Viscount Limerick Grammar School, Dundalk

County Louth Archaeological and History Society

Viscount Limerick Grammar School, DundalkAuthor(s): Michael QuaneSource: Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1965), pp. 32-41Published by: County Louth Archaeological and History SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27729101 .

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"?Ti?count Htmericfe Grammar ?>d)oolt Bunbalfe

By Michael Quane

I

James Hamilton of Tullymore, Co. Down, was one of the principal organizers of the northern

Protestants in their support of William of Orange. He was attainted by King James's Parliament and his estates sequestered. On the expulsion of the King, he was returned for the Borough of

Bangor in the Parliament which was summoned to meet on 5 October, 1692. In 1693 he was associated with the Earl of Belmont in the preparation of articles of impeachment against Thomas, Lord Coningsby, and Sir Charles Porter (ex-Lord Justices of Ireland). In 1699 ne was one ?f the Commissioners appointed in connection with the allocation of the estates declared forfeit under the Acts of Settlement and Explanation. He died in England in 1701. He had married Anne,

youngest daughter of John Mordaunt, Baron of Ryegate and first Viscount Avalon, and sister of

Charles, Earl of Peterborough and Monmouth. Their eldest son, James, succeeded his father at an early age as M.P. for Dundalk, 1715-19; and on 13 May, 1719 he was advanced by George I to the dignities of Baron of Clandeboye and Viscount Limerick.1

From 1732 he sat in the British Parliament as representative for the boroughs of W'endover

(1735-41), Tavistock (1741-2), Morpeth (1747-54). He was elected on 21 March, 1733 to the Common Council of Georgia. He was one of the Whig leaders opposed to Robert Walpole (later Lord Orford). His hostile motion for a secret committee to inquire into the previous twenty years of Walpole's administration, with a view to his impeachment, was lost by a majority of

only two?244 against 242. He was more successful in a second motion for an inquiry into the

conduct of Lord Orford during the last ten years of his being first Commissioner of the Treasury and Chancellor and Under Treasurer of the Exchequer.

" The motion having passed, a committee

of secrecy, consisting of twenty-one members, was appointed and empowered to examine in the

most solemn manner, such terms as they thought proper on the subject matter of their inquiry. . .

Armed with such extensive powers, the Committee commenced their operations by choosing Lord Limerick as Chairman."2 The Committee failed to prove the charges against Walpole which were principally the exercise of undue influence in elections ; the granting of fraudulent contracts ; and peculation and profusion in the expenditure of secret service money.3

About this time the substitution of the linen industry for the previously important staple woollen industry in Ireland was being actively furthered in the interests of England by the Protestant Archbishop, Hugh Boulter, who had agreed in 1736 with the Linen Board in Dublin for the settlement of a colony of weavers in Dundalk under the brothers de Joncourt. The Board had agreed

" to pay the de Joncourts ?80 each for seven years provided the}/ give satisfaction

and that they are capable of improving the linen manufacture ; ?12 a year each for five years to two flax dressers ; and ?8 each to twro spinning mistresses. They also undertook to provide a bleach green with land for seed and flax growing."4 A voluntary subscription was raised and the manu

factory established on the estate of Lord Limerick, who made himself responsible for housing the workmen.5 To expedite the proposals, the Archbishop had written on 28 April, 1737 to Horace

Walpole who, with the Duke of Dorset, had made representations on behalf of the Huguenots: M. de Joncourt has lately brought me the favour of yours of the 4th instant. On account of your former recommendation, I did him what service I could at the Linen

i. The Peerage of Ireland, Almon. Lond., 1758, p. 88.

2. William Cox, Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole, Lond., 1798, Vol. I, pp. 710-11.

3. ibid., p. 719.

4. Journal of the Linen Board, 1784, under date 24 April, 1736.

5. Grace Lawless Lee, The Huguenot Settlements in Ireland, Lond. 1936, p. 191.

32



VISCOUNT LIMERICK GRAMMAR SCHOOL, DUNDALK 33

Board, where we agreed with him and his brother on the terms on which they are to

carry on the cambric manufacture; and gave one of his brothers money to go to

France and bring over skilful workmen.

Before his return we had fixed upon Dundalk for the place to settle manu facture in, and with the approbation of his brother, and since his return we have advanced money to send the workmen thither to begin their business.1

Lord Limerick's seats were at Egham in Surrey and Dundalk in Louth, "

and he was very much in favour of the establishment of the new industry ; and

by his hearty endeavour and subscription of ?1,000 was the principal instrument in

procuring the King's Charter, October 24, 1739, for incorporating a body politic, by the name of the Governor and Company for carrying on the Cambric Manufacture in the Town of Dundalk, or elsewhere in Ireland, with power to raise a joint stock of

?30,000 by subscription, in order to carry on that manufacture, and for the making of black soap and bleaching linen.

A month after the granting of the Charter, the House of Commons in Dublin was being asked to aid the project financially:

A petition of Hugh, Archbishop of Armagh; Robert, Earl of Kildare; James, Viscount Limerick; Michael Ward and Hugh Henry, esqrs., on behalf of the Governor and Company for carrying on the cambrick manufacture in Dundalk or elsewhere in the kingdom of Ireland, setting forth, that his present Majesty has been graciously pleased to grant his royal charter of incorporation to the petitioners, and such other

persons as shall become subscribers, to raise a fund of thirty thousand pounds for the effectual carrying on a manufacture for making cambrick, black soap, and bleaching linen ; that the petitioners have subscribed considerable sums to the said manufacture ; and the petitioner James, Lord Viscount Limerick, hath been at great expence in

erecting several houses at Dundalk; that the said manufacture is already so far

advanced, that several hundred pieces of cambrick have been made of equal goodness with the foreign ; that it will be absolutely necessary to build several other houses and conveniences for working the said manufacture, and pa}ring

an aid therein, was

presented to the House and read.2

As a result of this petition, a Committee of the House of Commons Resolved that it is the opinion of this Committee, that the establishing of the cambrick and black soap manufactures will be of general advantage to this kingdom, as it will conduce to the employing of our natives, and towards the saving of the present

great expence, occasioned by the importation of foreign cambricks and black soap. Resolved that it is the opinion of this Committee, that it will be necessary to

build several dwelling houses, vaults and ware houses, in order thoroughly to establish the said manufactures, and to encourage foreign Protestants to settle in this kingdom.

Resolved that it is the opinion of this Committee that the granting the sum of four thousand pounds to the Governor and Company for carrying

on the said manu

factures, will be of general benefit to this kingdom, as it wiU enable them to erect

buildings, necessary for carrying on the said manufactures with vigour and success.3

This grant-in-aid of ?4,000 was followed by other grants from the House of Commons during the lifetime of Lord Limerick of ?3,000 in 1745 and ?2,000 in 1751. In addition the cambric indus

try at Dundalk was aided by the imposition of duties on foreign cambric, other than that produced in Great Britain.4 D'Alton, writing of Dundalk in 1864, states that

" the place where the manu

factory was located is now occupied by the Cavalry Barracks and few traces exist of what must at one time have been a very extensive establishment."

i. Boulter's Letters, Vol. I.

2. The Journals of the House of Commons of the Kingdom of Ireland, Vol. VII (1739-48), p. 73.

3. ibid., p. 76.

4. As proof that the French colonists made no lasting impression in the neighbourhood of Dundalk, Grace

Lee, op. cit., points out that after 1782 no separate pastor was appointed for them. From 1737 until that year Henri David Petitpierre, who had come from Tounai as minister at a salary of ?60 p.a. served the congregation, but after his death or retirement the post was given to the Portarlington Huguenot Minister.



34 COUNTY LOUTH ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

Bishop Richard Pococke, who passed through Dundalk on Tuesday, 23 June, 1752, thirteen

years after the setting up of the cambric factory there by de Joncourt brothers and other Huguenot settlers, has left the following description of what he saw there :

This is a town chiefly consisting of one street about half a mile long; it was in the time of Edward II a royalty and the last where a monarch of all Ireland was crowned and resided, and did chiefly consist of castles, some traces of which they say are stull to be seen. Lord Limerick lives here, and has made some fine plantations and walks behind a very bad house which is in the street of the town; as walks with elm hedges on each side, an artificial serpentine river, a Chinese bridge, a thatched open house supported by the bodies of fir trees, etc., and a fine kitchen garden with closets for fruit.

At the entrance of the town from the south is a Charter School of 30 girls founded at first as a Charity School for twenty boys and twenty girls by Mrs. Ann Hamilton and erected into a Charter School in 1738 by her son the present Lord Limerick.

They are employed in spinning for the Cambrick Manufacture here, which I went to see ; this manufacture is carried on by a Company who subscribe, and is about half a

mile from the town towards the Bay; the design of the building is to be round a court, with a large opening at every corner to give air ; two sides of it are entirely built, having ten houses on each side, a third side has only six houses built and on the fourth side is the cashier's house with the yarn house on one side of it and the ? house on the other in which they wind off the yarn on quills for weaving ; the flax is brought ready scutched and hackled from France, they then stove or bake it to make it come finer by brushing it which is peculiar to the cambrick manufacture; the houses are contiguous and consist of two rooms of a floor and three floors, one of which is underground and vaulted with good lights in front, which are kept shut, for they must work under

ground and shut out the fresh air in order to keep the yarn damp, otherwise they cannot weave it : the two rooms hold eight looms, these rooms the Company give rent

free, one to each master who may employ eight, either apprentices or

journeymen, and the Company paies 'em for what they weave, according to the quantity of it, the finest is what they call 2600 that is so many quills, to each of which are two threads, so that there are in the breadth 5,200 threads, and this is worth about fourteen shillings a yard.

The market abroad is not high enough for the export, so that most of the consumption is at home ; and tho' the ladies say they cannot afford to wear it because it does not last so long as the French, yet the most discerning cannot distinguish the best from

French. They make fine lawns also, and this is all bleached in yards that are near;

working in this close manner is unwholsom, and occasions the itch and scurvy. They told me that they had forty of our Charter boys. I saw such of them as could be got together and gave them a small present and a word of exhortation. There is a house for dressing flax for linnen near the town where they did also weave and it is filled

with men brought from Holland. They are now building a sugar house near the town and they have a handsome court-house and a Free School.1

Four years after Dr. Pococke's visit to Dundalk, Viscount Limerick was created Earl of Clanbrassil, and he took his seat as such in the House of Lords, Dublin, on 11 October, 1757. The event is recorded in the Journals of that House as follows :

i. Pococke's Tour in Ireland in iy$2, ed. by Dr. George T. Stokes, Dublin, 1891, pp. 3-5. The cambric

industry in Dundalk was in fact in decline at the time of Dr. Pococke's visit. Parliament endeavoured to keep it going by imposing stiff import duties on French fabrics, and in granting subsidies (?1,375 in each of the years

1753-5-7-9) in an effort to keep it alive, it ultimately petered out, and in 1784 in his report to the Linen Board,

John Arbuthnot mentions only two linen industries in Dundalk?the thread works of a Mr. Wright, and "

linens and keatings

" manufactured by Messrs. Page and Co.?Grace L. Lee, op. cit., p. 92.

Arthur Young, who had visited Dundalk on 2 July, 1776, wrote: "

A cambrick manufacture was established here by Parliament, but failed; it was, however, the origin of that more to the north."?Arthur Young, A Tour in Ireland, Lond. 1780, p. 102.




The Right Honourable James Lord Viscount Limerick being by letters patent dated

24 November in the 30th year of King George II created Earl of Clanbrassil, was in his robes, introduced between the Earl of Kildare and the Earl of Ross, also in their robes ; the Gentleman-Usher of the Black-Rod and Ulster King of Arms, in his Coat of

Arms, carrying the said letters patent preceding his Lordship presented the same to the Lord Chancellor, on his knee, at the Wool-sack, who gave them to the Clerk of Parliaments, which were read at the table. His writ of summons was also read.

Immediately before his elevation to his Earldom, Viscount Limerick had been associated with other members of the House of Lords in an investigation of

" the present state of Popery in this

Kingdom," and they Resolved that it is the opinion of this Committee that the number of Popish Priests, Monks and Friars has of late greatly increased in this kingdom, to the manifest

prejudice of the Protestant Religion and of His Majesty's Government, and of the Peace and Welfare of this Kingdom.

It was further Resolved that in the opinion of this Committee that the allowing a competent number of Popish secular priests to exercise their functions, under proper Rules and Restric tions, with a due execution of the laws against regulars and persons exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction, would tend to deliver this Kingdom from the great number of Monks and Friars that at present infest it.1

Accordingly at a meeting of the House on 6 January, 1756 "

The Lord Viscount Limerick presented Heads of a

' Bill for a Register of Popish Priests

' which was read for the first time ; there was a

second reading a few days later and at their meeting on 22 January, 1756 the House ordered the Bill to be printed. The Bill came before the House several times subsequently, where it was

strongly opposed by the Protestant Archbishop of Armagh (George Stone).2 The Archbishops and Bishops of the Established Church dominated the proceedings in the House of Lords, and the Bill was rejected. Lord Limerick (now Earl Clanbrassil) had, however, fixed ideas about his Bill and he reintroduced it in the following session.3 It was again vehemently opposed by the Bishops ;

many of whom, like Dr. Stone, favoured toleration towards the Catholics. Owing to an irregularity in the admission of proxy votes, it failed to reach enactment, and nothing more was heard of it after the death early in 1758 of the principal sponsor?Earl Clanbrassil.4

II

By indenture dated 5 August, 1725 between James, Lord Viscount Limerick, and the Bailiff, Burgesses and Commonalty of the borough of Dundalk, the said James, Lord Viscount Limerick, in consideration of the release to him and his heirs and assigns for ever, by the said Bailiff, Burgesses and Commonalty, of all their right, title and interest in certain Bogs and Common Lands in or near Dundalk, granted a perpetual annuity or yearly rent-charge of fifty pounds, Irish currency, payable out of the estates of the said James, Viscount Limerick, for ever, for the encouragement and support of one or more schoolmasters to teach the English and Latin tongues within the

borough of Dundalk or the liberties thereof for ever.

Soon afterwards Lord Limerick erected a Free School in the town of Dundalk, and by an indenture dated 19 August, 1728, Thomas Fortescue of Reynoldstown in the County Louth

i. Journals of the House of Lords, Vol. IV, 1753-1776? P- 83

2. Stuart, Memoirs of the City of Armagh, 1819, pp. 438-40.

3. House of Lords Journal, op. cit., p. 87: "

The Earl of Clanbrassil presented to the House, Heads of a Bill for a general Register of Popish Priests, which were received and read a first time. . . . Ordered that the said heads of a Bill be forthwith printed and published, and that the Clerk of the House do appoint the printing thereof." 12 October, 1757

4. The Complete Peerage, ed. by Doubleday and Howard de Waiden gives the date of his death as 17 March,

1758. Vol. VI?, p. 662. Vol. Ill of the same work, ed. by Gibbs and Doubleday, gives the same date, p. 212! This date is incorrect as Clanbrassil was in active attendance in the House of Lords during the period from

Christmas, 1757 to April 19, 1758. On that date he made a report to the House on the Bill for applying the licence fees of Hawkers and Pedlars towards the support of the Charter Schools. His son, who succeeded him, first entered the House of Lords on 22 January, 1762, on which date he took the usual oaths.



36 COUNTY LOUTH ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

demised to the said James, Lord Viscount Limerick, his executors, administrators and assigns, for a term of 999 years, subject to the yearly rent of sixpence, Irish currency, the plot of ground in the town of Dundalk upon which the Free School then stood, which had then been lately erected by Lord Viscount Limerick.

It is stated that in addition to the indenture of 5 August, 1725, already mentioned, there was another indenture of even date

" made between the Corporation of Dundalk of the one part, and

the Earl of Limerick of the other part, reciting that the Corporation had no right to certain

premises therein mentioned, called the Commons of Dundalk, and that the same belonged of right to the Earl of Limerick, the said Corporation in consideration of such right on the part of the Earl of Limerick, and of his having granted an annuity of ?50 per annum for the encouragement and

support of certain schools in Dundalk, conveyed all their right, &c., to the bogs and commons in and near Dundalk to the said Earl of Limerick, his heirs, &c. . . . The general opinion in Dundalk and the Report of 1807-12 give a very different account of the transaction which originated this endowment. It is very commonly believed in the locality that the premises comprised in the deed of 1725 were the actual bona fide property of the Corporation, and that the Earl of Limerick, at a time when that body were in complete subservience to him, induced them to part with their estate in consideration of the paltry endowment of ?50 a year. The property in question is now

very valuable, and worth many hundreds per annum. It must be admitted that the deed of

conveyance above mentioned wears a very suspicious appearance, though it may be impossible, at this distance of time, to impeach its validity."1

Some light on the question may be thrown by an indenture of the previous year (dated 12 January, 1724) relative to a conveyance extracted by Viscount Limerick from Thomas Fortescue

concerning the Commons of Dundalk which recites that

James Viscount Limerick is now seized of and entitled unto all bogs and commons in or near the town of Dundalk and liberties thereof as formerly belonging to the said town or Corporation of Dundalk by virtue of a purchase made thereof by James

Hamilton Esquire his late deceased father from the Right Honourable Marcus Lord Viscount Dungannon deceased .... also that Thomas Fortescue hath lately pur chased from Draycott Talbot of Mornington in the County of Meath Esquire various lands in the town and parish of Dundalk . . . and whereas the said Thomas Fortescue

doth pretend and give out that he hath more right of commonage in the said boggs or commons in or near the said town or in the suburbs or liberties thereof, or in the

parish of Dundalk, in virtue of his said purchase . . . and also gives out and pretends

to have some right to the estate or interest by colour of the said purchase in or to some

houses, messuages, waste grounds or other parts

or places within the said town or

Corporation of Dundalk . . . and William Wolsey pretends to have some trust on the said purchase

so made.

And whereas the said James Lord Viscount Limerick being unwilling to have any law suit controversy or debate with the said Thomas Fortescue or the said William Wolsey touching or concerning the premises, hath come to an agreement with them, the said

Thomas Fortescue and William Wolsey for a grant or release of all their right title estate interest claim pretence and demand of, in, or to the said boggs and commons, and of, in, or to the said houses, messuages, homesteads, waste grounds

or other parts or places within the said town or Corporation of Dundalk, which they or either of them

may have or hath, or can or may pretend to have or claim by virtue of the said

purchase from the said Draycott Talbot, in consideration whereof the said James Lord Viscount Limerick hath agreed to pay the sum of five hundred pounds sterling to the said Thomas Fortescue, at the request and by and with the consent and directions of the said William Wolsey.2

The foregoing document gives one some idea of the extraordinary manoeuvres whereby Lord Viscount Limerick secured possession of the Common Lands of the Corporation of Dundalk. He

i. Endowed Schools (Ireland) Commission, 1855-38, Vol. Ill, p. 181.

2. Statement of Title of the Rt. Hon. Robert Earl of Roden to the Manor Town and lands of Dundalk, National

Library of Ireland, Ir. 3,472 r. 3. Appendix No. X.




held this body in his pocket throughout his life ; it was not competent for the Corporation to divest itself at any time of the Corporation lands; and there is no documentary proof of Viscount

Limerick's statement that his father purchased these lands from Viscount Dungannon?who would not, in any case, have any ownership in them.

It is not clear from the records available whether the Corporation or Viscount Limerick erected the Endowed School building in Chapel Lane, Dundalk, and the first recorded notice of the School

was made fifty years or so after it had been opened. This is an entry in the appendix to the report of the Commissioners appointed by the Lord Lieutenant in 1788, under the provisions of an Act, 28 Geo. II, c. 15, governing an inquiry into all schools in Ireland on public or charitable founda

tions. There it is stated that

Certain portions of land called the Commons were granted by the Corporation of Dundalk to the late Earl of Clanbrassil, in consideration of his endowing a School there with ?50 yearly for a Master, to which School the Freemen were to send their children

paying only 2 guineas yearly for each. A very commodious house fit for thirty boarders.1

The master in 1788 was Gervais Finley; he had sixteen pupils of whom two were boarders, eight were day boys, and six were free. His charge for boarders was ?30 p.a. He was still there on

9 March, 1812, when the Commissioners of the Board of Education made the following report: The Reverend Gervais Finlay is the present Master of this School; he was

appointed by the late Earl of Clanbrassil, the gth September, 1787. He had when we examined him in May, 1809, thirty-six scholars, fourteen of whom were boarders, and

of his day-scholars fourteen of them availed themselves of the privilege of the grant in favour of the Sons of Freemen, and paid two guineas per annum for their education ;

the other day scholars paid four guineas per annum, and one entrance, and his boarders

twenty-four guineas a year, and five entrance.

At this School Mr. Finlay had formerly forty-eight scholars, of whom seventeen were boarders. The scholars have the usual opportunities of instruction in French, &c. from masters who attend and on reasonable terms.

There are two assistants kept at the expense of the Master, at the salaries of ?25 per annum each, with board and lodging, the one a classical assistant, and the other

a teacher of writing and mathematics. It appears that the school house is kept in

repair by the Master ; peculiar attention appears to have been paid by Mr. Finlay to the religious instruction of his pupils, and to the appropriate employment of Sunday ; there are two other classical schools, but not upon any foundations, kept in the town of Dundalk, one by a Dissenter, the other by a Roman Catholic, the latter a very considerable one.2

In addition to his post as master, Rev. Mr. Finlay had a church preferment, being Protestant curate in the parish of Dundalk. He was also visiting catechist to the local Charter School.

In 1824 Rev. J. H. Stubbs was Master of the School. He had forty pupils, all Protestants. He is stated to have been in receipt of ?50 a year from the Corporation. His charge for boarders was forty pounds

a year, and for day boys two guineas a year.

In their report of 1835 the Commissioners on Municipal Corporations refer to the foundation of Dundalk School, and comment that

" The whole of the proceedings of the Corporation in 1719

and 1725 whereby the estates of the Corporation were alienated seem to have been founded upon an erroneous representation and to have been improperly entered into. Lord Limerick was then a member of the Corporation. The loss or destruction of the Corporation records of dates anterior to 1692 and from 1725 to 1760 and some defects in those which exist leave us in the dark as to the

history of the property at two most important periods. The tradition in the town is that Mr. Hamilton [father of Viscount Limerick] and Mr. Fortescue, being principals in the Corporation,

i. Endowed Schools (Ireland) Commission, 1855-8, Vol. II, p. 373. 2. Twelfth Report of the Commissioners of the Board of Education in Ireland, 1807-12, p. 285. In this

Report the Master's name is given as Finlay?in the earlier Report cited it is given as Tinley.

D



3? COUNTY LOUTH ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

divided the whole of the corporation property between them, instituting a Michaelmas dinner for the freemen and a school for the Freemen's children.1

In a Government Report of 1835, the School is described as the Diocesan School for the

province of Armagh, which it most certainly was not; and to provide instruction in classics and mathematics and a general English education for twenty-six pupils.2 The master of the School

in 1849 was William C. Boyd whose total number of pupils was seventeen of whom fourteen were

day boys. He had only two boarders and no free pupils. He was followed in April, 1852 by Rev. Edward Maynard Goslett, who was so successful that in 1858 the Governors of the Erasmus Smith Schools appointed him to the vacant mastership of Drogheda Grammar School. While at Dundalk Mr. Goslett had an average of thirty-six boys attending his school, though on his appoint ment he had only one. . . . He was succeeded by W7illiamE. Jeffares who had been for eleven years on

the staff of Portora Royal School, Enniskillen. His prospectus reads as follows:

DUNDALK GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Head Master

WILLIAM E. JEFFARES, A.B., T.C.D.

(Mathematical Master in Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, for the last 11 years)

Assisted by Classical and Foreign Masters

The course of Education pursued will be that required for entrance into the Lmiversities, the Civil and Military examinations. Special attention will be given to pupils for mercantile pursuits.

Terms for Boarders: 42 guineas per annum, payable half-yearly in advance. Washing, 2

guineas extra. German, 2 guineas extra. Drawing,

2 guineas extra.

No boy will be permitted into the town without special permission from the Head Master. All Boarders will take their meals with the Head Master.

Three months' notice of the intended removal of a pupil will be required; otherwise the

parents or guardians will be liable to a quarter's payment. Each Boarder will be required to bring the following outfit:

2 SUITS OF CLOTHES i OUTSIDE COAT

3 PAIRS OF BOOTS 6 DAY SHIRTS

3 NIGHT SHIRTS 8 PAIRS OF SOCKS 6 POCKET/HANDKERCHIEFS

12 COLLARS

4 TOWELS Combs and Brushes for Hair and Clothes, Toot and Nail Brushes, also a small box with lock and key as a

dressing-case. Every article of Clothing to be marked with the name of the owner.

There wTill be two vacations in the year?six weeks in Summer and four in Winter. Punctual

attendance after the vacation is required. The money required for travelling expenses should be

i. Municipal Corporations Ireland. App. to First Report of Commrs.

2. Second Report of Commissioners of Public Instruction (Ireland) 1835, p. 179a. The Diocesan Schools were set up under an Act of 1570 passed in the reign ot Elizabeth I requiring the formation of a Grammar School in each Diocese?no such school was at any time established in the Diocese of Armagh.




sent to the Head Master. Terms for Day Pupils : 10 guineas per annum, payable half-yearly

or quarterly in advance

for boys over 12 years. For Boys under 12 years of age, 8 guineas. German, 2

guineas extra.

Drawing, 2 guineas extra. The Quarter Days are the First of February, May, August, and November.

It is necessary, in the case of Boarders and Day Pupils, the accounts should be settled within a fortnight after they are furnished.

During the period Mr. Jeff ares was at Portora, six of his pupils obtained Mathematical

Sizarship. Ten passed the Military examinations for Woolwich, and others for Sandhurst and the Line. Some of Mr. Jeffares' pupils afterwards obtained the Mathematical prize in Woolwich.

N.B.?In the Military Examinations Mr. Jeffares is only accountable for the Mathematical

portion, which is the principal subject of the Examination.

Mr. Jeffares was only moderately successful at Dundalk, and he vacated his post there in 1871,

leaving the School temporarily in the hands of one of his assistants, Mr. Storey. About this time the question of the foundation of the School received the consideration of

yet another Royal Commission, concerned with the difficulty of deciding between conflicting accounts and accepting that

" it is very unfortunate that the deed of Endowment is not forth

coming." The Commission commented:

There is some doubt as to the origin of the Dundalk Endowed School. It is alleged on the one hand, that the endowment was made by the Earl of Limerick in 1725, in consideration of certain Commons of Dundalk, on which he had some claim, being given up to him by the Corporation. It is alleged, on the other hand, that the claim was not well founded, but that the Corporation being under the influence of the Earl of Limerick, too readily yielded to it.

Our Assistant Commissioner inquired into the matter, and expressed himself unable to decide which of the two accounts of the origin of the Endowrment was correct. He was unable to get a copy of the deed of foundation. A copy was stated to be in the custody of the present representative of the Earl of Limerick and Clan brassil?the Earl of Roden; but could not be obtained, as his solicitor was unable to find the original among his lordship's papers.1

Mr. Jeffares's successor at Dundalk was Richard H. Flynn, who rapidly built up a most

successful School. He had more than fifty pupils, half of whom were boarders and half day boys. In 1879 the Governors of the Erasmus Smith Schools appointed him to the mastership of their

Grammar School at Ennis, Co. Clare. He took with him there more than thirty of his boarders of whom two were Catholics. George WTilliam Johnson, M.A. succeeded Mr. Flynn. The School

was inspected by Rev. John Pentland Mahaffy, F.T.C.D., a year later. His report, dated 7 October

1880, is as follows: Dundalk Endowed School (8 boarders, 28 day boys on roll, 22 in all present) is

one of those small foundations which is of little service, and might profitably be abolished. The patron merely pays his ?46 per annum, and cares no more for the school. The house is not commodious, or well situated; yet under the late master,

who is now removed to Ennis, it was prosperous ; and when the present master, who is

but lately appointed, begins to make way, it may again become a useful day-school, at all events. It has been remarkable of late years in producing several very eminent scholars. I examined the children, and found them fairly taught, but do not think that the present master is here long enough to make him responsible for any defects.2

The Commissioners set up under the Educational Endowments (Ireland) Act, 1885, at their

public meeting held in the Court-house, Dundalk on 22 October, 1886 took evidence on oath from Mr. Johnson. He stated that the largest number of pupils had by him since his appointment was

twenty-nine, of whom ten were boarders. He had brought the boarders with him from Monkstown,

i. Report of Endowed Schools (Ireland) Commission, 1855-58, p. in.

2. Report of Endowed Schools (Ireland) Commission, 1881, app. p. 246.



4o COUNTY LOUTH ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

Co. Dublin, where he had a school before going to Dundalk. His boarders paid forty to fifty guineas a year according to age. He gave instruction in English, classics, mathematics, music and

modern languages. He had thirteen pupils at the time of his examination. He thought that there was room in Dundalk for two classical schools for Protestant boys. He was reminded that

Q. 6846. The Dundalk Educational Institution is a classical school ? Yes.

Q. 6847. You think there is room in Dundalk for a second ? Yes, for a higher class of boys.

Q. 6848. Do you mean socially ? Yes. I would not wish my boys to mix with the

boys at the Institution.1

The Commissioners met again in the Court-house at Dundalk on 23 October, 1891. Mr. Johnson had then only three pupils. He explained that because of competition from the Educational Institution his numbers were reduced. He was now of opinion that there was not room in the

town for two schools, both giving the same class of education. He was asked

Q. 1393. What distinction existed between the two schools formerly ? The Grammar School was considered to be a high-class school, and some of the parents would not send their children to the Incorporated Society's School, where they could not get a classical education.

Q. 1394. Can they now ? Yes. Classics are now taught in the Incorporated Society's school.

Q. 1395. Do boys of all Protestant denominations attend the Incorporated Society's school ? I could not say that. . . .

Q. 1398. While the Incorporated Society give a classical education to the boys in their

school, would the Board be able to make a successful school of the Grammar School at the same time ? I should think not.

Q. 1406. As there is the Incorporated Society school, and keeping open two schools of the same class is injurious to both, having regard to the estate interest in the

matter, some proposals to utilize these premises might be better than keeping open a

struggling school.2

The Educational Endowments Commissioners drafted a scheme for the administration of the Viscount Limerick Endowment and returned to Dundalk where they held a public session on 21 October, 1893 to consider objections to the scheme. The Judicial Commissioner, Lord Justice Fitzgibbon said

When I come to the objections, the first statement I find is rather curious; we are

told, in one of the objections, that this is the only school available for Protestant education in Dundalk. To begin with there is nothing exclusively denominational in the foundation, it is for the encouragement and support of one or more schoolmasters

to teach English and Latin indiscriminately to all who were willing to receive such instruction in Dundalk. The School, when first founded by Lord Limerick, was

described, in the deed of 1728, as a Free School, which means a school open to all

pupils of all denominations who wanted education of that kind. . . . The Incorporated

Society is of an exclusively Protestant character, as its very name shows, which is "

The Incorporated Society for Promoting English Protestant Schools in Ireland," and Mr. Finch's school is about the best of the Society's schools, and is attended by Protestant pupils of the town. We were therefore surprised to find the Protestants of Dundalk stating that Lord Limerick's school is the only school available for them; in point of fact, they have not, at least recently, attended it at all. The denominational element being out of the case, if the School cannot be maintained as it is, how can the endowment be utilized ? The scheme proposed that the buildings and land should be turned into money, and the draft scheme proposed that they should be put up for

public sale. . . .

i. Educational Endowments (Ireland) Commission, Annual Report, 1886-7, PP- 219-220.

2. Educational Endowments (Ireland) Commission, Annual Report, 1891-2, pp. 92-3.




Mr. Johnson had then no pupils in his school, but Rev. Joseph G. Rainsford, D.D., Protestant Rector of Dundalk, and his fellow signatories to a memorial, were satisfied that the school should

be continued as it was required for the Protestant "

gentry." He said in evidence

Q. 2357. I do not want to say one word against the Incorporated Society's school, but I say it does not represent the class I belong to. For instance, my gardener's

son

was in that school, and got a scholarship in an honourable way. It was not quite

pleasant to have my sons mixed with boys of that class. Besides that, the education was not what it would be in a

higher class school. The education in classics, the

little Latin they taught, or the manners were not so good, and it was not expected they

would be, and it is a downright loss to my congregation, respectable commercial

people, as well as to nryself and others, not having this Grammar School. . . .

Q. 2367. . . . There are a large number of pupils in Mr. Finch's school who are

learning Latin and English, and your point is that the persons who want this Grammar School

re-established are persons who would not like their sons to associate with those other

pupils ??Only with some, not with all. We are only asking for a continuance of what

we have had for 170 years.1 A scheme for the administration of the endowment was prepared under the Educational

Endowments (Ireland) Act, 1885, and approved by the Lords Justices and Privy Council in Ireland on 22 April, 1896. This scheme recited that

Whereas the said Dundalk Endowed School for several years past has been attended

by a very small number of pupils, and there has lately been no pupils attending the same, and the buildings belonging to the said School have become dilapidated, and there are no funds available to repair or maintain the same, and other Schools have been

established and are now in operation in the town of Dundalk, in which the Latin and

English tongues are taught, and it is not now possible or expedient to maintain the Dundalk Endowed School.

The scheme contained provision for payment of an annuity of ?30 to the Master, George William

Johnson, on his giving clear possession of the school premises; it provided further for the sale of these premises with the adjoining garden ; and for the transfer of the proceeds to the Commissioners of Education2 to be invested and the interest applied each year in grants to the Managers of Intermediate Schools in the Dundalk district in respect of the male pupils of such schools

" in

respect of whom result fees for passing in both English and Latin shall be payable by the Inter mediate Education Board."

When Mr. Johnson vacated the school premises, they were acquired for a sum of ?600 by the

Town Commissioners of Dundalk for the purposes of the Public Libraries Act (Ireland), 1855. At the same time Mr. Johnson commuted his annuity for a payment of ?330 and in the vear 1898 the Commissioners made a first distribution of the income of the Endowment. Three schools proved their claims for a share in the sum available (?60 18s. $d.) namely: St. Mary's College, Dundalk, for eleven pupils; the Christian Brothers, Dundalk, for twenty-five pupils; and the Dundalk

Educational Institution, for eighteen pupils. The money was distributed according to these

numbers. The annual income accruing to the endowment lias been similarly distributed in

subsequent years, Dundalk Grammar School taking the place of the Educational Institution from the year 1924.

i. Educational Endowments (Ireland) Commission, Final Report, i8(j4, pp. 175-190. 2. The Commissioners of Education in Ireland were incorporated under the Act 53 George III, cap. 107.

3. Scheme No. 143 framed under the Educational Endowments (Ireland) Act, 1885.



Documents

Viscount Limerick Grammar School, Dundalk