‘The glory of the age we live in’: Christian Education and Philanthropy in Eighteenth-Century London Charity Schools

Abstract

This article discusses the Church of England's initiative in providing education for the children of the poor during the long eighteenth century with particular reference to London. Briefly it considers the religious, economic and social context and motives for this largely lay-led and lay-supported initiative in the 1690s and early 1700s to establish catechetical day elementary schools, which also taught reading and writing, for poor boys and girls. It focuses particularly on the extensive evidence available from schools in the growing suburbs of Westminster and Holborn and discusses the personnel involved with charity schools, as trustees, benefactors and teachers; how funds were raised and schools managed; and how children were managed, including the arrangement and oversight of apprenticeships. It demonstrates that the schools continued to be well supported, including financially, throughout the changing, economic, social, religious and political circumstances of the century, until most of them became associated with the National Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, founded in 1811.