CHAPTER III.
EDUCATION IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.—ACTION IN REGARD TO A COLLEGE.—TESTIMONIAL OF CONNECTICUT CLERGYMEN.—LEGISLATIVE GRANT TO MR. WHEELOCK.
The importance of education to the welfare of any community, has been duly appreciated by the people of New Hampshire from the earliest periods of her history.
Such an item as the following is worthy of notice:
"At a publique Town Meeting held the 5: 2 mo. 58 [1658,] It is agreed that Twenty pounds per annum shall be yearly rayzed for the mayntenance of a School-master in the Town of Dover."[11] Harvard College being in need of a new building in 1669, the inhabitants of Portsmouth "subscribed sixty pounds, which sum they agreed to pay annually for seven years to the overseers of Harvard College. Dover gave thirty-two pounds, and Exeter ten pounds for the same purpose."[12] Very few towns at the present day are as liberal, in proportion to their ability.
[11] Dover Town Records.
[12] Adams's Annals of Portsmouth, p. 50.
Classical schools were established in all the more populous towns, and these were furnished with competent teachers, who were graduates of Harvard College, or European universities.