SNIPPET: Charity schools on the English and Welsh model were a product of the movement for the reform of religion and manners that was a conspicuous feature of the Church of Ireland in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. These small schools were sponsored by individual landlords and philanthropists, by clergy, parish vestries and municipalities. Reports cite nineteen charity schools in 1712 and by the 1720s there were several hundred. A society to propagate them was founded, but never played the significant role of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) in Great Britain. The schools gave priority to nurturing the children of the Protestant poor in church formularies and basic literacy, and sometimes (helped by donations of money and equipment from the Linen Board) in aspects of linen production. A leading advocate was the Co. Sligo clergyman Edward NICHOLSON. In 1712, he described charity schools as giving preference to orphans and 'after the poor children of Protestants are taken in we fill with poor children of Papists.' (Catholics). A shift towards a policy of proselytization developed in the 1720s (culminating in the state-supported charter schools) as both church and state became aware that despite the penal laws popery survived and showed signs of resurgence. The Church of Ireland was the largest Protestant church in Ireland. From 1537 to 1870 it was the established state church, governed by the English monarch. Since disestablishment in 1870, it has become an independent self-governing church, a member of the worldwide Anglican communion. .