FEMALE EDUCATION IN CONNECTICUT.

LETTER FROM W. C. FOWLER, LL.D.

PERIOD BEFORE 1800.

DEAR DR. BARNARD: To your inquiries respecting female education in ancient Connecticut, I beg to present the following reply:*

In the light of history, a glance at the races and tribes of men on the face of the earth is sufficient to show that the early education of women has generally been conformed to the ideas entertained of her expected duties as a wife and a mother. This is true in the lower and in the higher degrees of civilization; in the kraals of the Hottentots, the wigwams of the American Indians, in the Zenänas of Hindoostan, as well as in the homes of Christian nations.

In the high Christian civilization of Connecticut, the expected duties of woman, as a wife and a mother, were enlarged in proportion to the high sphere in which she was called to act as a denizen of time and a future inhabitant of eternity. She was expected to be a true yokefellow of her husband, that he might, in the language of the Bible, "be won by her conversation." She was expected to train up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, as fellow-heirs of the grace of life.

Thus acting, these children could not fail to think of her as the busy housewife who plied her incessant cares, or as the queen, issuing her commands, and making order and neatness reign in her domain, and as one from whose heart the spring of sympathy welled up to her eyes in tears, as joy or sorrow ruled the hour. And after she had gone to her home in the heavens, they could think of her as one who, when on earth, had been a ministering spirit for them who were not, as well as for them who were, heirs of salvation. Thus to the families of ancient Connecticut the Gospel of Christ opened a long vista from this into the eternal world, and presented the future inhabitants of that world, clad in the white robes of the saints, walking by the river of life, and plucking the fruits from the trees that grow on both sides of the river. If any Connecticut parents were asked the question, “Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?" the answer forthcoming would be, "them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts." "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little." In other words, parents must teach their children, while they are still young, with constant assiduity. As printed, several additional items are incorporated by the Editor with the consent of the writer. (161)

And knowing that actions speak louder and more distinctly than words, they were careful to illustrate their instructions by examples. God, the great Teacher of the Universe, instructs His creatures by His works and His words; and many judicious and pious parents in Connecticut taught their children, not only by their sayings, but by their doings.

The early settlers of Connecticut brought with them from England a pronounced appreciation of both the higher and lower literary education of the young. They regarded the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the mother country, as the "two eyes" of England. They aided Harvard College for something like sixty years after its foundation, sending to it from time to time young men to be educated, and wheat to sustain the College. They or their successors established Yale College, in the hope that those who were graduated at this institution would be eyes to the blind in the commonwealth and New England. They established primary or common schools at an early period, for the universal attendance of children and youth, and they transmitted to their posterity their attachment to both the higher and lower institutions of learning. What the village schoolmaster and his school in England were, may be partly known from Goldsmith's "Deserted Village"; and what were the schoolmistress in England and her school, may be partly known from Shenstone's poem, entitled "The Schoolmistress."

The common school system in Connecticut was intended from the first to be a general provision for teaching all the children, male and female, to read the Bible. The answer to the first question in the Westminster Catechism is, that "the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." The answer to the second question is, that "The word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify God and enjoy Him." These two answers form the premises to the conclusion that every child ought to be taught to read the word of God in the Old and New Testaments.

There was also the additional reason that every one ought to be able to read the laws of the commonwealth in which he lived, especially if he was a voter.

From the first establishment of common schools in this State, boys and girls were sent to them for instruction in the rudiments of learning. This was in accordance with the practice in England and Scotland. Where the parents had leisure and intelligence, they frequently taught their children to read words of one or two syllables before sending them to school. This they considered a part of home education.

The word "education" is sometimes used in a limited sense, as equivalent to the word "instruction." It is also used in a broader sense, as signifying all those influences, whether designed or undesigned, which contribute to the formation of character. There was also another way in which provision was made for the education of children and youth

of both sexes in the family or the school. There was, at that time, a great system of apprenticeship, borrowed from England, prevailing in this and other States, in which children and youth were bound out to service by their parents, by the selectmen, or otherwise, until the age of twenty-one for males, and eighteen for females. According to the articles of indenture, the minors thus bound out were to receive instruction in certain branches of knowledge, and a small outfit, including the Bible, when they were of age. This outfit was sometimes enlarged by good masters beyond the conditions of the contract, when the servants did well, and it sometimes happened that the female servants did so well that they made connections in life fully equalling those of their master's daughters. Allusion is made to this in the well-known distich"Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans blessed, The young who labor, and the old who rest."

Allusion is also made to this system in the Constitution of the United States. It was a self-supporting, beneficent system, in which one ounce of prevention in the family and district schools was worth a pound of cure in the reform schools of the present day.

The father, when about to die, instead of leaving his unwary and impulsive son "Lord of himself, that heritage of woe," during his minority, could place him at service, under a strong but easy yoke, like a child at home, until he could be able to see and shape his own destiny as an independent housekeeper.

The mother, instead of leaving her daughter during her minority, as a waif, to be picked up and cast off, could place her in a good family, where she could grow up as a flower in a fair garden, ready to be transplanted in due time to the garden of her husband.

The girls continued in the district schools a longer or shorter period, according to the exigencies of the parents or masters.

Besides these common schools, in those days the ministers of churches often had private schools in their houses, during some portion of the year, in which their own children, if they had any, and the children of their parishioners, were instructed in some of the higher branches of knowledge. Many girls derived great advantage from breathing the literary atmosphere of these parish schools, as they might be called. Standing on this higher ground, their views became more enlarged, and their feelings more elevated through the whole of their lives.

Many of the ministers of Connecticut fitted students for College, and in some instances girls studied Latin and Greek so successfully under their instruction, that they were fully prepared to enter Yale College. Examples of Educated Women and Educating Mothers. Joanna, daughter of Bryan Rossiter, physician, of Guilford, Connecticut, was highly educated; born July, 1642; married Nov. 7, 1660, Rev. John Cotton of Plymouth, Mass., and had ten children, six of whom lived to occupy places of respectability. Rev. Josiah Cotton, in a history of the Cotton family, cited in Sibley's Graduates of Harvard College, writes of his mother :

"She was a woman, not of ceremony but of substance, of great knowledge, uncommon wisdom and discretion, and a notable faculty of speaking and writing. She understood something of Latin and poetry, had a good insight in the medicinal art, in the practice of which she was much impressed, and became very useful and helpful in the town. She ruled her children and servants well, very careful to set good examples, keeping up family duties in my father's absence, and managed secular affairs, most of which passed through her hands, with singular prudence and industry, and finally, she was a good wife, a good mistress, a good neighbor, and a good Christian."

Rev. Edward Taylor was born in Coventry, Eng., in 1642, graduated at Harvard College in 1671, went to Westfield, Mass., Dec. 3, 1671, died 1728-9. His first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. James Fitch, and granddaughter of Rev., Henry Whitfield of Guilford. By her he had eight children. His second wife was Ruth, daughter of Samuel Wyllis of Hartford. By her he had six children. The five daughters of the second wife were all married to clergymen in Connecticut.

Miss Lucinda Foote was the eldest daughter of the Rev. John Foote, Y. C. 1765, who was the pastor of the Congregational Church in Cheshire for about fifty years. She was one of ten children. Three of the sons were fitted for College by their father, she studying with them. The following is a certificate of President Stiles, as to her qualifications for Yale College. It is written in the Latin language.

"The President of Yale College.*

"To all to whom these presents shall come, GREETING.

"Be it known to you that I have examined Miss Lucinda Foote-twelve years old--and have found that in the learned languages, the Latin and the Greek, she has made commendable progress, giving the true meaning of passages in the Eneid of Virgil, the select orations of Cicero, and in the Greek Testament, and that she is fully qualified, except in regard to sex, to be received as a pupil of the Freshman Class in Yale University.

"Given in the College Library the 22d of December, 1783. "EZRA STILES, President." She pursued a full course of college studies, and also studied the Hebrew with Pres. Stiles, subsequent to the date of this certificate. Miss Foote was born in Cheshire, May 19, 1772, was a sister of Gov. Samuel A. Foote, and married, July 29, 1790, Dr. Thomas S. Cornwall of Cheshire, who was a practicing physician in Cheshire for more than fifty years. She was the mother of ten children, one of whom, Mr. Edward A. Cornwall, the only survivor, furnished me with this information. She died in Cheshire, Aug. 23, 1834.

*Praeses Collegii Yalensis Omnibus, S. P. D.

Nobis Notum sit, quod Dominam Lucindam Foote, aetat. 12. Examine probavi, eamque in Linguis edvetis, Latinâ et Graecâ laudabitem Progressum fuisse; eo ut familiariter et reddidisse et traetâsse reperier; tum verba tum sententiae alibi in Aeneide Virgilii, in Selectis Ciceronis Orationabus, et in Graeco Testamento, Testorque omnino illam, nisi pro Sexûs ratione, idoneam, ut in Classem Recentium in Universitate Yalensis Alumna admitteretur. Datum è Bibliothecâ Coll. Yal. 22 die Decemb. Anno Salutes MDCCLXXXIII.

EZRA STILES, Praesca

Sarah Worthington Goodrich, eldest daughter of Rev. Samuel Goodrich, Y. C., 1783, was partly educated in the family of Rev. Daniel Smith of Stamford, who married a cousin of her mother, and who fitted students for college. She was herself so well fitted under his tuition, that she cried when the other members of the class could enter College and she could not. She married Amos Cook, a graduate of Yale College in 1791, and for her second husband, Frederick Wolcott, a graduate of Yale College in 1786. She was the mother of six children. Rev. Wm. Worthington of Saybrook, Yale College, 1716, had five daughters. His practice was, for a number of years, to keep four of the daughters in the study with him, while one was engaged in pursuing her domestic duties and education with her mother. In this way they all became very thorougly educated in literature, as well as in domestic employments, and made the best of wives, the best of mothers, and the best of housekeepers.

The oldest, Mary, married Aaron Eliot, son of Rev. Jared Eliot. He was deacon, colonel, and physician in Killingworth, member of the General Assembly nine sessions. His wife, Mary, was the mother of eight children.

The second daughter, Elizabeth, married, 1st, Col. Samuel Gale, and 2d, Rev. Elnathan Chauncey, a graduate of Yale College in 1743. She was the mother of six children, one of whom was my mother, namely Catherine Chauncey.

The third daughter, Temperance, married, 1st, Dr. Moses Gale, 2d, Rev. Cotton Mather Smith. She was the mother of eight children, one of whom was John Cotton Smith, Governor of Connecticut.

The fourth daughter, Sarah, married Col. John Ely, a distinguished physician, and was the mother of seven children, one of whom, Worthington, was a graduate of Yale College in 1780, and another, John, was a member of Congress.

The fifth daughter, Mehitabel, married Michael Hopkins. When she was taken by him to his father's house, his mother was so much pleased with his choice, that in a letter addressed to a friend, after expressing her admiration of her son's newly married wife, she said,

"Grace was in her step, heaven in her eye,

And every gesture dignity and love."

She was the mother of four children, one of whom, George, was a distinguished publisher in New York, and Sylvia, a daughter, was, in her youth, a celebrated beauty.

It should be added that Elizabeth, the second daughter of Wm. Worthington, was sent to Boston for a year, to complete her education by intercourse with family friends and kindred in that town.

Timothy Edwards, Harvard College 1691, settled in East Windsor, 1694, where he was in the ministry sixty-three years, had one son and ten daughters, all of whom he fitted for College. For a period the son, who was afterwards the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, recited Latin to his elder sisters.