From Parish to Board: Schooling on the Isle of Lismore, 1866–1890

The Argyll Commission was set up in 1864 with Alexander Nicolson as assistant commissioner reporting back on education provision in the Hebrides. The Education (Scotland) Act of 1872 followed this, aiming to bring continuity to education in Scotland by creating a common countrywide system to replace the parish schools and (dis)array of different private and charitable provision. This article explores what, if any, effect this legislation had on schools in the small Inner Hebridean island of Lismore. The study utilises school logbook entries made at the main school during the relevant period, and it contextualises these alongside parallel school logs preserved from other Hebridean island and rural communities. The study is framed with attention to the historiography of spatial history and as such it also draws on other local documentary sources to identify specific features of island life on Lismore which influenced education during the period. The article concludes that the social history of the period was the dominant factor to affect education, alongside the influence and longevity of a particular schoolteacher. Thus, despite greater bureaucratic accountability, the article concludes that there was evidence of significant continuity in Lismore schooling as it moved from the parish to the board system.