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In 1712 Dr. Henry Nicholson published a pamphlet entitled ‘A Method of Charity Schools’, in which he outlined his ideas for the establishment of a number of schools for the ‘religious education and a way of livelihood’ for the poor children in Ireland.

The first such school was established at Primrose Grange in 1710 upon the estate of his brother, the Reverend Edward Nicholson and fully maintained by him alone. It consisted of a ‘decent school or chapel with a belfry, bell and seats for sitting, and kneeling’ and the entire roof was wainscoted overhead. Admission to the Nicholson foundation was limited to a maximum of twenty-four boys between the ages of eight and fourteen years. The method of selection was clearly set down as follows: ‘We first chose poor orphans. Secondly, those, who though they have fathers, are not able to bestow a penny on their Schoolmaster or on clothing. And whatever vacancies are left after the poor children of Protestants are taken in, we fill with poor children of Papists’. In addition, deprived children residing within two miles of the School were accepted in as day pupils provided they came after breakfast and left before supper.

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By 1712 half of the boys were the children of Papists, and according to Nicholson, this resulted in their parents and friends regularly attending Sunday service, a development that the Catholic clergy strongly disapproved of and obstructed in whatever way possible. The pupils were taught reading, writing and arithmetic. Prayers were recited twice a day and psalms sung at evening prayers. They learned by heart, besides the catechism, several other instruction books. In the words of the founder, ‘their morals were chiefly taken care of and were daily corrected for every ill fault of the tongue and other misdemeanours’. Nicholson found that pupils ‘soon took a great Devotion and good Behaviour’. They were clothed in white vests and britches, a black cloth coat and cap, and white stockings and shoes. They were also supplied with gloves, shoe buckles and garters.

It took 30p to maintain a boy for a year and the schoolmaster was paid £6 per annum. In 1721 the Reverend Edward Nicholson of Primrose Grange executed a Deed whereby the Bishop of Elphin was granted a rent-charge of £40 per annum on his estate, also the schoolhouse and one acre of land in trust for educating and clothing of poor children. In his Will two years later he ratified the Bequest and bequeathed in trust to the Bishop his interest in various lands in Counties Sligo, Mayo and Galway for the clothing and education of children at six schools, either already in being or about to be established in different parts of the Diocese of Elphin.

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After the death of the Reverend Edward Nicholson, the yearly produce of the sundry donations was applied as directed by him, but it was found that the donations were of very little service, by reason of the great number of children directed to be clothed and educated in six different places, and therefore, in the year 1744, an Act of Parliament was obtained, consolidating the different schools into one, that at Primrose Grange, and vesting the Fund in the Archbishop of Tuam, the Bishop of Elphin, the Vicar of Sligo, the Vicar of Tawnagh and the representatives of the Nicholson family, all for the time being, and empowering them to erect a fit habitation for fifteen children, therein to be maintained, clothed and educated.

In the year 1749 a lease of twenty acres of land was obtained for lives renewable for ever, at a pepper-corn fine, at Primrose Grange for £4 per annum, and on that land the trustees caused a considerable House and Offices to be erected, whereon (as permitted by the Act of Parliament) they expended the money bequeathed by the will of the Rev. Edward Nicholson. By the early 19th century the Trustees were in receipt of £118 per annum and this was found insufficient to clothe, maintain and educate the full compliment of fifteen pupils. In 1812 there were only nine children on the Establishment, the maintenance of whom, £25 quarterly, was paid to the Master from the rents. He also had twenty acres of land free adjoining the School, half of which was productive.

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Due to the inadequacy of both the Nicholson endowment and the 1733 bequest of Adam Ornsby of Cummin, the School was in a precarious financial position in the opening decades of the 19th century. At that stage the then Protestant Bishop of Elphin recommended that it be placed under the patronage of the Incorporated Society - whose aims were the promotion of English Protestant schools in Ireland. This Society took over the running of the School in 1844 and widened its scope by the addition of an Agricultural section.

In June 1844 the following news item was published in the Sligo Guardian: ‘An Agricultural School is in the process of being built at Knocknarea. The society has already expended a considerable sum in preparing the premises of this valuable establishment. Ten children are to be educated gratuitously. Accommodation is being provided for sixteen in all - the remainder being received on moderate terms as boarders. A day school will also be connected with the premises in which all the principles of a mercantile education will be taught’. In 1854 it was described as ‘An Agricultural and Literary School, situated in a very healthy situation, one mile from the sea’. Agriculture was deleted from the curriculum in 1860 and thereafter the School specialised in English, Mathematics and Classical Instruction. Four vacancies occurred each year, and to fill these an examination in religious education, reading, writing, English grammar, geography and arithmetic, was held in Sligo at the beginning of July. In addition to the four foundation pupils, a limited number of ‘pay boarders’ were admitted to the school each year.

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Candidates had to be the correct age, they had to produce a birth certificate, a certificate from their clergyman as to their good conduct, residence and suitability and a certificate of good health from their doctor.

Primrose Grange School closed in 1907 and the pupils and staff were transferred to the Grammar School on The Mall, ending the life-span of an Institution whose existence had spanned a century and a half. Its closure sounded the death-knell of the long association of the Nicholson family with Primrose Grange. After the transfer of the school to Sligo, the House was leased for a time to Robert Smyllie, journalist and founder of the Sligo Times and father of the celebrated Bertie Smyllie, editor of the Irish Times. In 1919, the Incorporated Society offered the lands including the School Building for sale. The house was bought by the Carter family and they ran a farmhouse B&B and dairy farm from the property.

In 2004, Freddie Symmons and Saoirse O'Donoghue purchased the property and set about the loving and sensitive restoration of Primrose Grange House.