Tenth. That the Governor and the Provincial Council shall erect and order all public schools and encourage and reward the authors of useful sciences and laudable inventions in the said provinces and territories thereof.
Eleventh. That one-third of the Provincial Council residing with the Governor from time to time shall, with the Governor, have the care and management of public affairs relating to peace, justice, treasury and improvement of the province and territories, and to the good education of the youth, and sobriety of the manner of the inhabitants therein aforesaid.[135]
Quaker Council provides a school
The plan for education as above set forth was not destined to be the one followed consistently for more than a century and a half of development, though throughout the first decades the relations between the schools of Friends and the governing Council were very close.[136] It is significant that the first school was actually ordered by the Council, in keeping with Penn’s provisions. About one year after Penn’s arrival in Philadelphia the educational problem came to the attention of the Council and received decided recognition, as the following witnesses:
The Governor and Provincial Council having taken into their serious consideration the great necessity there is of a schoolmaster for the instruction and sober education of the youth in the town of Philadelphia, sent for Enock Flower, an inhabitant of said town, who for twenty years past has been exercised in that care and employment in England, to whom having communicated their minds, he embraced it upon the following terms: to learn to read English 4s by the quarter, to learn to read and write 6s by the quarter, to learn to read, write and cast accounts 8s by the quarter; for boarding a scholar, that is to say, diet, washing, lodging, and schooling, ten pounds for one whole year.[137]
Additional provisions or books
Charter of 1701 does not refer to education as did the former ones
Thus the first impetus to education in Pennsylvania came through properly constituted governmental authority. The Council records show that the interest in educational affairs was maintained for some time. In the month following a law was proposed for making several sorts of books for the use of persons in the province, and also recommended that care be taken about “Learning and Instruction of youth, to witt: a school in the arts and sciences.”[138] This interest in, and the close relation of the Council to, education were not long continued however; for this there is no satisfactory explanation, though it is very clear that the attitude on the part of the government did change.[139] This change is evidenced in the policy as outlined by the Charter of 1701, in which there is no reference made to education or the responsibility of the Governor or Council therefor.[140] To the writer it seems that the withdrawal of the Council from any very active participation in the affairs of education may have been due to two reasons: first, the willingness evinced by private interests to establish schools and thus take over to themselves the duties of educators (evidenced by the establishment of Keith’s school by Friends in 1689 without the assistance or advice of the Council);[141] and second, the urgent details of establishing a new government, which occupied their first attention.
If further proof of the withdrawal of the colonial government from the active establishment of schools, and of the fact that they did accept and recognize the assistance of private agencies is desired, it is to be found in various acts of legislation of the first half century. Specific instances of such permissive legislation were the acts of May 28, 1715,[142] and also of February 6, 1730-1.[143] This legislation is chiefly concerned with granting privileges to purchase and hold land and erect buildings for the use of institutions stated therein, among which schools are mentioned. In this connection the statute of 1715, which evidences the facts stated above, is quoted.
Be it enacted by Charles Gookin, Esq., by the royal approbation Lieutenant-Governor, under William Penn, Esq., Proprietary and Governor-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, by and with the advice and consent of the freemen of the said provinces in General Assembly met, and by the authority of the same, that it shall and may be lawful to and for all religious societies or assemblies and congregations of Protestants, within this province, to purchase any lands or tenements for burying grounds, and for erecting houses of religious worship, schools and hospitals; and by trustees, or otherwise, as they shall think fit, to receive and take grants or conveyances for the same, for any estate whatsoever, to and for the use or uses aforesaid, to be holden of the lord of the fee by the accustomed rents and services. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all sales, gifts or grants made to any of the said societies, or to any person or persons in trust for them, or any of them, for or concerning any lands, tenements or hereditaments within this province, for and in any estate whatsoever, to and for the use and uses aforesaid, shall be and are by this Act ratified and confirmed according to the tenor and true meaning thereof, and of the parties concerned therein. And where any gifts, legacies or bequests have been or shall be made by any person or persons to the poor of any of the said respective religious societies, or to or for the use or service of any meeting or congregation of the said respective societies, the same gifts and bequests shall be employed only to those charitable uses, or to the use of those respective societies or meetings, or to the poor people to whom the same are or shall be given or intended to be given or granted, according to what may be collected to be the true intent and meaning of the respective donors or grantors.