By Tony Lyons
Thomas Orde-Powlett, 1st Baron Bolton, was an English politician. In 1782 he was appointed to the privy council of Ireland and served as chief secretary from 1784 to 1787, providing him with an opportunity to express his commitment to raising the living standards of ordinary people. His work in the educational arena earned him many plaudits: he was the first to design a national system of education for Ireland. This meant that the State would be in charge.
CHARTER SCHOOLS
The idea of regulating education seems to have occurred simultaneously to many people: Dr Hugh Boulter, primate of Ireland, offered strong support, and Dr Maule, bishop of Cloyne, made detailed submissions regarding schools to King George II. On his second attempt in 1730 Maule was successful in obtaining a royal charter. He was helped by Revd Dawson of St Michan’s in Dublin. Jonathan Swift, dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, also gave his support and approval. Plans on paper are one thing, however, and practical implementation quite another, and by the end of the eighteenth century there were too many question marks hanging over the charter school system in Ireland. It had been introduced in the 1730s with government support and was quite successful for a time, but cracks began to appear and it did not fulfil the expectations of the State. Inspectors found much wanting in the charter schools. There was evidence of corporal punishment of children; sexual abuse was also an issue, perpetrated by both the peer group and by the adults, and the Committee of the Incorporated Society (Charter System) came under censure for failing to inspect its schools. Funding was withdrawn and the remaining children were sent home or to other institutions. As a result, the evangelical movement in Ireland suffered and distrust was implanted in the minds of the Catholic population, the largest religious grouping in the country.
Thomas Orde (he assumed the additional surname of Powlett in 1795), who was a keen observer of educational developments in Ireland, claimed that in some places ‘it is difficult to prevail upon a Protestant to attempt the instruction of children for fear of being starved or knocked on the head by the Catholics’, which, a fortiori, must have applied to those teaching in the charter schools. At the time, government policy was essentially one of proselytisation, whereby teachers of the Protestant faith, whose students were of mixed religious beliefs, taught in schools supported by the State. Catholic teachers were not accepted in schools in the eighteenth century. Orde became aware of the abuses in the charter schools and undertook a survey of all the schools (except the hedge schools) in the country that were deemed to be ‘official’. He then drew up a fantastically broad and all-encompassing plan of his own.
EXISTING SYSTEM HAPHAZARD
In 1787 Orde presented a plan for education in the Irish Houses of Parliament in a series of proposals to establish it on a systematic footing. The provision of education up to that time had been very haphazard. Under legislation as early as 1537 and 1570 (elementary and secondary) the Established Church was given responsibility for education in Ireland. At no stage since these Tudor statutory provisions was there any indication that education would be wholesome or systematic, not to mention national. One of the problems was that the king’s writ had little influence beyond the Pale. The failure of the Established Church to attract members of the majority population to parish schools (Henry VIII), diocesan schools (Elizabeth I), royal schools (James I) or charter schools (‘charter’ from 1733 meaning that the school would receive government funding) in any appreciable numbers left a void in Irish society. The charter schools, under their official corporate title ‘Incorporated Society in Dublin for Promoting English Protestant Schools in Ireland’, had been the most successful Protestant schools in Ireland in the eighteenth century. Endowments came not only from government funding but also from other patrons: the Crown, the Charter School Society in England, the Irish parliament and private donations. Many historians believe that the patronage of the societies’ schools did not always benefit the schools directly. Catholic parents became more unwilling to send their children to the charter schools owing to remorseless proselytising and poor teaching standards. The society had poor organisational standards, financial abuses became commonplace and numbers attending its schools fell short of expectations.
Orde’s first-hand experience of Irish education was one of damnosa hereditas: there was no central authority, denominationalism was rife, and funding was inadequate or non-existent in some respects. In short, a proper, functioning scheme strategically designed for Irish education did not exist. The theoretical blueprint of a royal statutory proviso failed to transfer to the practicalities of implementation. Orde’s plan of 1787 was the first comprehensive design to address the issues of secularism versus denominationalism: it would include, as he put it, ‘the interference of Government … with the combined aid of the legislature’. Orde had a historic and remarkable scheme: it included parish schools (‘which would embrace the people in the lowest degree’), four ‘great schools’ modelled on Christ’s Hospital, London, providing for a fairly high level of vocational education (and which ‘should take in the middling ranks of the community, and afford the means, at an easy expense, to persons designed for various species of learned professions, and to the gentry of the neighbourhood …’), liberal education diocesan schools, two academies ‘preparatory to the university’, and possibly a university for Ulster, with its seat at Armagh. The provost of Trinity College, Dublin, was opposed to a second university, however.
OPEN TO CHILDREN OF ALL RELIGIOUS PERSUASIONS
The national school system as outlined by Stanley in 1831 (with nothing resembling Orde’s grandiose extravagance) had a short lifespan: the first to object to non-denominationalism were the Presbyterians, followed by the Catholics, who, in the post-Famine period, took full part in the ‘devotional revolution’ under the leadership of the powerful and ultramontane Cardinal Cullen. Denominationalism was the order of day by the 1850s, and the original non-denominational system of 1831 was cast aside. Thomas Orde saw education as a means of infusing ‘the balm of information into the wound of ignorance’. He argued that Catholic participation in his proposed plan for a Protestant education system would surely disperse ‘the mists of ignorance’ and encourage Catholic appreciation ‘of the superiority of our own [Protestant] doctrines’. Orde was not original in his plans for Irish education, but he was comprehensive. In fact, his plan was so extensive that no other plan, either before or since, has ever matched its range.
Having said that, Orde broke new ground with his suggestion that State-supported schools should be open to children of all religious persuasions. He knew that Roman Catholics presented a problem, claiming that ‘Catholics will not send their children to English Protestant Schools’. We must bear in mind that Orde was referring only to the advancement of Protestant schools in Ireland, and to that extent we must find fault with his scheme. His plan was a denominational one, even though he was critical of denominational education. Establishing schools for a minority population and expecting the majority to attend was unrealistic.
FEMALE EDUCATION
There is, however, one particular aspect of his fourteen-point plan that must be recognised. Continuing with his inclusivity policy, Orde designed a programme for female students, and in his notebook ‘On Education’ he wrote:
‘A certain small number of girls might also be made partakers of the benefit of such institutions through reading, writing, grammar, arithmetic for both sexes, but spinning, knitting, needlework, embroidery, lacemaking, millinery, mantua-making, pattern drawing, house-keeping for girls.’
As well as provision for boys, Orde also planned for four provincial schools for girls, to cater for a total of 800 scholars. This was not in keeping with the general thinking on female education at the time. Though the provision was for ‘a small number of girls’, it is still worthy of note as a breakthrough moment in the history of Irish education. Orde also encouraged the notion of physical education in these schools. ‘Accomplishments of the body’ were not to be neglected.
LEGACY
Thomas Orde is largely forgotten in the history of Ireland, and though he spent only three years in this country he nevertheless left a considerable legacy. His plan, however, was too grand and too complex to be implemented. He was recalled and replaced as chief secretary. His sponsor, the Duke of Rutland, died at a young age, and this also had an impact on Orde’s future political postings. He was the first legislator to realise that Ireland’s educational institutions should be treated as a system. He had sown a number of seeds, among them the idea that educational planning needed to be firmly based on reliable data.
A great deal of research into the discipline was undertaken following Orde’s departure, particularly regarding the state of schools. In many ways Orde was an unlikely reformer, as his early experiences of politics and administration saw him in Whitehall and at the Treasury. In the context of Irish education in the 1780s and 1790s the penal laws were being relaxed, which allowed for some increased Catholic and Dissenter freedoms and constitutional rights. Orde’s plan for education was the most comprehensive, elaborate and aspirational in Irish history up to that time.
Tony Lyons is the author of Thomas Orde, 1746–1807: chief secretary for Ireland and educational innovator (Peter Lang, 2024).
Sadly, before going to press, we learned that Tony had passed away. In spite of a long illness he was productive to the very end. Our deepest condolences to his widow, Sadhbh, his family and friends.