CHAPTER II. SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE STATE OF MARYLAND. By BASIL SOLLERS. THE SUCCESSION OF THE FREE SCHOOLS. During the revolutionary struggle the condition of the free schools did not improve. In 1779 visitors were appointed by the assembly for Kent County School in place of the visitors who had neglected to take the oath of fidelity to the State. The same was done for Queen Anne's in 1780, and in 1781 the visitors of Anne Arundel school were allowed to take the previously neglected oath. In 1778 3 of the rectors, trustees, and visitors of King William's School were authorized to meet, fill vacancies, and transact business. In the same year the house and lands of the free school of Calvert County, the funds not offering inducement for a master, were allowed to be sold for the benefit of Lower Marlboro Academy, which had been erected and supported at private expense. This was the first of the incorporated academies, afterward so numerous in the State. Washington Academy was incorporated 1 [From the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, November 23, 1784.] A brief account of the rise, progress, and present state of the Washington Academy, in Somerset County, Md. [Published by order of the trustees of said academy.] The first rise of this institute was in the year 1767, when several gentlemen of different religious persuasion, impressed with the importance of the good education of youth and the inconvenience of sending them abroad, determined to build a house and obtain a suitable master. Agreeably to this, in August of the same year, a small building was erected and the school immediately opened with 18 scholars, the master and scholars being boarded and lodged together. The proprietors had, at this time, no other view than the benefit of their own children; but it soon acquired such a degree of reputation that other parents applied, and so many children were admitted as the building would contain. What contributed much to the credit of the school was an examination soon after held and attended by a large number of people. At the request and expense of many of them the building was enlarged, and the scholars in the year 1772 amounted to near 70. They came from Accomac, Northampton, Worcester, Dorchester, Talbot, Sussex, and from several counties of the western shores of Maryland and Virginia. Teachers were provided in proportion to the exigencies of the school, and besides the Latin and Greek languages, the mathematics, geography, the English tongue and oratory were taught. The numbers thus increased, for their accommodation the original promoters of in 1779, the inhabitants of Somerset County having erected "a large elegant, and commodious building at their own expense for the accommodation of 80 students." In 1796 Eden School was in a state of ruin and the beneficial effects of its original institution entirely defeated by its unhealthy situation, and it was ordered to be removed to a more healthy location convenient to the two counties. In 1804 the building the school, assisted by other lovers of science in Dorchester, Worcester, Accomac, and Northampton, raised a large and convenient building adjoining the former buildings. In this is a spacious hall for prayers, sermons, and the public exhibition of the students, and rooms sufficient to accommodate upward of 80. The inclosure where the range of buildings stand is planted with trees and when grown will form agreeable walks for the students in those hours devoted to relaxation and amusement. The rapid advances of the school were soon checked by the war with Britain, and the patrons engaged in a different scene. As they were friends of literature, so were they ready opposers of tyrannical usurpation. Exposed to the ravages of the enemy, and their assistance lent to establish the glorious system of independence and equal freedom, the great business of education paused for awhile. But when public affairs began to look more promising, the managers of the school, encouraged by the success and reputation of former years, applied to the general assembly, and were incorporated in November, 1779, by the name of "Trustees of Washington Academy." Thus early was a seminary of learning dignified with the auspicious name of that illustrious hero. After this the instruction of youth was revived, and the last summer a subscrip tion was opened and large sums obtained from this and adjacent counties. The amount of the subscription at present is upwards of £5,000. Whenever they are completed the names of the subscribers, with the sums annexed, shall be published to the world. The funds, it is expected, will be sufficiently adequate to the support of able teachers, and to the purchase of a mathematical and philosophical apparatus, as buildings, maps, globes, and a considerable library are already provided. At present the following persons are teachers in the academy: The Rev. William Linn, A. M., president, who teaches oratory and moral philosophy; Archibald Walker, A. M., of the University of Glasgow, who teaches the mathematics and natural philosophy; Joseph Miller, A. B., of the University of Philadelphia, who teaches geography and history. These gentlemen also attend to the classes learning the Latin and Greek languages. Very particular care is taken in forming the boys to pronounce the English tongue, a matter of great importance in the pulpit and at the bar. The strictest attention will be paid to their morals, and it is hoped that while they advance in sound literature they will also be trained by good example and admonition in the ways of virtue and religion. No preference shall be shown to any particular denomination, nor any inducement offered to those attending the institution to change their religious opinions. This was one of the first resolutions made respecting the seminary, and has been so inviolably observed that, although more than 170 students have been already educated here, not a single instance is known of anyone leaving the profession he originally belonged to. The price of boarding, £18 to £20 per annum. washing, etc., in the lodgings of the academy will be from The tuition money is £6 per annum. Provisions and other necessaries are so plentiful in the place, and so readily obtained, that it is thought students can be nowhere more cheaply accommodated. SOMERSET COUNTY, November 6, 1784. had been consumed by fire, and the property was directed to be sold, and one-half of proceeds paid to Washington Academy, the other half to visitors of Worcester County School, which was incorporated by the same act. In 1812 Worcester County School and a private academy at Snow Hill were united under the name of the Union Academy. In 1782 the free school of Kent County was erected into a college, the first in the State, and called Washington College, "in honourable and perpetual memory of his excellency, Gen. Washington, the illustrious and virtuous commander in chief of the Armies of the United States." The same year the visitors of Talbot Free School sold their lands and consolidated the funds with the estate of Washington College. In 1785 St. John's College was founded, and a year later the funds of King William's School were authorized to be consolidated with the funds of St. John's College. The transfer was confirmed by the legislature in 1801. The trustees of the poor of Dorchester County were directed in 1788 to dispose of the lands and funds of the free school of that county for the relief of the poor. A year previous the free-school property of Cecil County had been vested in the trustees of the poor, to be used towards the establishment and support of an alms and work house. The lands belonging to the free school of Anne Arundel County were in 1795 lying waste and unemployed. For want of funds he visitors had for many years been unable to employ a master to carry on the school; all the visitors were dead except one, and doubts were entertained whether the one surviving visitor could elect others to fill the vacancies. Whereupon the legislature passed a supplement to the act of 1723, appointing visitors who were empowered "to employ a master who will, for the use and occupation of the said lands, undertake to teach in the said school upon the same terms and conditions as are required by the original act," or to rent out the land and invest the proceeds in the stock of the United States until there should be sufficient to employ a master. In 1822 the preamble of an act to incorporate the visitors of a school in Baltimore County recites that in 1724 a tract of land containing 100 acres, called Scholars' Plains, had been sold and conveyed by Thomas Tolly to certain visitors for the use and benefit of a school for the education of poor children," but, by the neglect of the visitors (who were now all dead) to supply vacancies accruing by death and otherwise, the benevolent intentions of the grantor were likely to be frustrated; the land being exposed to the depredations of evil-disposed persons had become entirely useless. Seven visitors were accordingly incorporated for the Baltimore County School. The visitors of the Frederick County School were incorporated in 1763, and were to receive from that date an equal dividend of the duties, taxes, and impositions collected for the use of county schools. Unlike the original 12 schools, 1 acre of land was directed to be purchased in Frederick Town, which in 1768 was reduced to one-half acre, and there not being funds sufficient to buy even that, it was given a year later from the lots laid off for public uses; but in 1796 the half-acre had been secured, the 1 acre purchased also, and "by the active exertions and liberal endeavors of the inhabitants of Frederick County a commodious building for a seminary of learning had been erected and nearly completed." The old visitors were either dead or had removed from the county. New visitors were accordingly appointed for Freder ick County School. In 1830 this school became Frederick College, with power to confer collegiate honors and degrees. There remains only the free school of Queen Anne's County to be traced. In 1780 new visitors were appointed, and beyond that date no legislative action has been found concerning it. To sum up the succession: Somerset County School and Worcester County School merged in Eden School, 1770, whose residuary legatees were in 1804, Washington Academy and Worcester County School merged with Snow Hill in Union Academy, 1812. St. Mary's County School, Charles County School, and Prince George County School merged in Charlotte Hall, 1774. Calvert County School merged in Lower Marlborough Academy, 1778. · Cecil County School given to trustees of the poor, 1787. Frederick County School became Frederick College, 1830. It is thus seen that of the 15 foundations for secondary education in colonial times, 7 went to institutions of the same grade, 4 to institutions for higher education, 1 to an institution for elementary education, and 2 to the support of the poor. A few words in explanation of one of the principal causes of the poor educational conditions in the colonial period will also prevent a very natural but erroneous inference. The population was far from being homogeneous. Gentlemen of education and refinement, of wealth and social position, were to be found, and these must have for their children educational facilities the best both in reality and in repute. These could only be found abroad, and there they accordingly sent their children. The more well-to-do planters and tradesmen of the middle ranks naturally imitated them, and as a consequence the schools had only the support of those of moderate means to depend upon. As a consequence, though the schools suffered and the colony was almost without the means of raising up and perpetuating a succes. 'King William's School served Anne Arundel County practically as the county school. sion of such within her own borders, Maryland was never so destitute of "able and honest men for discharging the various offices and duties of the community, both civil and religious, with usefulness and reputation," as might be suspected from the condition of her schools. When she became an independent State provision for higher education became imperative. The idea that the more wealthy should contribute to the education of the poor except by voluntary charity, did not belong to the eighteenth century here or elsewhere; nor was the duty of such charity to the poor based upon any other considerations in general than enabling them to read the gospel, rescuing them from vice and immorality, and saving their souls. ACADEMIES versus COLLEGES. The year 1785 saw the establishment of St. John's College at Annapolis and its union with Washington College under the name of the University of Maryland. A donation of £1,750 to the former and £1,250 to the latter was pledged to be annually and forever hereafter given and granted. These sums were derived from the fees on marriage licenses (a reversal of the proposal of 1763 to tax bachelors), ordinary licenses, hawkers' licenses, and fines and forfeitures. These institutions were the only recipients of aid from the State until 1798 when £500, notwithstanding the pledge, was withdrawn from Washington College and donated as follows: Eight hundred dollars each to Washington Academy, Charlotte Hall, and Frederick County School; $800 each to two academies to be established, the one in Talbot and the other in Baltimore or Harford County, and $200 to Allegany County School. The donation to the colleges in 1784, like the act of 1696, was an effort to concentrate the educational resources of the State; the act of 1798 was a return to the policy of dispersion of the act of 1723. The academies to whom these donations were made were the successors in all but the name to the free schools. They were corporations having perpetual succession, the survivors in the governing boards filling vacancies by electing other sensible and discreet men instead of "inhabitants of the better sort" as in the free schools; they were "for the education of youth in the learned and foreign languages, the useful arts, sciences, and literature." The incorporation of a self-perpetuating body of visitors or trustees to govern the school and receive gifts for its support, either from the State or from private individuals, was the colonial idea without modification. In 1798 Hillsboro School, Talbot County, and Georgetown School, Kent County, were incorporated; and in 1799 an academy at Easton, Talbot County, was incorporated. These schools were established by private contributions, and were in operation when incorporated. The reversal of the policy of the State in the matter of donations may be traced without doubt to the efforts of the Rev. Samuel Knox, a Presbyterian minister and schoolmaster. In 1796 the American Philosophical Society offered a prize of $100 "for the best sys |