Mr Grove’s Academy

Daryl Wight has researched the life of one of the founder of one of Geelong’s early schools. The schoolmaster, Edmund Deane Grove, was a man of some academic promise but his endeavours in life were not met with much success and his life reads very much like a cautionary tale.

Schoolmaster Edmund Deane Grove arrived in Geelong on 12 June 1848 aboard the cutter, Vansittart, from Hobart Town.[1] 
 
Within a few months, Grove, describing himself as a ‘Member of the University of Oxford’, had established a day and boarding school in Ryrie Street, Geelong.  Pupils at Grove’s Academy were instructed in ‘… the Classics, Logic etc., conjointly with the usual branches of an English education.’[2] 
 
In January 1849, prior to the commencement of the new school year, Grove advertised that he had room for more pupils and had vacancies for a few boarders.[3] 
 
There was, presumably, a need for an English grammar school education for some scholars in early Geelong – traditionally to prepare boys for university, the Church, the civil service and the Army – although most of these institutions were not available to scholars in Port Phillip, at that time.  Grove was also alert to the less lofty ambitions of many pupils who would go on to seek out careers in the wool stores, auction houses and offices in the town.
 
In April 1849, ‘desirous of meeting the wishes of the parents of those of his pupils who require a mercantile education’, Grove announced that he had engaged a gentleman to give instruction in mathematics, arithmetic, book-keeping and every other branch necessary for a sound commercial education.[4]
 
Support for Grove’s Academy from the Geelong community must have been very encouraging.  No sooner had he extended his school’s teaching to include commercial education, he advertised that he wanted to rent a house ‘of not less than six rooms’.[5]
 
In July 1849, his quest for larger premises had borne fruit.  Grove announced that he had removed to more extensive premises in Little Scotland, ‘in consequence of the limited space of play ground at his late residence’.  The new premises, in addition to superior internal arrangements, would provide ‘every facility and scope’ for gymnastic exercises.[6]
 
Grove also announced that he was reading the classics to gentlemen during the evening and would be happy to assist in the advancement of other gentlemen.
 
Another benefit of moving to larger premises was soon apparent.  By mid-August 1849, he was able ‘… to avail himself of the services of a gentleman, as a resident assistant, who will undertake the arithmetical as well as the French department.  This arrangement will allow Mr Grove to increase the number of his pupils and, consequently, to reduce his terms.’[7]  At the same time, Grove announced that he had vacancies for four boarders.
 
At the end of September 1849, Grove begged to announce that, ‘… by his present arrangements, he will be able to receive an additional number of boarders into his establishment.’[8]
 
By early October 1849, however, Grove’s Academy had ceased to operate.  Mr Sherlock, who had recently started a Commercial and Private Grammar School in Bellerine Street, announced that he was moving his establishment to Little Scotland, ‘[h]aving taken the premises lately held by Mr Grove…’[9]
 
 
Known pupils of Mr Grove’s Academy were Master Charles Buckland, Master W. Garlick and Master Eyre.[10]
 
The closure of Grove’s school was sudden.  He was still advertising for new day scholars and boarders right up until the end.[11]  There was nothing in the newspapers about financial trouble or poor health.  But Grove had left Geelong.  On 19 October 1849, he sailed from Melbourne aboard the Diana – bound for Sydney, arriving on 2 November.[12]
 
Who was Mr Grove?
 
Edmund Deane Grove was baptised on 8 November 1817 at Holywell Parish Church, in the university town of Oxford.[13]  He was the eldest son of Edmund Grove and his wife, Charlotte nee Deane, who were both born in Oxford.  Edmund (senior) was the cook of Balliol College for many years and had been granted ‘privilegiatus’ status by the University in 1808.[14]
 
From the age of eight years, young Edmund was a chorister at the Magdalen College chapel.  As a chorister, he was a member of the College’s Foundation and entitled to attend the Magdalen College School.  In February 1834, aged 16 years, he matriculated to Magdalen College, Oxford, and commenced undergraduate studies.
 
Unlike most undergraduates at Oxford, who were supported in their education by their families, Edmund’s parents could not afford to pay for his tuition.  To support himself through university, Edmund was employed as clerk of Magdalen College from 1834 to 1837 and, for some of that time he was also the Assistant Librarian at the Bodleian Library.[15]
 
While still an undergraduate, Edmund married Harriot Stopes, a minor (aged 17), on 21 October 1837 at St Sepulchre’s Church, London.  Describing himself as ‘of full age’, he was, in fact, only 19 years old at the time – just shy of his 20th birthday.[16]  The young man was taking on much responsibility: still putting himself through university; and with a new wife and, eventually, family.
 
Edmund suspended his studies and the couple went to live for six months with relations on Guernsey.  They were soon back in Oxford where a son was born at Chalgrove in August 1838 and where Edmund turned his hand to being a butcher and poulterer.
 
He briefly resumed his studies at Oxford in 1839, where he contested an election for the position of Superior Bedel at Law and finished second.  Edmund was living in Watlington, Oxford, in 1840, when another son was born.  He was now a private tutor and sometime gardener.
 
By the time of the 1841 English census, the family resided at Temple Cowley, Oxford.  Edmund was described as a man of ‘independent means’, living with his wife, two children and two servants.  Another son was born later that year in Headington, Oxford.
 
Despite his self-described ‘independent means’, Edmund had moved house at least eight times in four years; had tried his hand at several occupations over that time; and had a wife and three children to support.  Money was clearly in short supply.  Perhaps he was moving to ever-cheaper accommodation or moving to where work was available or was he just one step ahead of the bailiff?
 
Edmund resumed undergraduate studies in 1842 but money worries pursued him.  Despite studying, intermittently, for nine years, Edmund did not take his degree from Oxford. 
 
In 1843, he was confined to the Castle Gaol, Oxford, for debt.  His wife and family were granted poor relief by the Headington Union, in Oxford.[17]  Edmund was declared bankrupt in October 1843. [18]
 
Edmund, himself, in a letter to the head of the Convict Department in Van Diemen’s Land, sets out the next chapter in his life: ‘In October last [1843], I answered an advertisement in the Times newspaper headed ‘Schoolmaster wanted to Van Diemen’s Land’, salary liberal.  Being desirous of going abroad, I applied to the Tutors of my College & others for testimonials & sent them to the address as directed in the advertisement &, after the lapse of two months or more, was appointed to the situation by the Inspectors of Millbank.’
 
‘After my appointment, it appeared that Sir James Graham and Lord Stanley objected to the expense of carrying out the system proposed by the Revd Mr Russell and the other Inspectors but at the same time was willing that I should come out.  Mr Russell now suggested my accepting the situation of Government Chaplain but, though I obtained satisfactory Testimonials for ordination, I did not think myself justified in taking as serious a step at such very short notice.  It was then agreed that I should go out as Schoolmaster with the prospect of being ordained here & agreeably to Mr Russell’s wish, I waited on Mr Capper, Superintendent of Convicts, Whitehall, with a letter from Mr Russell …’[19]
 
Edmund took his passage to VDL aboard the Equestrian, leaving London on 28 January 1844.  He arrived in Hobart Town on 1 May 1844.[20]  Papers from the ‘Home’ Government were not aboard the Equestrian, despite the assurances of Revd Mr Russell, upon whom Edmund had called on the day he embarked for VDL.  As a result, Edmund was required to set out his circumstances in a letter to the Colonial Government.  By the end of the month, he was appointed as Schoolmaster at the Broadmarsh convict probation station, conditionally, pending confirmation from the ‘Home’ Government.
 
Broadmarsh convict probation station was established in 1842 to accommodate convicts working in road gangs in the district.  It was located about 45 kilometres north-west of Hobart Town.  The probationary convicts were under relatively short sentences for colonial offences – rather than transportation from England.  At the end of 1844 there were 240 probationers at Broadmarsh.  Edmund remained as schoolmaster there until the station was broken up in late 1847.[21]
 
In the middle of 1848, Edmund arrived in Geelong and later opened his Academy – firstly in Ryrie Street and later in Little Scotland.  As described above, the School closed early in October 1849 and Edmund sailed for Sydney.
 
Edmund’s mother, Charlotte, and only surviving sister, Mary, arrived in Melbourne in the barque, Santipore, in June 1850, having left London on 2 March.[22]  (His father had died at Oxford in 1846.)  Presumably they were expecting to meet Edmund in Melbourne but he had already left for Sydney.  Soon afterwards, mother and sister sailed for Sydney but Edmund was not there either.  Letters addressed to him at Parramatta were unclaimed for some months.[23]  Perhaps he had made a quick trip to England and their ships had, quite literally, passed at sea.  Or it may have been that he had no way of alerting his mother and sister to his changed circumstances until after their arrival in Melbourne.  Perhaps he was not expecting any mail because he had yet not told anyone where he now resided.
 
And what of his wife, Harriot, and his three children?  It would seem the Edmund had not been in contact with them since he had left England.  Did they think him dead or had he deserted the family?  The 1851 English census revealed a sorry plight.  Harriot, living with her parents in Berkshire, was described as the ‘widow of a clergyman’.[24]  Their three boys, Edmond, 13, Alfred, 11, and Harry, 8, were all at the Paupers’ School of the St Giles’s Workhouse, in Oxford.[25]
 
Harriot’s description in the census, as a ‘widow of a clergyman’ fits with Edmund’s intention, when leaving England, to go out as a schoolmaster with the prospect of being ordained in VDL and suggests that he had not been in further communication with his wife.  The children’s sad lot also suggests that he was not sending any part of his schoolmaster’s salary back to England for their support.
 
Edmund next appears in Bathurst, NSW, in 1854, as a copying clerk in a solicitor’s office.[26] 
 
In July 1861, Edmund was charged with taking money under false pretences.  A warrant was issued at Bathurst for his arrest.[27]  In it he was described as 5’7’’, of sallow complexion, stout build, rounded shoulders, with dark-ringed pupils of grey eyes, and heavy eyebrows meeting over the nose.  Once arrested, he was remanded in custody, at weekly intervals, for over a month before eventually being bailed.  Despite this official heavy-handedness, Edmund was acquitted of the crime.[28]
 
Edmund’s mother had died in Sydney in 1857 and his sister died there in 1866.
 
Edmund appears to have died at the Sydney Infirmary, of diarrhoea [sp?], on 29 March 1874.  Without friends or family present, he was buried in a pauper’s grave at Haslem’s Creek Cemetery, two day later.[29]
 
 
 
 References

[1] Corio Chronicle, 15 June 1848
[2] Corio Chronicle, 29 December 1848
[3] Corio Chronicle, 3 January 1849
[4] Corio Chronicle, 2 April 1849
[5] Corio Chronicle, 4 April 1849
[6] Geelong Advertiser, 28 July 1849.  At this time, the locality of Little Scotland comprised two principal streets: Villamanta Street and Spring Street.
[7] Geelong Advertiser, 14 August 1849
[8] Geelong Advertiser, 27 September 1849
[9] Geelong Advertiser, 13 October 1849
[10] Corio Chronicle, 11 April 1849 (Buckland & Garlick), Corio Chronicle, 24 January 1849 (Eyre)
[11] Indeed, advertisements continued to appear in the newspaper for some days after he had left Geelong.
[12] Port Phillip Gazette, 20 October 1849 (departure); Sydney Morning Herald, 3 November 1849 (arrival)
[13] Anglican Parish Registers, Oxford Family History Society (PAR199/1/R2/1)
[14] Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses:Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886
[15] Ibid.
[16] London Church of England Parish Registers, London Metropolitan Archives (P69/A/01/MS7222/8)
[17] Oxford History Centre (QS1844/1/A9/4).  These papers recorded the deliberations of the Poor Law Commissioners to establish what Parish, of the many Parishes in which Grove had resided, would bear the cost of poor law relief for his wife and family now that he was in debtors’ prison.
[18] London Gazette 1843, Part III
[19] Archives Office of Tasmania (CSO22-1-112 No.1299)
[20] Cornwall Chronicle, 4 May 1844
[21] Archives Office of Tasmania ( NS6563-1-1)
[22] Argus, 27 June 1850
[23]There were advertisements for unclaimed letters at the Sydney Post Office for June, July, August and September 1850.
[24] England 1851 census – Parish of Remenham, Berkshire (HO.107.1725)
[25] England 1851 census – Parish of St Giles, Oxford (HO.107.1727)
[26] Bathurst Free Press, 2 December 1854
[27] NSW Police Gazette, 22 July 1861
[28] Bathurst Free Press, 31 July 1861 (remand), 28 August 1861 (bail), 7 December 1861 (acquittal)
[29] Death certificate – NSW Registration Number 833/1874