The Royal School is situated in the City of Armagh. Its original planners,
however, proposed locating it near Mountnorris in the Parish of Loughgilly.
It was the intention of King James I to provide for the educational needs of
the planter settlers by constructing a school with Royal Charter in each county
in Ireland. These schools were established with the intention of preparing young
men for entry into Trinity College, Dublin. Until then, education was largely
the preserve of the upper classes, orchestrated by private tuition. It was hoped
that by establishing Royal institutions with free education, more young men would
be in a position to take advantage of the opportunities in professional occupations.
When the idea of founding a Royal School in Co.Armagh was first conceived, the
city that had been home to Saint Patrick naturally promoted itself as the pre-eminent
location. However, disturbances in the area surrounding the city temporarily
scuppered these plans. An alternative location had to be sought, near enough
that the city could lend some prestige but far enough removed from the violent
disturbances that could discourage families from sending their sons to be educated.
In 1608, James
I, by order of the Privy Council, set aside lands in the area for the building
of a school near to the fort at Mountnorris. On December 15th 1627, Charles I vested in Archbishop James Ussher six townlands in the vicinity of Mountnorris, to be held in trust by succeeding archbishops, for the purpose of constructing a royal school on the land. The
area of land set aside for the purpose was approximately 1550 English acres.
This original charter is held within the rolls of the Court of Chancery.
In the years following this grant of land, the violence in the city was quelled
and the construction of a fort at Charlemont rendered Mountnorris less important. In a book of survey and distribution dating from the 1650s (PRONI, MIC/532/5) the land allocated to ‘The School of Ardmagh’ seems to have reduced to 830 acres: a third part of Kilcon, Botty or Ballyvally, Mullaghmore and Monegahullen (possibly the townland of Bolton which completes the chain of townlands named)
Armagh was deemed a more prestigious situation for the appointment and so the
school was finally constructed within the confines of the city. This rapid reversal
of plan left local landlords in uproar. The Earls of Charlemont and Gosford
accused the school commission of misappropriation of funds and failure to comply
with expectations. The school, as it was first conceived, had been to supply
free classical education to its scholars. However, when the school was opened
in Armagh it was as a paying institution and, indeed, became one of the most
expensive schools in Ireland.
The land in Mountnorris was taken over by the Board of Education and set to
tenants, the lease of which was not to exceed twenty-one years. The money arising
from these transactions was to be applied to the maintenance of free scholars
at the Royal School in Armagh.
