Support of schools in Falls Monthly
The problem of school support occupied a considerable part of Falls Meeting’s time. The means of support were here, as in others already mentioned, (1) subscriptions, (2) donations and (3) rates. In 1760 it was considered necessary to appoint a committee of fourteen members to take an inventory of all legacies and donations, lands and benefactions which had been left to the meeting.[369] Some had been given for definitely stated uses; and others allowed the application to be determined by the members of the meeting. It was the will of the assembly that the committee appointed should especially determine what funds might be applied to the use of the schools. They reported at the next meeting that the legacy left by Elinor Bryner might be applied to the use of schools, along with those given definitely for that purpose.[370] The method by which the funds were to be applied to that use were indicated in the suggestions of the committee at a later meeting, as follows:
A committee to have oversight of education of the poor
We ... are of the opinion that the most that can be done at present, will be to appoint Friends to have the care of the schools and to examine what poor children may be amongst us, they being the proper objects of the charity designated by the givers of the money, and that the said Friends have power to agree with a master to teach such children; and also to draw orders for the payment thereof out of the interest arising from the money appropriated to the use of schools. Nominated seven Friends for that service and submitted the names and the report to the monthly meeting. The Friends above named are appointed to that service with the powers therein mentioned and are desired to lay an account before the monthly meeting at least once in each year and oftener if the meeting shall see fit to call for it.[371]
Such a plan as here indicated was consistently followed throughout the century in regard to school support. The interest on legacies had to be paid annually.[372]
Rhoads proposes to sell land for a school; considered
In 1781 the meeting was advised that Samuel Rhoads of Philadelphia had offered to sell four acres of ground adjoining the schoolhouse lot, to be used for the promotion of the school, and the benefit of the schoolmasters.[373] The consideration asked was £60, and Rhoads and his two brothers-in-law, Joseph Pemberton and Samuel Pleasants, offered to donate £20, making it cost the meeting but £40. The committee on school support was directed to consider this proposal. Bristol Preparative also received very valuable assistance for the use of poor children’s schooling, in the bequest of £50 Pennsylvania currency which was left them by John Baldwin of Philadelphia.[374] The great concern of the meeting for the best expenditure of these donations for educating not only the poor Whites but also the Negroes, is seen in their minute of 1787.[375] Careful account was kept and the accounts frequently audited, sometimes at the request of individuals.[376] In 1790 the committee reported their concerns as follows:
Report of committee on education of the poor
We the committee appointed by the monthly meeting to have the care of schooling poor children; also to have the distribution of the interests accruing on the several donations given for that use, have given attention to the service to which we were appointed: and the schooling a considerable number of children has accordingly been paid for, but as it is allowed that a change of the teacher at times may be useful or advantageous to a school, we are united in the sentiment that if such a change was to take place in the school kept at this place, it would be a means whereby the school might be considerably enlarged and the design and end of the several donations left for the use of the said school more fully answered. (Report submitted and accepted and the committee continued to the further service.)[377]
Establishment of funds of basic importance