Derwent Coleridge (1800-83) and the Deacon Schoolmaster David Sydney Nicholas Institute ofEducation University ofLondon Doctor ofPhilosophy 2007 Declaration I hereby declare that, except where explicit attribution is made, the work presented in this thesis is entirely my own. Word count (exclusive ofbibliography): 92,211 words. David Sydney Nicholas 10 August 2007 2 Abstract A persistent oral tradition links Derwent Coleridge, first principal of St Mark's College, Chelsea, to the training of deacon schoolmasters during the period 1841 to 1864. This innovative model ofelementary schoolteacher made a distinctive contribution to teacher training in England. Justified theologically rather pedagogically, the deacon­ schoolmaster model gave the college a unique character in the surge towards a comprehensive system ofChurch education. This thesis breaks fresh ground by using documentary evidence to test the oral tradition. The introduction of the model and subsequent training of deacon schoolmasters at St Mark's College have been delineated. Alternative models, and their place in Coleridge's experience and thought, are drawn from contemporary sources. The immediate and long-term effects of increasing control over teacher training by central government, and the impact of opinions within the Church, are assessed in relation to Derwent Coleridge's aims for the College. These influences are described in the context of public debate on deacon schoolmasters in three mid-nineteenth century settings: the Church, Parliament, and the British colonies. The international dimension to the deacon-schoolmaster model is one that previously has not been researched. Hitherto unused documentary sources have added important detail to imprecise elements in the oral tradition ofSt Mark's College, and re-examination oflittle-known material has refreshed and broadened the conventional interpretation and estimate of significance of deacon schoolmasters. Finally, by tracing historical continuities, the main focus on a particular episode in nineteenth-eentury education has cast light upon new opportunities for deacon schoolmasters (and -mistresses) in the early twenty-first century. 3 Contents Title page page 1 Declaration 2 Abstract 3 Contents 4 Acknowledgements 5 Abbreviations 7 A Note on St Mark's College 8 Chapter 1. National Education: a new model ofschoolmaster 9 Chapter 2. A New Vision for the National Society, 1838-41 42 Chapter 3. Derwent Coleridge: his background and thought 78 Chapter 4. St Mark's College: early freedom, 1841-49 116 Chapter 5. St Mark's College: later constraint, 1850-64 160 Chapter 6. Public Debate on Deacon Schoolmasters 200 Chapter 7. Significance ofthe Deacon Schoolmaster: research outcomes, historical continuities, and conclusions 236 Bibliography 253 4 Acknowledgements It is with delight that I recall, and acknowledge, my first conversation with Richard Aldrich, professor emeritus in history of education at the Institute of Education, University of London, for it was he who, in an inspired moment, remarked that the association of Derwent Coleridge and deacon schoolmasters was an untrammelled field for research. That immediately resonated with so many ofmy interests, and this thesis is the result. Dr David Crook, assistant dean ofresearch and senior lecturer in history ofeducation at the Institute ofEducation, was present on that occasion, co-supervised my research until Richard Aldrich retired, and has stayed with me on my journey. I am indebted to him for his gracious advice, constant encouragement, and depth ofunderstanding and sensitivity when I needed them most. The pleasure of his supervision has added much to my enjoyment ofresearch and the writing ofhistory. I am grateful to Gary McCulloch, Brian Simon professor in history of education at the Institute of Education, for drawing to my attention some important published research, which strengthened my understanding ofsignificant contextual aspects ofmy own work. Among numerous librarians who have corne to my aid, I must mention Jonathan Harrison, of St John's College, Cambridge, who kindly gave me photocopies of several Derwent Coleridge letters, and Dianne Keeping, of the Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, who, at the request of her archivist colleague, Linda White, sent me (without charge) a large box of photocopied reports that are unavailable in the UK. Linda White has become an 'e-mail friend', who warmly responded to a tentative enquiry from me by sending electronically the transcript of a diary kept by a mid­ nineteenth-century deacon schoolmaster in Newfoundland, which she is editing for publication. 5 I am grateful to archivists who have supplied manuscript documents at the College ofSt Mark and St John (plymouth), the National Society (at the Church of England Record Centre, Bermondsey, London), the British Library (St Paneras), Lambeth Palace Library, the Borthwick Institute for Archives (University of York), Guildhall Library (London), Devon Record Office (Exeter), and The National Archives (Kew). I wish to thank, too, the assistants who carried dozens of extremely large and heavy bound volumes of newspapers at the British Library (Newspaper Library), at Colindale, and those who courteously dealt with my requests at libraries in the University ofLondon (Senate House, Institute of Education, Institute of Historical Research, and the London School ofEconomics), University of Exeter, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (local studies library). Finally, to fellow researchers, friends and family who have shared their skills, prompted new ideas by their questions, and shown great forbearance as I have pursued Derwent Coleridge and the deacon schoolmaster - to them all I acknowledge what they have cheerfully given. 6 Abbreviations BFSS British and Foreign School Society BI Borthwick Institute for Archives, University ofYork BL British Library (St Pancras) CCE Committee ofCouncil on Education CCSS Colonial Church and School Society CERC Church ofEngland Record Centre CLSTC The Collected Letters ofSamuel Taylor Coleridge DC The Unknown Coleridge: the life and times ofDerwent Coleridge DCMSS Derwent Coleridge manuscripts DfES Department for Education and Skills DNB Dictionary ofNational Biography EC English Churchman EJE English Journal ofEducation GL Guildhall Library, London HRCIUTA Humanities Research Center, University ofTexas at Austin LPL Lambeth Palace Library LWDW The Letters ofWilliam and Dorothy Wordsworth NS National Society NSS Newfoundland School Society ODNB Oxford Dictionary ofNational Biography PP Parliamentary Papers SPG Society for the Propagation ofthe Gospel STC Samuel Taylor Coleridge TNA The National Archives 7 A Note on St Mark's College 1841 National Society's Training Institution for Schoolmasters, Stanley Grove, Chelsea 1842 St Mark's College, Chelsea (S. Mark's is a later preferred form) 1923 College ofS. Mark & S. John, Chelsea (by amalgamation with St John's College, Battersea, founded by James Phillips Kay[-Shuttleworth] in 1840) 1973 College ofSt Mark & St John, Plymouth 2007 University College Plymouth St Mark & St John 8 Chapter 1. National Education: a new model ofschoolmaster The memory of individuals, and the collective memory residing in institutions, preserve traces ofpast experiences and shape them into oral tradition. In their re-telling, stories often become idealized or romanticized, and detached from the events that gave them substance. The challenge for historians is to compare oral tradition with other sources of evidence in order to determine its veracity. This process of historical enquiry raises fur-reaching questions about validity and reliability of evidence, what might be meant by 'veracity' in such a context, and the extent to which understandings may be affected by interpretation at every stage of the enterprise. No matter how carefully historians select and apply their methods, they inevitably bring to their work many assumptions - consciously or otherwise - which may bear on the direction an investigation takes and the conclusions it reaches. The present research examines an institutionally-preserved oral tradition in the history of education, concerning a new model ofschoolmaster that established the tone ofSt Mark's College, Chelsea, an influential English teacher-training college in the mid-nineteenth century. It aims to interpret this oral tradition in the light ofcontemporary documentary evidence, and to assess the significance ofthe model from its introduction to the present time. 1.1 An oral tradition about deacon schoolmasters St Mark's College, Chelsea, was founded in 1841 as a Church ofEngland institution for training elementary schoolmasters, with the Reverend Derwent Coleridge as its principal. Fifty years later, in 1891, the Reverend George Gent, the third principal, published a commemorative collection of essays, Memorials ofS. Mark's College, with a view 'to bring together, before they pass out ofliving memory, the traditions and recollections that 9 belong to the first half-century ofthe life of S. Mark's College'. 1 One contributor, the Reverend William Benham, who had been a student at St Mark's from 1845 to 1847, wrote: It had been the original idea of the founders of this College that the schoolmaster should be trained for the diaconate, and should carry on the work ofthe National schoolmaster in that capacity.' Benham's testimony encapsulates the oral tradition, and his memory bears personal witness to events on which the tradition rests. Already, however, the tradition