John Gough, Practical arithmetick in four books (revised ed., Belfast, 1793)
ILC&LM Collection
The English-born Quaker, John Gough (1721-91), was the first headmaster of the Ulster Provincial School, Lisburn (now Friends’). Though hesitant to leave a stable teaching post in Dublin, he accepted the role at the Quaker school on Prospect Hill when it was opened in 1774 and remained in the post until his death in 1791.
Gough was highly respected for his maths textbook, ‘Practical arithmetick in four books’. The above copy, which is in the museum’s archive library of rare books, is the revised edition published in 1793 (two years after Gough’s death). The ‘mercantile’ section prepared scholars for business, which was especially important for members of the Religious Society of Friends who were prevented from attending university because of their faith. Many Quakers were highly successful in business, and became the equivalent of today’s ‘tech tycoons’.
The textbook was widely used in non-Quaker schools. This copy belonged to Viscount Forbes (1785-1836) of Co. Longford, grandson of the 1st Earl of Moira. Did you ‘doodle’ in your school textbooks like Forbes?
This book was included in our exhibition marking 250 years of Friends’ School, Lisburn.
The ‘doodles’ of Viscount Forbes in his copy of Gough’s textbook (ILC&LM Collection).