Governess how? 1880-1900

[roopat]

Stan - thank you, I had no idea there was so much school provision, just shows how you can make assumptions which are wrong!

Coombs - glad you said that -how DO you say Swafield? I've been pronouncing it Swayfield but you've worried me - we live near King's Lynn so it's not a place we know well.
Planning to go there this weekend so help!

Pat

[coombs]

I think it is pronounced Swarfield. I have driven through the village a few times.

[Plummiegirl]

What would probably happened is that when she reached about 14 she would have stayed on at school instead of leaving to find work.  She would have at that point become an Assistant Teacher, probably remaining in this position for a few years to gain experience.

Once she was deemed capable of teaching on her own she could then find employment as a "governess"
she would have taught the children to: read, write, arithmetic, drawing, some geography and depending on her own level of education some latin.  A well educated governess would have taught all children in a household up to the age of about six, at this age most young well-to-do boys would have been shipped of to boarding school, young ladies in the main stayed at home or they too may have been shipped off at an older age to finishing school where they too might have been trained to become governesses.

She would not be treated as a member of the family, she would not have to answer to the housekeeper or butler.  She would have expected to have her own room within the "nursery" area.  She would not have been expected to do any type of work in any of the family business.

[stanmapstone]

Before the Education Act 1902 the training of teachers was largely carried out under a pupil-teacher system, first established in 1846.
See http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=110&j=1

Stan

[roopat]

Thank you Plummiegirl, that's how I'd imagined her life in my head, and she certainly stayed with the family until 1891 census when youngest girl was 8, then in 1901 she was "retired governess"

Stan - The governess above is from my husband's family but my own grandmother was a pupil teacher and was quite accomplished although she came from a very poor background, I always wondered how she learnt to play the piano etc. Later she went into service as a lady's maid but used to have to entertain the family's guests by singing & playing the piano. Unfortunately she never talked about her days as a pupil teacher & I never asked. #

Cheers
Pat

[coombs]

My 3xgreat grandfathers second wife was a school mistress so she may have just had training under the pupil-teacher establishment introduced in 1846. She was on the 1861 census as a school mistress in Sussex.

[clivia6]

Hi
I have a Samuel HALL married to Elizabeth WALKER their son JOhn is my Great Grandfather
Cheers
Alan

[gazania]

Hi Alan,

Welcome to Rootschat.

We have been contact before. Your records would show I am descended from John's sister, Caroline Hall.  Sadly I have nothing more to add. Best wishes, Gazania