SCHOOLS IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY
[Sidenote: The meetings]
Following the procedure in the preceding chapter, the establishment of
schools in Montgomery County will be treated (1) under the head of the
monthly meetings in whose limits they were located and (2) in the order
of the time of settlement. The monthly meetings in Montgomery County and
their dates of establishment are as follows: (1) Abington, 1683; (2)
Gwynedd, set off from Radnor, located in present Delaware County, 1714,
and (3) Horsham, set off from Abington in 1782.[443] In connection with
the schools established in Montgomery County will also be considered
briefly the same activity of Warrington Monthly Meeting (York County),
which belongs at present to Baltimore Yearly Meeting. Warrington was
established as a monthly meeting in 1747,[444] being set off from that of
Sadsbury. Brief mention is made of Westland Meeting.
[Sidenote: Abington]
[Sidenote: Youths’ meetings]
The first records left by Abington Meeting, which relate particularly to
any phase of education, are those in reference to the establishment of
youths’ meetings. It is implied by these minutes that nothing was done in
this regard till about 1695, when,
It was agreed upon ... that four friends belonging to this
monthly meeting be asked to take care of the Youth belonging to
each meeting as concerning their orderly walking ... according
to the good advice of Friends, in an epistle from the Yearly
Meeting at Burlington 1694, wherefore ... men appointed.[445]
[Sidenote: Established]
This apparently resulted in an agreement that the youths’ meetings
should be established at the home of Richard Worrall.[446] It is to be
inferred that considerable attention was given to this earliest phase of
education. In 1699 the Friends of Abington urged:
Those Friends that are appointed to inspect into the behavior
of the youth and their respective meetings; that they may be
stirred to discharge their places, and to give account to the
monthly meeting.[447]
[Sidenote: Youths’ meetings shifted often]
The youths’ meetings were not of permanent foundation, and their date
for meeting was shifted frequently, which gave them characteristic
irregularity.[448] The purposes to be secured by the youths’ meetings
were chiefly moral.[449]
[Sidenote: Land deeded for meeting and school]
The gift of property for the foundation of Abington Friends’ School
dates back to 1697.[450] The donor, John Barnes, had purchased 250
acres adjoining the tract possessed by Sarah Fuller, receiving patent
for the same on June 1st, 1684.[451] Shortly after this he added to his
possessions also the tract formerly possessed by Sarah Fuller.[452] From
this total (600 acres) he deeded one hundred and thirty acres on Feb.
5th, 1696, to the use of a meeting house and schoolhouse for the Friends
of Abington Meeting.[453] The tract lies about ten miles north of the
city of Philadelphia. The Abington School, thus possessing such a large
heritage and firm foundation in a material way, at least is a close rival
of the Penn Charter School of Philadelphia, the petition for which was
presented to the Council 1697-8,[454] and whose first charter was granted
in 1701.[455]
[Sidenote: Meeting house built]
[Sidenote: Jacob Taylor concerned in a school]
[Sidenote: Taylor, land surveyor]
The exact date when a school was first held in property on this land
cannot be determined. The meeting house on the newly acquired lands was
built between the years 1697 and 1700, with assistance from the meeting
at Philadelphia. It is probable that a school may have been taught at
the meeting house for a time as that custom was followed in many other
meetings,[456] but this is a mere probability. The best evidence of a
school at an early date is that relating to Jacob Taylor who, about 1701,
was “concerned in a school at Abington,” but was to be asked to take the
management of a land office.[457] Mr. Bean, writing in the local history
of Montgomery County, says that Jacob Taylor was land surveyor from 1706
to 1733.[458] That he was engaged in teaching during the entire period
from 1701 to 1706 we do not know, but it is quite probable that he was
the first schoolmaster who taught in a regularly established school.
In 1722, referring to the bequest of land by John Barnes, the minute of
the monthly meeting states:
[Sidenote: Land in care of trustees]
Whereas John Barnes deceased, having given a legacy or yearly
income towards maintaining of a school at Abington ... and in
the said deed of trust to Friends, he left this meeting in
power to choose a trustee when any Friends that were intrusted
did remove or decease. Now seeing Thomas Canby being one
intrusted is removed into the County of Bucks, this meeting
does appoint Richard Martin to act in his room.[459]
[Sidenote: Carter’s donation]
In 1726 Thomas Fletcher was chosen to act as one of the trustees of
the said donation and the school affairs, in the place of his deceased
father, Robert Fletcher.[460] Everard Bolton’s place (deceased) was
filled by Nicholas Austen as trustee in 1727.[461] In 1742 Abington
Friends took a deed of conveyance of Thomas Canby for the land and
premises belonging to their school and meeting house.[462] Besides the
bequest of Barnes already mentioned, there were several others which
deserve mention. In 1749 a committee appointed to investigate the
donation left to the meeting by William Carter in his last will and
testament, reported they had attended to it, and produced to the meeting
an extract from the will before mentioned.[463] Quoting from the Abington
records the purpose of the will was given to be as follows:
... two certain yearly groundrents one of six, the other of
four pounds, are invested in trustees, in order that the same
may be conveyed, and ... as this meeting shall think fit to
appoint to the intent and purpose that the same shall be
annually laid on and expended in the pay for the schooling and
teaching of such whose parents or overseers ... in the verge of
this meeting are not able to pay for them, or the relief of the
poor of this meeting, when and as such poor children are not to
be found....[464]
[Sidenote: Expenditure of funds in charge of committees]
[Sidenote: Funds requested for schooling children]
The details of the expenditure of money left for such purposes were taken
care of usually by the overseers of the poor and also by the school
committee, whose duty it was to inquire in each of the preparative
meetings concerning children who might be in need of help and whether
they would be willing to accept assistance. Their investigations were
reported to the monthly meeting to be considered before any expenditures
were made.[465] If they were satisfactory to the meeting, disbursements
were then ordered to the preparatives according to their needs as
stated.[466] The preparative meeting was also free to make a voluntary
request for a part of any fund for aid to poor children, if they desired
to do so. In 1760,
Horsham Friends requested the sum of four pounds of Carter’s
legacy towards the schooling of a poor child; this meeting
orders that our treasurer do pay them that sum.[467] And
again, the present treasurer, Joshua Morris, is ordered to pay
to Thomas Lloyd a sum of eight pounds to defray the charges
of dieting Joseph Kirk, a poor Friend’s child, belonging to
Horsham Meeting, who is put to school at the charge of Horsham
Meeting.[468]
[Sidenote: How distributed]
It was not always necessary to bring the cases to the monthly meeting to
be decided whether aid should be given or withheld. It occurred often
that the funds were apportioned to the various preparatives, monthly
or quarterly meetings and their representatives allowed to apply it
according to their judgment.[469] In 1766 those appointed to view the
accounts of the treasurer of Abington Meeting made the following report
as to the state of the funds which had accrued:
[Sidenote: Report on funds]
We the subscribers having perused the accounts of Joshua
Morris, the meeting’s treasurer, do report that the said
treasurer credits the meeting with several sums received on the
meeting’s accounts from the year 1761 ... including £28 for
the rent of William Carter’s legacy to this meeting, the whole
being the sum of £157/12/11, and that he paid by order of this
meeting in that time (including £40 paid for schools for poor
children) the sum of £137/11/8; balance in his hands the 24th
of the 11th month, 1766 is £20/1/3.
We likewise report that we find five years’ rent of four pounds
a year and a year’s rent of six pounds on the said Carter’s
legacy outstanding and not yet collected or received by
him.[470]
A minute of 1735 entered in the meeting’s records affords us an
interesting glimpse into the nature of the books used for the Friends’
schools. These books are very frequently mentioned in many of the
meeting’s records, and many of them were always on sale by booksellers
such as Franklin in Philadelphia.[471] There seems to be no doubt that
they constituted one of the staples of the mental pabulum. The extract
in which they are mentioned illustrates also the initiative taken by the
meeting in the direction of affairs relating to schools.
[Sidenote: Books used in schools]
And further to let the quarterly meeting understand that this
meeting conceives that reprinting a quantity of George Fox’s
_Primers_ and Stephen Crisp’s ditto and of George Fox’s _The
Youngers_ might be advantageous to those children of Friends
in school or elsewhere. We, therefore, refer the same to said
meeting’s consideration.[472]
The Abington Meeting began at an early date to work for a better
organization among its schools, coöperating heartily with the suggestions
of the yearly meeting from time to time. The yearly meeting in 1746 and
1750 made several suggestions for the improvement of schools,[473] which
were in 1751 followed by Abington with a statement that
This meeting has gone through in the several branches thereof
in the service of visiting of families and to general
satisfaction, and as to the settling of schools we have had it
under consideration and some are desirous to promote the same
but find many discouragements at the present, yet are in hopes
it may be further considered, and....[474]
This report means nothing in terms of accomplishment, but indicates
willingness and an active interest in educational problems. In reading of
their “discouragements” one must keep in mind the standards set by the
yearly meeting, and that their report was their idea of how they measured
up to them.
[Sidenote: Gwynedd]
[Sidenote: Schoolhouse mentioned 1721]
The first mention of any school (or any reference to indicate there
may have been a school in the limits of Gwynedd) is that of 1721, in a
petition for a road, entered by Roland Hughes and Robert Humphrey.[475]
The mention herein made is of a schoolhouse located near the property
of Robert Humphrey and Roland Hughes and not far distant from the road
to Philadelphia. Neither has trace been found of any school actually
established nor of schoolmaster to have charge over it, yet the presence
of a building erected for that purpose lends credence to the view that
there was a school there, though perhaps irregularly conducted. Procedure
in other districts was usually that schools were present before the
schoolhouses were built.[476]
[Sidenote: Marmaduke Pardo teacher]
The first mention of a schoolmaster is relative to Marmaduke Pardo, who
came with the following certificate from Pembrokeshire in Wales.
We whose names are hereunto subscribed, being the curate
and others of the inhabitants of the Parish of St. Davids,
do hereby certify whom it may concern, that the bearer
hereof, Marmaduke Pardo, of the city of St. Davids and
County of Pembroke, has to the utmost of our knowledge and
all appearances lived a very sober and pious life, demeaning
himself according to the strictest rules of his profession,
viz., what we call Quakerism, and that he has for these several
years past took upon himself the keeping of a private school
in this city, in which station he acquitted himself with the
common applause and to the general satisfaction of all of
us who have committed our children to his care and tuition,
etc.[477]
This certificate was signed by Richard Roberts and several others. With
such recommendations, the citizens of Gwynedd were very fortunate if
perchance they did secure him as a master. Other writers have, it seems,
taken for granted that he actually taught in the school, but there is no
exact evidence on the point, only a very great probability.[478]
The following extract indicates there was an established school at
Morristown in 1766.
[Sidenote: School at Morristown Quaker?]
Plymouth overseers acquaint this meeting that Mordecai Moore on
his own and family’s account and several neighboring friends
request the privilege of holding a meeting at the schoolhouse
near his dwelling house in Morristown every first day until the
general spring meeting. The which is granted.[479]
[Sidenote: Committee on schools appointed]
As with the schools and school affairs of other meetings, their history
becomes more tangible about the last quarter of the century. The
recommendations of the yearly meeting being received in 1777 and their
attention thus directed consciously to the question of education, a
committee was appointed consisting of the following men: David Bacon,
John Elliott, Jr., Charles West, David Estaugh, William Brown, Thomas
Hollowell, John Gracey, Abraham Liddon, Samuel Lloyd, Abraham Cadwalader,
John Heman, David Evans, Samuel Lee, Joseph Penrose, Joseph Lukens and
John Evans.[480] The committee reported in 1779 that the establishment
of schools had been under consideration, but that no fund had yet been
raised or land purchased for the establishment thereof, as the yearly
meeting had directed.[481] Accordingly the same committee was continued.
In 1780 a minute of the meeting states that:
The matter relating to the establishment of schools is
continued and it is desired that the several preparative
meetings will attend to that matter as recommended by the
committee some time past, and that the committee ... the same
under their care and make a report when anything is done toward
accomplishing that service.[482]
And again in 1785:
[Sidenote: “Little progress” reported]
A care remains on the Friends’ minds for the right education
of the youth, though little progress hath yet been made in
establishing schools under proper regulations, although
attention hath been paid thereto. Those matters respecting
the Africans are under the care of a committee, though little
progress hath been made in inspecting their particular
cases.[483]
[Sidenote: Committee to aid in raising funds]
The activity of the committee does not appear to have been very great.
After a consideration of their obligations on the subject again in 1791
it was decided to appoint a new committee which was to work definitely
toward a plan for raising a fund for school purposes, and to make a
report on the state of schools in the monthly meeting. Their report
which appeared in 1793 showed a considerable number of schools but none
established on permanent foundations, and many not in the membership
of Friends. The state of all the schools as reported is given in the
following extract.[484]
[Sidenote: School in Montgomery Township]
[Sidenote: Plymouth school]
The committee appointed on schools reports that within
the limits of Gwynedd Meeting a school in the township of
Montgomery is kept in a house, property of Friends, there is a
lot on two acres of land and two rooms for a master to live in,
adjoining the schoolhouse, and there is remaining of a donation
to the inhabitants of said township in common towards the
support of a school, about fifty pounds per annum, to be kept
in the said schoolhouse, the master a member of our Society;
within the compass of Plymouth meeting, there is a schoolhouse
built by a subscription on a small lot of land given as a
donation with the interest accruing on five hundred pounds,
which is free for all the inhabitants within a mile and a half
of the donor’s land, the master not in membership with Friends.
[Sidenote: Temporary schools]
One school, held in a house adjoining the meeting house at
Plymouth which hath for several years been continued under
the care and direction of that preparative meeting. There are
several temporary schools within the limits of our Monthly
Meetings, chiefly made up of persons not of our society, and
kept by masters of different professions, no funds provided
for any of them, into which Friends in such neighborhood send
their children, there is a subscription gone into within the
compass of one of the preparative meetings towards building a
schoolhouse on a lot of land given for that purpose—the raising
of funds for the support of schools has been under care, but
not much progress has yet been made therein. Signed in behalf
of the committee by
EVAN JONES,
JOHN WILSON,
ISAAC WEEKS.
[Sidenote: Education of poor and orphans]
The care and education of the poor was an occasion for great concern
among the Friends of Gwynedd. This means not only that their education
was looked after but that in case father and mother married a second
time, the meeting saw to it that the children’s (if any by the first
marriage) rights should be regarded. The affairs of the children had
to be settled before permission for marriage was fully and freely
given.[485] They were not always satisfied with their dealing with such
children, however. About 1756 they declared that the children are well
taken care of physically but that there is too great a neglect in regard
to their learning and apprenticeship among Friends.[486]
[Sidenote: Their education neglected]
Later they are able to report, no doubt with considerable satisfaction,
that after due inspection, no Friends’ children are found placed from
among Friends.[487] All cases of necessity in the concern of education
were resolutely dealt with, even though, as shown in the following
extract, the recipients of the assistance were rather unwilling.
[Sidenote: Some unwilling to receive aid]
The Gwynedd Friends acquaint this meeting that Robert Roberts,
Jr., is in very low circumstances and not able to maintain his
wife and children reputably and that they have not been able
to prevail with him and his wife to bind their children out to
lessen their expense, therefore, this meeting appoints John
Davies and John Evans to advise them to comply with Friends’
direction, otherwise, this meeting must take further notice of
them.[488]
For a slight insight into the condition of schools in the latter years of
the eighteenth century, we can do no better than present a letter written
by Joseph Foulke, which furnishes a personal touch not found elsewhere.
[Sidenote: Schools as related by Joseph Foulke]
My earliest recollection of the schools which I attended
was at Gwynedd meeting. There was no house for the purpose,
but what was called the “little meeting house” was used.
An old tottering man by the name of Samuel Evans was the
teacher. The reading books were the Bible and the Testament;
we had Dilworth’s spelling book, and Dilworth’s Assistant or
arithmetic. Grammar was a thing hardly thought of; there was,
however, a small part of the spelling book, called “a new guide
to the English tongue,” and a few of the older pupils learned
portions of this by rote, and would occasionally recite to the
master, but the substance appeared to be equally obscure both
to master and scholar.
My next schooling was in 1795, in the house, late the property
of William Buzby, on the Bethlehem road, above the spring
house. It was a kind of family school taught by Hannah Lukens.
Here, Dr. Walton, of Stroudsburg, laid the foundation of
his education. I went to Joshua Foulke, my father’s elder
brother, an old man. He taught in a log schoolhouse near the
eighteen-mile stone on the Bethlehem road. My father, with
the help of his neighbors, built this house (about 1798) on
a lot set apart for the purpose on the southern extremity of
his premises. This log schoolhouse stood about thirty years,
and beside Joshua Foulke, we had for teachers William Coggins,
Hannah Foulke, Benjamin Albertson, Hugh Foulke (my brother),
John Chamberlain, Christian Dull, Daniel Price, and Samuel
Jones. I have probably not named all or given them in the order
in which they came.[489]
[Sidenote: Merion]
Merion seems to have left no written records of educational activity.
There is a possibility that Marmaduke Pardo[490] may have been connected
with a school there, soon after his coming from Wales, but this is little
better than a conjecture.[491] In the loft of the present building
(which, however, does not date back so early as this study) there is a
school room in which are rude tables and benches. One of them bears the
date, 1711, rudely cut with a jackknife. If, in the early eighteenth
century, the meeting house still sufficed for school, it is quite
probable that the same was true much earlier; at any rate, no search thus
far has revealed anything concerning an early schoolhouse. The Radnor
Monthly Meeting Minutes in 1791 state:
[Sidenote: School, at least not according to plan of yearly meeting]
At Merion and Valley we have not discovered any progress in
laying a foundation for schools in the way proposed by the
yearly meeting.[492]
which would favor still further the idea that any school held there at
that time was perhaps in the meeting house.
[Sidenote: Horsham]
The earliest mention made of Horsham Meeting is that in the Abington
Minutes of 1777, stating:
It is agreed that there be two overseers chosen for Horsham
Meeting, viz., John Michener and Thomas Iredell.[493]
This was doubtless very near the time of its first establishment as a
preparative meeting. The earliest preparative minutes accessible are
those beginning 1757.[494] We may feel certain, however, that there was a
school before this time, for in the _Gazette_ for 1753 there appeared an
advertisement which stated:
Any person well qualified for keeping a school and comes well
recommended by applying to John Lukens, surveyor, Abraham
Lukens, or Benjamin Cadwalader, living in Horsham township,
near the meeting house, may meet with proper encouragement.[495]
[Sidenote: Assistance by donations]
This may have been the same stone house in which Isaac Comly of Byberry
taught in 1799, we cannot say. In the records of the preparative meeting
on the first page there is an account of donations concerning schools,
but the page is so badly mutilated that no straight account can be made
of it.[496] It will be recalled from the account given of Abington
schools that Horsham members were also benefitted by Carter’s legacy and
others.[497]
A committee appointed to investigate the conditions of schools in Horsham
Meeting reported (1779):
[Sidenote: Report on Horsham schools, 1779]
[Sidenote: Four schools mentioned]
We, the committee appointed, report as follows: That upon
inquiry we found that the schoolhouse on the meeting house
land is wholly the property of Friends, and the subscribers
generally Friends; we also find that there has been a
schoolhouse lately built on a piece of land held in trust for
that purpose between John Parry’s and John Walton’s wholly by
the Friends, and generally Friends subscribers; there is also
one other schoolhouse near the Billet on a piece of land held
in trust for that purpose by Friends and others, and one other
schoolhouse near John Jarret’s upon sufferance; the two last
mentioned schools being made up by subscribers of different
societies; which, after being considered, the same Friends
are continued with John Parry, Samuel Shoemaker (mason), John
Conrad, and John Jarrett added to them as a committee, to have
the oversight of such schools as may be properly under the
notice of this meeting.[498]
[Sidenote: Rules drawn for the conduct of schools]
And again in 1783 that,
The committee on schools report they have several times visited
the schools of Friends belonging to this meeting since their
appointment, and that there appears an improvement in them,
they having drawn up an essay of rules for the government
of said schools, which were read and approved by this
meeting....[499]
From 1782 onwards Horsham was a regularly constituted monthly
meeting.[500] Almost the first thing performed by this newly constituted
body was to order a report on schools which was brought into the monthly
meeting in 1784,[501] the text of which is reproduced below.
[Sidenote: Report made to Horsham monthly on schools]
[Sidenote: Four schools named; others, where the houses belong to Friends]
[Sidenote: No funds established]
We, the committee on schools, having met and examined into the
situation of such within the compass of this meeting find them
as follows, viz.: that within the verge of Byberry meeting
there is a school kept in a part of the meeting house under the
inspection of part of the same committee, by Christopher Smith,
a member of our society, whose number of scholars are about
thirty at 10/ a scholar, per quarter, raised by subscription;
also another school taught a small distance from said meeting
house by Isaac Carver in his own house who formerly was a
member among us, to which some Friends send their children,
and within the compass of Horsham Particular Meeting there is
a school taught on the meeting land near the meeting house by
Byran Fitzpatrick, who is not a member, the number of scholars
about twenty-five at 10/ a scholar per quarter; there is also
one other schoolhouse built by Friends on a piece of land
given for a term of years for that purpose in which there is
no school kept at present. There are several other schools
within the compass of said meeting, the houses of which are the
property of Friends and others to which some Friends send their
children. There are no funds belonging to any of the aforesaid
schools, but there is a donation left to Horsham Particular
Meeting, which if it were not for some circumstances attending
it, might be of an advantage in establishing schools within the
limits of that meeting which we think demands the attention of
this meeting.
Signed on behalf of the committee by
DANIEL THOMAS.
[Sidenote: Each particular meeting to name its own committee]
[Sidenote: Three schools in the preparatives]
After this there was no report for nearly two years, when the meeting,
taking cognizance of the fact, urged all the preparatives to appoint
individual committees of their own to attend to school affairs. In 1787
the committee of the monthly meeting made report that within the compass
of the monthly meeting there were three schools under the care of the
preparative meetings, in all of which the masters were members of the
society of Friends.[502]
[Sidenote: Value of the organization cited]
The value of the organization of meetings for getting something
accomplished can hardly be overestimated. The directing power of the
quarterly meeting must have often been the cause which produced a
conscious activity in the lower meetings. The quarterly meetings were
at all times feeling the educational pulse of their constituents and
making suggestions, requiring reports, etc., which did not fail to keep
up the local interest. The quarterly meeting at Abington in 1792 made the
following suggestions:
At a quarterly meeting held at Abington, November 8, 1792, the
subject of schools coming under consideration, it is thought
expedient that the meetings be earnestly requested to take that
matter into solid consideration and send up in their reports
next quarter how far the advice of the yearly meeting has
been complied with in that respect. The clerk is requested to
furnish each member with a copy of this minute extracted from
the minutes of the quarterly meeting.
NATHAN CLEAVER, Clerk.
The clerk is directed to furnish the preparatives with a copy
of the above minute, and they are desired to inform this
meeting of their situation in the above respects.[503]
[Sidenote: The poor educated; 1792]
The report of the monthly meeting in 1792 indicates that that meeting’s
concern for the education of the poor was comparable to others mentioned;
they state that all of the children “partake of learning freely”
and their and other Friends’ children “are placed among Friends” as
apprentices.
[Sidenote: Warrington]
[Sidenote: Youths’ meetings]
The earliest Quaker settlements in Warrington were in 1735,[504] and
their first meetings for worship were held with the Friends at Newberry.
Warrington Preparative Meeting was organized in 1745;[505] while the
monthly meeting records date to 1747.[506] For nearly thirty years there
is no notice in the records concerned with education, saving those which
refer to the settling of youths’ meetings. Those were very frequent.[507]
The report on the youths’ meetings in 1779 was as follows:
Some of the Friends appointed to attend the Youths’ Meeting
report that four of them attended it and gave it as their sense
that it was a good meeting, and that if it should be as well
attended in the future, it might be of use.[508]
[Sidenote: Committees of men and women named on schools]
Three years later, 1782, it was considered necessary to leave off
holding the youths’ meetings, for what reasons it is not known, but on
a protest from some members it was concluded that it might be continued
for at least another meeting.[509] In 1778 the yearly meeting extract
was received, in which the establishment of schools was recommended;
committees of both men and women were at once named for the service and
desired to report.[510] In the year following, the report was made on the
part of Warrington Preparative Meeting:
Warrington Meeting informs us that they have made choice of
William Underwood, Peter Cleaver, Benjamin Walker, and Joseph
Elgar for trustees and overseers of a school, with which this
meeting concurs.[511]
The trustees thus appointed, it seems, were not so successful as might
have been desired, if we may judge by their report made in 1780.
[Sidenote: No progress reported 1780]
William Underwood, on behalf of the committee appointed to
have under their care and labor to promote the education of
the youth, as well as a reformation with that respect to other
deficiencies in our society, informed this meeting that they
have several times met and conferred together on the occasion,
but have not proceeded any further in that service, neither
have any prospect at this time of proceeding therein, etc.[512]
The tone of the next report of 1782 is more encouraging.
The Friends appointed to the care of schools report they have
made some progress therein, some of them having attended each
of our preparative meetings and endeavored to encourage Friends
in setting up of schools agreeable to the intention of the
Yearly Meeting and find there is a willingness in the minds of
Friends to endeavor to have schools set up amongst us agreeable
thereto, as nearly as the circumstances of the several Meetings
will admit of. They are continued and desired to assist where
there may be occasions and report to this Meeting in the third
month next.[513]
[Sidenote: School to be at York]
In 1784 it was reported that the committee had attended at York and that
there appeared to be a good prospect for a school to be established there
according to the desires expressed in the yearly meeting’s advices.[514]
It was also stated that some provision was made at each particular
meeting for the same, and it was expected a particular report would
be rendered thereof.[515] This report, however, did not come into the
monthly meeting as it appears.
The conditions at York seem to have been the most promising as presented
in a committee’s report of 1784 which is here submitted:
[Sidenote: Schoolhouse at York; subscriptions started]
The committee appointed to promote the establishment of schools
report that they have paid some attention to the service; most
of them attended a meeting at York, and find that Friends
there have a house nearly finished and have entered into some
subscriptions to encourage such a school, of which it is agreed
that the Quarterly Meeting be informed, as well as of houses
being built for that purpose at Newbury and Warrington, and
that the committee be released from the service.[516]
[Sidenote: Same statement by quarterly meeting]
The statements of the monthly meeting in the above report are
corroborated by a later report of the Warrington and Fairfax Quarterly,
which was made a few months later, though it appears the schoolhouse at
Warrington was not yet completed.[517]
The progress that had been made by Westland Monthly Meeting[518] is
indicated by the following report of that date:
The minutes of the school committee for several seasons past
being read, and they have proposed a reappointment, William
Wilson, Matthew Heald, Jonas Cattell, William Dixon, Joshua
Dixon, and Eleazar Brown are appointed to have the general care
of schools and admission of Tutors. And it appears requisite
that a few Friends be appointed by each Preparative Meeting to
have the immediate oversight of the school or schools within
the limits of such meetings; said committee to unite and confer
together as they see occasion, and the clerk is desired to
notify each preparative meeting by a copy of this Minute.[519]
[Sidenote: Later reports still indefinite]
A still later report of 1797 is no more definite than the former; this
is very generally characteristic of the reports, and even at a late
date when other meetings were making very definite ones, indicates that
a very unsatisfactory state existed in the schools of Westland. Many
other reports examined, which were sent in before the committee, of the
century, made no improvement in regard to definiteness.
SUMMARY
[Sidenote: The meetings]
The schools in the limits of Abington, Gwynedd, Horsham, Warrington, and
Westland meetings are discussed in this chapter.
[Sidenote: Abington]
Probably the first schoolmaster at Abington, who was connected with a
regularly established school, was Jacob Taylor. Land for the meeting and
school uses was deeded by John Barnes in 1696, and a meeting house built
by 1700. Assistance was also afforded by a legacy granted by William
Carter for educating poor children. Such funds were in charge of, and
expended by, trustees appointed for that purpose. Fox’s and Crisp’s
_Primers_ are mentioned for use in the schools.
[Sidenote: Gwynedd]
[Sidenote: Morristown schoolhouse mentioned]
[Sidenote: Three regular schools]
Mention is made of a schoolhouse near Gwynedd in 1721, but no records of
the school are discovered. Marmaduke Pardo, an experienced teacher, came
to Gwynedd from Wales, and being well recommended as such, it is likely
that he was employed in school teaching; but nothing explicit to that
effect is found. Late in the century Joseph Foulke states he attended
school in Gwynedd. A schoolhouse at Morristown is mentioned in 1766.
Committees on schools and funds followed the procedure noticed in other
meetings. School land, schoolhouse funds, and a house for a master were
provided in Montgomery township in 1793. Another school in the compass of
Plymouth is mentioned, and another one, “adjoining the meeting house at
Plymouth.” Other temporary schools, used under varying circumstances, are
said to be maintained. Merion and the Valley do not appear to have met
the yearly meeting’s requirements in any way.
[Sidenote: Horsham]
No explicit mention is made of a school at Horsham in the early minutes,
but the advertisement for a teacher in 1753 indicates they were supplied
with a school. A report of Horsham Preparative in 1729 mentions four
schools, kept “nearly agreeable to direction.” In 1783 a list of rules
was adopted for their government. Each preparative meeting was directed
in 1787 to have its own committee on schools.
[Sidenote: Warrington Westland]
[Sidenote: Probably twelve regularly established schools]
Judging from the minutes of their transactions, the schools of Warrington
and Westland meetings seem to have been organized and carried on in
a very desultory fashion. Those at York and Warrington were the best
situated. There were probably as many as twelve regularly established
schools in the above meetings by the end of the century.