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australia, Bookkeeping, Celtic, Ethnicity, Hedge school, hedgeschools bookkeeping, ireland, Irish, Sydney
In Estudios Irlandes Vol 5, there is a fascinating article by Peter Clarke, of UCD, on the history of bookkeeping in Hedge Schools in the 18th and 19th centuries.
In the Report of The Commissioners of Irish Education 1826 it transpired that over 500,000 children over 70% of Irish children were being educated in hedge schools. Their curriculum was flexible and many included basic business education.
In the 18th century Irish Emigrants to the US including Cornelius Lynch 1740, and Terence O’Neill 1789 taught bookkeeping in New York. In Australia John Kenny taught double entry book keeping in Sydney in 1793.
Peter Clarke’s article suggests that the hedge schools had an important influence through Irish teachers on the curriculum of the American mid west and frontier.
West Cork History 
So glad I read this article as I believe it has helped me with my family history. It mentions that Peter Clarke has written before about a pamphlet written in 1696 by a Huguenot (called Ammonet?) who lived in Dublin and taught accounting there. I would very much like to be able to access that article on-line, if anyone can tell me how to do that.
I have a great-great grandfather Andrew Clement who taught at a Hedge School at Killeely, Limerick in 1826. His two sons Andrew bap 1802 and Samuel bap 1804 in Limerick were both described as accountants in some records. I have also found an Andrew Clement who was buried in Dublin at St Nicholas Without C of I Church in 1711, his father being Symon Clements of Francis St in the Coombe where Huguenots lived. My maternal great-grandmother Jane Clement who emigrated from Co. Clare to NZ in 1863 told her children she was of Huguenot descent. So now I seem to have more reason to believe her direct ancestors were the Clements I have found in Dublin..
Incidentally, my father Laurence Holt (not a Clement descendant) was the first full-time lecturer in accounting at a New Zealand university, appointed in 1931. He appears in a book about the history of accounting in NZ universities produced a few years ago. I can supply details to anyone interested.
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Reblogged this on West Cork History.
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Can you please tell me whether the article by Peter Clarke is a new one or one he wrote earlier but in Spanish this time? Barbara Holt
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Does anyone know of a National School or Hedge School that existed in Cork on the land of Jeremiah Connolly of Gurtycloona/Gortaclona? There is a possibility that it may have been situated on his relative, Cornelius Connolly’s land, that abutted Jeremiah’s in Bantry. Or a way I could find any further info. Thanks so much.
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