File 1 - Register of Students in the Seraphic School

175 pp; 32.5 cm x 21 cm; Bound volume; manuscript

An administrative and biographical register documenting the pupils received into the Seraphic School, tracking the institution’s history from its founding in Kilkenny to its subsequent relocation to Rochestown, County Cork. A contemporary title page outlines key institutional milestones, noting that the school initially opened in Kilkenny on 8 December 1884 before being permanently transferred to Rochestown on 22 November 1886.

The register systematically records student intake details under multi-column headings. The collected biographical data encompasses the pupil’s baptismal and subsequent religious names, home address, date of birth, age at entry, and formal date of admission. Spiritual and financial arrangements are also itemised, detailing the date of reception into the Third Order of Saint Francis alongside the father’s name, address, and the specific conditions of reception (including parental payments allocated for the student’s upkeep).

The ledger serves as a prosopographical record for the Irish Province, featuring retrospective biographical annotations regarding students who ultimately progressed to become fully professed members of the Capuchin Order. A significant portion of these detailed marginal updates were added post-facto by the provincial archivist and historian, Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap.

The spine end-covers have disintegrated, and the text block is exposed. The covers are very fragile. Careful handling is required.