Mrs Julia Hobart's Kidlington Training School

[supermoussi]

In the following Kidlington 1851 Census page

Household Schedule Number:    15
Piece:    1730
Folio:    408
Page Number:    3

It lists Mrs Julia Hobart 40 as a Mistress in Training School with 10 female pupils aged between 17 and 32 plus one servant.

A couple of places on the internet say it was a Teacher Training School. Can anyone confirm this? Also, how were girls admitted? Did they have to pass exams and did they have to pay for the education or was it run as a charity for poor girls and why aren't there any male pupils?

Thanks. 

[keyboard86]

Hi cannot answer fully re how pupils were admitted, but to bump this thread up, in 1861 Julia Hobart 50 b Liverpool is shown as Gentlewoman with her widowed daughter Julia Firth 26 born Ireland
RG09/3473/109/1

Marriage Julia Hobart to Thomas Firth March qtr 1858 Cheltenham 6a 501

The 32 year old Susannah Skidmore b Tackley appears to marry an Edward Taylor Sept 1855 Woodstock 3a 753 Edward appears in1861as a Widower with a Thersa Skidmore 19 b Tackley shown as Servant

Census ref RG09/901/94/7
Keyboard86

[supermoussi]

Hi cannot answer fully re how pupils were admitted, but to bump this thread up, in 1861 Julia Hobart 50 b Liverpool is shown as Gentlewoman with her widowed daughter Julia Firth 26 born Ireland
RG09/3473/109/1

Marriage Julia Hobart to Thomas Firth March qtr 1858 Cheltenham 6a 501

Thanks keyboard.

That's a bit freaky 

The 17 yr old Huldah HARRIS listed in the Kidlington School in 1851 moved to London and married a Mercantile Banking Clerk (whatever that may be exactly) at Shoreditch in 1854.

His name was Frederick Thomas FIRTH.

Spooky.... 

[keyboard86]

  To find out why Julia Hobart possibly started this school would be handy ie was it their 1841 and 1861?

Huldah Harris aged 7 is the daughter of Thomas and Harriett at the Angel Hotel, St Peter in the East, Oxford in 1841
Census ref H0107/891/ 16/11 / 16

Keyboard86

[sugarbakers]

"A History of Kidlington Schools" by R C Martin ... suggests it was a training school for governesses. It appears to have closed in 1853 and moved to Fishponds in Bristol in 1854.

[supermoussi]

Mrs Julia HOBART's backers were supposedly members of the LUXMOORE family:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Luxmoore and she was known to be concerned that her pupils received as good a teaching in religious matters as in other subjects.

The LUXMOORES seem to have helped her set up the school after her husband died. There also seems to be a link to Rev Pusey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bouverie_Pusey, Jesuit, Catholics and the Oxford Movement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Movement

Huldah HARRIS' family had a quite a few unusual religious names in it like Hiriam, Hodiah, Urban, etc. Could this be relevant perhaps? Urban (as in Pope Urban) definitely has a Catholic angle to it!

This online book has mentions of Julia HOBART Jnr and her mother:- http://www.archive.org/stream/femalejesuitabr00seaggoog/femalejesuitabr00seaggoog_djvu.txt

[supermoussi]

Incidentally, Huldah HARRIS was supposedly born in Oxford St Clements in 1833-4. If anyone has the St Clements Baptisms could they please check to see if she was given a C of E baptism there. If not perhaps she had a non-conformist one?