HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.

INTRODUCTORY.

The monograph herewith presented is a brief treatment of the history of education in New Hampshire, as it relates to the common school, the academy, and the college. It notes at the beginning that the men of New Hampshire were of a different type from those who founded the old Bay State, and that their motives in coming to the New World were largely to acquire wealth, and not simply that they might secure the blessings of civil and religious freedom. Soon, however, it is seen that the spirit of Massachusetts is having its influence upon the "company of Laconia-of Mason and Gorges," and others of the colonists, and that schools are being established in Exeter, Dover, Hampton, Portsmouth, and other places.

For thirty-eight years the two colonies were blended, and it was during this period that the legislature framed the laws of 1647 by which town schools were authorized to be established throughout its jurisdiction.

Taking up that point in its history when in 1680 New Hampshire resumed its independent character as a province, the monograph traces in detail the important acts of the legislature relating to common schools. It shows also the spirit of the people and the interest manifested by them in the selection of school officers, in the framing of school laws, in the building of schoolhouses, in the various sums raised for the support of schools, and in securing school privileges to all the children of the State.

Attention is called to the improvements introduced in the textbooks used and in the courses of study pursued; also to the establishment of teachers' institutes and teachers' associations, to the founding of a normal school at Plymouth, and to the good results that have followed, as shown in the improved quality of the teachers during the past twenty years.

A brief section is devoted to woman's work in education, showing how it has been constantly widening during the past fifty years until to-day, according to statistics, five-sixths of the teachers of New Hampshire are women.

After touching upon the interest taken by the State in agriculture, the mechanic and industrial arts, the holding of agricultural institutes, and the establishment of State colleges for teaching agricultural science, the monograph treats of secondary education and of the great importance to the State of the early academies. It is shown that the interest taken by the people of New Hampshire in academic learning and in the establishment of local academies in a vast number of the towns of the commonwealth is apparently without a parallel in any other State of the Union.

Then follow historical sketches of the principal academies and seminaries, with a statement of their endowments, buildings, numbers of students, methods of instruction, and the religious and educational aims of their founders. These sketches were prepared for the most part by the principal of the school or by some member of the faculty, friend or officer of the institution, who is familiar with its history.

The last chapter is devoted to the history of Dartmouth College, prepared under the direction of ex-President S. C. Bartlett. This history of one of the oldest of our American colleges is very full and of much value.

A brief bibliography relating to education in New Hampshire is appended.

Chapter I.

HISTORY OF THE COMMON SCHOOLS.

Education is the great interest for which everyone's hearthstone cries out in his ears.-HORACE MANN.

The system of education existing in the New England States is largely the offspring of the personal character and acquirements of the first settlers. To discover, therefore, the history of education in a particular State, we must ascertain what kind of men those were, and by what feelings actuated, who laid its foundations, began to rear its homes, and create its civil and religious polity. We have already seen what was the character of the men who came from England to establish the colony of the Massachusetts Bay and upon what principles they laid the foundation of the future Commonwealth. In tracing the origin of the schools of New Hampshire we find that we are dealing with a different type of men, whose object in coming to the New World was not simply or largely that they might have enlarged civil and religious freedom. The "company of Laconia, of Mason and Gorges," of Thompson and the Hiltons, who in 1623 began the settlements at Portsmouth and Dover, were in quest of wealth. They came over "to cultivate the vine, to fish, and to trade," yet, though the public records are silent in regard to education, it is not fair to infer that nothing was done for the education of their children before the union with Massachusetts in 1641. But it is not to the first settlers that we are to look for the beginnings of our school history. Philemon Purmont, who had been a "schoolmaster" in Boston, had already settled in New Hampshire as the pastor of the church at Exeter, and in the year following the union another Boston schoolmaster, Mr. Daniel Maud, came to be "minister of the people of Dover." There was constant intercourse between the settlements, and we may believe that men like Purmont, Maud, and many others who were then transferring their interests from the "Bay colony" to New Hampshire did not fail to take with them their zeal for the establishment of schools and the advancement of learning. In 1638, the same year that Exeter was settled, "the salt marshes of Winnicumet had attracted the attention of some enterprising men, and led to the formation of the plantation of

1 History of Higher Education in Massachusetts.

Hampton." Without doubt a school was at once established after the plan of the schools in the Bay colony. This and others must have been sustained by private enterprise, as New Hampshire, on account of internal troubles, was divided into four distinct governments (although the whole population in 1641 did not exceed 1,000), and was "too weak to give protection to the people, much less could they provide for the support of schools." For thirty-eight years during the union with Massachusetts the two plantations were blended, greatly to the material and educational advantage of New Hampshire. During this period the most signal event in the history of New England schools took place. This was the passage of the law of 1647 by the great and general court, by which town schools were authorized to be established throughout its jurisdiction.

The law is embodied in the following language:

It being one chiefe project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the scriptures, as in former times, keeping them in an unknowne tongue, so in these latter times, by perswading them from the use of tongues, so that at least, the true sence and meaning of the originall might bee clouded with glosses of saint seeming deceivers; and that learning may not bee buried in the grave of our forefathers in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our indeavors: It is therefore ordered by this courte and authority thereof, That every towneshipp within this jurisdiction, after that the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty howsholders, shall then forthwith appointe one within theire towne to teach all such children as shall resorte to him, to write and read; whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in generall, by way of supplye, as the major parte of those who order the prudentials of the towne shall appointe; provided, that those who send theire children, bee not oppressed by paying much more than they can have them taught for in other townes. And it is further ordered, that where any towne shall increase to the number of one hundred families or howsholders, they shall sett up a grammar schoole. the masters thereof being able to instruct youths so far as they may bee fitted for the university: and if any town neglect the performance hereof above one yeare, then every such towne shall pay five pounds per annum to the next such schoole, till they shall perform this order.

There is reason to believe that three, and perhaps all of the four, towns of New Hampshire enjoyed schools under this enactment; for there were 71 legal voters in Portsmouth in 1680, 61 in Dover, 57 in Hampton, and 20 in Exeter."

The deep interest which the people were already taking in education is evidenced by an address of the town of Portsmouth to the general court of Massachusetts, May 20, 1669, relative to the erection of a new college building at Cambridge. After speaking of the embarrassment of the college and the need of perpetuating "knowledge, both religious and civil, among us and our posterity after us," they continue as follows:

The premises considered, we have made a collection in our town of £60 per annum (and hope to make it more), which said sum is to be paid annually for these seven years ensuing, to be improved at the discretion of the honored overseers of the college for the behalf of the same, and the advancement of good literature there;