A short history of the collection
During the long course of its history, York St John University
has accumulated a very large collection of archives. These date
from 1812 when the Diocese of York resolved, as a result of the
foundation in 1811 of the National Society, to establish a northern
society linked to the National Society in London. This society
would be known as the York Diocesan Society for the Education of
the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church to further the
work of the National Society in the northern provinces.
The principal aim of the National Society was to establish a
system of National Schools, with at least one school in each
parish. Each school would be conducted on the system known as the
Madras or monitorial system. The idea behind this was not to equip
the children of the 'labouring classes' for social mobility, rather
to enable them to be content with their station in life or in other
words, 'calculated to render them useful and respected members of
society'. So York Diocese wasted no time in making provision for
educating children of the poor.
The year following the foundation of the National Society, the
evangelical clergy and laity of York decided to create a Diocesan
Society to supervise the building and organisation of National
Schools throughout the diocese.
In 1812 the diocese of York was one of the largest in England.
It included the entire county of York, the rural deaneries of
Richmond, Catterick and Boroughbridge excepted (these three
deaneries being part of the unwieldy diocese of Chester), and the
entire county of Nottingham. The inaugural meeting took place in
the Deanery with Dean George Markham in the chair. Archbishop
Vernon Harcourt was appointed as patron and the Duke of Devonshire
as president. A committee of forty-one persons was elected. The
secretary was John Dallin, at that time vicar of Holy Trinity,
Goodramgate and St. Maurice, Monkgate, who was also a vicar choral
and Minster Librarian.
The Society then required a suitable building in which its
operations could be based. It was agreed that an attempt should be
made to acquire the Hall of the Merchant Taylors in Aldwark. A
successful agreement was concluded and on 26th March 1812, less
than one month after the inaugural meeting on the 13th March, a
contract was completed. The Hall was intended to be a boys' school
so the next step was to appoint a permanent master. When the
successful applicant, Samuel Danby, was appointed at a salary of
eighty pounds on 23rd May 1812, there were some 200 boys on the
roll.
Within a short time it was found that provision would have to be
made for educating girls. The Diocesan Society approached Lord
Grantham to acquire the use of the 'large room' in King's Manor. As
a result of this successful acquisition, the boys were then
transferred to King's Manor, which left the Aldwark building
available for girls. So on 13th January 1813 the two schools were
fully operational.
The archives recording the structure and operations of the York
Diocesan Society are contained in three letter books between
November 1814 and September 1822 (YDS/CORR)
recording details of correspondence concerning the erection and
equipping of National Schools, both in Yorkshire and Nottingham.
Later this correspondence extends to Lancashire, Cheshire, Lincoln,
Cumbria and Westmoreland (YDS/MB
1-4).
It has become clear that by the autumn of 1813 the problem of
teacher supply had become acute, so the Diocesan Society decided to
set up its own teacher training programme. Since it had to rely on
voluntary funds, the Society decided that it could only train a
maximum of six at any one time. By 1823 it had amassed the
beginnings of a library of some 152 books, the catalogue of these
survives in
YDS/MB 4.
The decision to create the new diocese of Ripon in 1836 brought
about changes. The new diocese was formed by removing the three
rural deaneries of Catterick, Richmond and Boroughbridge with the
Yorkshire portion of the Kirkby Lonsdale deanery from the diocese
of Chester together with the western part of the rural deanery of
York. The new diocese quickly formed a society for founding
National Schools in parishes, but it had not the provisions for
educational development such as existed in the neighbouring diocese
of York. Above all there was an acute shortage of teachers who were
trained and qualified for the positions.
Within three years, following the creation of Ripon Diocese,
York and Ripon decided to join forces to continue the expansionist
educational policy of the York Diocesan Society. This joint venture
would enable funds to be better employed, so in 1839 it was
resolved to create a Training School for Masters.
Suitable buildings were available, since the site was the
property of the Vicars Choral of York Minster; the site was then
occupied by Manchester College which used it for training Unitarian
ministers and whose governing body had decided to remove the
institution back to Manchester. To enable the new joint society to
plan for the change, syllabuses were obtained from training schools
in Lichfield, Wells, Oxford (at Reading), Exeter and Leeds
Commercial schools. By May 1841, the Training School opened its
doors, but within two years the Board of Management decided that
the best way forward was to build an entirely new college on a site
in Lord Mayor's Walk. The sum required to build a new college was
£8,500, towards which the Privy Council would grant £3,500 and the
remainder to be raised by the parishes, supported by a personal
appeal from Archbishop Vernon Harcourt. The full amount was raised
and in 1845 the new building was opened to cater for thirty-six
resident students and twenty-four day students. The buildings in
Monkgate, vacated by the men, were adapted for use as a Training
School for Mistresses.
The early archives of what later became the College of Ripon and
York St. John reveal that those involved were honest men who tried
to fulfil their voluntary obligation to educate the poor children
of York diocese. Viewed from the present situation where every
child has a right to free education, it is easy to criticise the
limitations placed upon the Diocesan Society which was entirely
dependent upon voluntary funds to carry out its work. Hence the
tendency was for the Society to be always short of funds. On the
occasions when money seemed to be plentiful, funds were used to
found another National School. It was very much a 'hand to mouth'
type of existence, but taking into consideration the limitations of
the monitorial system, then the rate of expansion between 1813 and
1844 is an impressive one.