USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume II > Part 48
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THE SCHOOLS OF TALBOT
Of this teacher, the minutes of the meeting have preserved some me- morials. He seems to have had his residence, before coming to Talbot, within the verge of "New Garden monthly meeting in the state of Pennsylvania." He married Elizabeth, the daughter of Mr. Edward Needles of this county. He continued to teach the Friends' school very successfully and acceptably, according to the records, until 1792, and possibly later, when he removed to Nottingham, Chester County, Pennsylvania, very much to the regret of the Friends of Talbot, who at their meeting of the 13th of December of that year, appointed a com- mittee to wait upon him for the purpose of dissuading him, if possible, from leaving the county. This committee, after having offered all inducements to abandon his purpose, reported "the Friends might give him up." Letters dimissory, therefore, were granted to Mr. Hutton, commending him, as a member in good standing in the society, to the Nottingham meeting. He died not long after leaving Talbot, whither his wife and children returned in 1795, to their relatives, bringing let- ters of membership to the society of Friends at Third Haven. It may be well enough to say that his widow became a teacher in the town of Easton many years later.
It would seem that the house which was authorized to be built in 1781 was not completed until 1782 or later, for in April of that year the minutes indicate that it was still in process of erection, money being then ordered to be paid as it might be needed for the purpose. Nor was it built according to the original design, of brick, but of wood, as appears by a recommendation of the school committee in 1789 that the school house be removed to the town of Easton. The meeting concurred in the opinion of the committee and authorized that body to contract with some responsible person for the purchase of a lot of ground in the town and for the removal of the house. These gentlemen accord- ingly agreed with Mr. John Needles that he should buy a quarter of an acre of land and place the school house upon it, they contracting to pay reasonable charges for the removal, and to allow him to hold the title of the property until he should be fully paid for the lot and his labor. The school house was in 1791, accordingly removed, agreeable to directions, and placed upon the lot at the corner of Harrison street and South lane, in the rear of the premises now owned by Dr. Jos. E. Cham- berlain. In 1795, Mr. Needles having been fully satisfied, conveyed the house and ground to Richard Bartlett, Thomas Wickersham and John Dickinson in trust for the Third Haven monthly meeting, as ap- pears by the court records of the county. In constructing this school
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
house, upon its original site, and its internal arrangement continued to be the same after its removal, provision was made for the accommoda- tion of the teacher and his family, as appears by an order of the meeting in 1787 that the dwelling part of the school house should be rented to a tenant. After the house had been moved to town the portion fitted up for a dwelling was either rented out, or was occupied by poor persons belonging to the society of Friends while the portion adapted to school purposes continued to be used for what it was originally intended. In the year 1844 this school house property was sold to James L. Mar- tin, Esq., for $325 and the money was applied to improving the meeting house.
Little is known of the character of this school. It is presumable that it was elementary. Whether it was an absolutely free school is not apparent. Certain it is that frequent collections were taken up in the meeting for the payment of the teachers, but it is possible, indeed probable, a charge for tuition was made against those able to pay for the instruction of their children, while the poor were allowed to share its advantages without fee or expense. That the school under Mr. Hutton had been prosperous is apparent from a report of the committee hav- ing it in charge, made to the meeting in March, 1791:
The committee are free further to add that Friends' school, which is kept in part of said building and conducted by Samuel Hutton has of late so increased as to make it necessary to employ an assistant, and there is grounds to hope that if the school is properly conducted it will become a seminary of useful instruction; and notwithstanding the great object in view, of accommodating Friends' children generally hath not yet been accomplished, yet we still look forward with hope, that if the subject is pursued with ardour and attention the present inconveniencies will be removed and the institution become a sub- ject of more extensive advantage. Signed:
THOMAS WICKERSHAM, RICHARD BARTLETT, JOHN DICKINSON.2
How long this school continued under the direct control of the meeting it is impossible to determine; but there is ground for belief that very soon after its removal to Easton the society ceased to exercise any care or direction over it, and that it became a private school, patronized
2 In 1788 John Dickinson and John Jenkinson were made members of the School Committee instead of Howell Powell and Thomas Hopkins. In 1789 the members were those signed to the report, as named above, with John Jenkinson, whose name does not appear.
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and taught by Friends. A part of the building was rented out for this purpose, while the remainder was occupied as a dwelling, sometimes if not always by those of the Society unable to pay. Certain it is, by the year 1820 the school house had yielded a considerable fund from its rental, which was applied by the meeting to Church purposes. Of the succession of the teachers there is no record, after the resignation of Mr. Hutton, who, as mentioned above, was the first. He had for successors Samuel Troth, who was teaching in 1810, James Iddings and Mary Edmondson, who were teaching in 1820, and Thomas Pear- son, and all worthy Friends and teachers who have left a good name behind. Thomas Cross taught in the same building, but he was not. a Quaker. The dates of the incumbency of these cannot be accurately determined and tradition is not to be depended upon. It would seem that in the early part of the century many of the teachers of the county were of the Society of Friends, their pure lives and quiet ways recom- mending them as instructors in preference to the passionate, cruel, and often dissipated Irish. The school with which this paper is con- cerned became extinct, as a denominational school, by reason of decline in the numbers of the Friends in its neighborhood, and of the increased popularity and excellence of the public or common schools supported in part or wholly from the public funds. It was found to be a burden to the Society which accordingly divested itself of all responsibility for its management.
After the cessation of this school of 1780 no attempt was made by the meeting at Third Haven to establish another, until a very recent date. The Society of Friends in Talbot long maintained a precarious exist- ence. For years they had been diminishing in numbers, but the lowest point was reached in or about 1870 when but about fourteen families were claimed as belonging to the monthly meetings assembling in the venerable building which dates from the year 1684. But after this date there appears to have been a revival of religious interest, as well as a decided increase of members. This may in a measure be accounted for by the additions which were made to strangers immigrating to this county from the North and West. The renewed vitality which has been thus acquired has been shown by the recent erection of a handsome brick meeting house, near the old one, which is very properly allowed to stand as one of the most interesting relics of pristine Quaker- ism. But this new life has been further manifested by the establish- ment of a school for Friends' children and those of all others who may see proper to avail themselves of such excellent tutorage as Friends
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know how to bestow. At a meeting of the Society in 1874, these per- sons were appointed a board of trustees of a school to be erected or set up, under the auspices of the monthly meeting at Third Haven:
JOHN C. BARTLETT, ROBERT B. DIXON, JAMES DIXON.
SAMUEL S. YEO, HENRY WILSON,
Contributions to the enterprise were made by the members of the meeting, to defray the cost of erecting a suitable building and the work was speedily completed. A commodious brick school house was erected upon Bay street, near Washington street, Easton, and a young lady, Miss Emma Satterthwait was installed as the first teacher. From the first the school was prosperous, and has continued so up to the pres- ent time, persons of all religious denominations giving their patronage. Miss Satterthwait's health failing, after two years' service, she was suc- ceeded by Mr. Wilson M. Tyler, who is now the very capable master. In 1879 an addition was made to the school house to accommodate the increasing number of pupils, and Miss Satterthwait having recovered her health returned to Talbot, and is acting as assistant to her half brother, Mr. Tyler. As this school, like most others conducted by Friends, appears to give great satisfaction to its patrons, a long life of prosperity and usefulness is promised. Into this school both boys and girls are admitted in accordance with the well known Quaker principles of equality of rights of the two sexes. The elements of learning as well as the higher branches of a good education, including the classical lan- guages, are taught. Although the school is under the control of the Quakers, and is so far sectarian, yet as these people, of late years at least, whatever they may have been in the height of their primitive fervor, have not shown a proselyting spirit, those who are anxious and careful to preserve the religious faith of their children as it is inculcated by parental or priestly instruction, have no fear that it may be invalidated by any denominational precepts, or an enforced conformity with any distinctive practices. But those who know the high ethical standards and the deep piety of the Friends, need not be told that true morals and fundamental religion are carefully taught-such morals and such religion as are accepted without cavil by all.
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THE SCHOOLS OF TALBOT
THE TALBOT COUNTY FREE SCHOOL
The attention of the citizens of this county, and indeed of almost the whole State, has been arrested, but not so thoroughly aroused as it should be, by the discussion which, at this writing, is going on in the General Assembly, respecting certain modifications of the existing school law, and particularly respecting a change in the method of ap- pointing the county school officers. With no purpose of joining in this discussion one remark may be ventured, that the plan of appointing these officers, by the judges, is objectionable for many reasons, not the least serious of which is that it tends to impair the interest of the peo- ple in public education by removing from them all control of these schools; for men soon cease to concern themselves about a matter, not of a purely personal nature, which is withdrawn from their con- sideration and influence. Now, whatever can add to the popular interest, which has flagged under the present regime, but is now awak- ened in this subject by executive suggestions and legislative oratory, may indirectly affect lawmakers and cause them to govern their action by higher and wider considerations than usually influence those who are apt to confound the good of their party and the good of the public. An account of the first school supported by the public funds that ever was established in Talbot, and perhaps the second that was established in the province or State,3 may be serviceable at this juncture, as well as be gratifying to those who are curious respecting the early history of education in this county. If this account of the Talbot County Free School be prefaced by a brief survey of the legislation which at- tended its establishment, it will not impair the value of this paper in the eyes of those who are watching the course of their delegates to the General Assembly upon the matter of public schools.
The first steps that were taken by the authorities of Maryland towards the establishment of a school or "place of learning" was in 1671, when a bill passed the Upper House of Assembly, which at that date met at Saint Mary's, for the founding a college. This bill was amended by
3 The first public school in Maryland was undoubtedly the King William's school, in Annapolis; but in the year 1724, in reply to inquiries of the Bishop of London, "Have you in your parish any public school for the education of youth? If you have, is it endowed, and who is the Master?" the Rector of Great Choptank parish (in Dorchester) answered: "I have in my parish one public school, endowed with £20 current money, which is about 15 shillings sterling, yearly, for which the Master is obliged to teach ten charity scholars."-President Garnett's MS. address, "Past and Present of Education in Maryland."
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the Lower House but the amendments were not acceptable to that branch of the legislature which had originated the bill, so it failed of becoming a law of the province. It is interesting to note that the same question which now divides the friends of public education, and which causes so much embarrassment, divided the early statesmen of this commonwealth, and caused the failure of the first scheme for providing an institution of learning in Maryland, namely the religious instruction to which the pupils should be subjected in the school-how it should be conformed to their religious professions, Catholic and Protestant.4
The colonial records do not indicate that any other legislative action was taken towards the establishment of schools until the year 1694, when Governor Nicholson sent a message to the assembly proposing that a plan be formed for building a free school for the province, and the maintenance of proper teachers. He pledged himself for a very liberal contribution and annual subscription, during the time he should continue in the government, while the secretary of the province and other gentlemen holding official positions promised very considerable sums. The Assembly approved of the Governor's recommendations, and imitated him by making very liberal subscriptions, to the amount of nearly forty-six thousand pounds of tobacco.5 But it advised that instead of there being but one school, there should be two, one at Severn, or what is now Annapolis, and the other at Oxford in Talbot, then the most considerable place upon the Eastern Shore, and but recently laid out as a town and made a port of entry. An address was ordered to be sent to their Majesties, William and Mary, which took the form of a Petitionary Act. Another address was ordered to be sent to the Bishop of London, who had ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the colony, asking his "assistance and care." A letter was directed to be sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking his assistance also, and that he would assume the patronage of the school. The plan of these schools was embodied in three bills which passed upon the same day, the first of which was "An Act for the encouragement of learning, and advance-
4 President Garnett's Manuscript History of Education in Maryland; also Scharf's History of Maryland, Vol. 1, p. 349.
5 These gentlemen, members of the Lower House of the General Assembly, and constituting the whole delegation from Talbot, subscribed the amounts affixed to their names :
Hon. Robert Smith, Speaker, 2,000 lbs. tobacco, Col. Henry Coursey, 2,000 lbs. tobacco, Mr. Nicholas Lowe, 1,200 lbs. tobacco, Major Thomas Smithson, 800 lbs. tobacco.
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ment of the natives of this Province." The second was an act entitled "An Act supplicatory to their sacred Majesties, for erecting Free Schools." The third was an act entitled "An Act for laying an imposi- tion on several commodities of this Province, etc., for the maintenance of Free Schools." The texts of these laws are not in the common com- pendiums of law-in neither Parks nor Bacon-so their specific pro- visions are unknown. However, they were soon repealed by subse- quent acts, presently to be noticed, and doubtless their essential fea- tures were retained in those laws which were substituted for them. Now these acts of 1694 were really the first to pass through all the stages of legislation, and become laws, which provided for schools to be supported in any degree by public funds, for as has been shown the bills introduced in 1671 failed to receive the approval of both houses. But nothing was really accomplished under them, except perhaps the collection of funds from the impost. In 1695, it may be well enough to mention, an act was passed imposing a tax of four pence per gallon on all liquors imported into the province, for the purpose of raising money for building and repairing Court Houses, Free Schools, Bride- wells and such public services. This law expired by limitation in three years.
The first law of which we have the text in the books, for the estab- lishment of Free Schools was that passed in July, 1696, and entitled "A petitionary Act for Free Schools." It will be remembered that since the year 1691 the province of Maryland had been under royal jurisdiction, and not under Lord Baltimore, who was not restored to all his Proprietary rights until 1715. The preamble to this law was in the form of a petition to King William, Queen Mary having died since the last petitionary act. This, for its curious phraseology, if for noth- ing else, is worthy of being here rehearsed. Its humility, amounting to abjectness, appears singular to the independent citizen of today. This preamble is as follows:
To His Excellent Majesty. Dread Sovereign: From the sincerity of our humble and loyal hearts we offer to your sacred person our most dutiful and sincere thanks for your royal care and protection to us, for your Majesty's princely zeal and pious care of our mother church of England, and for extending your royal benediction to our neighboring colony, your Majesty's subjects and territory of Virginia in your gra- cious grant and charter for the propagation of a college, or place of universal study in that, your Majesty's said colony. In humble con- templation thereof, and being excited by his present Excellency, Francis
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Nicholson, Esq., your Majesty's Governor of this Province, his zeal for your Majesty's service, pious endeavors and generous offers for the propagation of christianity and good learning herein; we become hum- ble suitors to your most sacred Majesty, to extend your royal grace and favour to us, your Majesty's subjects of this Province, represented in this your Majesty's General Assembly, thereof, that it may be en- acted, etc.
The act then goes on to provide for the establishment of a "Free School or Schools, or place of study of Latin, Greek, Writing and the like," at Anne Arundel town on the Severn, to be called "King William's School" and to be managed by a board, which should form a body politic, under the name of the "Rectors, Governors, Trustees and Vistors of the Free Schools of Maryland." Provision was made for the raising and collecting the sum of one hundred and twenty pounds, sterling, per annum, for the payment of the teachers and other expenses. There is that further and important provision that, as soon as the reve- nues from whatever source for the Free Schools should exceed the sum of one hundred and twenty pounds, by an equal amount, "the Rec- tors, Governors, Trustees and Visitors shall proceed to erect, found and build one other Free School at the town of Oxford on the Eastern Shore of this province, in Talbot County, or in such other place in the same county as to the Rectors, Governors and Visitors aforesaid shall seem most expedient." These officers were directed to pay over the like sum of £120 sterling for the support of this school, which should be "in all respects under the same benefits, privileges, injunctions, and restrictions as the said first Free School at Anne Arundel."6 It was also provided that similar schools be established in each of the counties of the province, as fast as the income for the purpose would allow the same to be done. Of these schools the Archbishop of Canterbury was to be the Chancellor, in accordance with his consent obtained in 1695, given in answer to the address presented the year before. There was to be no longer dispute as to the character of the religious instruc- tion imparted in these schools, for the law established that the rules and orders for their governance were to be in accordance with the canons and constitutions of the Church of England. It was under this act that the celebrated King William's School at Annapolis was established, a school upon whose foundations at a later day was built the now venerable College of St. John's. It does not appear that there
6 In this we have the germ of the first free school of Talbot, which was built not at Oxford, however.
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was such an accumulation of school money as to justify the erection of any other school under this law.7
A brief statement of the resources from which the funds were derived that supported this school, and others which were subsequently estab- lished, including the Talbot County Free School, and a short notice of the several laws providing for the raising these funds, cannot but be interesting to friends of public education, and even to the simply curious about the past of Maryland. Already the Act entitled "An Act for laying an imposition, &c." passed in 1694, has been noticed, and also that of 1695 laying a tax of 4d. per gallon on liquors.
It would seem that there had been difficulties experienced in collect- ing the subscription money that had been pledged for the free school or schools; so in 1669 it became necessary to pass a private law enabling "purchasers of the subscriptions to the free schools to recover the same."
In 1704, for some reason not apparent, it became necessary to declare authoritatively that the petitionary act of 1696 was still in force. In the same year an act was passed entitled "An Act laying imposition on several commodities exported from this Province," by which it was declared that certain imports laid upon furs and skins exported should "be employed towards maintaining of a Free School or schools within the Province." Non-residents were required to pay double duty; and any person failing to pay the impost forfeited his property, one-half the value of which went to the school fund and one-half to the informer. If a master of a ship or vessel should knowingly receive on board any commodity that had not paid, but which should have paid the impost, he was required to forfeit 5,000 lbs. of tobacco, one-half to go to the schools and the other to the informer. Beef and pork were placed in the same catagory with furs and skins. This act repealed that of 1694 of the same tenor. It was in turn modified by the act of 1723, so far as to exempt furs and skins from the impost, but continued to bind other commodities.
In 1715 an act was passed entitled "an Act for the better security of the Peace and safety of his Lordship's government and the Protes- tant interest in this Province," which provided that if any one should attempt to exercise any office or administer any trust without taking
7 The Law of 1696 repealed an act which it calls the "Supplementary Act" of 1694; but as there was no act of that year having such a title, it referred doubt- less to the "Act for the encouragement of learning &c." Bacon conjectures that the word "supplementary" was a clerical error for "supplicatory" Act, one of such a nature having been passed in that year, as before noticed in this paper.
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the oaths of allegiance, of abhorrency and of abduration, he should be fined two hundred pounds, currency, one-half of which should go to the school fund and one-half to the informer.
At the May session of the Legislature of 1717, an "Act to regulate ordinaries" was passed according to which any violation of its provi- sions, and they were numerous and minute, was punished by heavy fines, one-half of each of which went to the schools in the county in which the offense was committed, and one-half to the informer.8 In any county where there was no free school established, the moity in- tended for it, might be used to defray the ordinary county charges, but an account was ordered to be kept and when a school should be established, the money should be refunded. This law expired by limitation in 1720. At the same session an act was passed entitled "an Act laying an additional penalty of twenty shillings current money per poll on Irish servants, being Papists, &c., and 'on all negroes,' for raising a fund for the use of public schools, within the several coun- ties of the Province." This 20s. per poll on all papists and negroes imported, it was said shall be "for the advancement of learning, to be applied towards the encouragement of one public school in every county within the province, that is to say, one equal share thereof for the support of each school." This law was an amendment of the law of 1715 of similar tenor, but the duty then imposed of 20s. per poll, which was continued, thus making it 40s., did not apply to the same pur- pose. In the same year, 1717, a "supplementary act to the act relat- ing to servants and slaves," was passed, one of the provisions of which was the selling into slavery, or temporary servitude negroes or mulat- toes intermarrying with whites, or whites intermarrying with negroes or mulattoes, and the proceeds of such sale were to be applied "towards the support of a public school within the said county" where the offense might be committed. The law of 1715, of which this was a supplement, provided that if any minister, pastor, or magistrate, or any person whatsoever, who by the law of the province "usually join people in marriage," shall join any negro or mulatto slave with any white per-
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