Written by Randell Mercer, January 9, 2021
It has been documented that in 1823, a school was being operated in the community of Upper Island Cove by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
In a report in 1827, by the Bishop of London, England relating the poor state of schools under the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, he states that he subsequently requested the Bishop of Nova Scotia, Canada to visit and report on the state of the schools in Newfoundland. Following the Bishop of Nova Scotia’s visit to schools in Newfoundland, he reported in a letter to the Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, dated Sept 14, 1827:
“ISLAND COVE and BREAD AND CHEESE COVE (now known as Bishop's Cove} are within a mile of each other. Here the Society assists a competent and respectable master, Mr. Wills. He has a daily school at Island Cove, and a Sunday-school at both places, and reads every Sunday in both. I have not the exact number of his daily scholars, but it must be small, from the nature of the place. His Sunday-schools consist of fifty-six boys and twenty-one girls. As he is much respected, he is well attended as a reader every Sunday.”
The Newfoundland and British North America Society for Educating the Poor was instituted in London in 1823 with the intentions of utilizing philanthropy to educate the poor in British Colonies like Newfoundland, and to guide them morally through religious instruction as well. The Society was very successful founding schools, first across Newfoundland, and then throughout the rest of North America. A review of the reports of the ninth through the twentieth years of the Society, from 1831-1832 to 1842-1843, enables us to glean some detailed information about the nature and operation of schooling both at Upper Island Cove and Bishop’s Cove (aka Bread & Cheese Cove).
Extracts from THE PROCEEDINGS OF NEWFOUNDLAND AND BRITISH NORTH AMERICA SOCIETY FOR EDUCATING THE POOR (source: collection.mun.ca Centre of Newfoundland Studies – Digitized Books)
NINTH ANNUAL REPORT (Exeter Hall, May 9, 1832; The Right Hon. Lord Bexley, President, in the chair)
Page 3: “The Branch School at Island Cove has been well attended, though the accommodation is bad, being kept in a kitchen. The improvement of the children is reported to be creditable to the Teacher. It has always appeared very desirable to erect a School-Room in this place, but from various causes, chiefly the poverty of the people, it has not yet been effected.”
Funding Support: Salary of Upper Island Cove Branch School Teacher: £37 17s 6d
TENTH ANNUAL REPORT (Exeter Hall, May 8, 1833; The Right Hon. Lord Bexley, President, in the chair)
Page 4-5: “The Branch School at Upper Island Cove has had upwards of fifty Scholars in attendance during the past year. Their improvement has been very satisfactory. A School-room is much wanted here, and the inhabitants have got out of the woods above one hundred sticks for erecting one, but the further means are yet wanting to proceed with it.”
Funding Support: Disbursements as per Account, Upper Island Cove Branch School: £31 10s
ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT (Exeter Hall, May 14, 1834; The Right Hon. Lord Bexley, President, in the chair)
Funding Support: Salary of Upper Island Cove Branch School Teacher: £30 10s
This report did not include any other details relating to the operation of the Branch School at Upper Island Cove.
TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT (Exeter Hall, May 13, 1835; The Right Hon. Lord Bexley, President, in the chair)
This report did not include any details relating to the operation of the Branch School at Upper Island Cove.
THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT (Exeter Hall, May 11, 1836; The Right Hon. Lord Bexley, President, in the chair)
This report did not include any details relating to the operation of the Branch School at Upper Island Cove.
FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT (Exeter Hall, May 10, 1837; The Right Hon. Lord Bexley, President, in the chair)
Funding Support: Disbursements, as per account, Upper Island Cove Branch School: £3
This report did not include any other details relating to the operation of the Branch School at Upper Island Cove.
FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT (Exeter Hall, Apr 26, 1838; The Right Hon. Lord Bexley, President, in the chair)
This report did not include any details relating to the operation of the Branch School at Upper Island Cove.
SIXTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT (Exeter Hall, Apr 26, 1839; The Right Hon. Lord Bexley, President, in the chair)
Page 8: “At Upper Island Cove, and Bread and Cheese Cove, the operations of the Society are appreciated. The branch Teacher, placed there last year, has given general satisfaction to the people, and at the stated examinations and occasional visits of your Teacher, the scholars have evinced a steady progress in their learning. The number in the daily school at these places is 120, and in the Sunday school 197. The amount raised at these two places jointly, towards the branch Teacher's salary last year, was £38..12s..6d, currency. The importance of this station, containing within a range of two miles above 800 persons, mostly Protestants, but every day liable to be turned aside; two Churches erected, in which the branch Teacher reads alternately every Lord's day, under the sanction of the Clergyman; a considerable contribution available towards the support of a branch Teacher; the very great inconvenience both to the Teacher and scholars in having to go alternate days to each place, leaving the younger portion of the children totally destitute of instruction three days out of six; and the present plan depriving the young men of an evening school in the winter, which they appear desirous to enjoy, and to which the Society stands pledged; have induced the Teacher to obtain a piece of cleared land for building a school-house on, situated about midway between the two Coves. This has been secured to the Society in the usual way, at the cost of about £7 currency. Arrangements have been made for the frame and clapboard, in the hope of having a school-room ready by next winter, should the funds of the Society admit. Bibles, Testaments, and Prayer Books, and the various publications of the Religious Tract Society, are increasingly demanded, and have been the means of doing much good."
Funding Support:
- Subscriptions, Upper Island Cove Branch School: £38 12s 6d
- Salary of Upper Island Cove Branch School Teacher: £50
- Disbursements, as per account, Upper Island Cove Branch School: £1 1s
- James Morrisy for piece of Land at Cooper's Head, as per deed: £6 6s
In this particular Annual Report, the Society offers up a General Statement of Schools, for the school year ending May 25, 1838. This statement indicates that its Branch School for Upper Island and Bishop’s Coves (described above as three alternating days per week at each community with no school house at either location) was first established in 1828. Furthermore, we are informed that, as of the end of this 10th year(1838), the ‘day school’ program has admitted a total of 269 persons, with 109 of those individuals currently on the registry (aka “on the Books”)
This report also provides a list of contributors and individual contributions from each of the two communities (Upper Island Cove and Bishop’s Cove) for the 1837-38 school year. In summary, there were 53 individual contributors, with total contributions of £17 1s 6d, from Upper Island Cove, and 22 individual contributors, with total contributions of £9 8d, from Bishop’s Cove.
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT (Exeter Hall, Apr 30, 1840; The Right Hon. Lord Bexley, President, in the chair)
This report did not include any details relating to the operation of the Branch School at Upper Island Cove.
Funding Support:
- Subscriptions, Upper Island Cove & Bishop’s Cove Branch School: £29 6s 6d
- Salary of Upper Island Cove Branch School Teacher: £63 4s 4d
This report does provide a list of contributors and individual contributions from each of the two communities (Upper Island Cove and Bishop’s Cove) for the 1838-39 school year. In summary, there were 47 individual contributors, with total contributions of £15 4s 6d, from Upper Island Cove, and 19 individual contributors, with total contributions of £7 19s 6d, from Bishop’s Cove.
EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT (Exeter Hall, Apr 30, 1841; The Right Hon. Lord Bexley, President, in the chair)
This report did not include any details relating to the operation of the Branch School at Upper Island Cove.
Funding Support:
- Subscriptions, Upper Island Cove & Bishop’s Cove Branch School: £31 19s
- Salary of Upper Island Cove Branch School Teacher: £50
This report does provide a list of contributors and individual contributions from each of the two communities (Upper Island Cove and Bishop’s Cove) for the 1839-40 school year. In summary, there were 44 individual contributors, with total contributions of £14 5s 6d, from Upper Island Cove, and 22 individual contributors, with total contributions of £9 2s, from Bishop’s Cove.
NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT (Exeter Hall, Apr 29, 1842; The Right Hon. Lord Bexley, President, in the chair)
Page 6: " On the 5th ult.(Nov, 1841) I visited and examined the branch school at Bishop's and Island Coves, kept by Mr. Crossman; and so gratified was I by the proficiency of the children and their deportment, that I have decided on giving, in accordance with the request of the Bishop and the recommendation of the principal teacher of the district, the Rev. J. Kingwell, a gratuity of £5 to their diligent and useful instructor. The Bishop has directed me to present him with £2 as a donation, in testimony of his lordship's approbation of his conduct; and to this the Rev. Mr. Addison has added another £1. I trust the Committee will approve of what I am doing in this case, and I doubt not they will be gratified at the testimony borne by such high authority to one of their servants, especially when I add that the privations of this poor man and his family during the last winter were truly appalling.”
Funding Support:
- Subscriptions, Upper Island Cove & Bishop’s Cove Branch School: £26 19s
- Salary of Upper Island Cove Branch School Teacher: £50 pounds
This report does provide a list of contributors and individual contributions from each of the two communities (Upper Island Cove and Bishop’s Cove) for the 1840-41 school year. In summary, there were 31 individual contributors, with total contributions of 10 pounds £8 6d, from Upper Island Cove, and 20 individual contributors, with total contributions of £7 pounds 8s 6d, from Bishop’s Cove.
TWENTITH ANNUAL REPORT (Exeter Hall, Apr 28, 1843; The Right Hon. Lord Bexley, President, in the chair)
Page 20: “At the school on Bexley Hill, between Island and Bishop's Coves, the daily attendance is improved, and in the Sunday school it is between 130 and 140 : there are nine assistant teachers. This is a very gratifying circumstance, as exhibiting the fruits of the Society's labours and showing that we are, under God, effecting what all desire who have any experience in the work of diffusing the truth as it is in Jesus—raising up native instruments for that object."
Funding Support:
- Subscriptions, Upper Island Cove & Bishop’s Cove Branch School: £19 5s 4d
- Salary of Upper Island Cove & Bishop’s Cove Branch School Teacher: £37
This report does provide a list of contributors and individual contributions from each of the two communities (Upper Island Cove and Bishop’s Cove) for the 1841-42 school year. In summary, there were 42 individual contributors, with total contributions of £12 13s, from Upper Island Cove, and 22 individual contributors, with total contributions of £8 7s, from Bishop’s Cove.
The Society, in its Statement for the Society Schools in Newfoundland, reports that 183 students were enrolled the Bexley Hill school for Upper Island Cove and Bishop’s Cove.
An interesting side note is that the president of this Society, during this timeframe (1830-40), was a Lord Bexley. Adjacent to the school, built by the Society to serve Upper Island Cove and Bishop’s Cove, there was an Anglican Cemetery. This was second Anglican cemetery at Upper Island Cove, and it continued to be was used for burials until the 1950s. The name of this cemetery is Bexley Hill Cemetery. Bexley, an unusual name for the cemetery, with no apparent connection with the community or the region, has always had an air of mystery as to its source or relevance. But, given that Lord Bexley was the President of the Society in London, during the period when this Society acquired the land and built the school at a location between the two communities, the designation of the locale as Bexley Hill, as well as the name attached to the adjacent Anglican cemetery, clearly appear to have a direct connection to the then President of the Society.
The Bexley Hill School, built in 1840, would have been the first school building for the communities of Upper Island Cove and Bishop’s Cove. Later, in 1842, a 2nd school was built by Roman Catholic Church. It was located, on Pinch Road, Upper Island Cove. It also served as the church for the Roman Catholic congregation, with an adjacent cemetery.
No comments:
Post a Comment