1851 Visitation Book West Cork, Church of Ireland parishes, Population 1834 and 1851, Schools, Parish Clerks Church Wardens.

 

Updated:

 

1781, Bishop Mann Visitation of Church of Ireland Dioceses of Cork. Ref D121.1. 1827 Parliamentary Return of Vestries, 1851 Visitation

There is a dramatic fall in population in many of the parishes, the famine, emigration.  While some of the local Protestant were poor even the better off were vulnerable to famine fever.

The records are in the RCB Library in Dublin.  Unfortunately they do not allow digital photos so all the transcritin is in pencil so will need to be checked later.

The provision for education show a patchwork quilt of funding.   By the late 19th century most of the schools had entered the National School system.  It is likely that the curriculum and standard of teaching was poor in view of the financial pressures. In contrast to take an example Carrigboy (Durrus) National: school by the 1880s boys were offered bookkeeping, science, agriculture and girls domestic economy.  The school records there are all extant.

 

 

Kilgariff, Island and Desert (Clonakilty) Visitation 1851 John Hodgins £10 Church Education Society £5, incumbent £10 for schoolmaster £5 incumbent, £10 local, £6 Earl of Shannon, Infants Church Ed. Scy., £4, Subscriptions £9, Earl of Shannon £2, another part Church Ed Scy £13, local £5, W. B. Jones £2, local £9, 21 pupils. Boys 44, girls 45,infant 33. Knockcagha boys 14 girls 8 total 154. Becher Hungerford, Joseph Conroy William Bence Jones (1812-1882), B.L., Lisselane, Clonakilty, London Bar 1837. Attending Landlord Meeting Bandon Courthouse 1846, listed 1854, 1861, listed 1875-6. Subscribing £2 1851 to Clonakilty Infant School. Representative Church Body Library, Dublin
Records of the Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross. D. 12		 1102 902 (-18%)

 

 

In Durrus and probably more areas the local leading citizens Catholic and Protestant petitioned in the 1820s for a non denominational National School.  However the Minister Alcock vetoed it so the local National Schools in effect became Catholic schools.

Here in some parishes the local provision was  a disaster, Abbeystrewey (Skibbereen) the school was funded by the Becher Estate.  That became insolvent was then was sold in the Landed Etates Court so there was no money to pay a teacher.

You can also discern the earlier activity of the vigorous proselytisers Spring on Cape Clear, Charles Donovan in Schull the Rev Fisher in Goleen, Crosthwaite in Durrus/Kilcrohane, O’Grady in Beara by the numbers of schools and children.