# Barring out

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[[File:Ralph Hedley - Barred Out (29 May).jpg|thumb|Barred Out, by [Ralph Hedley](/source/Ralph_Hedley) (1896)]]
'''Barring out''' is the former custom in [British](/source/British_Isles) schools of barring a [schoolmaster](/source/schoolmaster) from the premises.

A typical example of this practice was at the school in [Bromfield, Cumbria](/source/Bromfield%2C_Cumbria),<ref>Cumbria contains what used to be [Cumberland](/source/Cumberland) County</ref> where it was the custom "for the scholars, at Fasting's Even (the beginning of [Lent](/source/Lent)) to depose and exclude the master from the school for three days."<ref>Hutchinson, William. [https://books.google.com/books?id=E3xbAAAAQAAJ The history of the county of Cumberland]. London, 1794. This must be the reference 1911 Britannica is referring to, but a Google search doesn't turn up the quote.</ref> During this period the school doors were barricaded and the boys armed with mock weapons. If the master's attempts to re-enter were successful, extra tasks were inflicted as a penalty, and willingly performed by the boys. On the third day terms of capitulation, usually in [Latin](/source/Latin) verse, were signed, and these always conceded the immediate right to indulge in [football](/source/English_public_school_football_games) and a [cockfight](/source/cockfight). The custom was long retained at [Eton College](/source/Eton_College) and figures in many school stories, including the story "The Barring Out: or Party Spirit" in ''[The Parent's Assistant](/source/The_Parent's_Assistant)''
by [Maria Edgeworth](/source/Maria_Edgeworth) (1796), and the 1948 [Billy Bunter](/source/Billy_Bunter) story ''[Billy Bunter's Barring-Out](/source/Billy_Bunter's_Barring-Out)''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Billy Bunter's Barring Out (Greyfriars School) by Frank Richards |url=https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/frank-richards/billy-bunters-barring-out.htm |access-date=2023-01-31 |website=www.fantasticfiction.com}}</ref>

More serious incidents of barring out reportedly took place at [The Royal School, Armagh](/source/The_Royal_School%2C_Armagh), and [Belfast Royal Academy](/source/Belfast_Royal_Academy) in [Northern Ireland](/source/Northern_Ireland); and at the [Royal High School, Edinburgh](/source/Royal_High_School%2C_Edinburgh).

Dr. [Samuel Johnson](/source/Samuel_Johnson) reports a story that [Joseph Addison](/source/Joseph_Addison), when a schoolboy, was the ringleader of a barring out at his school.<ref>[http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/johnsons/lives/addsn.htm Samuel Johnson, "Life of Addison", in Lives of the Poets]</ref>

The custom extended to some early American Colonial schools, such as [William and Mary College](/source/College_of_William_%26_Mary) in [Virginia](/source/Virginia), where students barred out [Dr. James Blair](/source/James_Blair_(Virginia)) and shot at him with pistols when he attempted to enter.<ref>Stephen Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas (Vintage, 1997), 113. {{ISBN|0-679-74038-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|date=Jan 1908|title=A Barring Out at William and Mary College|journal=The William and Mary Quarterly|publisher=Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture|volume=16|issue=3|pages=180–199|doi=10.2307/1915609|jstor=1915609}}</ref> According to
[David Hackett Fischer](/source/David_Hackett_Fischer), the custom became common in the southern highlands and the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, though occasionally taking place elsewhere in the colonies.<ref>David Hackett Fischer, ''[Albion's Seed](/source/Albion's_Seed)'', (Oxford University Press, 1989), 725.</ref>

Barring out continued in [Falstone](/source/Falstone), a village in Northumberland, until 1940 when the headmaster William Moody, who was unaware of the custom, demanded entrance to his school and the students eventually relented and let him enter.

==Notes==
<references />

==References==
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Barring-out}}
* Stephen Nissenbaum, ''The Battle for Christmas'' (Vintage, 1997), 113–114. {{ISBN|0-679-74038-4}}

==External links==
* {{Commonscatinline}}

Category:School traditions
Category:Student culture

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