Admission Register

Gilbert Cory as a father himself took an interest in providing schooling for the children on Cory Vale, Tackbeare and Vacy. In 1849 he was a member of the Local Denominational School Board for a Presbyterian school at Vacy.(1) Whether such a school was ever established and admitted students is not known.

In 1857, a three man committee, including Gilbert, applied to the Board of National Education for a public school to be established at Vacy.(2) At the time the Estate was controlled by Gilbert as part of the marriage settlement to his late wife, Jeanette. The usual arrangement for non-vested schools was that if the community could raise one third of the cost of the buildings, then the Board would build a school and pay the salary of a teacher. Gilbert provided an acre of land with a frontage to the road from Paterson to Gresford. The outcome was that in September 1859 the Vacy Public School, enrolled its first pupils.(3) There was nothing fancy about the building constructed from slabs with a shingled roof and consisting of a schoolroom with an attached two roomed residence with a verandah for the master.

After seventeen years the school was in need of repairs and Gilbert approached the Council of Education to pay rent, which was usual for public schools built on private land. His request precipitated the resumption of two acres in 1883 on which a more substantial school and school-master�s residence of bricks were built. The old school was closed 2nd June 1884 and after the school holidays the pupils returned to their new school.(4)

In 1927 the Vacy Estate was subdivided and sold thus ending the 68 year connection between the school and the Cory Family. Many of the tenants were able to buy the land they had been leasing so there was little change in the pupils attending the school.

Records exist to show that at least six children of Gilbert�s second family(5) and his five Worthington grandchildren(6) started their education at the Vacy Public School.

The Register of Admission for the Public School at Vacy from 1886- 1956 is held by State Records of NSW.(7) The original names are arranged in date order of admission, starting with Alice Woodhouse, with the registration number of 218, who was enrolled in January 1886. Entries for the boys do not start until 1889. From the available records it is not clear when the register started.

The first four columns in the tables presented on the following pages have been compiled from this register, whereas notes in the fifth column refer to my files. The pupil�s names are presented alphabetically for each year. Apart from the entries by Margaret Morcom, whose fancy capitals were difficult to decipher and tended to obscure other entries, the information entered on the registers could be transcribed with a high degree of confidence. Parents or guardians did not always enrol the pupils with the name in which their birth was registered. Names that could not be resolved are shown in brackets. As noted before there is the problem of distinguishing between the Vacy Estate and the district of Vacy.