Reading the Regency

Education - part 1

"Mrs. Goddard was the mistress of a School-not of a seminary, or an establishment, or any thing which professed, in long sentences of refined nonsense, to combine liberal acquirements with elegant morality, upon new principles and new systems-and where young ladies for enormous pay might be screwed out of health and into vanity-but a real, honest, old-fashioned Boarding-school, where a reasonable quantity of accomplishments were sold at a reasonable price, and where girls might be sent to be out of the way, and scramble themselves into a little education, without any danger of coming back prodigies."
[Chapter 3, Emma by Jane Austen]

Schools for the poor

There was no government-run or countrywide education system. Some parishes had cheap or free local schools for the poor, sometimes paid for by philanthropic landowners, but despite these efforts, many of the working-class poor had no education and the majority of children could not read or write. This caused problems when industries and manufacturers needed workers who could read instructions and make measurements.

Over time there were various attempts to provide some basic education for the poor.

Dame Schools educated the very youngest members of working-class families, where the children might learn very basic reading, writing and spelling. The "Dame" was usually an older lady, although occasionally it could be a man, and the lessons took place in a room in their own house. The quality of the education very much depended on how much the Dame knew herself. An illiterate woman might teach sewing and knitting, rather than reading and writing, along with rhymes she had learned at her mother's knee. They were the Regency equivalent of a modern-day nursery school or kindergarten, providing childcare while the parents did a full days work.

The idea of educating children was not always welcomed by parents. In an age when children as young as five years old could be employed and contributing to the household income, some poor families either thought school was a waste of time or a risk to their finely balanced family finances. Sunday schools were a useful alternative, as they were held on what was traditionally a day of rest.

Sunday schools had risen in popularity since the 1780's until by 1800 there were in the region of 200,000 children being educated in Sunday schools around the United Kingdom. From the ages of six or seven, the children were taught to read passages from the bible, catechisms, prayers and hymns. Many factory owners saw a benefit in their employees going to Sunday school, and some even paid for local provision themselves.

Jedediah Strutt owned cotton-spinning mills in the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire, and like his predecessor Richard Arkwright at Cromford, he considered educating his workers to be sound business sense. In 1817 he paid for 650 children to attend Sunday school in Belper, and a further 300 in Milford.

Charity schools, or Bluecoat schools, were often paid for by the church or wealthy local families. It became common for rich people to leave money in their will to provide a school for the poor. The earliest ones opened in the 17th century, and the children usually wore blue uniforms, as blue was the traditional colour of charity.

Boys and girls were taught reading, writing, and other skills that were deemed useful, such as needlework for the girls. The schools would also find suitable apprenticeships in skilled trades, or positions in service once they had finished their schooling.

Livery Companies were tradesmen's guilds, based in London. Many operated schools to provide education and training for the children and orphans of their members, particularly for those families who were suffering financial hardship. Some examples of Livery Company Schools were The Mercer's School, run by the Worshipful Company of Mercers, founded in 1542, the Haberdasher's School, founded in 1690, and the Licensed Victuallers' School, founded in 1803. Often fee-paying students would be educated alongside those receiving an education for free. An example of this was the Merchant Tailors' School, who, in 1818 were educating 100 children at 5 shillings a quarter, 50 children at 2 shillings sixpence a quarter, and 100 children were not being charged at all.