Scotch-Irish-L Archives

Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 1997-12 > 0881070024


From: James Kirby <>
Subject: Re: Reading and Writing
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 07:40:24 -0600


I am not sure if it applied to the Protestant Irish or not and I am not sure of
the exact time frame. For many years the Irish were forbidden to have schools
and what little schooling there was, came in secret schools held with a few
students out in the countryside. I have heard them refered to as 'hedgerow
schools'. This was during was of the period of English rule in Ireland.

Regards,

James Kirby

> Subject: Reading and Writing
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>
> Linda Merle wrote:
> >...Recalling that most of our ancestors
> couldn't write -- I'd look for Millers...<
>
> This brings up a topic of interest to me. I have a copy of a property
> transfer instrument that my gggrandmother signed. Her signature was an "X".
> Her husband could write his name as seen on his will. She was born in
> County Down in 1803 and immigrated as a young woman to Canada West
> (Ontario). Would she have gone to school of some kind in the early 1800s
> while living in a small hamlet in Ireland? She was Presbyterian. If she
> could not write her name does that also mean she could not read, or was the
> ability to read more common?
> When did the common folk begin to learn to read and write? It seems the
> next born generation in all my Irish lines can read and write. I even have
> a Catholic gggrandfather from West Cork, born in 1796, who could read and
> write when he arrived in Wisconsin in 1840. Being Catholic this rather
> surprises me as I did not think under English rule Catholics had been
> allowed to attend school in the early 1800s. Did some learn at home? Lots
> of questions, I know, but I would be interested to know when education of
> this type became available to the average folks in Ireland.
> Thanks,
> Lucy
>
>

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James P. Kirby
5599 San Felipe, Suite 1700
Houston, TX 77056
Voice: (713) 513-2364 Fax: (713) 513-2522
mailto:

researching
KIRBY, FAIN, BALDWIN, HOLMAN, FELDER, GUESS
TODD, MCKEE, MCMAHAN, BEATY, PRINCE
WILLOUGHBY, DICKEN, GOODWIN, SIMPSON, WALLS, RISENHOOVER, HARVEY
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/3293
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