Early Quaker education in Pennsylvania

by Thomas Woody

SUMMARY

The meetings

Falls

Permanent property acquired

Three schools reported

The establishment of schools of Falls, Middletown, Wrightstown, Buckingham, and Richland meetings is discussed in this chapter. Their first activity was to establish youths’ meetings and look after the placing of apprentices. The date of the first school at Falls is not determined, though the educational activity appears to have been on a par with other meetings. In 1759 property was conveyed to trustees for the use of the school, and at various dates thereafter. A school committee reported three schools, one in each preparative, in 1784. The usual means of support were employed. The school money amounted in 1799 to £777/9/4½.

Middletown

First school in meeting house

Free school endowed

Middletown’s first school was held in the meeting house, in accord with a permit granted by Friends. The real progress of schools among them is not determined, though we know that they are supplied with schools. It is likely, judging from the nature of the committee’s reports, that they did not meet the standards set by the yearly meeting. The free school, endowed with £40 in 1755 by Harker, was to be under care of the monthly meeting.

Buckingham

Plan for buildings and support

Buckingham meeting assumed a regular care in the apprenticing of children, and, like Middletown, was endowed by Adam Harker. A school committee was appointed in 1778, and the visiting of schools required. An unusual plan for building schoolhouses was devised in 1785; and also a scheme for school support in 1785 which was improved in 1793. A special committee of two men had charge of employing masters. Two schools are reported as under the care of the meetings’ committee, in 1790.

Wrightstown

One school under monthly meeting

The cause for the apparently slow progress of Wrightstown concerning schools lay chiefly in a lack of permanent funds. Back of this, there seems to have been a failure on the part of the monthly meeting to unite and direct the activities of its preparatives, for the individual contributions were considerable. Though “schools” are mentioned in the minutes, it seems most likely that only the one at Wrightstown was in reality a school of the monthly meeting.

Richland

Little is discovered concerning the Richland school save that it was endowed in 1762 by Morris. The account books of the Walton fund show that the children were schooled at the expense of the meeting.

Total number of schools

There were probably eight schools regularly established in the five monthly meetings.

CHAPTER VI
SCHOOLS IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY

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.

Abington

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]

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]

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]

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]

Meeting house built

Jacob Taylor concerned in a school

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:

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]

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]

Expenditure of funds in charge of committees

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]

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:

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.

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.

Gwynedd

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]

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.

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]

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:

“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]

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]

School in Montgomery Township

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.

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.

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]

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.

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.

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]

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:

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.

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]

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):

Report on Horsham schools, 1779

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]

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.

Report made to Horsham monthly on schools

Four schools named; others, where the houses belong to Friends

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.

Each particular meeting to name its own committee

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]

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]

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.

Warrington

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]

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.

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]

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:

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]

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]

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.