Dufferin Chronicles

Some Schools of the Past in Killyleagh

School of Philopsophy 1697-1714

A school of philosophy was conducted in Killyleagh from 1697 to 1714 by a Presbyterian minister, Rev James McAlpine. After a lapse of over three hundred years it is impossible to give any factual account of where in Killyleagh the school was situated, the subjects taught, how the school was operated or how many students attended. It was sufficiently successful to arouse the enmity of the Established Church which at that period claimed the right to control education and schools.

Rev James Bruce was the Presbyterian minister in Killyleagh from 1685 till 1730. His wife was Margaret Trail, the granddaughter of John Hamilton, a younger brother of James, Viscount Clandeboye. Mr Bruce was deeply interested in getting the school started and the Hamiltons gave the project every encouragement They provided Rev McAlpine with a dwelling house free of charge and "four soums’ grazing and meadown for hay to winter the soums" together with assistance in bringing home two hundred loads of turf for firing yearly. This agreement was signed in the presence of James Bruce on 4th May 1697 by Gawen and William Hamilton and Hans Stevenson, the new owners of the Killyleagh Castle estate.

The "School of Philosophy" appears to have been a philosophical seminary specially intended for the education of aspirants to the Presbyterian ministry. It was sustained by Presbyterians and was subservient to their interests. The "History of Congregations" (Presbyterian) notes that quite a number of ministerial candidates got their classical education there including James Bruce’s two sons, Michael and Patrick. Dr.Alexander McCreery says that he saw the Latin exercise books of John (1704) and William (1700) Henderson showing clear evidence of classical scholarship.

The school was soon objected to by Walkington, Bishop of Down and Connor, in a complaint to the government about "philosophical school, in open violation and contempt of the laws". In 1698 Rev McBride of Belfast had to appear in Dublin before the lords-justices to answer for his claim for independence in religious matters. Hew also questioned about the Killyleagh school. He replied that the school was not a new thing as there had been similar seminaries previously, that theology was no taught, and that McAlpine had a licence from the Chancellor of the diocese. He was able to satisfy his interrogators about the school.

In 1705 the prelates and their supporters got the Irish House of Commons to pass a resolution condemning "the erecting and continuing any seminary for the instruction and education of youth in principles contrary to the Established Church and Government". The resolution was meant to attack the Killyleagh school especially, but it survived.

The pressure was renewed in 1712 by Rev William Tisdall, vicar of Belfast. He referred to the school at Killyleagh "where students are taught their course of philosophy and afterward have been sent to be instructed in their divinity lectures by the great Professor, Mr McBride, at Belfast". He accused the school of disloyal and seditious tendencies. The Presbyterian ministers of Northern Ireland replied in a public statement denying these charges. In answer to the pamphlets of Tisdall Rev James Kirkpatrick wrote a book, "Loyalty of Presbyterians" in which he refers to similar schools which had previously operated in Antrim and Newtown. He claimed that there was no disloyalty in the candidates for the Presbyterian ministry at McAlpine’s school in Killyleagh and further pointed out that the students got no part of the regium donum or sacrament money to which qualified ministers were entitled.

The school survived despite its occasional traumas until 1714 when McAlpine gave up teaching and accepted a call to a church in Ballynahinch where he ministered until 1732. No successor was appointed and the school was closed having apparently operated successfully for a period of seventeen years.

Rev William Dunne’s Academy

Rev William Dunne was ordained in Killyleagh Presbyterian Church in 1745. He married Margaret Bruce, granddaughter of Rev James Bruce, minister in Killyleagh until 1730, and thus acquired the house and land in Ardigon which had belonged to the Bruces. There he had an academy for advanced pupils and instruction was given in classics similar to the seminaries operating at different times in Ulster. He wished to revive the school of philosophy run by McAlpine and actually obtained the equipment and books belonging to it. But his schemes, like his school, came to an end when he accepted a call to a Dublin church and left Killyleagh in 1765.

"Retiring-house" school, early nineteenth century

By the early years of the nineteenth century there was considerable interest in education and a variety of school were in operation in the towns and villages of Northern Ireland. Many of these gave a sound early education especially in the classics. Henry Cooke, in the Maghera area, attended some six schools which prepared him to proceed to Glasgow University in 1802 at the age of fourteen. Lewis notes in 1837 that in Killyleagh "about 450 children are taught in six public schools of which three were built and are supported by Lord and Lady Dufferin, D. Gordon, and Rev A.R. Hamilton. There are four private schools in which there are 140 children, and three Sunday Schools". Very little is known of these schools today. A national education system was introduced in 1831 and the details of its application locally approved in 1840. Thereafter these diverse schools would be superseded by grant aided schools operating under the new Education Board.

However, a little information exists on one school operating in 1811. Dr. McCreery quotes from a Presbyterian church committee document of July 1811; "Many persons have objected to a school being kept in the retiring house, on account of the concourse of young persons thus assembled in the graveyard, and our opinion is that is should not continue longer than next November". The retiring house was a slated oblong house with two apartments and stood rectangularly to the meeting-house a few yards from the east corner of the old triple-aisled church built in 1714 and replaced in 1826 by Dr. Henry Cooke. Whatever the original purpose of the retiring house may have been it was long used as a school. It was eventually taken down when the burial ground was enlarged.

There were classical teachers connected with it and was attended by a son of Dr Joseph Little, the minister of Killyleagh church. A teacher was intrepid enough to punish the boy who ran home and told his father. The Doctor armed himself with a stick, descended upon the luckless teacher and beat him severely. Court action was threatened but the solicitor managed to pay the teacher damages to settle out of court. When told the amount of the damages Little exclaimed, "What! so much! Soul and body, he is not worth it". The incident, probably apocryphal, is worth recording even though it sheds more light upon the character of Dr Joseph Little than upon the Killyleagh school of the period.

Licenced Classical, English, and Mercantile School, c.1816

Probably the earliest Killyleagh school about which a little factual information survives was the "Licenced Classical, English and Mercantile School" conducted by Rev Wm.D.H. McEwen and Rev. Edward Prenter.

The title of the school was cumbersome but was designed to explain the work carried on in this particular place of learning. Although the grip of the Established Church on the control of schools was slackening by the nineteenth century, it was obviously still desirable to assure everyone in any way concerned that the school was "licensed". The prize list shows that the term "classical" included Greek, Latin and Latin Grammar. Awards were made to nineteen different pupils. Seven of these earned distinction in Latin, one in Latin Grammar and three in Greek. The three Greek award winners were also Latin award winners. It is likely that these classical students were at the senior end of the school and were destined for the Presbyterian ministry.

Under the heading "English" awards were "adjudged" in English Reading, Spelling, and English Grammar and Parsing to eight pupils in each section, to seven pupils in Writing and to four in Recitation, making a total of 35 awards in English. There was therefore a decided emphasis on the study of English. This is not surprising as one of the teachers, Rev. McEwen, the Presbyterian minister at Killyleagh from 1813 to 1817, was a distinguished teacher who left Killyleagh to join the staff of the new Belfast Academical Institution as a teacher of elocution. Modern English teachers would scarcely approve of the stress on spelling, grammar, parsing and writing, the mechanical aspects of English, and the neglect of creative expression.

The "mercantile" side of the school included the study of geography, history and arithmetic. These subjects obtained honourable mention only six times, thus giving a measure of their relative unimportance in the curriculum.

The advertisement gives the names of nineteen pupils, so the minimum number of students attending the school was nineteen. Present day ideas of small classes were unheard of last century, and the number of pupils to be taught by two teachers could have been anything from fifty to one hundred. Some pupils were boarders at Mr Prenter’s house. The insertion of the advertisement may also have been designed to attract new pupils to the school.

It is probable that this school did not long survive after Mr McEwen went to teach in Belfast in 1817. Dr. Henry Cooke, his successor in Killyleagh, was much concerned with education in Northern Ireland but in his time nothing more is heard of the "Licenced Classical, English and Mercantile School".

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