for war purposes.1 In 1762 it went to garrison Fort Johnston and Fort Granville.* As a result the Vaughan bequest came to naught. The question of education was frequently recommended to the attention of the legislature by Governor Dobbs during the next ten years. In 1759 and again in 1764, Dobbs asked the Board of Trade to allow the money originally intended for schools to be reissued for that purpose, but the right to issue bills was refused at the instance of British merchants. In 1763 the assembly, through their agent, asked that a part of the fund coming to North Carolina as reimbursement for war expenses be devoted to education, and this was refused.1 3 Discussion of the subject continued, however, and in December, 1762, Rev. James Reed, of Newbern, preached before the assembly a sermon, "Recommending the establishing public schools for the education of youth." This sermon was printed at the public expense, and this was, perhaps, the first actual appropriation for education. In 1763 Rev. Alexander Stewart reports a manual-labor school, established by the society of Dr. Bray's associates, for Indians and negroes in Hyde County. 7 8 The one successful school of the period seems to have come from private initiative. In December, 1763, Thomas Tomlinson, an English teacher who had had a school in Cumberland, arrived in Newbern, "well recommended with regard to his abilities, sobriety and good conduct." He opened a school January 1, 1764; got all the pupils he could teach and sent home for an assistant. A subscription was started for a schoolhouse and Rev. James Reed writes in June that he had secured notes for that purpose for more than £200 (£110 sterling). "During my eleven years' residence in this province I have not found any man so well qualified for the care of a school as Mr. Tomlinson. He is not only a good scholar but a man of good conduct, has given great satisfaction to the parents of such children as are under his care and will be of infinite service to the rising generation." The building of the schoolhouse proposed by Reed was authorized by an act passed at the FebruaryMarch session, 1764, and in the following May the leading citizens of Newbern addressed a letter to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, through Governor Tryon, in which they asked that Tomlinson be given a regular salary as a representative of the society, pleading, besides his good qualities, that there has never been in their province any regular settled schoolmaster.10 The petition was indorsed by Tryon, who says that Tomlinson was "the only person of repute of that profession in the country," "11 and met a favorable response, for the society granted him "an additional salary," amount unknown. 12 In July, 1765, Mr. Reed writes that the building of the schoolhouse went on but slowly for the lack of funds. Tomlinson was expecting an assistant daily and then had 30 pupils at 20s.. proclamation, by the quarter, which amounted to £60 sterling per year. 13 The schoolhouse was still unfinished in 1766, when the matter was taken up by an act "for establishing a schoolhouse in the town of Newbern." The act, after reciting that "a number of well-disposed persons, taking into consideration the great necessity of having a proper school or public seminary of learning estab 1 Col. Rec., VI, 657, 658, 661, 686, 691. 2 Col. Rec., VI, 831. 3 Col. Rec., VI, 5, 1035-1037. 4 Col. Rec., VI, 1006. 5 Col. Rec., VI, 955. Col. Rec., VI, 995-996. 66 7 In 1767-68 James McCartney, a native of Ireland, was an assistant in this school. * Col. Rec., VI., 1048. Col. Rec., VI, 1105, 1111, 1113, etc. 10 Col. Rec., VII, 35-36. 11 Col. Rec., VII, 104. 12 Col. Rec., VII, 458. 13 Col. Rec., VII, 98, 154, 241. lished, whereby the rising generation may be brought up and instructed in the principles of the Christian religion and fitted for the several offices and purposes of life, have at great expense erected and built in the town of Newbern a convenient house for the purpose aforesaid; and being desirous that the same may be established by law on a permanent footing, so as to answer the good purposes by the said persons intended," enacted that the contributors to the schoolhouse fund should choose out of their own number eleven persons to be trustees, who were by this act chartered as the Incorporated Society for Promoting and Establishing the Public School in Newbern, and given the powers usual to such bodies. No person was to be admitted master of the school who was not of the Church of England and licensed by the governor. The trustees were to take the oaths to the Government, subscribe the test, and then take a special oath "to execute and discharge the several powers and authorities" conferred by the act. Elaborate provisions were made for the control and direction of the trustees, and as the contributors were "desirous that the benefits arising from said school may be as extensive as possible, and that the poor who may be unable to educate their children there may enjoy the benefits thereof," a duty of 1 penny per gallon was to be levied on all rum and other spirituous liquors imported into Neuse River for seven years. This was to be used in educating ten poor children. The master was to have a salary of £20 per year “toward enabling him to keep an assistant.”1 This law has been given in detail, because it is practically the first law passed in the province for the encouragement of public education. A further effort was made to aid the school by the legislature of 1768, which passed an act "for declaring certain lots in the town of Newbern, taken up by the trustees for promoting the public school in the said town, saved and improved according to law; and to empower the said trustees to collect the subscriptions due to the said school. This act was repealed by the King in council in 1770, on the ground that the act set aside the statute of limitations.3 But it appears that those interested in the school were not at all disposed to let the English Government thwart them by repealing this legislation on the school, for in 1773 the legislature passed a supplementary act in which it was provided that the four lots contiguous to the lot on which the school society had erected "a large and convenient building for the use and accommodation of the master and scholars of said school" should be deemed as saved and improved lots, according to the terms of the act in force.4 In 1767 and 1768 efforts were made to establish by legislative authority a similar school in Edenton. These bills failed because the assembly refused to require that the teachers should be members of the Church of England, in accord with the instructions to the governor and the terms of the schism act.5 The opponents of the church schools idea yielded finally, however, and the Edenton Academy was chartered in 1770-71, under an act "for vesting the schoolhouse in Edenton in trustees." The terms of its charter and the objects of the school were in all essentials like those for the Newbern Academy. The trustees had power to receive voluntary subscriptions, and "no person shall be admitted to be master of the said school but who is of the Established Church of England."6 As we have already seen, the master and teachers of the public school in New 1 See Col. Rec., VII, 303, 305, 309, 310, etc., and the act in Davis's Revisal of 1773, 359-361. This act repealed the act of 1764. 2 Davis's Revisal of 1773, 450. 3 Col. Rec., VIII, 266, 276–277, 616. 'Davis's Revisal of 1773, 552. In 1772 a quarrel arose between Tomlinson and the trustees, and he was dismissed. Reed takes his part and suggests the dissolution of the Incorporated Society. See Colonial Records, IX. Col. Rec., VII, 561, 562, 563, 586, 587, 588, 589, 591, 598, 600, 632-633. See also same, 901, 904, 909, 921, 922, 942-943, 947, 948, 953, 954, 970, 978, and VIII, 6. Davis's Revisal of 1773, 478–179. bern were also required to be of the Church of England, in accordance with the provisions of the schism act, which was enforced in North Carolina from 1730 to 1773, so far as the Government was able. Under this act no one, under penalty of three months' imprisonment, could keep either a public or a private school, nor could act as tutor or usher, unless he had obtained a license from the Bishop of London, had engaged to conform to the Anglican liturgy, and had received the sacrament in some Anglican church within the year. To prevent occasional conformity it was provided that a teacher so qualified who attended any other form of worship was to suffer the full term of imprisonment and to be forever incapacitated from acting as tutor or schoolmaster. This requirement handicapped the dissenters by throttling their schools, and consequently did great harm to learning. The power of the Established Church was felt mainly in the eastern half of the colony. The result was that there were few private schools at the time of the Revolution. IV. PRIVATE INCORPORATED ACADEMIES, 1760-1825. The western part of the Province of North Carolina-the western half of the present State-was occupied, speaking very broadly, by races differing from those of the eastern counties. The latter were settled mostly by immigrants from the old country and from Virginia who moved farther to the south in search of better lands. These immigrants were mostly of English extraction, and this was the general character of the population until the end of the proprietary government in 1728. About 1736 the Scotch and Scotch-Irish immigrations began. One stream came in by way of Charleston, S. C., another by way of Cape Fear River, while a third came southward from Pennsylvania. These streams met and commingled in the Piedmont region of the present State. They clung more closely together than earlier settlers had done, and "almost invariably as soon as a neighborhood was settled preparations were made for the preaching of the gospel by a regular stated pastor, and wherever a pastor was located, in that congregation there was a classical school, as in Sugar Creek, Poplar Tent, Center, Bethany, Buffalo, Thyatira, Grove, Wilmington, and the churches occupied by Pattillo in Granville and Orange."2 Another class of settlers who contributed no little to the intellectual advancement of middle and western North Carolina were the Germans, who came overland from Pennsylvania, and in religion were divided into Moravian, Lutheran, and Reformed bodies, but there was harmony between these parts, and in matters of education they were one. In this migration, which began as early as 1745, the Moravians were among the leaders. They appeared in 1753. The ensuing southward movement lasted for a generation, and in 1785 there were 15,000 Pennsylvania Germans in North Carolina. These immigrants were careful to set up churches and schools on arrival, and if there were no teachers among them they sent to Germany for such. A number of these schools were taught in the German language. It is safe to say that during the second half of the eighteenth century no class of the population of North Carolina was more intelligent than this German element.4 Still another class which added no little to the strength of the province in morals and otherwise were the Quakers. They began coming to central North Carolina, principally from Pennsylvania, as early as 1743, and kept it up until the close of the Revolution, but in educational matters they do not occupy as high a place as the German churches or the Presbyterians." 1 On the provisions of the schism act, see my Church and State in North Carolina, ch. 3. 2 Foote's Sketches, p. 546. 3 Col. Rec., VIII, 728. 4 See Col. Rec., VIII, 507, 631, 731, 732, 733, 739, 748, 749, 751, 760, 781, 762, 763, 768. 5 See my Southern Quakers and Slavery. As early as 1744 the Presbyterian synods of New York and Pennsylvania began sending missionaries to North Carolina. The earliest of these missionaries was Rev. John Thompson, who came out from Virginia in 1744 and labored in the Iredell section of the State until his death in 1753. The next missionary was Rev. Hugh McAden, a graduate of Princeton in 1753, who came to North Carolina in 1755 and became one of the principal founders of the Presbyterian Church in the South. Samuel Davies Alexander, in his Princeton College during the Eighteenth Century, has gathered the names of the Princeton men who cast their lot in North Carolina. This list has been summarized and commented on by Dr. Smith in his History of Education in North Carolina. It included, among others, Alexander Martin, class of 1756, afterwards governor; Rev. Alexander McWhorter, class of 1757; Samuel Spencer, class of 1759, a native of North Carolina and a superior court judge; Joseph Alexander, class of 1760, teacher; Rev. David Caldwell, class of 1761, teacher; Waightstill Avery, lawyer, and Rev. Hezekiah James Balch, class of 1766; Isaac Alexander, president of Liberty Hall Academy, and Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, teacher and preacher, 1772; John Ewing Calhoun, lawyer and United States Senator from South Carolina, 1774; Rev. Thomas B. Craighead, 1775, a native of North Carolina and an educational leader in Tennessee; Spruce McCoy, member of Congress and superior court judge, 1775; Nathaniel Alexander and William Richardson Davie, both members of the class of 1776, and both governors of the State; David Stone, governor and United States Senator, 1788; Thomas Pitt Irving, teacher, and Robert H. Chapman, second president of the University of North Carolina, 1789; Joseph Caldwell, first president of the University of North Carolina, 1791; Charles W. Harris, an early professor in the University of North Carolina, 1792; William Gaston, member of Congress and justice of the supreme court, 1796, and Frederick Nash, chief justice of North Carolina, 1799. Some of these were natives who went to Princeton for their training, but a majority of them came from other States and cast their fortunes among the people of North Carolina. It is to them that the State is largely indebted for her first classical academies, the clause in her constitution providing for the university and the common schools, and the organization and development of the university for the first two generations of its life. The Rev. James Tate, a Presbyterian minister from Ireland, organized Tate's Academy, in Wilmington, about 1760. Crowfield Academy, in Mecklenburg County, was organized about the same time, and from this, in connection with Poplar Tent Academy, organized in Cabarrus County about 1778 by Rev. Robert Archibald (Princeton, 1772), came the germ of the modern Davidson College. The academy of Rev. David Caldwell, located about 3 miles from Greensboro, was organized about 1767, and for many years "served for North Carolina as an academy, a college, and a theological seminary." The average attendance was fifty to sixty, and was large for the time and country. It was not interrupted by the Revolutionary war until the British army appeared in this section in 1781. The greater part of his students had already joined the American Army; his property was plundered by the British; his library and all his literary accumulations burned; he was himself treated with indignity, and had to spend many nights in the woods to escape capture. The school was revived as soon as circumstances would allow, and Dr. Caldwell continued in active service until about 1822, when age and infirmities compelled him to retire. He died in 1824, aged 99. His apparatus and materials for teaching seem to have been very limited, especially after the invasion of the British in 1781, and the course of study does not seem to have been an extended one, but of its thoroughness the success of many of his pupils gives ample testimony.1 1 Caruthers's Life of David Caldwell, Greensboro, 1812. Clio's Nursery and the Academy of the Sciences was another of these private Presbyterian schools which did so much for the intellectual upbuilding of the State. It was located on Snow Creek, Iredell County, and was opened about the beginning of the Revolutionary war. It was in charge of Rev. James Hall (1744–1826), who was graduated from Princeton in 1774 and declined a tutorship there to do missionary work in North Carolina, where he became a pastor and teacher. In addition to his duties in Clio's Nursery, he opened at his residence an "academy of the sciences," which was supplied by him with some apparatus and of which he was sole professor. This seems to have served as a scientific course for the academy, the first of its kind in the State. After the Revolution, Hall founded a circulating library within the bounds of his charge, and to advance the cause of education organized a Saturday class of young people to take lessons in grammar. The great need of the day was text-books, and to remedy the difficulty he prepared a grammar and had manuscript copies made, which were circulated among the class. Later it was printed and was used extensively.1 But these schools were private institutions, and although representing all that there was of educational facilities for their respective sections, did not come within the limits of Government charter or aid. They lived in spite of instructions to the royal governor, for their very existence was contrary to the principles of the schism act. Queen's College, Charlotte, was another Presbyterian school which attained distinction, but had, perhaps, the hardest struggle of all for existence. Its beginnings are traced to the classical school established at Sugar Creek, near Charlotte, in 1767, by the Rev. Joseph Alexander. It was chartered as Queen's College in 1770-71 by the assembly. This charter brought up the question of the schism act. This was not the first time that that question had come up, but it had never before been seen as clearly. The promoters of the school had yielded so far as to provide that the president of the institution should be of the established church and be licensed by the governor, but the fellows, trustees, and tutors would be, for the most part, Presbyterians. On this question the Board of Trade, to whom the matter was referred in England, write the King that “from the prevalency of the Presbyterian persuasion within the county of Mecklenburg we may venture to conclude that this college . . . will, in effect, operate as a seminary for the education and instruction of youth in the principles of the Presbyterian Church. Sensible as we are of the wisdom of that tolerating spirit which generally prevails throughout your Majesty's dominions . . . still we think it our duty to submit to your Majesty whether it may be advisable for your Majesty to add encouragement to toleration by giving the royal assent to an establishment which in its consequences promises with great and permanent advantages to a sect of dissenters from the established church who have already extended themselves over that province in very considerable numbers."3 The charter of Queen's Museum was accordingly repealed by proclamation in 1773; but the institution flourished without a charter and became the rallying point of the literary societies and debating clubs that preceded the Revolution. The name was changed from Queen's College to Liberty Hall Academy about 1775, and on May 9, 1777, the coveted charter was secured from the assembly of the newborn State. The trustees were all Presbyterians and the school was under the supervision of Orange Presbytery, which at that time covered all the State. The course of study in the institution was nearly the same as that pointed out afterwards by the trustees of the University of North Carolina. No degrees were given, but diplomas and certificates of study instead. Dr. Alexander McWhorter, 1 Foote's Sketches, p. 330. 2 See the act in Col. Rec., VIII, 486-490. |