ALLAN, WILLIAM (1790s-1820s)

ALLAN, WILLIAM, teacher, 1790s-1820s.

When William Allan applied for a grant of land in 1791 his petition was supported by Alexander Taylor, JP, who declared him to be an upright, honest, well-respected resident who had been "very serviceable to a great many people by keeping school and teaching their children in the dead seasons of the year." There were no public schools at the time, so Allan would have taught on a private basis. When legislation was enacted in support of schools he was among the first to be paid as a teacher. In 1808 he received £75 in government grants for teaching a school for the previous three years in the parish of Newcastle. He declared in 1822 that he had taught a school for many years in the eastern district of the parish. His name was not noted in later records.