Emma Stoodley (1842-1870) schoolmistress of the Church of England Infant School
Emma was a young schoolteacher at a time when national educational reforms were beginning to make a difference in Bridgwater.
Emma was born in St Mary Street in central Bridgwater. Her father, Benjamin Stoodley (1815-1901) was at various times a housepainter, plumber and glazier. Her mother, Elizabeth (1816-1890) nee Burge, did the housework and cooking without servants and raised seven children. Emma was their second child and eldest daughter and was baptised in St Mary’s Parish Church in July 1842. Her elder brother died when she was three, leaving Emma the eldest.
Benjamin and Elizabeth could afford to send their children to school, so long as it was a day school in Bridgwater. As well as reading and writing, their children needed to learn weights and measures and enough arithmetic to manage the accounts of shop and household. Then the boys would do apprenticeships and the girls would either go out to work or help their mother. There were a number of schools in the town, but for parishioners of St Mary’s, the National schools for boys and girls in and near Mount Street, Bridgwater, were a popular choice.
The National Society for Promoting Religious Education aimed to establish schools in every parish across the nation, targeting areas where there had been rapid population growth and so a shortage of schools, especially schools for girls. The religious education was always Church of England and it was often the vicar who applied for the grant and set up the school. In Bridgwater there was a National infant school with 70 pupils in 1830. It was soon followed by a National Girls School. The National Boys School was not established until later as Bridgwater already had Church of England boys school in Dr Morgan’s School. The National Boys school and Dr Morgan’s were combined in 1848, just in time for Emma’s younger brothers to attend.
left for boys, the infant school on the centre bottom, and the girls' school on the right-hand side on the corner of Angel Crescent.
Emma probably attended the National School for Girls as it offered a pathway to teacher training and both Emma and her sister Elizabeth became schoolmistresses. National schools used the monitorial system. A trained schoolmaster (for boys) or schoolmistress (for girls) was in charge, but the brightest pupils became monitors and taught the younger children while still having lessons from the trained teacher themselves. The monitors could become pupil teachers and have further training.
In 1851, the Stoodley family was living in the Bathing Buildings, meaning houses on the town side of St Matthews Field near the Durleigh Brook. Benjamin was a plumber and his wife Elizabeth was a staymaker doing piece work at home. Emma, 8, and Edwin, 6, had both started school.
They were on the outskirts of town but the children could still walk to school in Mount Street. The school inspector described the girls’ school in his 1852 report. It had an average daily attendance of 95 pupils.
“The desks are placed in parallel rows but they required to be made more firm. School furniture as well as the supply of books and apparatus was very deficient. A girls’ school in five divisions, under a mistress, one pupil teacher, and two candidates for apprenticeship. The discipline may be improved. The mistress has not been very successful during the past year.”
Edwin would still have been in the infant school which had an average attendance of 92 children and received a better report.
“An infant school under a mistress, an assistant teacher, and one monitor. The instruction may be increased. The mistress appears lively and fond of her work.”
The Stoodley family lived much closer to the centre of town in Silver Street by 1861. Benjamin and Elizabeth were both still working as before. Elizabeth’s elder sister Ann Burge was living with the family until her death in 1868. Emma, 18, and Edwin, 17, were pupil teachers. John, 12, was an errand boy, Elizabeth, 10, and Jessie, 6, were schoolgirls and the youngest was Charles, aged two. The National Schools all had pupil teachers, but only two or three at most per school at any one time, so Emma really was one of the brightest.
By 1867, Emma had been appointed schoolmistress of the National Infant School, which was also called the Church of England Infant School. There would have been an assistant teacher, at least one pupil teacher and probably some lady volunteer helpers as well, as referred to in the following article. How else could Emma manage 167 children aged between about five and seven years? The Somerset County Gazette reported on the “Seasonable Benevolence” at the school.
“The children of the Church of England infant school were on Christmas Eve presented with a number of garments, the gift of Mrs Poole, Brent House, Mrs Page and other ladies and which had been made up principally at the school during the past year. The children, to the number of 167, assembled at 2 o’clock and were addressed by Mr George Parker, after which the clothing was distributed. To add to their enjoyment, Mrs Knowles had presented a Christmas tree which was presided over by Master and the Misses Baker, and from which every child received a toy. This, with a bun each, provided by the liberality of Miss Gooding, completed the entertainment. Much credit is due to the mistress, Miss Stoodley, for the order and discipline maintained among the children.”
Emma was doing very well in her career. In a couple more years, educational reforms meant that more teachers like Emma were given opportunities for extra training. Sadly, the next time Emma appeared in an official document it was her death certificate. She succumbed to the “robber of youth” as consumption (tuberculosis) was called because it killed so many young adults. Emma died aged 27, on 10 March 1870 at her parents’ home in Angel Crescent. She was buried in Wembdon Road Cemetery with Ann Burge.
The following year, Benjamin and Elizabeth were living at 8 Angel Crescent and John was working with his father. Young Elizabeth was a teacher, Jessie was a dressmaker and Charles was still at school. There was more sadness to come. Jessie had also caught tuberculosis. She died at home in February 1872 and is buried with Emma and their aunt.
Young Elizabeth became a certificated teacher and moved to Ilminster with her parents. She married late so did not have children of her own, but in 1901 she was still teaching at the Board School in Ilminster. She and her husband cared for her father Benjamin when he was left a widower.
Edwin and Charles both went to London and, thanks to a sound education, had careers as a civil servants at Somerset House. Edwin was a senior clerk in the Department of Inland Revenue and Charles was a clerk in the Department of Exchequer and Audit. Teachers like Emma and her colleagues in Bridgwater’s schools were educating more of the town’s children than ever before and free, compulsory education for all boys and girls was on the horizon.
by Jillian Trethewey and Clare Spicer 4/6/2025
Sources
British Newspaper Archive
Census returns and parish registers.
Report of the Committee on Education 1852. Google books.