An advertisement, mentioning a "school", appeared under the heading "EDUCATION", in the "Sussex Weekly Advertiser", on Monday, 30th September, 1793. It reads,
"Mrs. Croft and Co. beg leave to inform the Public that they have opened a French and English Boarding School for Young Ladies, in the village of Hooe, in the county of Sussex, where they teach the basics of plain and all sorts of fashionable works, drawing, in its various branches, writing and arithmetic, at the terms as follow: Young Ladies from four to ten years of age, Ten Guineas per annum; all above ten years, Twelve Guineas. No Entrance.
N. B. The strictest care and attention will be paid to the morals of the young Ladies."
No such advertisement appeared in any of the other editions for that September nor in those of October; and a search through the same two months, for 1792 and 1794, revealed nothing. No evidence did I find as to whether anyone ever replied to the advert or not, or, indeed, if the school actually ever opened.
Just who Mrs Croft was is, also, a mystery to me but she purported to know French and, I suppose, "good" English, at least, well enough to teach "young Ladies" and yet Hooe is, and certainly was then, a very small village of, mostly, farmers and agricultural labourers. So, from where did she get her education? Was she the well–educated daughter of a wealthy man from other parts who, herself, had been taught these social graces and then, perhaps, married a wealthy, gentleman who did or came to live locally?
Where, in Hooe, was the school; was it held in the large manor house in which she and her husband lived? If so, which one?
Why didn′t she hold the school in Bexhill, which would, surely, have been easier to get to and far better known, especially for her, hoped–for, clients?
Just who were the "and Co."? Perhaps, one day, answers will be found but in the meantime, this seems to have been the first "official" school in Hooe; that is as opposed to a few lessons just being taught to the children of local gentry.
There have been “Croft′s around in Hastings, Eastbourne, and Bexhill for many years but I′ve not been able to find any in Hooe.
