Title: Mountmellick School. Exercise book, circa 1791
ID: 01/02/02/POST-1650 MS 0039
Extent: 1.0 Volume
Date Acquired: 11/27/1967
Subjects: English poetry - 18th century
Languages: English
Mountmellick School was a provincial secondary school operated by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Mountmellick, Ireland, from 1786-1920. This exercise book (114 pages), used to instruct the school's students, contains English poetry on topics such as friendship, marriage, and religion. Notable poems include "The Hermit of Warkworth: A Northumberland Ballad" by Thomas Percy (with explanatory information and footnotes) and "An Elegy on the Death of William Penn." The final poem is an acrostic that spells "Mountmelick School."
The owner of this exercise book is unknown. Although John Brown wrote his name in the back of the volume, his hand differs from the bulk of the text.
See Administrative/Biographical History for more information.
At a Quarterly Meeting of Friends held at Edenderry, Ireland, on 25 September 1784, a committee appointed to "deliberate on the most suitable means of supplying the deficiency which appears in some places with respect to the education of Friends in low circumstances" agreed to establish and maintain a provincial secondary school for 20 boys and 20 girls.
Mountmellick School occupied the house of George Shannon for the yearly price of £50, and began instruction for girls (January) and boys (May) in 1786. The school, with curricula differing by gender, operated as a co-educational institution until August 1855, when boy students were transferred to a school earlier established at Newton, Waterford (1798). Mountmellick School operated as a school for girls until its closure in 1920.
Source
Quane, Michael. “The Friends’ Provincial School, Mountmellick.” The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 89, no. 1 (1959): 59–89. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25509344.
Repository: Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Access Restrictions: The collection is open for research.
Use Restrictions:
This item is the physical property of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Intellectual property rights, including copyright, may reside with the materials' creator(s) or their heirs.
The Rare Book & Manuscript Library welcomes requests for reproductions made from works in our collections, though restrictions may apply to certain materials. Please contact the library with any questions.
Acquisition Source: Hill
Finding Aid Revision History: Revised by Dana Miller (December 2023).
Other Note: Former shelfmark: 821.008 C7371
URL: https://i-share-uiu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CARLI_UIU/17ks9l7/alma99175625612205899