DUBLIN SCHOOL. English Academy, Fade Street [changed to] Stephen-Street, Dublin. School Report Register, 1796. Graves C. Haughton, Owner. John McCrea, principal schoolmaster of the English Academy.

Octavo. pp. 14. Printed pages with manuscript insertions. Original marbled wrappers. Signature of Graves C. Haughton in ink on upper cover. Extremely rare.
On 26 March 1789 a group of teachers, clergy, booksellers and other interested persons instituted a new society. It was the first of its kind ‘for raising a Fund for the Relief of distressed School Masters, School Mistresses and their families’ called originally the Abecedarian Society, but later renamed the Society for the Relief of Reduced Literary Teachers. Its originator was John McCrea, principal of the Academy in Fade Street, Dublin, ‘who was the steady furtherer of the society’, remaining its ‘unalterable Friend and Parental Guardian’. He became the society’s first secretary. The society issued a printed notice with a pamphlet setting out its resolutions, signed by its first president, Samuel Whyte. Each year, on 26 March, a general meeting of subscribers was held, at which the officers and committee were elected for the coming year. An anniversary dinner was held for the membership ‘at their own private expense; not out of the fund of the society’.
The society held its regular meetings at the Royal Exchange on alternate Saturday and Thursday evenings from 7 to 10 pm, to accommodate country as well as city members. In 1799 it was incorporated by an Act of Parliament and received its definitive name: the Literary Teachers Society, which it has retained to the present day. The establishment of the society pointed to a concern for the profession in general which sought to take care of its more needy members, a society which has lasted for over 200 years. The plight of reduced school masters and mistresses in the eighteenth century is known because of their literate status and their consequent appeals for help in the newspapers. The society was initiated at a time when the death or illness of a breadwinner meant destitution for a family. Teachers were in a vulnerable position in this regard, especially those in subordinate situations. The entry for the society in Watson’s Almanack of 1791 is quite specific on this point and informs us that it ‘not only includes distressed Schoolmasters who have been in a reputable situation, their Widows and Children, private Teachers and Ushers as objects of relief, but also extends to Mistresses of Boarding schools, Tutoresses and Governesses in private Families’. These women teachers in lowly situations were among the most vulnerable in the educational system of the time.
Membership of the society included such celebrated teachers as Samuel Whyte, its president, principal of the Grammar School in Grafton Street; Sisson P. Darling, who ran an academy at Mabbot Street and later at the North Strand; Mrs Catherine Praval, who ran a French boarding school at Platanus, Donnybrook Road; David Bates, who ran the Nautical Academy in Chequer Lane; John Coyne, Principal of St Wolstan’s Academy in Glasnevin; Elias M. Draffin, who ran the Académie Françoise; Rev. John Moore, who had a boarding school in Donnybrook; Rev. Thomas Willis who had a famous school at Portarlington and Francis Amyot, King’s Professor and teacher of modern languages at Trinity College, Dublin.
Notice is given on each page: ‘Mr. M’Crea, conftantly studious to excite diligence and emulation in his pupils, as well as happy to in dulge the parents with a full account of their children’s attention to tasks at home and application to business with him, struck out the above mode of exhibiting to view the manner in which the business of each day has been performed. He wishes for regular attendance at the Academy, and hopes the parents will cheerfully cooperate with him in the complex and important business of education, by giving due attention to the above register, and treating as it deserves - No verbal excuse will be taken for late attendance, or slovenliness of dress be overlooked.’

[Cat 162]