. 
1798.] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
ANY unavoidable engagements . 
have prevented me from fooner 
fulfilling my promife of fending you fome 
account of the Spinning School in this 
city, an inftitution not meant, like the 
Grey Coat School, to take the children 
from their refpective homes, but merely 
to fupply them with thofe means of i- 
ftruétion and employment which their 
parents are unable to procure for them 
there. 
The plan was firft fuggefted, like the 
new modelling of the Grey Coat School, 
by a circumftance merely accidental. A 
manufaéture of coarfe hemp being eftab- 
lifhed in the neighbourhood where myfelf 
and one of the ladies who firft aflifted in 
the regulation of that fchool, then refided, 
we were extremely concerned at obierv- 
ing the behaviour of the children in the 
ftreets, as they went to and returned from 
their work, and more efpecially, when 
we found upon further enquiry, that the 
habits acquired there, had, in a variety 
of inftances, paved the way for the ruin 
of the young girls employed in it. 
Our firft attempt was to introduce fome 
order into this manufactory, and to pay 
a perfon who fhould teach the girls to 
read in an evening when they had finithed 
their work, and» accompany them to 
church on the Sunday; but we foon found 
that any attempt at reformation while 
they continued there, was entirely fruit- 
Jefs. Having become acquainted with 
fome of the children, we felt for thofe a 
more peculiar individual intereft, and 
fome ladies in the neighbourhood, being 
imprefled by a like fentiment, we deter- 
mined to try if we could not eftablith by 
fubfeription, a fchool for the fpmning of 
worlted ; and fending for the parents, we 
offered them wages equal to what they 
then received, for- the labour of their 
_ children, on condition of their removing 
them from a fituation fo ruinous, and 
placing them under our protection. This 
propofal was acceded to by fome of them, 
and having hired a room, engaged a mifl- 
trefs, &c. &c. we opened our {chool with 
the number of eighteen girls taken from 
that manufactory, in June 1784. 
The average of the wages paid thefe 
children, amounted to about one shilling 
per week, but in refpeét of others, not pre- 
vioufly employed in the hemp manufac- 
tory, the following rules were adopted : 
That as foon as the children could {pin 
four hanks per day, they fhould be de- 
cently clothed, and moreover receive one 
MonTstuy Mac, No. XXXVill. 
Urs. Cappe on the Spinning School at York. 
333 
fourth of their earnings every Saturday, 
to take to their parents. ;_ 
That in the evening they fhould be 
taught to read, and on the Sunday go to 
fome place of public worfhip ; thofe, whofe 
parents were of the eftablifhment, (which 
of courfe would always be the far greater _ 
part) to attend the miftrefs to church, 
and afterwards all of them to be examined 
at the {chool, as to their progrefs in read- 
ing, &c. by fome of the patronefles of 
the inttitution. 
It would have been more agreeable to 
the parents, and much lefs trouble to the 
ladies who fuperintend, if the children 
had received the whole of their earnings 
in wages, without having any clothes 
given them; but we foon found that 
unlefs clothes were given, many of the 
children would be fent in fuch a flate as 
would render this fuperintendance, fo ne- 
ceflary, nearly impracticable; and more- 
over, that without this, any material 
change in their behaviour could hardly 
be expected, decency of apparel being 
more clofely conneéted with decency of » 
behaviour, than may at firft fight appear 
evident. 
After fome.time we added a knitting- 
fchool, for the reception of children too 
young to fpin worfted, from which the 
fpinners are taken as vacancies happen, 
and accordingly as they become qualified 
by regularly knitting a pair of ftockings 
in the courfe of the week. The firft pair 
they have for themfelves, and afterwards 
receive two-pence for every pair decently 
finifhed; and they have fome few articles 
of clothes fupplied for the Sunday. 
The quantity of clothes given to the 
fpinner, is regulated by a fixed role, 
bezring proportion to the earnings of the 
individual, an account of which is regu- 
larly fet down every night by the {pin- 
ning miftrefs, in a book kept by her for 
that purpofe, which is overlooked by the 
lady who, for the time being, pays the 
wages and adjufts the rewards, at the 
clofe of every week. The. girls now 
make their own clothes, being taken into 
the knitting-room by rotation for that 
purpofe. A committee of ladies, whe 
areconftant vifitors, fuperintend the cut- 
ting out of the clothes; and the whole of 
the accounts, fuch as rent of rooms, the 
wages of the miftrefies, &c. are kept by 
them, of which the particulars are print- 
ed every year, and the benevolent affi« 
duity with which for many. years they 
have unremittingly attended, cannot be 
appreciated too highly. 
Some inftitution of this kind, ina city 
my where 
