The Fitzhenry Schoolmasters of Coolroe, Co. Wicklow: Part 2

The first post in this series featured Thomas Fitzhenry and his son Enoch, both teachers at the Coolroe, Tinahely school in Co. Wicklow.

I found an earlier version of the reference book which I had used for this previous post 

Report of the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor of Ireland Reports 8-11 
[1820 - 1823]

and this had the same Thomas Fitzhenry at Coolroe school, along with his son Edward.

Eighth report 1820
No Fitzhenrys are mentioned in the report.
In the list of teachers awarded gratuities, a Thomas Paslow is named at the teacher for the "Tinnahely" school, and the school patron was the Rev. R. Symes. 

Ninth report 1821
Edward Fitzhenry was admitted for training at the Seminary of the Society in Dublin between 7th November and 30th December 1820. He had been recommended for training by the patron of the Tinahely school, Rev. R. H. Symes (the same patron who would recommend his younger brother Enoch for training in 1827. Edward was 18 years old, a Protestant, and had started teaching in 1820. There were 40 boys and 23 girls at the school.

His father Thomas was not listed amongst those teachers given gratuities during the year to reward their good work.

Tenth Report 1822
This report described the expansion of the training of school-teachers, including the setting up of model schools and the training of female teachers.

One Moses Walsh was recommended by a Mr W. E. Fitzhenry [pages 42 and 43] from the school at Newtown in Co. Carlow. He attended the training school from 13th November 1821 to 12th January 1822. Moses was 34 years old at the time (born c. 1788) and he had started teaching in 1804 when he was 16. He was a Catholic.
This W. E. Fitzhenry was William Evans, who had married Mary Fitzhenry the daughter of William Fitzhenry of Ballymackessy, Co Wexford. He had taken the Fitzhenry name at the behest of her father. This made William Evans Fitzhenry the brother in law of Jeremiah Fitzhenry, one of the leaders of the 1798 uprising.

Elizabeth Fitzhenry was awarded a gratuity at theTanderagee Female school, Armagh, where she was in charge of 100 pupils (as was her colleague John Cuthbert at the male school) 
Thomas Fitzhenry (141 pupils) was awarded a gratuity for his work at Coolroe, which was a separate school from that at Tinahely where Thomas Paslow (169 pupils) was still the master.


Eleventh Report 1823
Gratuities were awarded to:
Elizabeth Fitzhenry (110 pupils) and John Cuthbert (124 pupils) at the Tanderagee schools
Thomas Fitzhenry (Coolroe, 140 pupils) and Thomas Paslow (Tinahely, 147 pupils)

I also found the Coolroe Fitzhenrys in this most excellent book by Michael Seery, which online in Google books:
Education in Wicklow: From Parish Schools to National Schools

Seery gives a very thorough background to the history of education in Ireland, and it's a very good read. He explains that the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in Ireland was also known as the Kildare Place Society, and that the more local Wicklow Education Society was set up with the aim of building the actual schools. The schools that are of interest to us were the new schools built at Tinahely, Coolroe and Kilpipe by Earl Fitzwilliam, the largest landowner in Co. Wicklow.

"There was a second school in [the Parish of] Cross Patrick, in Coolroe. This was built by the Earl Fitzwilliam as the parish school. According to the Wicklow Education Society, the school..."is conducted on the improved system of education, by Mr Fitzhenry and his son; it has been well attended this season , and is likely to be of great benefit to the neighbourhood" Before this building was opened, an old one was taken down, and in the interim, the school was held in Mr Fitzhenry's cow shed. Fitzhenry's son Edward attended the Kildare Place Society training school in 1820...By the time of the 1825 report, Mr Thomas Fitzhenry was still master at Coolroe... Edward had a this stage moved onto another Fitzwilliam School in the parish of Kilpipe"[extract from the book, page 60]

Page 62 shows a plan for the Kilpipe school.

The next post will look at what happened to Enoch and Edward


References:

Report of the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor of Ireland
Dublin

Report 8 - 1820

Report 9 - 1821

Report 10 - 1822

Report 11 - 1823


Education in Wicklow: From Parish Schools to National Schools
Michael Seery
Creathach Press, 2014


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The Fitzhenry schoolmasters of Coolroe, Co. Wicklow Part 1

This will be the first of a series of posts about Thomas Fitzhenry and his two sons, all schoolmasters.

I was idly googling various Fitzhenry themes, which led me to this digitised volume on Google books:

Report of the Society for Promoting Education of the Poor of Ireland (vols. 12-14)

As suggested by the title, it was the annual report of the charity with a list of subscribers, but also more importantly, listed the schools and schoolmasters and mistresses which the charity supported.
Rather confusingly the title page is for the Twelfth report dated 1824, but the rest of the volume refers to the Fifteenth Report of 1827, the Sixteenth Report of 1828 and the Seventeenth Report of 1829 which are all bound together.

It claimed to be a non sectarian charity, established in 1811 supporting those who were professed Christians but not differentiating between Catholic or Protestant schools. Their aim was to "educate Protestants and Roman Catholics in the same schools in a bond of peace and harmony"

Fifteenth Report (1827)
Appendix 5 (page 60) is a list of the "Teachers to whom gratuitaries have been paid during the past year, such Teachers appearing, from the Inspectors' reports of their schools, of being deserving of encouragement"

On page 65, is one Thomas Fitzhenry, the teacher at Coolroe, Co. Wicklow and his teaching assistant Enoch Fitzhenry.
For that year, there were 97 scholars on the roll, and the patron was the Rev. J. M. Symes (appendix 6, page 102)

The Sixteenth Report (1828) continues on from the end of the Fifteenth Report in this volume.
Enoch Fitzhenry was noted to be one of the trainee teachers who had passed through the Society's model school in Dublin from 3rd March to 9th June 1827. He had been recommended by the Rev J. M. Symes from the Coolroe school in County Wicklow. His age was given as 19. He had commenced teaching in 1826, and he was a Protestant. (pages 42 and 43).
Neither of the Fitzhenrys were mentioned in the Gratuity list.
The Coolroe school patron was now the Rev. P. Mooney and there were 98 pupils on the school roll.

Seventeenth Report (1829)
In appendix 5, both Thomas and Enoch were granted a gratuity for their work during 1827 (page 81), and this time Enoch was listed as a teacher. Thomas was listed separately for his gratuity in 1828 (page 82), and Enoch seemed to have moved on from Coolroe.
The patron of the school was still the Rev. P Mooney, and there were 89 pupils.

An Eliza Fitzhenry also appeared in both the Sixteenth (page 57) and Seventeenth (page 58) Reports, working in the Female School at Tanderagee, County Armargh. She also received a gratuity for her work., as did the teacher for the Male school James Gracey. Together there were 295 pupils at the schools, and their patrons were Lady Mandeville and William Loftie Esq. At present, I don't know where she fits in our Fitzhenry trees, and she will be the subject of another post.

References (all three volumes are reached by the same Google Books link)
The Fifteenth Report of the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor of Ireland
To which the accounts for the year ending January 5th 1827... are subjoined.
Dublin 
Printed for the Society by Bentham and Hardy, Cecilia Street 1827

The Sixteenth Report of the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor of Ireland
To which the accounts for the year ending January 5th 1828... are subjoined.
Dublin 

Printed for the Society by Bentham and Hardy, Cecilia Street 1828

The Seventeenth Report of the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor of Ireland
To which the accounts for the year ending January 5th 1829... are subjoined.
Dublin 

Printed for the Society by Bentham and Hardy, Cecilia Street 1829

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