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I have nearly completed gathering information on the 1861 census. There were almost 2,200 teachers including almost 300 who were described as governesses. 76% were women. Of these, 132 were widows, and 134 were married. That's about 20% of the women. Some of these were working independently - as music teachers and so on. Some were running their own academies - often staffed by their daughters, or working alongside their husbands. Some were working in Ragged Schools. Those described as government or national school teachers were almost invariably unmarried; those who were married or widowed were much more likely to be described as school mistresses. One would have to know where they were working before knowing if this difference in title was more than a coincidence.
There are many women whose marital status is unrecorded, and 2 for whom it is unreadable! In addition, there are teachers named in directories, who give no occupation in the census - these are always women. The proportion of women is therefore higher than it would seem.
Of all the teachers, 21 were born in France, 19 in Germany / Bavaria / Prussia and 10 in Switzerland. 12% were Irish, 5% Scottish and about less than 2% Welsh. There were odd ones born in Poland, Jamaica, Calcutta and Bombay, Navigation Islands and ten from the Isle of Man.
It is also noticeable that there are teachers who are blind working in blind schools, and teachers who are deaf working in schools for the deaf.
The main teacher training institution is the Notre Dame College on Mount Pleasant. This may be because here the pupils are living in the college. Other pupil teachers are living at home or boarding. They were mainly learning ‘on the job’. Edge Hill College on Durning Rd opened in 1887.
Link to 1861 Teachers - be warned, there are more than 90 pages of them! Those highlighted in red are from the 1853 directory - eliminating them from my enquiries!
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