Pounds, John

Pounds, John an English philanthropist, flourished in the second half of last century. He was born at Portsmouth in 1766 of very humble parentage, and enjoyed himself no educational advantages worth mentioning. But, endowed with a remarkably active mind and generous disposition, he used his leisure hours from the busy trade he plied as a shoemaker for the amelioration of the poor children of his surroundings. He collected a number of them in his shop, and there taught them the elements of education he had been able to master successfully, and thus became the founder of what are now called the Ragged Schools. He died Jan. 1,1831.