Though that report and the one of the quarterly meeting really tell us nothing, we are better rewarded in one produced just a year later, which points plainly to some of the difficulties the early school trustees had to face.
Report of 1787
The committee in the care of schools reported as follows: the substance whereof the clerk is directed to insert in our report of the quarterly meeting.
Mistresses employed in summer; some schools not according to advice
The care of schools has been under our care and attention and on conferring together, we agree to report—under the present circumstances of things amongst us, it is found most convenient to employ mistresses, as the teachers in our schools most generally in the summer season, several of which are now under the care of Friends to pretty good satisfaction, and we hope the concern is in a reviving way amongst us, though there are discouragements by some Friends encouraging or promoting schools taught by persons not agreeable to the advice of the society.[560]
In 1794 William Jackson deeded to Joseph Preston and others a piece of ground for a schoolhouse,[561] which was to be in trust for the Friends’ meeting. This is the first transfer of ground for school purposes found among the New Garden Friends. Among the stipulations of the deed are the following:
Requirements for the school at New Garden
1. The master is to be a member of Friends.
2. The master must teach according to the rules laid down (presumably by the school trustees) as before mentioned in the case of the Horsham School Rules.[562]