RootsChat.Com

Newspaper reports indicate that the Rev. Robert Mathews opened a ‘Classical School’, or a ‘School for General Education’ in October 1821 at 54 William Street, Dublin. Rev. Mathews, himself previously a pupil at another small private school in Dublin and then a Classical Scholar (at TCD?), taught various classes himself, with some teaching assistants for other subjects. Rev. Mathews believed that long vacations encouraged idleness, and the pupils were required to attend two long semesters, from early January until early July, and from early August until a few days before Christmas. The annual fees were about £10, payable quarterly in advance, with additional fees, for example, for classes in French and Italian. The school moved to 38 Dawson Street from January 1829, but seems to have ceased to exist after July that year.

I can't seem to get access, even though I seem to meet the rules - I've made 7 posts into Rootschat. What's the problem, and how do I resolve it?

I've been looking for information about Jessie Handyside, who allegedly worked for the imperial family in Russia sometime between 1878 and 1905, and in the course of some Google searches came across fragmentary mentions of Heath (see below), but have no record of the sources. If you come across any references to her, or a photograph, I'd be interested to hear.

Charles Heath (1826-1900) a graduate of Cambridge University, went to Russia before the Crimean War. One of his first positions was that of English tutor to the Grand Dukes Sergei and Paul, the two youngest sons of Alexander II. After holding professional positions at the Imperial Alexander Lyceum and the Naval Academy, he was appointed tutor in English to the two eldest sons of the Tsarevich Alexander (later Alexander III). From that time (1879) until his death (1900), he remained an intimate of the Imperial Family, a very close friend of Alexander III and his family. Alexander's son, Nicholas (later Nicholas II), was evidently very fond of him; he presented him to Queen Victoria when he was visiting England in the summer of 1894. On his death, all the imperial family, except for Nicholas who was in the Crimea, attended his funeral.

A lot of memorials in the Smolensk cemetery in St. Petersburg have been lost, possibly destroyed during the Siege of Leningrad in the 1940s. I'm not aware of any list of those that survive, but there may be one somewhere. 

There are numerous photos of Heath on the web. 

There may be more information in Rappaport's paper, but I have not seen that yet.

Ian Johnson

You can see the pre-demolition building survey, with photographs and maps, at:
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-722-1/dissemination/pdf/teesarch1-20506_1.pdf

The New Cleveland Arms was indeed a pub.  Its name seems to have been changed to The New Fleece late in the nineteenth century. 

William Stones was the youngest son of one of my great-great-great-grandfathers.  His only son was born in 1862, about the same time as Martha's daughter.  I don't think you could or should draw any conclusions from that.