Old Times Schools

   It is a hard fact that sometimes children don't love their teachers, no matter how lovable they are.  Just read the 'Bash Street Kids' in the Beano.  But life was not always fair on the teacher either. Mostly known as the dominie in past centuries, life teaching recalcitrant children in the centuries after the Reformation was likely to be ill-paid and pressurised perhaps by constant scrutiny by the kirk session which appointed teachers and scrutinised their performance.

   The heritor and the minister imposed strict rules for the schoolmaster in each parish.  Among the rules recorded as given to new schoolmaster of Tannadice, Mr William Herald (formerly assistant teacher at Kirriemuir), at a meeting on 24th January 1824 were the following:

   Second:  No cockfighting to be permitted in the schoolroom, under any pretence, under the penalty of two pounds to the poor of the Parish, to be prosecuted for by the Kirk Treasurer;-
   Third:  That he shall assist the Minister of the Parish, or any other in teaching any Sabbath School, the latter may institute...

   The Presbytery of Forfar required that Mr Herald was able to teach English, book-keeping, practical mathematics, land surveying, plus Latin.

   Cock-fighting seems to have been sadly endemic in country schools nearly into the 19th century.  A man informs James Mylne, author of Rambles in Forfarshire (1875):

On the morning of Shrove Tuesday or Candlemas, old style, there was a grand cock fight! at almost every school in the country.  Each of the scholars came to the school with a cock under his arm; a circle was formed by the boys, the master standing in the group to see fair play, and if one of them refused to fight it was called a 'foogie,' and was claimed by the teacher.  If a contest took place, the victor was set aside, and the vanquished, if killed, likewise became the property of the master...Pair after pair were made to fight, and the victors of successive rounds were set aside and made to re-fight with each other until all were defeated or killed but two.  The remaining pair were hailed by the juveniles as heroes of the day, and the teacher at once named one of them the 'king,' and suspended round his neck a small blue ribbon, to which was attached a bell, as a symbol of royalty.  The other he proclaimed the 'prince'...The proprietors of the feathered conquerers gained only honour by their success, as they...had to contribute, for the king 5s, and the prince 2s d.  The sum was spent in purchasing sweetmeats...

   Sometimes a brawl would break out between the owner of a slain fowl and the owner of its winning opponent.  The fact that the teacher gained a meal out of the animal cruelty further darkens the shade of the custom.

Newbigging School and Schoolhouse

   In fact, many of these old country teachers were highly erudite, as exampled by lamented 17th century teacher at Monifieth, John Urquhart, whose own tombstone boasts his merits:

The monument of Mr John Urquhart, a most faithful teacher of the Parish of" Monifieth, which his most loving wife, Janet Morum, caused to be erected. He died I6th June, l664, in his 32nd year. Stop, Traveller! in this tomb, alas! lies gifted Urquhart, who swayed the sceptre of scholastic rule. To children no Orbilius was he, but like a loving nurse, he fed their infant minds with tender care. As offering to his manes, then, pour out a fervent prayer that from the tomb that covers him the fragrance of the Corycian crocus forth may breathe.

   Mr Urquhart was appointed to his post at a meeting on 6th February 1663, at which the payments due to him were detailed, drawn from the who parish:

  That euerie ploughe within the parishe should pay two markes zeirlie vnto him, the one
halfe yreof was to be given presentlie vnto him, the other halfe at the first of August nixt, & in all tymes coming at two termes in ye zeir Candlemas & Lambm'as, everie ploughe thirteenth shilling four pennies...

   Forty-seven ploughs of Monifieth contributed to his income, and his stipend was further bolstered by four marks yearly from the minister.  Parents contributed also, according to their means.  Gentlemen in the parish paid 30 shillings a quarter for each child; husbandmen paid 20 shillings (if they were able to); while other persons of good quality and mark were charged 24 shillings.  Those of 'meaner quality', or less able to pay, were charged 18 pence at the time of their weddings.  Strangers were also called to contribute, post mortem, if they wanted to be buried within the kirk yard and there was also a levie paid at each baptism.

   At the same meeting it was agreed to erect a new schoolhouse, with a dwelling for the teacher, 'as neere the mids of the parishe as could be convenientlie vpon the charges of ye parishoners'. Parents were asked to supply school and master with peats and coal.  Sadly, Mr Urquhart did not live long enough to see many of these benefits.


   Some Angus burghs had schools which had a long and continuous history* Montrose Academy had its roots in a 16th century grammar school, with educational establishments being evident in the town as far back as 1329.  A new fee-paying school was erected in 1815.  Not long before this time a certain James Norval was one of the teachers at Montrose (teaching reading, grammar, geography).  Supposedly an adept at astronomy, he also turned his hand to drama and his play The Generous Chief: A Tragedy was produced in the Theatre Royal.  His play was printed in 1792 and was reviewed in the Annals of Literature in London, where it was said to be a play derived from the history of the Highlands:

There is much fighting, much love, and no little absurdity in the conduct of the whole.  A spark from Ossian occasionally animates the language, and sometimes renders the poverty of the other parts more conspicuous.  In short, it should never have strayed from Montrose, where the story would gain it favour, the Scotticisms never obscure the language, nor the absurdities disgust.

   For all his accomplishments, Mr Norval was not universally popular.  His teaching methods were criticised, not just in town, but by the poet Alexander Smart.  He apparently did not like change and penned a number of lessons attacking educational change in the Montrose Review, 1827-29.  He also seems to have been unpopular on a personal level, as evidenced by this rhyme, probably written by a pupil, which details his violent habits and brings in his dwelling place at the Cottage of Repose (opposite and east of the toll-house at the junction of the Hillside and Charlton), just in case anyone wanted to find him to seek revenge:

Cockie Norval of Montrose
Lives at the Cottage of Repose;
He whips his scholars every day,
But takes good care of the quarter’s pay.

* A further post will examine the general history of schools and the education system in Angus through the centuries.