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Charlotte, Lady O’Brien

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Ascendancy Women and Elementary Education in Ireland

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Abstract

This chapter outlines the life and contribution to education of Charlotte, Lady O’Brien (1781–1856). Born in Ireland, Charlotte Smith was a member of the Anglican community. She and Sir Edward O’Brien wed in 1799. Charlotte brought inherited business acumen to their long and happy marriage. The couple and their large family lived in Dromoland, Co. Clare. They renovated their home and remodelled the surrounding demesne. The couple, together and separately, provided support, financial and social, for the people of Dromoland and surrounding areas. With the backing of the Baptist, Hibernian and Kildare Place Societies, Charlotte, a committed evangelical, maintained a number of schools around her home. Her schools met with robust opposition, especially from local Catholic clergymen, and all closed ultimately. Nevertheless, Charlotte would be involved with educational provision in Co. Clare for approximately a quarter of a century.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    S. Gwynn, Charlotte Grace O’Brien Selections from her Writings and Correspondence with a Memoir, 5; G. Weir, These My Friends and Forebears: the O’Briens at Dromoland, 101.

  2. 2.

    Gwynn, Charlotte Grace O’Brien, 6.

  3. 3.

    B. Burke, Peerage and Baronetage, 1414.

  4. 4.

    Weir, Forebears, 80, 99, 101, 113, 117. Their eldest son Lucius (1800–1872) was named after his paternal grandfather. Edward’s father, Lucius, and his mother, Ann (Nancy) French, had married on May 26, 1768, at which time they had a house in Henrietta Street, Dublin. Among their neighbours there were Caroline and Robert Kingsborough of Mitchelstown. Charlotte and Edward’s second son, William (1803–1864) was named after his maternal grandfather. He inherited the estate at Cahirmoyle and went on to become involved in the ill-fated rising of 1848. The couple’s other children were Grace (1802 (?)–1871), Anne (1805–1872), Edward (1806–1840), Charlotte (1808), Robert (1809–1870), Harriet (1811–1883), Henry (1813–1895), Donatus (1814–1816), Charlotte (1816), Catherine (1817–1865), and Emily Charlotte (1824). William Smith, Charlotte’s father, had had a daughter and a son with a woman called Bridget Keevan. On William’s death they were fourteen and eight respectively.

  5. 5.

    F. O’Connor, Leinster, Munster and Connaught, 221.

  6. 6.

    A. Young, Arthur Young’s Tour in Ireland: 1776–1779, Vol. 1, 285.

  7. 7.

    Weir, Forebears, 107; M. Bence–Jones, A guide to Irish country houses, 207. The brothers had already worked on Lough Cutra Castle for Viscount Gort, formally Charles Vereker, one of the most powerful people in Limerick and would also build a large Gothic Revival castle in Mitchelstown for George, 3rd Earl of Kingston, eldest son of Caroline, Countess of Kingston.

  8. 8.

    S. Lewis, A topographical dictionary of Ireland with historical and statistical descriptions, Vol. 2, 194.

  9. 9.

    Gwynn, Charlotte Grace O’Brien, 154 quoting from O’Brien’s poem, “Dromoland.”.

  10. 10.

    A. de Vere, Recollections of Aubrey de Vere, 78.

  11. 11.

    Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, Box 846, MS 1002/3. Letter written by Charlotte, dated October 4, 1820. In her letter to John Leslie Foster, Kildare Place Society, Charlotte asked after his wife who, according to Charlotte, also strove to “[deliver] the Message of Mercy Contained in the Gospel to Others.”

  12. 12.

    Weir, Forebears, 101.

  13. 13.

    Edward also attended a levée in Dublin Castle in the King’s honour. Unlike Emily, Countess of Glengall, he was impressed by the splendour and pomp.

  14. 14.

    Gwynn, Charlotte Grace O’Brien, 5; J. O’Donoghue, Historical Memoir of the O’Briens with Notes, Appendix, and a Genealogical Table of their Several Branches compiled from the Irish Annalists, 446, 447.

  15. 15.

    Weir, Forebears, 102, 105, 106, 113.

  16. 16.

    A. Acheson, A History of the Church of Ireland 1691–2001, 126.

  17. 17.

    de Vere, Recollections, 78.

  18. 18.

    Weir, Forebears, 102, 104, 108, 112, 120. Weir cites the Clare Journal, 1833.

  19. 19.

    Acheson, History of the Church of Ireland, 126; de Vere, Recollections, 78; M. Cullen and M. Luddy, Women, Power and Consciousness in 19th Century Ireland, 232.

  20. 20.

    Clare Local Studies Project (CLASP), Poverty Before the Famine County Clare 1835, First Report from His Majesty’s Commissioners for Inquiring into the Condition of the Poorer Classes in Ireland, 143, 145.

  21. 21.

    Weir, Forebears, 103, 120; E. Burton, The Georgians at Home 1714–1830, 251; E. Gaskell, The Cranford Chronicles, 298, 299.

  22. 22.

    P. Downes, “The Downes Brothers (c.1800–1881)-Wren boys from Co. Clare,” P. Downes, http://members.pcug.org.au/~pdownes/welcome.htm (accessed July 21, 2016). Downes includes excerpts from The Ennis Chronicle and Clare Advertiser, Wednesday, April 4 and Saturday, April 7, 1827.

  23. 23.

    Weir, Forebears, 103, 132.

  24. 24.

    J.G. Knightly, private papers; Acheson, History of the Church of Ireland, 79, 80. Acheson quotes W. Law (1686–1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, first published in 1728.

  25. 25.

    H.J. Hislop, “The Kildare Place Society 1811–1831: An Experiment in Popular Education” (Trinity College Dublin, 1990), 478; A. O’Connell, “‘Good to the Heart’s Core’: Charlotte O’Brien 1845–1909,” in Clio’s Daughters: Essays on Irish Women’s History 1845–1939, ed. B. Whelan.

  26. 26.

    de Vere, Recollections, 78, 79; Weir, Forebears, 103.

  27. 27.

    Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, First Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, 1825, 9, Appendix 5, 25, 26.

  28. 28.

    J. Power, “Education in Clare,” Clare County Library, http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/education2.htm (accessed July 31, 2016).

  29. 29.

    Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, Box 841, MS 117/2. Letter written by Councillor Thomas Mahon and enclosed with Charlotte’s letter to Kildare Place Society, dated February 3, 1820

  30. 30.

    Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, Box 846, MS 1002/4. Letter read to Kildare Place Committee on December 13, 1820, possibly from Mr Vesey Fitzgerald. Weir, Forebears, 118. Vesey Fitzgerald’s distinguished career included appointments as Lord of the Irish, and of the English, Treasuries, Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, and Ambassador to Sweden. He was beaten by Daniel O’Connell in the Clare election of 1828.

  31. 31.

    Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, Box 846, MS 1002/2. Letter written by Charlotte, dated September 20, 1820.

  32. 32.

    Ibid.

  33. 33.

    (CLASP), Poverty Before the Famine, “Parishes of Tomfinloe, Kilnasullagh, Kilmaleary, and Drumline. Town Newmarket-on-Fergus. Barony Bunratty: Widows with Children”, 156.

  34. 34.

    Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, Box 852, Archive Number 108, letter written by Charlotte, dated April 21, 1823.

  35. 35.

    KPS Archives, 846, 1002/2.

  36. 36.

    KPS Archives, 846, 1002/4; Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, Box 843, MS 411/2.

  37. 37.

    Commissioners of the Board of Education in Ireland, Thirteenth Report from the Commissioners of the Board of Education in Ireland on English Schools of Private Foundations in Ireland, 1812, 315, 316.

  38. 38.

    Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, “List of schools by county giving details of teachers’ sources of financial support: Munster,” MS 416.

  39. 39.

    Ibid.

  40. 40.

    Hislop, “Kildare Place Society”, 479.

  41. 41.

    Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, Reports of Various Societies 1817–47, Box 27, Serial Number 47. Charlotte’s contribution of £1 1s is listed in The Twenty-Fourth Annual Report of the Ladies’ Hibernian Female School Society, 1847.

  42. 42.

    KPS Archives, 846, 1002/2, 846, 1002/2.

  43. 43.

    KPS Archives, 846, 1002/3.

  44. 44.

    KPS Archives, 846, 1002/4.The letter writer explained that a school he and Charlotte supported had lost “a friend in the late priest of [the] parish Mr (?) Healy” who “as far as he dared…was an advocate for [the] school.” The writer continued, “I have reason to fear, we are not about to get any assistance from his successor.”

  45. 45.

    Weir, Forebears, 109.

  46. 46.

    Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, Box 861, Archive Number 248–2. Letters written on Charlotte’s behalf, dated September 26 and October 8, 1839.

  47. 47.

    Hislop, “Kildare Place Society”, 479, 480.

  48. 48.

    B. Ó Dálaigh, ed., The Stranger’s Gaze: Travels in County Clare, 1534–1950, 157. Ó Dálaigh cites J. Lancaster, A Brief Report of a Tour in Ireland in the Winter of 1811–1812, 11, 12.

  49. 49.

    Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, Second Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry (Abstract of Returns in 1824, from the Protestant and Roman Catholic Clergy in Ireland, of the State of Education in their respective Parishes), 1826–27, Appendix 22, 868, 869; Hislop, “Kildare Place Society”, 479.

  50. 50.

    Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, Box 838, Archive Number 28, letter written on Charlotte’s behalf, dated January 18, 1816; Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, “A Return of the Schools in connection with The Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor of Ireland in the Province of Munster on the 5th day of January, 1825,” Ledger 360, 2.

  51. 51.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 360; Hislop, “Kildare Place Society”, 384. Hislop cites KPS MS 850/929 connecting Robert and Elizabeth McElwee, both trained by the Kildare Place Society, with this school.

  52. 52.

    Thirteenth Report, 1812, 315, 316.

  53. 53.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 360, 2; Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 12, “Schools in connection with the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in Ireland,” 159.

  54. 54.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 360, 2; Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 12, “Schools in connection with the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in Ireland,” 159.

  55. 55.

    Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 868, 869.

  56. 56.

    KPS Archives, 852, 108; KPS Archives, “Teachers’ sources of financial support,” 416; Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, MS Ledger 354, 82. School was also called the “Newmarket Adult Female School” or the “Clare Female School.”

  57. 57.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 354, 82; KPS Archives, 852, 108. Letter written by Charlotte, dated April 21, 1823.

  58. 58.

    Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, MS Ledger 353, 196; KPS Archives, Ledger 354, 82.

  59. 59.

    Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 870, 871.

  60. 60.

    First Report, 1825, Appendix 238, 656.

  61. 61.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 353, 196.

  62. 62.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 354, 82.

  63. 63.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 360, 6. Alternative spelling: Malowney.

  64. 64.

    Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 880, 881.

  65. 65.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 354, 82.

  66. 66.

    Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 880, 881.

  67. 67.

    KPS Archives, “Teachers’ sources of financial support,” 416.

  68. 68.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 354, 82.

  69. 69.

    Ibid.

  70. 70.

    Ibid.

  71. 71.

    Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 884, 885.

  72. 72.

    Downes, “The Downes Brothers (c.1800–1881)-Wren boys from Co. Clare.” Downes includes excerpts from The Ennis Chronicle and Clare Advertiser, Saturday, April 7, 1827. Possibly the same Mrs Parkinson who was one of the Visiting Committee formed after Elizabeth Fry’s visit to Ennis Gaol, 1827.

  73. 73.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 353, 203.

  74. 74.

    Ibid.

  75. 75.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 354, 103; Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 884, 885. The rental rate given in this report for the school is £40.

  76. 76.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 354, 103; Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 884, 885.

  77. 77.

    Weir, Forebears, 111, 200.

  78. 78.

    (CLASP), Poverty Before the Famine, 156.

  79. 79.

    Kildare Place Society Archives, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, “Returns of Schools in connection with the Society: Munster (1) 1825,” 426 A (7).

  80. 80.

    Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 884, 885.

  81. 81.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 354, 103.

  82. 82.

    Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 884, 885; KPS Archives, Ledger 360, 6.

  83. 83.

    KPS Archives, “Teachers’ sources of financial support,” 416; KPS Archives, Ledger 353, 203; Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 884, 885.

  84. 84.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 354, 103.

  85. 85.

    Ibid.

  86. 86.

    KPS Archives, “Returns of Schools,” 426 A (7).

  87. 87.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 354, 103.

  88. 88.

    First Report, 1825, Appendix 12, “Schools in connection with the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in Ireland,” 159. The school may also have been known as Newmarket-on-Fergus Female School; Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 870, 871; KPS Archives, Ledger 360, 2; Weir, Forebears, 109. The parish may also have been known as Fenloe and consequently the school may have been known as Fenloe School.

  89. 89.

    Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 870, 871.

  90. 90.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 360, 2.

  91. 91.

    Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 870, 871.

  92. 92.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 360, 2.

  93. 93.

    KPS Archives, “Returns of Schools,” 426 A (7). On Sept 13, 1825 there were 50 girls on the school’s roll and there was an average daily attendance of 44.

  94. 94.

    Second Report, 1826–27, Appendix 22, 870, 871.

  95. 95.

    Weir, Forebears, 109.

  96. 96.

    Possibly William Scott of Fey Quin Townland in the parish of Quin, Co. Clare. Clare Tithe Applotment Books Transcription Project, “County Clare Tithe Applotment Books Occupiers of land in the Parish of Quin on 1st May 1825,” Clare County Library, http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/tithe_applot/quin_tab.htm (accessed March 21, 2016).

  97. 97.

    Alternative spelling: Ardsollus.

  98. 98.

    KPS Archives, Ledger 354, 288.

  99. 99.

    Ibid.

  100. 100.

    Ibid., 319.

  101. 101.

    Ibid.

  102. 102.

    Weir, Forebears, 122.

  103. 103.

    Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XIV, 759; Weir, Forebears, 113, 123, 127, 145.

  104. 104.

    Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XIV, 777, 778.

  105. 105.

    Weir, Forebears, 111, 166, 200. Florence Arnold-Forster, granddaughter of Dr. Arnold of Rugby, had married Robert (Robin) Vere O’Brien, a first cousin of the O’Briens of Dromoland.

  106. 106.

    Ibid., 136, 141.

  107. 107.

    Freeman’s Journal, September 29, 1856.

  108. 108.

    Weir, Forebears, 111.

  109. 109.

    de Vere, Recollections, 78.

  110. 110.

    KPS Archives, 852, 108.

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    Eilís O’Sullivan

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O’Sullivan, E. (2017). Charlotte, Lady O’Brien. In: Ascendancy Women and Elementary Education in Ireland. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54639-1_11

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