of the School at Tipperary, was ratified

" and that he be fforthwith sent to discharge his duty there.

And that he have with him a ffair coppy of the rules of the Schools (which by the ffounders

appointment is to be hung up in the schoole for publique view." op. cit., p. 34.



2l8 COUNTY LOUTH ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

4. Those children are to be instructed and taught in the Latine, Greek, and Hebrew, according to their respective capacities, and fitted for their University, if their parents or friends desire it ; others of them to write and cypher, that they may be fit for disposement to trades or other employments.

5. There are further encouragements in relation to the poore children?as cloathing while they remain in the schoole, pentions for those that goe to the University, and provision for those that are bound apprentices, some whereof are expressed in the Charter?all of which will be declared by the founder's appointment, when the revenue comes to be more

fully stated.

6. Libertie is also given to the schoolmaster to receive the children of others as have a mind to send them for like education into any of those schooles, paying to the head-master two shillings for entrance, and for their schooling such reasonable rates as shall be agreed of between them.

For the Schoolmasters and Ushers

1. None are to be admitted schoolemasters of the said schooles but such as are of the Protestant religion, and well known for their abilitie, industrie, and good conversation.

2. The schoolemaster, and in his absence, the usher, shall publickly, every morning, read a chapter out of the canonical Scripture, and then pray, concluding at night also with

prayer. This is to be done in the English tongue, that all may be edifyed; they are to urge the children frequently to read the Scriptures, and att convenient times to require some account of what they read, according to their capacitie, and that the meanest of them be able readily to give an account how many bookes, and the order in which they stand, as also the number of the chapters in each booke both of the old and New- Testaments.

3. The weakness of children is such that many times varieitie of Chatechisms confounds their understandings, and the Lord Primate Usher's Chatechisme being specially commended to those schooles in the Charter, the masters are diligently and constantly to catechise them in that forme. And on the Lord's Day, before or after publicke worship, to expound the same, or part thereof, unto them, as also att other convenient times.

4. The children are to come to schoole before or att sea ven of the clock in the morning and one in the afternoon, and the times of their departing from the schoole to be att eleaven and five or foure according to the season of the yeare, the children may have their libertie on Saturdays, the whole afternoon, and on Thursdays after three of the clock.

5. The schoole also is to break up sea ven days before each of the festi vails?Christmasse, Easter and Whitsuntide, every yeare; att which times, before departing from the schoole the master is to appoint some exercise to be done, and accounted for at their return and then to make a serious speache to the scholars, exhorting them, as att all other times, so att this time also, they would demean and behave themselves with so much humilitie, sobrietie, respect, and submission, that thereby they may credit their education and breeding, and then with prayer dismiss them without any of those so rude customs in schooles as are usuall at such times.

6. Noe child is to be admitted to the grammar schoole, or to be under the head-master, but such as have learned or are fitt to be entered into the accidence or some introductione booke to the grammer; the usher may, nevertheless, teach the children of the said tennants to read, write, and cast accounts, so many of them as the master shall judge will not prejudice his further attendance on the grammar schools.

7. That the children of the grammar schooles, such as the masters judge fitt, or in any measure able, doe exercise themselves in a constant speaking of Latine with the master as there is occasion, and one to another.

8. The usher is to observe the directions of the chief master in the course and method of his teaching and instructing.

9. The schoolemasters and ushers are constantly to reside upon the place, and are not to be absent from their charge unlesse in the times of their sicknesse, or the times of break up, or in a matter of special necessity, in which they have leave from three or more of the

Governors, whereof the treasurer to be one; and if there be any such special occation that

they appoynt a sufficient person to officiate in their roome, who shall receive such a propor tionable part of the salary for his labour therein, as would have been due either to the schoole

master or usher, whose place he hath supplyed.




10. That the schooles may be attended with greater diligence both by the masters and ushers, neither of them is permitted to be of use or exercise any other calling or employment.

11. That the schoolemasters take care the schoolerooms be kept cleane and noisome, and that the children doe not break the windows, or be suffered by cutting, scribbling, or any other way, to blemish or deface the walls, seats, doores, or gates.

For the Scholars 1. That the strictly observe the lawes appointed for their coming to schoole, and not goe

forth upon any occation without the leave of the master or usher first asked and obtained, and while in the schoole to keep their seats and not goe up and downe from place to place to the disturbance of others more studious.

2. Every scholar to be carefull, wheresoever he come, to give due respect by uncovering his head, and otherwise, to all persons, and specially to the Governors of the schooles, to the magistrates and ministers of the place, and to the masters and ushers of the schooles.

3. That none of them by any means are to listen or to entertaine any such inveagling discourses or stories from their fellowes or others that tend to begett or nourish unworthy thoughts, or a low opinion of their masters, but rather it is their duty to make a discovery thereof.

4. Lett not cursing, reviling, obsenitie, in wTords or lookes, no quarrelling or fighting, or unlawful games, be found with any of you under penalty of the severest correction; but, on the other hand, whatsoever is pious and judicious, and whatsoever is comlie and decent in cloathes or otherwise, and may render you lovely in the eyes of others, lett such things be constantly and carefully endeavoured by every child of you in the feare of the Lord.

5. When correction is to be given for these or any the like crimes, or idleness and negli gence in their studies and endeavours to improve themselves in their education, if any of you shall be stubborne, resist, and become incorrigible, giving bad example to others, such so

continuing after admonition, shall be expelled and dismist from the schooles. 6. To the end that industrie and ingenuitie may as well receive incouragement, as

idleness and neglect of dutie discountenance and punishment, once every year, in the month of May, foure scholars out of the first classes, three out of the second, and two out of the third, shall be made choice of by the master to present and pronounce some solemne exercise to the Governours, or to any other person of qualitie that shall be then present; and in case none of the Governours shall be present, then the schoolemasters are to take care to transmit ye several exercises fairly written to the Governours, to the end they may judge of those amongst them most deserving, and encourage such by the gift of some Latine or Greek booke fairly bound and guilded.

7. Care is to be taken by ye severall schoolemasters that the rules above mentioned being fairly written in a table, be hung up in each schoole, and be also audiblie read by the monitor for the time being, the first schoole-day in every month, immediatelie after prayer, during ye reading whereof there shall be silence and due attention.1

John Morris was succeeded by Ellis Walker in 1694 as master of Drogheda Grammar School.2 Following this appointment the number of scholars increased to over forty, and in the summer of 1696, John Miers was appointed by the Governors "

to act during good behaviour "

as usher at the school at a salary of ?20 a year. The school was visited by John Dunton, the London bookseller, who came to Ireland in the year 1698. In his work The Dublin Scuffle, which he published after his return to England, he wrote

i. Endowed Schools (Ireland) Commission, 1855-58. EvidenceVol.il. Documents No. XXI, pp. 390/1. 2. Ellis Walker had succeeded John Morris as Master of the Free School of Derry. Son of

Oswald Walker of Yorkshire, he entered T.C.D. in 1677 aged sixteen. He graduated B.A. in 1682 and obtained the curacy (" assistant outside the city ") of Templenoe, Co. Derry.




That morning I rid to Drogheda, the air was sweet and kind, the fields trim and neat, the sun benign and cherishing ... I was hugely pleas'd with my new quarters, for my Landlady (tho' a Roman Catholic) was a very obliging, generous Woman. . . . After Mr Kelsey had

given me a particular Relation of the Boyn fight, and we had drank a Health to his friend in England, Mr Jackson carry'd me to visit the famous Walker (the ingenious Translater of

Epictetus). He's an universal scholar; and I do believe, were all the Learning in Ireland

lost, it might be found again in this worthy person ; and he's as Pious as he is Learned ; He

prefers Conscience before Riches, Vertue above Honour ; he desireth not to be Great, but to do good ; and is so very exact in all he says that his words are Decrees of Wisdom.

When we came to this Gentleman's House his scholars were acting Henry IV and a Latin Play out of Terence; they were all Ingenious Lads, and perform'd their parts to a

wonder; but one Ellwood (who acted Falstaffe) bore away the Bell from the whole School.1 But Thieves ! Thieves ! (but no wonder, for I'm still in Ireland) for I had no sooner

left Mr Walker's School, but I lost my cane and my Silver Box. But (Madam) as Thievish as Drogheda is, I can't but think with pleasure of Ireland . . . but more particularly I love

Drogheda.2

Ellis Walker was master of the school at Drogheda for seven years, and at a

meeting of the Governors held on 14 August, 1701 Dr Peter Brown, Provost of ye College certified ye Governors present thatt Mr John

Gilford is quallified for Master of ye free Schoole att Drogheda, accordingly hee was elected Master of ye said School to succeed ye Revd Dr Walker, late Master of ye same.3

From 1705 Mr. Gifford had the assistance of an usher named Cormack who was

succeeded by William Blake. Blake had evidently been appointed on probation. The circumstances in wrhich this probation ended are set out in the minutes of a meet

ing held "

at His Grace the Lord Arch Bishop of Dublin his Pallace" on Wednesday the 9th day of August, 1710:

Whereas Mr William Blake has been in nomination to be Ussher of the Free School of

Drogheda, and was sent thither to offici?t as such, and a Committee appointed to consider and report to us the account that should be returned of him by the Head Master of the said school, which report has not been made.

And whereas the Rt. Honble. Alan Brodrick, Esqr., Lord Chief Justice of Ireland did this day inform us that at an Assizes held at Drogheda the fourteenth of July last past before him and Mr Justice McCartney, he the said William Blake was indicted, tryed and convicted

by an able Jury of speaking these falce and scandalous words following, That the late King William had no more right to the Crown than he had, and that it was

the Mob* brought him in, His Lordp this day moved that he the said William Blake should be removed.

Whereupon it was unanimously ordered that he the said William Blake for the Crime aforesaid be and is hereby removed from the said School, and that he no farther intermedie therein, and that the Provost of Trinity College near Dublin be and is hereby prayed and desired to recomend a proper person to fill said place.4

The School was visited by two sons of Erasmus Smith in the summer of 1709, and on the 15th of August in that year the General Assembly of the town held a

specially convened meeting at which it was agreed that

i. "

This is the earliest instance of secular dramatics in an Irish school. Within the following half-century school plays of this kind came to be a frequent occurrence in some Irish towns and, eventually, helped to cultivate an audience for town theatres/' The Early Irish Stage, by William Smith Clark, Oxford, 1955, P- IIQ

2. The Dublin Scuffle, op. cit., pp. 383-4.

3. Registry Book, op. cit., p. 94.

4. ibid., p. 127.




In consideration of the advantages this Towne have had by the foundation of a schole settled therein, by Erasmus Smith, Esquire, deceased, in returne whereof it is ordered by this Assembly that Saml. Smith, Esqr., and Hugh Smith, Esqr., another of the sons of the said Erasmus Smith, being both at this time in this Towne, be presented with the ffreedome of this Corporation and admitted.

Alderman William Norman, Mayor1

At a meeting of the Assembly on 12 January, 1710 Consideration being had of the humble petition of James McNamara, usher of the

ftree-schoole, desireing a small sallary from the Towne. Ordered that he be paid Tenn Pounds per ann. dureing the pleasure of the Corporaci?n,

and no longer, to commence from Michalimas last, and that Mr Mayor doe give orders for the same on the Tresurer quarterly and the Tresurer to be allowed them in passing his accounts with the Corporaci?n.2

At a meeting of the Governors on 4 September, 1714 The petition of Mr John Gifford, Master of the School of Drogheda, setting forth the

decay of the school, and praying the Governors to remove the Ussher? Ordered that said petition be referr'd to Dean Cox and Doctor Wye, who are desired

to examine the alligations thereof, and report their oppinion thereon and that they be also desired to enquire and report to the Governors what may be the cause of the decay of the school of Drogheda.3

At a meeting of the Governors on 15 September, 1714

Upon consideration of the Report of Dean Cox and Doctor Wye on the petition of the Reverend John Gifford, and also upon consideration of the petition of Mr James McNamara it is

Ordered that the said McNamara be continued as Ussher of the School of Drogheda untill the first day of May 1715 and that he be then discharged, and that the Treasurer do now advance him Ten Pounds, which will be due to him the first day of November next, as also such sum as shall be proved by affidavit to be laid out by the said McNamara on the

repairs of the Ussher's house of the School of Drogheda.4

At their meeting held on 15 September, 1714, the Governors Order'd that the Rules made the 12th day of July 1712 be sent to each of the schools

belonging to the Trust under the Corporation Seal and that the same be affix'd up in each of the Schools to have the same strictly observed.6

These Rules were as follows :

Ordered?That the following Rules, to prevent youths educated in the Free Schools founded by Erasmus Smith from turning Papists, be duly observed in each of the said schools: ist. That prayers be read morning and evening in each of the said schools, by the master

or usher, out of the liturgy by law established, at which every youth shall be obliged duly to attend.

i. Council Book, op. cit., folio 289. This action is clear indication that the Corporation accepted Erasmus Smith as the founder of the School, and it disproves the assertion that the Mayor and

Corporation of Drogheda regarded it as a State school, i.e., one of public and not of private foundation. In support of the foregoing assertion it has been stated (Rev. M. V. Ronan, A Romance

of Irish Confiscation?Erasmus Smith Endowment, p. 53) that from the correspondence about it, in Christ's Hospital Box, it appears that this Erasmus Smith School was erected there by arrange

ment between the Lord Lieutenant and the Lord Primate, and that they and the Mayor and

Corporation of Drogheda, and the townspeople, regarded it as a State school for the benefit of the people of the town?one of those which the Bishop had neglected to build. No documentary evidence is quoted in support of this statement.

2. ibid., folio 293a.

3. Registry Book, op. cit., pp. 146-7.

4. ibid., p. 148. 5. ibid., p. 148.




2nd. That every youth educated in the said schools shall be instructed by the master or usher in Doctor Mann's Catechism, and upon Sundays be publickly examined in the same in the church.

3rd. That every person educated in the said schools shall duly attend the publick service in the parish church where each school is situated, every Lord's Day, and such other time as the master or usher shall appoint ; and upon neglect thereof, after due admonish

ment, to be expelled the said schools.

4th. That every person so educated, when he is sufficiently instructed in the aforesaid catechism, shall be brought by the master or usher to the bishop to be confirmed.

The said Rules to be sent to each of the masters, and to be affixed up in each of the schools.1

The Governors noted, in November, 1716, that " Mr. Gifford the Master of the

School of Drogheda has now and for about twelve months past above fifty boys in his school," and a sum of ?20 in respect of the salary of the usher engaged by him over that period was refunded. For the year beginning 1 November, 1716, the Governors appointed Mr. Wye to the post of usher, on the recommendation of the Provost of T.C.D. Mr. Wye was followed by Mr. Tod in the following year, and in

1721 Mr. Isaac Smith was given the post, then vacant, on the recommendation of

Dr. Claudius Gilbert, Vice-provost T.C.D. There were then forty pupils in the

School, and this number was maintained during the remaining years of Mr. Gi?ord's tenure of the post of Master.2

At a meeting of the Governors on 17 September, 1728, a letter of resignation of his post was read from

" the Reverend John Gifford, Master of the School of

Drogheda." It was

Ordered that the said resignation be now accepted of. His Grace the Lord Primate of all Ireland recommended Mr Samuel Clarke, a person eminante for his abilitys and success in the instruction of youth, and well qualifyed to succeed the said Mr Gifford as Master of the said School

Whereupon the Governors unanimously elected, nominated, constituted and appointed the said Samuel Clarke Master of the said School of Drogheda in the room place and stead of the said Mr Gifford, and Ordered that a Commission under the Seal of this Corporation nominating constitueing and appointing the said Mr Clarke Master of the said School be forthwith prepared, which being prepared accordingly was laid before the Governors, read, and then by their order sealed in their presence.

And Mr Clarke having subscribed the two first canons of the Church of Ireland and the Commission delivered to him, he was ordered immediately to attend his charge.3

Mr. Clarke had previously been master of a school in Lisburn, and there is a reference to him in Samuel Burdy's Life of Philip Skelton. Skelton was born in 1707 and Burdy wrote:

" Philip, when he was about ten years old, was sent to Lisburn

Latin School, which was then kept by the Rev. Mr. Clarke, a man of eminence in his

profession, who afterwards left that place on account of a dispute with Lord Conway, obtained the school at Drogheda, where he lived to an advanced age. His spirited resistance thus helped to get him promotion in the world which too frequently is the

i. Endowed Schools (Ireland) Comn. 1855-58, Vol. II, Ev. op. cit., p. 391. 2. A list of surnames of the forty boys who attended the School from Whitsuntide, 1725 to

Whitsuntide, 1726 is set at p. 322 of the Registry Book, op. cit.

3. Registry Book, op. cit., pp. 344-5.




effect of tame submission to superiors." He was a popular master at Drogheda, and the Governors found it necessary to have extensive alterations and extensions effected on the school buildings (including the master's and usher's houses) to accom

modate an increased enrolment of both boarders and day boys. The walls of the

master's house were raised and surmounted with a coping of hewn stone and it was "

ordered that six stone chimney pieces be put to the chimneys in said house ": and

" upon consideration of Mr. Rencher's estimate for Wainscotting two Rooms in

the said School Master's House which according to said estimate will contain

245 yards of plain Beaded WainScott at 2'6 p. yard." it was "

ordered that the said two Rooms be Wainscot ted."1

The General Assembly, at a meeting on 15 January, 1730, decided "

that the sum of ten pounds be paid yearly to Mr. Samuel Clark, Schoolmaster of this Town, towards the support of a second Usher, to commence from Michaelmas last and to

continue during the pleasure of the Corporation." A new house for the first usher, Isaac Smith, was built at a cost of ?403 14s. gd. in 1733-4 but the master's house was by then in urgent need of further repairs, and at a meeting of the Governors on 5 June, 1734

The memorial of Mr Samuel Clarke being presented to the Governors and read is as follows :

To the Right Honble. and Honble. the Governors of the Free Schools founded by Erasmus

Smith, Esquire, deceased

The Memorial of Samuel Clarke, Master of the Free School of Drogheda sheweth

That your Memorialist hath been Master of the said School about six years last past, in which time the School hath come into Cr?dite and the Number of Schollars greatly increased to the advantage and trade of the inhabitants of the said Town.

That the School House is a very old building and in great decay and very hazardous to be made use of, being propt and in danger of falling if not soon repaird.

That by the late Order your Memorialist lyes under the difficulty not only of haveing his Sallary stopt but of being oblidged to repaire the said School House, which your memorial ist humbly hopes is not the intentions of this most Honble. Board, untill the said School

House be put into good and sufficient repair and condition after which your Memorialist is

willing to comply with said Order.

May it therefore please your Honrs. to grant an Order for repairing the said School House, and that in the mean time your Memorialist may receive his half-year's Sallary due ist May last, tho' he cannot produce the Certifct required by said Order untill said School

House be repaird. And he will pray

Sam Clark.2

The Governors acceded to Mr. Clarke's request and accepted the estimate

submitted by Alderman J. Rencher to effect the requisite repairs at a total cost

of ?20 3s. The detailed estimate is interesting in the light of present-day figures for

similar work, and also for revealing that the School was at that time surmounted

by a cupola, mostly of painted wood.

i. ibid., p. 389. 2. Registry Book of the Governors, Vol. II, 1732-1792, p. 24.




An estimate for Repairing the School House at Drogheda To Pulling down a Gable and Chimney in the Studdy and Rebuilding it.

Stuff etc. . . . . . . . . . . .. ?3 io o To Plastering the Wall, making good the Seiling with Stuff .. .. 10 o To one new Door Case . . . . . . . . . . 15 o To makeing good a quartered Partici?n . . . . . . 30 To makeing good 15 Square new Slateing Worke at 155. p. Square with S tuff 11 5 o To some New Rafter Feet to the Roof Timber for Lineing Rafters, Nailes

and woikmanship .. .. .. .. .. 2100 To repairing the School Chimney and Walls of the Schoolhouse . . 100 To Collouring the Wood Parte of the Cupelo and Cornish . . . . 150 To Carrying away the Rubbigs occasioned by said Repairs . . . . 50

?20 3 o

Drogheda 12 June 1734. According to Order the above particulars are the necessary Repairs wanting which

when don the said House will be in very good repair and condition so as to want no repairs for many years to come and I hope there will be no complaints by Mr Clarke.

I am Sir To Mr John Dexter in Your most humble Servant

Aungier Street, Dublin. J. Rencher1

Isaac Smith, senior Usher at the School, died on 7 August, 1741, and at their

meeting on 18 November, 1741 the Governors had under consideration a request from the second Usher, Thomas Ashe, that he be given the vacant post of first Usher.

This application was supported by the Mayor and several townsmen who certified

that "

the said Thomas Ashe hath been an Usher in the said School for Thirteen

Years last past, and behaved himself soberly, carefully and diligently, and that he is

very well qualifyed for that employment." The master also made a similar recom

mendation, adding that there were then "

above sixty boys now taught in the said

School of Drogheda." With the approbation of the Primate, Thomas Ashe was

accordingly admitted to the post of first Usher and so enabled to occupy the house

recently built for the holder of this post and to receive a quota of boarders.

It was a practice that the Grammar School boys, accompanied by their teachers, went in procession to Divine Service on Sundays. The Governors of the School agreed on 6 March, 1749

" that a sum of one hundred pounds be paid to the Right Hon Henry

Singleton, Esquire, for building a gallery in the New Church of Drogheda for the use

of the School in the said town." The Master died in the spring of 1753, and on

17 April Richard Norris, who had held the post of second Usher at the School during the preceding six years, was appointed Master.2 Soon after his appointment it was

reported to the Governors that "

the School House in the town of Drogheda is in a

ruinous condition. The roof in danger of falling in, and the walls cracked in several

places and incapable of being effectually repaired. And that the Master's House

requires several repairs to make the same habitable for boarders." The Governors

authorized the execution of the necessary works, and Henry Darby, a Dublin builder,

i. ibid., p. 25. 2. ibid., pp. 143 and 145.




was commissioned to draw the requisite specifications and to superintend the work in progress.

The new master had been chiefly responsible during the last few years of his

predecessor's life for the continuing success of the school, but he was, to an appreciable extent, handicapped by the increasing debility of the Usher, Mr. Thomas Ashe. In May, 1757 Ashe petitioned the Governors

" setting forth his long services of more

than thirty years, and the great distress under which he laboured on many accounts,

prayed an augmentation of his salary. The Board were of opinion against making any augmentation, but in compassion to the distress which appeared to them to be

truly set forth, they were pleased to order that the Treasurer do pay to the said Thomas Ashe, twenty pounds as a bounty to relieve him in this season of scarcity/'1

There were eighty-five pupils in attendance at the School on 1 May, 1762. Their surnames were as follows :

Acheson Alcock Ashe (two) Ball (three) Barton Benson Blacke

Blackeney Blakeney Blacker Blackwood Bourke Brooke Browne Calliser

Chamney Clement

Comeroy Comery Cooper (two) Costello Cuthbert

Daly (four)

Darley Delahoyde (two) Eccleston (two) Fairtlough Ferguson (three) Ford Forde Fortescue (three) Fortick Foster (two) Fuller Gladstones

Gregg Haviland Hosford Howell

Jones Kelly (two) Kettlewell

King Leister

Lowry (three) Lucas Malone

Montgomery (two)

Noble Norman (two) Nugent Obins

Pilkington Quinn Rancher Richardson Sandiford (two) Shields Smith

Story Tisdall

Wade (two) Woodside (two)2

It will be noted that quite a considerable number of the pupils were brothers. In the following year the Governors ordered (5 February, 1763)

" that Mr Ashe, the

Usher of Drogheda School on account of his great age be removed from his employment of Usher and in consideration of his long and faithful services a pension of thirty

pounds a year be paid him quarterly to commence last quarter day, and that Mr. Norris

do recommend a fit person to succeed Mr. Ashe in that employment."3

i. ibid., p. 157. 2. ibid., p. 175.

3. ??>??., p. 180.

c




On the same date, " The Board being sensible that the conferring the Degree

Doctor in Divinity on Mr. Norris the Master of Drogheda as a mark of approbation of his conduct, would be an encouragement to future masters; requested that the Treasurer would in their names recommend the said Mr. Norris to the favour of the Board of Senior Fellows at the next commencement. In December, 1763 the Gover nors approved of the appointment of Pierce Goold as Usher in succession to Thomas

Ashe, and in January, 1764 they considered a memorial from Dr. Norris "

setting forth that he has now under his care 130 boys that he, with three assistants and one hundred boys, are crowded into the school which was only calculated for eighty with convenience ; and that he was obliged to fit up a room intended for the master to examine a particular class in, for the reception of the other thirty, where they, and an Usher, are as much crowded; and praying the room to be enlarged according to a plan he recommends as most convenient for the present ground and buildings." The Governors agreed to have the necessary extensions and alterations of the school

buildings effected in accordance with the Master's suggestions; and because of the

increasing number of pupils for whom " Doctor Norris had at great expence engaged

an additional number of very reputable ushers, ordered that as a reward for the Doctor's merit and to assist him in defraying the expence, the annual sum of one hundred pounds be paid to the said Doctor so long as the number of children seem to

require and the Doctor continues to be at such extraordinary expence."1 The school was then one of the most largely attended of its kind in Ireland, but

there is some evidence that the older boys were somewhat indisciplined. John O'Keeffe, the dramatist, wrote

About the year 1770, I remember a rebellion or barring-out, as it was called there, of the great school at Drogheda: the boys took possession of the school and house, and held it for some days; they liad baskets hung out of the windows, into which the trades-people put provisions for their sustenance.

The master was indulgent enough, some years after, to bespeak a play for them at the theatre: it was Macbeth, and performed by day-light; the curtain went up at twelve at noon, the house lighted up and thus a play did not interfere with their early sleeping-hours.2

i. ibid., p. 190. 2. Recollections of the Life of John O'Keeffe written by himself, London, 1826, Vol. II, p. 151

According to Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Addison, "

The practice of Barring-Out was a savage licence, practised in many schools to the end of the last century, by the boys, when the periodical vacation drew near, growing petulant at the approach of liberty, some days before the time of regular recess, took possession of the School, of which they barred the doors, and bade their

Master defiance from the windows." Johnson was evidently not aware that the practice was much older than he had suggested as one of the statutes drawn up by Sir John Deane for the free Grammar School founded by him at Witton in Chester in 1558 specifically provided for the continuance of this

" old custom." The statute reads:

" I will that upon Thursdays and Saturdays

in the afternoons and upon Holy-days they refresh themselves?and a week before Christmas and Easter, according to the old custom, they bar and keep forth the School the Schoolmaster, in such sort as other Schollars do in great Schools?and that as well in the vacations as the days aforesaid, they use their bows and arrows only and eschew all bowling, carding, diceing, cocking, and all other unlawful games upon pain of extreme punishment to be done by the Schoolmaster." Carlisle Endowed Grammar Schools, London, 1818, Vol. I, p. 133. The practice was introduced in Ireland, and there is an account of a barring-out at Armagh Royal School in Realities of Irish

Life by W. Stewart Trench, a past pupil of that school.




A somewhat revealing letter from Dr. Norris to the father of a thirteen-year-old

pupil of his school in 1774 is as follows :

Drogheda Deer. 11 1774

Dear Sir?Six days are gone since I received your letter. But in the hurry of our Dismiss

you might as well draw upon me for Money at Sight as an Answer by Return of the Post.

Sunday, that gives Leisure to Slaves, hardly gives it to me, and had I not cheted my Soul and stayed from Church, I know not when I could have done my duty to you and

Tommy ! His Class is reading Greek Grammar, in which I beg he may be constantly employed,

or he will stand lowest?they have gotten to the End of the Pronouns. In Latin they are

reading the fifth Book of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the little Edition of it which I have pub lished for my School?he has one of them, if not, send to Leathley's my Bookseller in Dame Street. He may now begin to amuse himself with Roman History, for when they go into

Virgil, it is a sine qua non. His Class are also in Corns. Nepos reading the Life of Dion. You are very happy in private Tutors. Fred is no bad one and as for Mr Hutchinson

I own I fear his superiority?however for the sake of your little Boy let him go under him We are highly obliged to Mrs Trench and you for your good opinion, Sir, your care, and

if you can prevail on Mr Mahon to commit his Son to us, we shall strive to merit his too Dublin may supply better Physicians but as to Schoolmasters, have at them) I know

not any (and I am a modest man to your knowledge) that can skelp a Boy like

your hble. Sert., Farewell and believe me

To Fred. Trench Esqre., my dear Sir, your affct. and obliged Woodlawn, Loughrea. Richd. Norris1

In July, 1775 the annual salary of Rev. Pierce Goold, then senior Usher at the

School, was increased by forty pounds. When he came to Drogheda in 1763 from

Belfast, where he had held a curacy, he was given a salary of ?20 per annum by the Governors but this was augmented to ?100 by the Master. In February, 1783 he submitted to the Governors that

" from a hard service of twenty years he finds

himself by various infirmities frequently prevented from giving that attendance to his duty in School which he formerly did, and humbly hopes that your honours will be pleased to relieve him from that duty with as much provision as to your liberality and wisdom may seem fit. Mr. Goold's plea was supported by the Master who informed the Governors that when the first Usher's salary was increased by them to ?60 a year, he (Dr. Norris) adjusted his contribution to ?40

" by which he still

has the salary of ?100 a year/' adding That he also keeps boarders, to which he is well able to attend by the assistance of his

wife and by which he supports a numerous family of his own: but by a long and strict attend ance on the school now twenty years his health is much impaired and that by severe coughs and rheumatism he is often confined to his house, sometimes to his bed.

That Mr Goold is a man of learning and of great merit in his profession, that without such an assistant the School cannot well be conducted.

In the circumstances, the Governors " did not think fit" to take any action. Mr. Goold

died in the spring of 1785, and on 24 May "

the Governors were pleased unanimously to elect Revd. Charles Crawford to succeed the said Pierce Goold/'2

i. Published in the School Magazine, The Droghedean, Vol. 2, No. 7, 1946, p. 24. 2. Registry Book, op. cit., p. 310.




In accordance with the provisions of an Act passed by Grattan's Parliament in 1788,1 Commissioners were appointed to inquire

" into the several funds and

revenues granted by public or private donations for the purpose of education in this

kingdom, and into the state and condition of all schools in this kingdom on public or charitable foundations." Two of the Commissioners, Thomas Burgh and Edward

Cooke, visited Drogheda Grammar School in June, 1788, and the following report was made by them:

We examined upon oath Dr. Norris, the Master of the School, and Mr Crawford and Mr Irvine two of the Ushers. Dr Norris informed us that on the 17th March 1747 Old Stile, he was appointed Usher to the Grammar School at Drogheda, and promoted to the Mastership on 14th of April 1753, since which time he has regularly attended to the Duties of the School, that he is now sixty-seven years of age, that he is subject to the Gout, and that though he shall always superintend the School as far as he is able, while he continues Master, he must

by Degrees leave more and more of the immediate management and tuition of it to the Ushers.

Being examined as to the Allowances he receives from Public Funds, Dr Norris deposed that on his Appointment to the Mastership, his Salary from the Board of Erasmus Smith was fixed at ?100 a year; in consideration of which he was to take care of the School as Master, and keep in repair the House allotted to him by the Board.

That some years after his Appointment upon a Memorial made by him to the Board, an additional Salary of ?100 a year was granted to him as a reward for his diligence, and to enable him to increase the number of his Ushers, and that in a subsequent Period on a second Memorial made by him to the Board, a further Allowance was made to him of ?50 a year for the encouragement of additional Ushers. Dr Norris also received ten pounds a year from the Corporation of Drogheda.

Dr Norris further deposed that two Houses were allowed to him by the Board of Erasmus Smith, which he considers as fully competent to his Situation, and to the School. One of them he is obliged to repair himself and the other he does not consider himself obliged to

repair. That this latter house was purchased five or six years ago from Mr Singleton for

?1,000 as he believes by the Board, and assigned to him for the convenience of the School; that the Board has allowed him ?200 to put it into repair upon an estimate made by him for that purpose; that however he has been obliged to lay out ?331 in repairing this House, and has consequently exceeded his Estimate by ?131; that he has applied to the Board for

payment, but has not been paid, and that he is ready to support the Accounts by Affidavit. That the House requires much further repair, that it wants one or two sashes, a new Coping to part of the Wall, and that one fourth of the Roof is in a very dangerous way, the Timbers

having decayed; that the repairs will cost ?130 and if not made immediately will probably require a much larger sum.

Dr Norris declares that the two Houses allowed him by the Board would contain one hundred Boarders: the original Boarding House, sixty; the House bought from Mr Singleton, forty. That at present he has one hundred and twenty-three boys in his School, forty-six

Board in his House; four with Mr Crawford; twenty-two with Mr Irvine; and the remaining fifty-one are day Scholars.

Dr Norris gave the following Account with respect to his Ushers and Assistants; he has five Ushers, a French Master, a Writing Master, a Fencing Master, and a Dancing Master.

The Revd. Mr Crawford is the Head Usher, receives ?60 a year, with the advantage of a House from the Board; and Dr Norris has promised him the curacy of Mellifont worth ?30 a year.

The Revd. James Irvine Second Usher received ?40 a year from Dr Norris, who has

procured him the Curacy of St Mary's in Drogheda worth ?40 a year more. The Revd. John Paul is third Usher, to whom Dr Norris allows ?50 a year and his Diet

and Lodging. Mr William Kellett is fourth Usher at present a Sophister in the University of Dublin,

where he attends the Quarterly Examinations. Dr Norris allowrs him twenty Guineas a year and his lodging.

i. 28 Geo. II, c. 15.




Mr Henry Fulton a Senior Freshman in the University of Dublin is the fifth Usher, and receives ?12 a year from Dr Norris, and his Diet and Lodging from Mr Irvine, whose House of Boarders he attends.

Marcus Feely, the Writing and Mathematical Master, receives from Dr Norris ?74 a year ; Dr Norris retaining to himself the Sums paid by each Boy for Learning.

The Fencing Master and Drawing Master pay Dr Norris one third of their profits, each attends three times a Week, on alternate days.

Being asked as to the charges made by him for Boarding, Tuition, c, Dr Norris gave the following account:

Entrance Fee for a Boarder to the Master . . .. ?5 13 9 For the second Master . . . . . , . . 11 4!

?6 5 ii A Boarder with Single Bed for Lodging, Diet and Tuition . . ?34 2 6 Since the Rise of Provisions . . . . . . . . 256 Present to Ushers annual, which Sums Dr Norris retains to himself 129 Washing , . . . . . . . . . 1 10 o A Boarder with half a Bed for Diet, Tuition . . . . 27 6 o Since the Rise of Provisions . . . . . . . . 256 Private Tuition is optional, and the Charge discretional from 4 Guineas

to 20 Guineas a year. For Dancing Entrance ?129 p. quarter ?1 14 i?

Fencing do. do. do. 129 Writing Accounts do. 11 4J do. 11 4^

Dg. Mathematics do. ?129 do. ?129 French do. do. do. do.

Dr Norris retains as is above stated the whole of the Writing Master's profits, paying him ?74 a year; and retains a third of the profits of the French Master, Fencing and Dancing

Masters. Day Boys pay four Guineas a year for Tuition, and one Guinea for Entrance to the Master

and half a Guinea to the Usher ; many of the Shop-keepers Sons pay only two Guineas a year for Tuition, and twenty or thirty of the Day Boys do not pay at all. He seldom refuses Tuition to a Boy who cannot afford payment if his Appearance be clean and decent.

Dr Norris said he had only three Roman Catholic Scholars, that formerly he had more, that a Mr Jennett a Priest has lately set up a Latin School in Drogheda, that he teaches he believes at two Guineas a year, that he has from forty to fifty Scholars, and says that he has a Licence which Dr Norris doubts.

The Revd. Mr Crawford deposed that he was appointed Usher by the Board of Erasmus Smith in the year 1785, that he receives ?60 a year from the Board, and is allowed a House, that he received ?160 for Repairs but that he has laid out ?230, that he has four Boarders at

present, and that his Prices are the same as those of Dr Norris. The Revd. Mr Irvine deposed that he is Curate of St. Mary's, that he receives as Usher

?40 from Dr Norris, that he has twenty-two Boarders in his House, which is contiguous to the Churchyard of St. Mary's, which is the Pl?y-ground of his scholars, that his prices are the same as those of Dr Norris.

Upon the Inspection made by us it appeared that the situation of the School was as

advantageous as could be expected in a Walled Town, the Seite upon an elevation at the North Eastern Extremity, the Street before it is spacious, and the appearance of the Boys

corresponds with the Account of the Master, that it was extremely healthfull. The two Houses of the Master seemed commodious and the whole was clean and airy and sweet.

The lodging Rooms of the Boys and their Beds seemed comfortable and competent; there is an Infirmary properly detached, but from the good health of the Boys seldom used ; a convenient Dining-room, but scarcely spacious enough should Boarders encrease. A very good Schoolhouse; the Play-ground though much enlarged since the Purchase of Mr Singleton's House does not seem adequate, the almost continual confinement of Boys in so narrow a

Space as half an Acre of Land must be very irksome, and the Boarders are but seldom suffered to go out, and never but in Company with an Usher for the sake of Airing, Amusement and

Bathing. There seemed no place where the Boys could Study privately, for they are not allowed

to go into their Chambers except at Bed-time, and there appeared no other places for Study




but the School and the Passage of the House between the Lodging-rooms. The Boys from their general Appearance seemed well attended to. They were not examined as to their

proficiency in Learning, but Dr Norris complained that it was now a practice of Parents to take their Boys away from School too early before they were sufficiently prepared for the University, and he lamented that he found it difficult to enforce in any degree Latin Composi tion, not only as the Ushers were unskilled in it, but as it was not much insisted upon in other Schools, the Boys expressed the greatest reluctance to be taught it. This observation was however to be chiefly understood as relating to Latin Verse.

There are no Foundation Scholars in this School and no Exhibitions from it to the University. The House of the Foundation Usher is convenient as it adjoins the Ball Court and seems to be in good repair. The circumstance of Mr Irvine's having a House for Boarders at some distance from the School with only a Church-yard for Play-ground may be thought objectionable.

If the further encouragement and extension of this School should be deemed an object of public advantage, the Ground lying between the present School and the Town Wall should be purchased; it would greatly enlarge the Play-ground and afford full Accommodation for Ushers. The Ground belongs to the Primacy and is in Lease.

There are no Statutes to the School nor regular Visitors, everything is left to the discretion of the Master.

Dr. Norris sent a letter to Edward Cooke some time after the visitation of this school. In it he outlined the day-to-day routine of school business and listed the Latin and Greek text-books used. The boys were given three half-days each week

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons. On Sundays they assembled at ten o'clock

" clean and decent for Church." The day began with

" Prayers every morning

at half after six in summer, and at day-break in the darker months. Breakfast an hour between nine and ten; dinner two hours from one to three; business again from three to six summer, and winter with candles." This letter was submitted by Burgh and Cooke with their joint report on the School, but neither the letter nor the

report was published. The Commissioners appointed under the Act of 1788 submitted, inter alia, a. plan

for the establishment in Ireland of a collegiate or "

great school "

to be connected with the University of Dublin, and also the setting up of a Professional Academy to "

train up useful members for the army, navy and commerce." They apprehended that State aid for such a project would not be needed but that

" adequate resources

could be obtained for the support of this institution out of the surplus of Erasmus Smith's estates." With regard to their proposals for a Collegiate School, the Com

missioners wrote

The want of good schools in this kingdom has been long the subject of general complaint. There never was greater cause for it than at present: the learned languages are ill taught, and young men are not trained in composition in any language. The defects in school education essentially affects the knowledge, taste and manners of the people. Great pains have been taken, for some years past, by the Provost and Senior Fellows, to encourage composition.

They have repeatedly proposed to the different classes of students a variety of subjects in Latin and English poetry and prose, and have offered considerable premiums; but, in general, with little effect, from the defective education at school, where grammar and quantity are not

sufficiently attended to. Composition is generally neglected, and a sufficient time is not allowed for acquiring a competent knowledge of the learned languages.

With regard to the Erasmus Smith School at Drogheda, the Commissioners said: To the Grammar School at Drogheda the Governors have been very liberal, and the

success had in a great measure rewarded their endeavours, the school having been, for many



DROGHEDA GRAMMAR SCHOOL 23I

years past, of considerable celebrity, with one radical defect, common to most of the schools of this kingdom?a total neglect of composition. . . .

From the large sums already expended on this establishment, the great accommodations

provided for the master, the high character of the school, the salubrity of this situation, and its convenient distance from the metropolis, we apprehend that a master trained in the habits of composition, and following the Eton or Westminster course, might soon be able to make this a great classical school.

So many members of both Houses of the Dublin Parliament of 1788 were interested in the affairs of Drogheda Grammar School because they or their immediate relatives or family connections had attended it, that any comments likely to affect

adversely the prospects or reputation of the School inevitably caused serious concern to various influential highly-placed persons. The unfavourable reflections on the work of the School by Messrs. Burgh and Cooke were evidently communicated to some of the friends of Dr. Norris in Parliament, and representations on his behalf were made

immediately to the Lord Lieutenant who, in turn, communicated without delay his

personal wishes in the matter to the Governors. It is evident that Dr. Norris had

by then become aware of the unfavourable impression of the work of the School made on the visiting Commissioners, and that he had the gravest apprehensions as to the likelihood of approbation being accorded to his continued association with this work. The Lord Lieutenant had written to the Treasurer of the Board of Governors on 10 July, 1788, within a month of the visitation of the School, but some months later the Treasurer received a further letter as follows :

Dublin Castle 5 Febary 1789. Dear Sir?I have the honour to acquaint you by the Lord Lieutenant's Command that His Excellency is informed that from the very alarming State of Doctor Norris's health, a

vacancy may probably soon happen in the School of Drogheda. It has been represented to His Excellency that this has been for Thirty Years the largest and most frequented School in the Kingdom. That it now contains one hundred young gentlemen many of them Families of the first consequence. That if a Master be not appointed immediately upon a Vacancy the Boys will be dispersed, and this School famous for its good Discipline and excellent System of Education will be annihilated without a Power of Reestablishment.

On consideration of these circumstances the Lord Lieutenant desires in this Instance to withdraw his Wishes which Mr Hamilton had the Honour to express to you by His Excellency's Command in his Letter of the 10th of July last. I am therefore to request you will be pleased to signify to the Governors that in case of a Vacancy in the School of Drogheda, they may not be prevented by their attention to His Excellency's former request . . . from

supplying that Seminary with a proper Master. I am to express His Excellency's hope that you will excuse his giving you this second

Trouble, and I beg you will believe me to be with sincere respect Dear Sir

Your most faithfull and most humble Servt,

Alleyn FitzHerbert1

The foregoing letter was read at a meeting of the Governors on 6 February, 1789 at which meeting a communication from Dr. Norris

was laid before the Board and read as follows?Finding myself unable to attend to the Business of a School, I think it my duty to acquaint the Governors of the Schools founded by Erasmus Smith Esquire that I can no longer discharge the Trust they have reposed in me, and therefore request that they will appoint another person competent to the Under

taking. Richd. Norris.2

i. Registry Book, op. cit., pp. 350-1. 2. ibid., p. 349.




The Governors of the School were evidently not taken unaware by the Master's desire to be relieved of his post, and

" Ordered that the resignation of Doctor Norris

be accepted and that the sincere thanks of the Board be given to Doctor Norris for

his eminent services during a course of thirty-five years in which he has presided with

great ability diligence and integrity."1 At the same meeting the Governors

decided to appoint Rev. Charles Crawford, first Usher, as successor to Dr. Norris, and promoted the second Usher, Rev. James Irwin

" in the room of Mr. Crawford

at the salary Mr. Crawford enjoyed and with the same house and accommodations." Mr. Crawford was in attendance at the meeting and, having subscribed

" the two first

Canons of the Church of Ireland as by Law established," he was handed the warrant

of his new appointment :

We the Governors of the Schools founded by Erasmus Smith, Esquire, have elected nominated constituted and appointed and by these presents we do elect nominate constitute and appoint the Reverend Mr. Charles Crawford to be and continue Master of the Free School of Drogheda founded by Erasmus Smith, Esquire, during our pleasure the said School

Master's place being vacant by the resignation of the Reverend Doctor Norris. In witness whereof we have caused our Common Seal to be affixed to these presents

the sixth day of February 1789. (seal)

Seven years after his promotion to the post of first Usher at Drogheda School, Rev. James Irwin was appointed Master of Raphoe Royal School in succession to

Dr. John Lamy. The post of usher so vacated at Drogheda was filled by the appoint ment thereto on 16 April, 1796 of Rev. Hugh Henry Shields, who had entered T.C.D.

in 1777 at the age of fifteen from Rev. Humphrey French's school at Dunshaughlin in his native Meath. Dr. Shields resigned in August, 1803 and was succeeded by Rev. Robert Craig, M.A., who had been prepared for T.C.D. entrance in 1795 by Dr. Lamy at Raphoe. This change of ushers did not halt the decline of Drogheda Grammar School, the enrolment at which had begun to dwindle immediately on the

departure of Dr. Norris. Apart from the new Master's apparent failure to attract

pupils to his school in numbers comparable to those forthcoming during the tenure

of his predecessor, it has to be noted that after the Rising of 1798 many of the wealthy Protestant families in Ireland recommenced an earlier practice of their forbears of

sending their boys to boarding schools in England. This trend was further accelerated on the passing of the Act of Union.

When Mr. Crawford made representations to the Governors in March, 1804

respecting the allegedly bad structural condition of the school buildings, they ascer

tained that "

the number of boarders in his house was only fifteen and that the whole

number of boys in his school was only forty-two," and they ordered "

that payment of his salary shall be suspended until the Board shall obtain a perfect knowledge of

i. ibid., p. 352. Disheartened by the circumstances of his retirement, Dr. Norris remained in the town to tutor a few faithful pupils privately for T.C.D. This he did for a few months and died. His death in 1789 is included in the sepulchral records of St.Peter's Church?vide D'Alton,

History of Drogheda, Vol. I, p. 37.




the state of the school in general, and that Mr. Crawford be informed thereof." He attended in person the meeting of the Governors held on 27 April, 1804 when his

application for restoration of payment of salary was granted. Nevertheless the

anaemic state of the school attendance continued to cause concern to the Governors,

and at their meeting on 6 March, 1805, m accepting the resignation of the Usher, Rev. Robert Craig, they felt obliged to request that the Lord Primate

" procure an

Inspection of the School of Drogheda with a view to ascertain the cause of the decay thereof." This inspection presumably was affected, as on 25 February, 1806 it was

decided to ask the Primate for a copy of his " Vicar-General's Report of the State of

the School." The contents of that report have not been recorded. At a meeting of the Governors on 24 February, 1807 it was reported by a sub-committee that

The Committee having received late information, whereby it appears that the School at Drogheda continues in as bad a state as was formerly represented to the Board, and does not answer the purposes of the institution, nor produce effects in any degree proportioned to the

expence at which it is supported ; recommend to the Board to take the same into their early consideration, and to adopt such measures as will be likely to reinstate the School to its former respectable condition.

The Governors were thus impelled to take effective, though belated, action, irrespect ive of the friendly toleration hitherto exhibited by them towards Mr. Crawford. They

Resolved that the Master of Drogheda School be forthwith removed and that in con sideration of the length of time he has been Master of the said School he be paid the annual sum of sixty pounds during the pleasure of the Board.1

This action of the Governors was evidently precipitated by the bad impression made

by Mr. Crawford on his examination on oath on Monday, 12 January, 1807, a* tne

Commission of Inquiry set up under an Act of the British Parliament in 1806 entitled " An Act to revive and amend an Act made in the Parliament of Ireland, for enabling

the Lord Lieutenant to appoint Commissioners for enquiring into the several Funds

and Revenues granted for the purpose of Education, and into the State and Condition of all Schools in Ireland."2 The Ninth Report of these Commissioners dealt with the

Erasmus Smith endowment and was signed at Dublin Castle on 27 September, 1809. With regard to Drogheda Grammar School, the Commissioners stated

It appeared from the examination of Rev. Charles Crawford, taken on the 12th of July, 1807,3 that he had been appointed Master of that School in 1789, previous to which time he stated the number of Scholars to have been about eighty, of whom about forty were Boarders

with the Master, twenty with the Usher, and the rest are Day Scholars, six or eight of whom were free. At the time of his examination there were but thirty-two Boys in the School, of whom eight wTere Boarders and the rest Day Scholars, five of them free.

His salary as Master was one hundred pounds per annum, in addition to which he had for some years after his appointment (as had also his predecessor) received one hundred and fifty pounds per annum for the payment of two assistants at his discretion. There had also been an Usher appointed by the Governors with a salary of sixty pounds per annum, and an House fit for the reception of Boarders.

i. ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 102.

2. 46 Geo. Ill, c. 122.

3. The insertion of this date is a clerical error. The correct date is 12 January, 1807, which is the date at the beginning of the original record of Mr. Crawford's sworn statement, and is also that

given opposite his signature at the end.




It appeared however, that in consequence of the great diminution of the number of his Scholars, the Governors had for the last two years discontinued the appointment of the

Usher, and had allowed the Master only fifty pounds for an Assistant; and since that time the School hving continued to fall off, they have dismissed Mr. Crawford from his employ

ment with an annuity however of sixty pounds per annum. . ."

After review of the applications received by them for the vacant post of Master, the

Governors elected Lancelot Dowdall to fill the vacancy. Son of a County Louth tax collector, he was a past pupil of the School, having been prepared for T.C.D. by Dr. Norris, graduating B.A. in 1793 and M.A. in 1806. Immediately after his appoint ment as Master at Drogheda, he obtained approval of the Governors to the recruitment of Rev. Edward O'Brien as first or head Usher and of Rev. Richard Twiss as second Usher. O'Brien had entered the University from the Erasmus Smith Grammar

School at Ennis, Co. Clare; and Twiss had entered from the Classical School kept by

Hugh Donovan.1 O'Brien relinquished his post at Drogheda in 1810 and Twiss was

made first Usher, the post of second Usher being given to George Needham, then a

Scholar in T.C.D. having been prepared for entrance thereto at Drogheda Grammar

School. The Master, Launcelot Dowdall, was admitted to the Degrees B.D.

and D.D. in 1808. The Ninth Report of the Commission on Education already cited refers to his appointment to Drogheda in succession to Rev. Charles Crawford, and continues

On the 9th of May 1809, Mr. (now Doctor) Dowdall appeared at our Board, and stated to us, that since his appointment in 1807, the number of Scholars had increased from little more than twenty (one of whom only was a Boarder) to ninety-eight, of whom sixty-six were Boarders and the rest Day Scholars. His salary as Master continues one hundred pounds per annum, which (as he stated and we are of opinion) is scarcely adequate to the situation, considering that he is to keep the School-house in repair, and that there is no land annexed to the endowment; he pays ten guineas per acre for ground near the town, which he must take for keeping milch cows. The Governors however have made him a liberal allowance for putting the whole of the buildings into complete repair; they have also re-established a

Head Usher with a salary of one hundred pounds per annum, and repaired his house; and

appointed a second Assistant at eighty pounds per annum, who resides in the Master's house. Mr. Dowdall pays a third classical Assistant thirty guineas per annum, who also resides in his house: Sixty pounds per annum to a French Teacher, and eighty pounds per annum to a

Writing Master and English Assistant. The situation of this school is extremely favourable to its becoming a flourishing

Seminary, as it formerly has been, and is likely to be again under the conduct of the present Master, who appears deserving of every encouragement. The School-house is spacious, and will accommodate one hundred Boarders. The Usher's house is also a very good one, and fit for the reception of thirty Boys. The School and Play-ground are well adapted for those

numbers, the former being sixty feet in length and thirty in breadth, with a room over it for the Head-Master's Scholars, and the latter consisting of nearly three roods. On the whole we have much satisfaction in reporting the improved condition of this School, and in

expressing our hopes that it will soon recover and long maintain its former character and

celebrity.

The foregoing extract summarizes most of the evidence submitted to the Commis

sioners by Dr. Dowdall, but there are a few other relevant particulars in the original

i. Of Hugh Donovan, a correspondent to the Kerry Evening Post of 6 December, 1805 wrote: He was one of the most famous schoolmasters in the South of Ireland, and if certain of his scholars were to be believed (and they professed to have a feeling recollection of the fact) was one of that school of educators whose first maxim is

" Spare the rod and spoil the child," and a

practical advocate of the now, I believe, obsolete system of "

hoisting."




MS. of evidence bearing his signature which should be noted here. He stated that his fees were 30 guineas p.a. for Boarders, plus 5 guineas entrance; the charge for Day boys was 6 guineas p.a. plus i|. guineas entrance, of which the Head Usher received half a guinea. There was a charge of half a guinea to each boy for the Writing Master. The course of instruction included

" a classical education for the University and a

course of English education which varies according to the destination of the Boys." To the query

" Have you any observations that you would wish to make upon the

present state and circumstances of your endowment ?" he answered " The endow

ment I consider a small one. Five of the Day Boys and one Boarder are R. Catholics. There was a considerable R. Catholic school when Mr. Dowdall got the School of E. Smith. That School is now discontinued in Drogheda and the Master has removed to Dublin, as he hears."

The publication of the foregoing report, containing so much favourable notice of Dr. Dowdall that his appointment to a more lucrative post elsewhere was assured. The mastership of Dungannon Royal School falling vacant, he was readily chosen to fill the vacancy and he accordingly tendered his resignation from Drogheda School in January, 1811, and was succeeded there by Rev. Dr. Hugh Henry Shields who had been Usher there from April, 1796 till August, 1803. George Needham, who had been

Usher under Dr. Dowdall, resigned on the appointment of his successor, and James Mathews was appointed Usher in his stead. Both Needham and Mathews had

graduated B.A. in 1811. The number of pupils on the roll of the School by the end of 1816 had so increased that the appointment of a second Usher was authorized by the Governors and this post was given to Denis Twiss Riordan, then a sizar in T.C.D. Soon after graduating Riordan married, and he and his wife opened a boarding school in Gordon Street, Clonmel. His place at Drogheda was filled by the appointment thereto of Daniel Foley, who had entered T.C.D. in 1811 from the Classical School

(already mentioned) of Hugh Donovan in Tralee. The Master of Drogheda School died in 1819 and the Governors, at a meeting on 30 November, decided to appoint Rev. George Needham to the vacant post. As already noted he had been Usher at the School during the session 1810/11. He had the services of Rev. Thomas Nolan as second Usher, but on his leaving the Master appointed George Goodman to the

post without seeking the prior authority of the Governors. Goodman was dismissed because of his youth, but the cause of the dismissal of his successor is not recorded. The post was held in 1824 by ^ev- Thomas Mitchell. The school was then in good shape as, according to a return made in that year, Dr. Needham had ninety-four pupils, of whom seventy-three were of the Established Church and twenty-one were''Roman Catholics."1 The fees were 30 guineas p.a. for boarders and 6 guineas p.a. for day boys,

plus extras. The author of an outline history of the town as in 1826 mentions the "Erasmus Smith School" and adds: "The establishment still continues and the

i. Second Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, 1826, pp. 708-9.




school, of which the Rev. Mr. Needham is principal, gives instruction to a great number of pupils."1 In that year (1826) Rev. Richard Twiss, who had served as

Usher from 1810, resigned because of ill-health, and the Governors granted him a

pension of ?100 p.a. for life. He died within a couple of months, and Luke White King was given the post of first Usher at the School. Bartholomew Sullivan, who had been second Usher, was obliged to retire for reason of ill-health in 1826, and was succeeded

by Rev. James Ewing who held the post for a year and was followed by Rev. John Hogg. He remained for less than a year and James Smyth filled the post temporarily.2 In 1832, the first Usher, Rev. Luke White King, was selected by the Governors to succeed Rev. Michael FitzGerald as master of the Grammar School at Ennis, and Lewis Paige, who had graduated B.A. from Dublin University in 1827, was selected for appointment as first Usher of the School at Drogheda.3 He was dismissed in 1833 and the post was given to George Needham, then a pensioner in T.C.D. He was a

past pupil of the School, and had been prepared for entry to the University from there

by his uncle. The uncle, George Needham, senior, had by then become somewhat

hypochondriacal ; he had spent much of his life as pupil, usher and master in the school at Drogheda, and was understandably feeling tired; his wife had become an

invalid; and he had the unhappy experience of seeing many of his boarders transferring to the school at Ennis when his Usher, Rev. Luke King, was made Master of that school. In 1834 there were only thirty pupils all told in Drogheda School and the attendance was described as diminishing,4 the school business being mainly under the

inexperienced direction of George Needham, junior. At their meeting on 18 February, 1841 the Governors directed

That the Registrar write to the Rev. George Needham to inquire, as the Second Master of Drogheda School has intimated his intention of resigning on the first of May, whether there would be any objection to his resigning at once, on condition of his receiving salary up to that date.5

The underlying reasons for the foregoing action are open to surmise, but a month later (24 March) the Governors had under consideration

A memorial from Rev. George Needham, Master of the Grammar School at Drogheda, praying for a retiring allowance in the event of his resignation.6

Mr. Needham was evidently reassured by the Governors ; he submitted his resignation

i. L. C. Johnston, History of Drogheda, 1826, p. 66 (N.L.I. Pamphlets, Vol. 400). 2. In consideration of the sons of Freemen being gratuitously educated at the School, the

Corporation gave an annuity of ?10 Irish currency to the Master. In 1829 this grant was discon tinued, upon the recommendation of the Committee of Economy, as the gratuitous education was not given/'?Appendix to Report of the Commissioners on Municipal Corporations, Pt. II, 1835, p. 838.

3. Paige had been prepared for entrance to the University at the Waterford Corporation Free School under by Rev. William Price (Master).

4. Second Report of the Commissioners of Public Instruction, Ireland, 1835, p. 195a.

5. Registry Book, op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 272. 6. ibid., p. 274.



&.-< M-' !& ?* * <&f;

" '

fi?t ?w f^^^H^ ' '-

^^r-'^l

Platk VIL. ST. LAWRENCE STREET, DROGHEDA, c. 1819

Shewing Grammar School buildings on left

I'rom a drawing by J. E. Jones, engraved by E. Radclyffe




which was accepted, and he was granted an annuity of ?100 Irish, on the evidence of what were regarded by the Governors as

" very strong medical certificates/' These

were from local medical practitioners and read I certify that I was called upon to visit Rev. George Needham of this town, on the tenth

of February last, and that on entering his room I found him recovering from a state of

insensibility, having suddenly fallen from his chair while taking his dinner' Since that period I have been paying attention to his general health, and am quite

satisfied that he is totally unfit for any pursuit in life requiring deep mental reflection or much excitement.

I also certify to having attended Mrs. Needham (the wife of the Rev. George Needham) about four years ago, during a protracted typhus fever ; since then she has been incapable of

making the exertions necessary for a person whose domestic concerns require much activity, and I do consider her nervous system has received a serious shock from witnessing Mr. Needham's late indisposition.

Given under my hand at Drogheda, this 20th day of March, 1841. Robert Pentland, M.R.C.S.I.

Surgeon to the County Infirmary and Gaol at Drogheda

Drogheda, March 21, 1841. I certify that I have been in the habit of seeing the Rev. George Needham constantly

since the 10th of February last, and I concur in the opinion expressed by Mr. Pentland, as to the present state of Mr. Needham's health.

Thomas. S. Murphy Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland.1

At least one person who knew Mr. Needham well had some doubt concerning the

validity of the circumstances of his superannuation by the Governors on full pay.

Giving evidence to the Endowed Schools Commissioners at Ennis on 4 September, 1855, fourteen years after Mr. Needham had been pensioned, Rev. Luke White King,

Master of the local Erasmus Smith Grammar School, mentioned that

3926?. . . the Rev. George Needham received his full salary for some years; he was master of Drogheda School.

3927?How long was he master of Drogheda School ??Well I suppose sixteen or eighteen years; I was under him sixteen years. . . .

3928?Were you acquainted with Mr. Needham ??Very well.

3929?What was the state of his health when pensioned ??I do not know; he looked very well to me.

393??Are you aware of any general rule or by-law made by the governors for pensioning masters ??No; I applied four or five times to obtain it; after forty-two years teaching I thought I might hope for it; they answered

" You are not used up yet."

3931?According to your statement Mr. Needham was not "

used up "

??He was delicate, a little delicate, he is not so delicate now. . . .

3934?At the time they pensioned Mr. Needham was he in a delicate state of health ??So

they told me. . . .2

Of the sixteen candidates for the Mastership of Drogheda Grammar School, Rev. Dr. Maurice McKay was selected by the Governors as most suited to the work

and he was accordingly appointed by them at their meeting on 4 May, 1841. The

English novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray, on a short stay in Drogheda in 1842, was shown over the town by a young man whom he

" shrewdly suspected to be an

Orangeman in his heart/' Thackeray later wrote that " The town itself, which I had

i. Endowed Schools (Ireland) Commission, 1855-58. Ev. Vol. II, pp. 187-8. 2. ibid., Vol. I, pp. 185-6.




three-quarters of an hour to ramble through, is smoky, dirty, and lively." He noted the excellence of the local ale, both draught and bottled, and continued his walk

By a large public school of some reputation, where a hundred boys were educated (my young guide the Orangeman was one of them) : he related with much glee how, on one of the Liberator's visits, a schoolfellow had waved a blue and orange flag from the window and cried:

" King William for ever, and to Hell with the Pope !

" there is a fine old gate leading

to the river, and in excellent preservation, in spite of time and Oliver Cromwell.1

Both Master and Second Master of the Grammar School were in receipt of the same

annual salary, viz., ?92 6s. 2d. and an Usher was paid ?75 16s. lod. p.a. These rates

were threatened with reduction because of the fall in the receipts of rents from the

Erasmus Smith lands during the Famine. The Usher, Henry Edwardes, died in i848 and John Collins was appointed to succeed him. In the same year, the Second Master Rev. John William Hallowell, was appointed Master of the Grammar School at

Galway in succession to the previous Master, Rev. Matthew Eaton, who had been called on by the Governors to resign. At their meeting on 31 July, 1848, the Governors considered an application of the 29th idem from Dr. McKay and

Ordered that the Board will appoint a successor to Mr. Hallowell, but that Dr. McKay may be informed that the appointment on the present occasion is made in the hope that the School will increase; but unless such should be the case, the Board cannot continue a second Master at Drogheda.

That as it appears quite inconsistent with the nature of the appointment, the Governors cannot consent to Mr. McKay's proposed arrangement to oblige the new second Master to take part in the evening business of the School.2

When John D'Alton published his History of Drogheda in 1844, the school had

eighty pupils of whom one-half were boarders. D'Alton ended his note on the School with a tribute to the Master, Dr. McKay, on his successful preparation of candidates for scholarships tenable at Trinity College, Dublin.3 This favourable mention

procured from Dr. McKay a subscription for six copies of the completed work, to

which gesture the author responded with the following supplement to his preface to Volume I :

Since the following pages were printed, a communication has been made, relative to the Erasmus Smith's Grammar School in Drogheda . . . from this seminzry it appears have gone forth a great majority of the men who distinguished themselves in the Irish House of Commons,

who have risen to rank and eminence in their several professions, and reflected the honour and credit of their education on the passing events of the last half century in Ireland.

Of these may be enumerated the Right Hon. John Foster, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons afterwards Baron Oriel; Dr. Stopford, the present Bishop of Meath; the late Dr. Bourke, last Bishop of Waterford before the See merged in that of Cashel; his brother, the present Lord Mayo; and the present Dean of Ossory; the Very Rev. Peter Brown, late Dean of Ferns; the late Lords Tyrawley and Farnham; Lord Gosport; the late Judge Jebb and Radcli?e; and Sergeant Ball; General Taylor; General Sir William Henry Pringle, K.C.B. ; General Sir Thomas Browne lately deceased ; Mr. Townley Balf our of Towrnley Hall ; various members of the families of Wynne of Sligo, Coddington of Oldbridge, Filgate of Lisrenny, etc. ; while it is also said that Henry Flood, Henry Grattan, and Edmund (Shakespeare) Malone were (at least for a time) alumni of this establishment.4

i. Thackeray, The Irish Sketch Book, 1843 (1879 edn.), p. 268.

2. Registry Book, op. cit., Vol. V, pp. 59-60.

3. op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 57-8.

4. op. cit., p. XVI.




Michael Felix McCarthy, a sizar in T.C.D., was appointed Second Master at

Drogheda Grammar School in 1848 in succession to Rev. J. V. Hallo well. Two years later the Master, Rev. Dr. McKay, resigned, and on 15 June, 1850 the Governors

appointed Rev. William Church Stackpoole, LL.D., to the post, but he resigned within a month of being appointed and so should not be listed among the actual masters of the School. On 13 July, 1850, Rev. George Frederick Lacey, M.A. of Pembroke College, Cambridge, was elected to the vacancy. He had previous experi ence as master in two proprietary schools in England. He informed the Endowed Schools Commission at Navan on 19 October, 1855 that he had on that date

" twenty

boarders and forty day pupils, including six free pupils in that forty." One boy was a

Catholic, there were a few Presbyterians, and all the others were Protestant Episco palians.

" The boarders are the sons of clergymen or professional men, or gentlemen

who are not professional; the day pupils are the sons of the townspeople, most of them in trade, or the sons of clerks in the offices/' He added that he gave prizes to the

pupils who exhibit the greatest proficiency, that the Governors gave a medal half

yearly or annually, and that His Grace the Archbishop of Dublin "

gives annually a prize for the best English essay. This prize is open to competition by the pupils of the several classical schools founded by Erasmus Smith/'1

M. F. McCarthy had continued under Mr. Lacey as Second Master, and there were two Assistant Masters?A. Doherty, B.A. and J. Kennedy, a Queen's Exhibitioner. Mr. Lacey made somewhat high-faluting claims in respect of his School in his adver tisements in the public press, e.g. :

Pupils are prepared in this School for entrance into Trinity College, Dublin, and the

Military Colleges; for Commissions in the Line; for the Navy; for the Schools of Medicine and Civil Engineering; for the Bank and Counting House; and for the other professions and

occupations in which a sound and liberal education is required. In the Classical course particular attention is paid to Greek and Latin Composition,

both prose and verse. Hebrew?a knowledge of which a recent regulation of the Board of Trinity College has

rendered indispensable for Divinity Students?is taught to the senior class. A considerable portion of the Pupils' time is devoted to the Sciences to meet the require

ments of the present age; the senior class is under the Head Master's own instruction. Natural Philosophy is familiarly explained to the more advanced pupils, and illustrated

by experiments. All the branches of a sound English education?including Composition?are taught to

every pupil in his progress through the school. There are, besides the classes for general instruction?

i. Endowed Schools (Ireland) Commission, 1855-58, Vol. I, Ev., pp. 697-701. With regard to the Archbishop's prize for English, Rev. Dr. King commented at the meeting of the Commission at Ennis in the previous month that

" As to prizes, I refer to an attempt the present Archbishop

of Dublin made to induce lads in our schools to apply themselves to English composition. My pupils applied once, and got the prizes. The Primate of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin

proposed a subject?a most arduous one you will admit: an analysis of a play of Shakespeare, compared with the rules and regulations set down by Aristotle. This took a whole vacation of the

boys, and the reward they got was a two-and-sixpenny logic, and they would not apply for it

again. ' Who was the author of the logic they got as a prize ?

' His own logic. It was not even

bound." ibid., p. 798.




A Class for instruction in the principles of Military and Civil Engineering, Surveying, Plan Drawing, c.

A Class for preparation for Mercantile Pursuits. A Class for Landscape and Figure Drawing. Classes for French. The religious education of the Pupils is viewed as a matter of the highest importance,

and is made the subject of daily attention.

Pupils educated at this School are eligible to compete for the Exhibitions founded at Trinity College by Erasmus Smith, Esq.

In addition to much experience in the usual routine of school instruction, the Head Master was for a considerable time engaged in the preparation of Pupils for entrance into the Military Academy, Woolwich, and the Military Colleges of Sandhurst and Addiscombe, and many of those educated by him now hold Commissions in the Engineers, Artillery, and Line. He can also point to Pupils of his who have entered with credit into Trinity College, the Civil Engineer ing School, Belfast; the Indian Navy, the College of Surgeons, the Apothecaries' Hall, Provincial Bank, Customs, &C1

A report by Frederick William McBlain, LL.D., dated 23 December, 1856, on an

inspection of the School made by him onbehalfof the Endowed Schools Commission, is as follows :

Only one of the Grammar Schools founded by Erasmus Smith was in my district, viz., the Drogheda Grammar School. This class of school is entirely under the control and manage

ment of the head-master, who is subject to no manner of inspection or visitation, and who has received no rules from the Erasmus Smith's Board to guide him in the discharge of his duty. I think this state of things, while it is in contravention of the Charter regulating the Erasmus Smith Schools, is also injurious to the efficiency of the school, which would be much

promoted by a regular and adequate inspection. I may observed that the masters themselves

appear to desire inspection. Two other matters occurred to me in reference to this school?first, the education given

is scarcely of that practical character which the wants of the locality require. It is to be observed that not more than one-fourth of the pupils attending the school are destined for the university, and that the remainder generally turn to commercial or manufacturing pursuits ; it is obviously, therefore, of leading importance to give a good mercantile education, and with it to combine instruction in modern languages. At present the modern languages do not form any part of the course of instruction: such of the pupils as choose may learn French, but then it is an extra, and not taught during the ordinary school hours. Second, the small college exhibitions of ?8 or ?10 a year, which are reserved for the competition of pupils from the Erasmus Smith Grammar Schools, are quite too inadequate in amount to offer the necessary stimulus to exertion. . . .2

Following the publication of the foregoing report early in 1858, Rev. George F.

Lacey resigned in July from the post of Master of the School, and in the following month Rev. Edward Maynard Goslett was appointed in his place. He held the post during the succeeding ?ve years. The following account of his stay in the school from 1859 to 1863 by one of his pupils is revealing:

The remainder of the year after my quarantine was passed in learning Latin from my brother Walter, who proved so fascinating an instructor that he enabled me not only to take my place in the age class when in March, 1859, I went to Drogheda Grammar School, but also gave me a love for the language which continues with me to this day.

I may mention that wThen I took the chaplaincy of the English Church at Teneriffe, Canary Islands in October, 1913, my Latin enabled me to very easily learn Spanish, as well as made me a welcome companion to some Spanish priests.

In the register of those who pass the entrance examination of Trinity College, Dublin each one has his place of schooling entered under the heading

" Cujus sub ferula educatus ?

"

i. Dublin Evening Mail, 20 January, 1858. 2. Endowed Schools Commission Report, 1858. Appendix, p. 10.



DROGHEDA GRAMMAR SCHOOL 24I

freely translated this means " Where were you at school ?

" Any boy who entered direct

from Drogheda in my time must have squirmed and shifted uneasily in his seat if he had had the Latin query literally explained to him ! Rev. Edward Maynard Goslett, LL.D. was a peda gogue of the old school. He flogged knowledge into his pupils, and enforced discipline with the cane.

As an example of his method I may give just one instance. His temper was ungovernable and once aroused he lost all self-control. On the occasion which I am about to relate he acted more like a maniac than a sane person. A German master had rendered himself most

objectionable to the boys, who one holiday when the Doctor was to be away from home, went for the Herr and gave him a sound drubbing. On the return of the Head the affair was

reported to him. Without a moment's delay he rushed to his study, seized a bundle of canes, ordered all the school to assemble in the Prep. Hall and thrashed everyone soundly, breaking in the process a dozen canes.

Fortunately I was absent during this ordeal, having dined out with my kind old friend, Dr. Pentland. As I was one of the ringleaders in chastening Herr Fred M?ller I deserved the

flogging as much as anyone else. So I kept out of the Doctor's way for some days, and he, having his mind completely

occupied with the impending financial catastrophe which overtook him, forgot all about my escape, if indeed he missed me at all in the blindness of his wrath and fury. He has long since gone the way of all flesh and so far as his pupils wrere concerned

" unwept, unhonoured and

unsung." In his custody I spent four years of indescribable mistery until May, 1863. Many a tale could I tell of his savage treatment of delinquents, yet he at times showed

unexpected instances of forbearance. I am gifted with a very keen sense of humour and some power of mimicry, both of which not infrequently brought me into trouble. The vicar of Drogheda, Rev. Edwrard Gore Kelly, M.A. (Oxon.) died early in 1863 and Dr. Goslett was asked to preach the funeral sermon which he did in a discourse of much ability and eloquence. As I could reproduce his voice with almost perfect accuracy and as his manner in the pulpit was, to say the least, peculiar, I could not repress my desire to repeat as much of his sermon as I could remember for the benefit of the boys after lunch in the large study hall in which was a pulpit. Accordingly, arrayed in a sheet hastily snatched from a bed in the school infirmary, I ascended the pulpit, gave out the text and proceeded to act the Doctor preaching the funeral discourse. So successful were my efforts that, in the merriment produced and the loudness of the applause accorded me, I failed to hear the approach of the real preacher, and appalled by the sudden stillness, on looking round I beheld the Doctor. Need I say my anticipation of reward for my efforts was not of a pleasing nature ? However, in this case, as often in life, the unexpected was what happened. Instead of being ordered, in a voice of thunder, itself enough to strike terror into a heart bolder and braver by far than mine, to attend in his private study with all the horrors which that command invariably involved, in

quite a gentle tone I was addressed and complimented on the excellency of my performance, and his reverence retired amidst a silence with which the atmosphere seemed to quiver. . . .

1863 is memorable for the collapse of the Goslett regime in the Grammar School. It was as sad as it was swift. What ought to have been a brilliant and successful career in the scholastic world came to a sudden and ignominious termination by the arrest for debt of the Headmaster. For three days chaos reigned supreme. Masters were flouted and riot

prevailed. . . . On the third day I shook the dust of Drogheda from my feet for ever, truly " rejoicing in hope," if perhaps I had not always been

" patient in tribulation

" during those

four years of misery. . . .x

Rev. Henry Carr, M.A. was elected on 20 June, 1863 Master of the School in

replacement of Dr. Goslett.2 He held the post for five years, and on 12 August, 1868 Rev. J. W. Chambers, B.A. was appointed to succeed him.3 Three years later

Mr. Chambers was succeeded by a new Master?John Langley Whitty, B.A.,4 who

i. Canon A. B. R. Young, M.A., Reminiscences of an Irish Priest, 184.5-1920. Tempest, Dundalk, pp. 62-72.

2. Registry Book, op. cit., Vol. V, p. 205.

3. op. cit., p. 241.

4. op. cit., p. 270.

D




soon attracted increased numbers of pupils to the School. According to the half

yearly return made to the Governors on i May, 1874, he had then thirty-four boarders and eighteen day boys, three of whom were free?total fifty-two.1 At their meeting on 15 June, 1877 the Governors recorded their dissatisfaction at the falling off in the number of pupils at Ennis Grammar School and directed that the Master be warned that if the position did not improve

" they will with great regret feel it to be their

duty to consider the necessity of making a change in the headmastership."2 The

Master, in reply, stated his wish to be relieved of his duties, and the Governors

thereupon decided that " Mr. J. L. Whitty, Headmaster of Drogheda Grammar

School, be offered the Headmastership of Ennis School at the salary of ?100 a year and ?100 a year for Assistant Masters."3 Mr. Whitty accepted the transfer from

Drogheda to Ennis subject to the conditions (a) that a field for cricket and other

sports be leased for the use of the boys at Ennis School, and (b) that the boys' dormi tories there be extended to provide accommodation for the assistant masters. The Governors agreed to meet these requests, and on 26 October, 1877 they

" ordered

that advertisements be inserted in the newspapers for candidates for the Head

Mastership of Drogheda Grammar School vacant by the appointment to Ennis of

J. L. Whitty, Esqr." When Mr. Whitty left Drogheda for Ennis most of his boarders followed him there, so that his successor at Drogheda

" had to begin the work over

again, and make a school for himself."4

Rev. Frederick S. Aldhouse was appointed by the Governors on 21 December,

1877 to replace Mr. Whitty as Master of Drogheda Grammar School. He had been a Scholar, Exhibitioner and High Classical Honoursman at Hertford College, Oxford, and received an M.A. degree from the university there. The Vice-Chancellor of Ireland (H. E. Chatterton), a member of the Erasmus Smith Board of Governors, informed the Educational Endowments (Ireland) Commission at its public session on 11 March, 1886 that Mr. Aldhouse had been

head master of T?te's School, Wexford for several years, and when Drogheda became vacant, we had heard a high report of what he did there, and when he applied we appointed him. He was an assistant master?I don't know whether at Foyle School or Monaghan.5

According to the returns made by him to the Governors on 1 May, 1878, he had on that date a total of twenty-five pupils, viz., twelve boarders and thirteen day boys (of whom seven were free).6 The fees charged by him were

" ?$2 a year for boarders

and ?12 for day boys, for the full classical course. A commercial education was

i. op. cit., Vol. VI, p. 30. 2. ibid., pp. 126-7. 3. ibid., p. 134.

4. Endowed Schools (Ireland) Commission, 1881. Report, p. 80.

5. Annual Report, 1885-6. Ev. 2142, p. 107. 6. Registry Book, op. cit., Vol. VI, p. 154.




provided for the day scholars at ?6 a year." In a report dated 7 October, 1880,1 Rev. John Pentland Mahaffy, F.T.C.D., recorded that on the occasion of his visit to the School, there were twenty-five boarders and eighteen day boys (of whom five were

Catholics). His report continued

Drogheda Grammar School is now a small school owing to the deficiencies of the former

management, but is rising steadily in numbers under the present master. The buildings are

very commodious?indeed the school-room, with its adjoining class-rooms, is a model of what such a building ought to be. There is an immense ball-alley in perfect condition, which would make two good and useful fives courts, also an excellent gymnasium, and the boys' sleeping rooms?separate bedrooms containing six to eight beds each, are clean and well aired. The master's residence is also a fine mansion, with a great deal of valuable oak

pannelling?partly alas covered with paint. Water being supplied by high pressure, the lavatories and latrines are clean and well provided.

But the situation of the school in a street of Drogheda makes it impossible to obtain a

proper play-ground, so that the Governors are obliged to rent a field for cricket at some distance. I did not visit this and therefore cannot report upon its fitness for the purpose. But it should always be remembered that most fields are quite useless for modern games, and that without proper levelling and sodding, a play-ground, however extensive, is of no avail.

I examined the boys in the principal subjects, and found them on the whole fair in their

answering. But in some points improvement is desirable. A senior class wrote, almost

uniformly, bad dictation exercises, and a junior class were almost all puzzled by an ordinary sum in interest, though they were familiar with the rule. Yet, both in languages and in science one or two of them showed remarkable talent. A chemical laboratory has j ust been started, and attention paid to natural science. But most of the boys are very young, and the present master has not been here long enough to give his teaching a fair trial.

A large outlay on the school buildings was, as usual, made without much judgment; a distant and detached building was erected for a laundry with empty rooms on the upper floor, whereas the infirmary is in connection with the boys' house, and not even isolated by doors. If an epidemic ever breaks out, these buildings must have their uses interchanged, and people will wonder what suggested to the Board the present arrangement. By way of

completing the absurdity, the recovery room in the present infirmary faces north?an architectural vice not uncommon in Irish schools.2

Mr. Aldhouse had from fifty to sixty boys in his school at Drogheda during the

greater part of his tenure of the Headmastership, but towards the close of that period the numbers declined. The School was inspected on behalf of the Intermediate Education Board for Ireland on 8 November, 1909. On that occasion there were

thirty-nine pupils on the rolls?of whom twenty-two were boarders with seventeen

day boys. Mr. Aldhouse had then a full-time assistant staff of four?Rev. O. H. V.

Hammick, M.A. (T.C.D.) was science master; E. G. Ward, B.A. (R.U.I.) taught

mathematics; W. Rutherford, B.A. (T.C.D.) was classical master ; and J. Duffield, B.A.

(T.C.D.) taught French and English. There were two part-time teachers?J. S. Brown

gave lessons in music and Miss L. M. Tobias in drawing. The Intermediate Board Inspectors commented on the disorganization of the

school time-table because of "the inordinate demands of science"; but in this

connection it must be noted that in their reports on other schools the inspectors convey a similar impression of prejudice against the then general tendency of progres

i. Endowed Schools (Ireland) Commission Report, 1881, p. 80.

2. op. cit., Appendix, pp. 242-3.




sive school managers towards the wider inclusion of various science subjects in the curriculum. In Drogheda a class in Latin under Mr. Aldhouse evoked the comment "

the Principia Latina is the exercise book used by the class. It is not a very good book "; but with regard to Greek it was observed that

" Great praise is due to the

Headmaster for the efforts he makes to keep alive the study of this language. The Greek master is an excellent teacher and, notwithstanding the encroachment of science on the time-table, has achieved good results with the short time at his

disposal/' As to instruction in French, the Inspectors noted that in the Preparatory Grade

class " the set book, Le Protege de Marie Antoinette, has been commenced?unwisely, as

it is certainly not a book for beginners. The reading was extremely poor, and the

pronunciation very weak." The report on the Junior Grade class reads: "

The work

done in this Grade diners little from that of the Preparatory. French has been learnt hitherto as a dead language. Not a single boy had any idea of pronunciation. I took

them for half a hour on the French vowels, chiefly to give the teacher some idea of

what he ought to do."

The report on the teaching of Mathematics (Middle Grade) was as follows:

This class had covered in Geometry what corresponded to the first book of Euclid, but as the master found out that with the Geometry methods of Hall and Stevens the boys were in the habit of applying the

" folding

" and

" symmetrical

" methods in several cases where

such procedure was wrong, and seemed to have no notion whatever of sequence, he had

brought them back to Euclid. ... In Algebra the class were working at simultaneous quad ratics, and two or three exercises I saw were worked neatly and correctly. . . . None of them were able to work a simultaneous equation of the type i/x -j- i/y

= 4 &c. The method adopted was to clear of fractions, and that was the end of their attempt.

The class were also unable to do a simple arithmetical problem on work. They arrived at the conclusion that if one boy took seven days to eat a cake and another five days to eat a cake of the same size, both eating together would take six days. This kind of answer, it must be admitted, is very common in many schools in the Middle Grade, and is not peculiar to this school. . . . The low standard of this class is possibly due to stupidity as the master seems to be painstaking.1

By 1922 declining health and the advent of old age obliged the Headmaster's

retirement. At their meeting on 23 June, 1922 the Governors instructed their

Registrar to send him the following letter:

My dear Mr. Aldhouse, I am directed by the Governors to convey to you that in recog nition of your long and valuable services extending over a period of forty-five years, they have decided to grant you as from ist August next, conditional on your retirement as of that

date, a retiring allowance of three hundred pounds per annum. Will you be so good as to let me know whether it will suit you to vacate the house in

time for the necessary arrangements to be made for opening next term under the aegis of

your successor.

i. Intermediate Education Board for Ireland?Reports of Inspectors, igog-io, Vol. I, No. 57. ** The beautifully-bound volumes . . . may still be picked up in auctions of old libraries. Marked

Private and Confidential in gold lettering and stamped with the name of the particular commissioner for whom they were intended, they provide a most detailed account of the intermediate schools

North and South as the first decade of the new century drew to an end."?Irish Times, 11 July, 1964; Article titled

" Ireland's First State Examinations."




My Board of Governors trust that you may long enj oy that leisure and freedom from the cares and responsibilities of Headmastership which they feel assured must at your age be a burden which you will lay down without regret.

My Board direct me further to convey to you the assurance of their full appreciation of your devotion to and singleminded love of the School, with which you have been so long associated, and where your name will ever be remembered.

I am, dear Mr. Aldhouse, Yours very sincerely,

Arthur L. B. Moore, Registrar.1

Rev. F. S. Ferguson, M.A. was appointed Master of the School in succession to

Mr. Aldhouse. He was already on the staff as Assistant Master. His promotion to the post of Master in 1922 happened at a time when the old order of government in Ireland was giving place to the new, and when a state of unwarranted, but nevertheless

real, apprehension was latent among various minority groups, particularly those in control of state-aided, and to that extent state-influenced, educational and other

semi-public establishments.

A sub-committee of the Governors of the Erasmus Smith Schools framed the

following statement which was adopted at a meeting of the Governors held on

17 May, 1927:

Memorandum

The position of Intermediate Education in the Free State has altered very considerably during the past five years, both as regards numbers of pupils to be educated and the cost of

equipping and maintaining. The official classes who supported the Grammar Schools have to a very great degree left the country, and the children of the gentry are being sent to

England. The pupils are now being drawn from people who are unable to pay high fees. The cost of maintenance and equipment have more than doubled and with the result that a vary great strain has been thrown upon the income derived from endowments. Your Committee feel strongly that a policy should be considered by which the cost of education should be decreased by a union with other educational endowments, and that a strong effort should be made to establish a School in Ireland to meet the educational requirements of the children of the gentry.

If the Governors approve, your Committee are prepared to place before them a detailed Scheme, but before doing so they wish to remind the Governors . . . that an Act of Parliament would be required before any working arrangement could be made with other Boards. They recommend that a question might be asked the Government whether they would support a Bill to give the Commissioners of Charitable Donations and Bequests power to amend the Charters and Acts of Parliament of the Board of Erasmus Smith, as in the Education Endowments Act of 1885. . . .2

The Governors acted most unwisely in adopting the approach set out in the

foregoing memorandum, as in doing so they precipitated a revival of the outstanding claim of the tenantry of the Erasmus Smith lands to share in the educational endow

i. Registry Book, op. cit., pp. 165-6. 2. Rev. Myles V. Ronan, The Erasmus Smith Endowment. A Romance of Irish Confiscation,

op. cit., p. 74.




ment which he had founded for their children.1 The introduction in the Oireachtas of the Bill suggested in the Memorandum initiated a sequence of parliamentary, court and other proceedings which culminated in the

" Erasmus Smith Schools Act, 1938."2

whereby the investments held by the Governors were greatly depleted by the cost of

protracted legal actions, and one-half of the remaining trust funds and the Tipperary Grammar School were transferred from them to the Minister for Education.3

As the income accruing to the investments remaining with them under the Act of 1938 would not be sufficient to cover expenditure by the Governors on the same scale as formerly in respect of Trinity College, King's Hospital, Harcourt Street

High School, and the Grammar Schools at Galway and Drogheda, it was decided by them at a specially convened meeting on 7 June, 1938

" that Drogheda Grammar

School be closed at the end of this term "

and "

that Mr. Ferguson, Headmaster, be

paid salary for six months at the rate of ?400 a year "

and "

that he be given immedi

ately the notice required by his agreement ... of the termination of his appointment under the Governors/'4 On this decision becoming known locally, several residents of Drogheda deputed a representative group to approach the Governors with a

proposal to have the School continued under the management of the members of the

group, subject to agreement on mutually acceptable terms as to the maintenance of

the school buildings and the payment of the charges thereon. Such agreement having been effected, the Governors leased the premises to the

" Drogheda Grammar School

Committee "

as from 23 June, 1939. The School so formed took boarders at ?75 p.a. and day boys at ?iy 10s. p.a., and continued in operation till 1956. In May of that

year it was announced in the public press that On August i, Drogheda Grammar School will be transferred from a. local committee to

a Committee of Members of the Religious Society of Friends. It had been thought that the

i. e.g., At their annual meeting held on the 6th July, 1928, the Tipperary Urban Council

passed the following resolution: " That as legislation is being introduced which will have the effect

of perpetuating the gross misappropriation of the large funds of the Erasmus Smith Trust which has continuously taken place in the past, it seems necessary to point out that these funds were allotted by the founder of the trust for the education of the tenantry of his estates; that they have been devoted to this purpose to a negligible degree, whilst they have been used for large endow ments to Trinity College or even for building schools in England, and that though protest after

protest has been made and the wrong done admitted by a Commission of Judges and a Chief

Secretary, every attempt to remedy it has been defeated by technical obstacles. We therefore call upon ail Senators and Teachtai, who are interested in the counties where

the Erasmus Smith estates existed, to oppose the Bill now before the Dail for the reconstruction of the administration of the Erasmus Smith Schools, unless provisions are inserted therein for

giving due effect to the intentions of the founder.

2. Erasmus Smith Schools Act No. i( Private) of 1938?" An Act to amend the Letters Patent and Statute relating to the Schools founded by Erasmus Smith, Esquire, and to empower the Governors of the said Schools to carry into effect a certain Agreement with the Attorney

General of Saorstat Eireann, and to provide for the application of the endowments of the said Schools, and for other purposes incidental thereto."

3. This property is administered by the Minister in accordance with the provisions of the " Erasmus Smith Schools Act Scheme, 1941," framed under the foregoing Act and directed for

adoption by order of the High Court of Justice on 2 July, 1942.

4. Registry Book, op. cit., Vol. X, pp. 363-4.




school would have to close at the end of the summer term since, for some years, the cost oJ

living had gone against its being run on a debt-free basis. Also rumours that the school was to close had made parents uneasy, with the result that some of them had sent their children elsewhere.

This voluntary adoption of the old Grammar School by a committee of Quakers happily resulted in its rejuvenation. The new Committee indicated its intention to run the School on the same lines as other schools of the Religious Society of Friends.

i.e., as a co-educational combined day and boarding school. The Society from its foundation has held the principle that such is the ideal type of school wherein boys and girls learn to

accept a routine which avoids the tensions so common to family life, while offering the

companionship of a much wider family, and which helps to form commendable habits; here one meets members of the opposite sex as a matter of course, and learns to regard friendship with them as a normal thing.1

ARMS OF ERASMUS SMITH

(Gules on a chevron or between three bezants as many crosses patee fitchee sable) This coat-of-arms has been adopted, with variations, as a school crest by the High School, Dublin (under the Erasmus Smith Schools Governors, and by the Drogheda Grammar School

formerly under the Erasmus Smith Schools Governors but now under a committee of Quakers

i. School Brochure, p. 12.




Beginning with thirty-five pupils, the enrolment has steadily increased to one

hundred, of whom two-thirds are boarders and the sexes are in equal numbers. The Headmaster has the assistance of a prefessionally well-qualified and experienced staff. The curriculum includes the conventional subjects of the Intermediate and

Leaving Certificates and University Entrance Examinations. Instrumental and vocal music, woodwork, gardening and other arts and crafts are encouraged, and

facilities for instruction in domestic economy and dancing are provided for the girls. The school year consists of three terms, and the inclusive fee for boarders is ?6y a term and for day pupils ?18 a term.

The Quaker Committee has continued the use of the Erasmus Smith Coat of Arms as the School Crest over the motto FLOREAT and the date, 1669. The School has, therefore, the present prospect of a tercentenary celebration in 1669.

