The statements of the monthly meeting in the above report are corroborated by a later report of the Warrington and Fairfax Quarterly, which was made a few months later, though it appears the schoolhouse at Warrington was not yet completed.[517]
The progress that had been made by Westland Monthly Meeting[518] is indicated by the following report of that date:
The minutes of the school committee for several seasons past being read, and they have proposed a reappointment, William Wilson, Matthew Heald, Jonas Cattell, William Dixon, Joshua Dixon, and Eleazar Brown are appointed to have the general care of schools and admission of Tutors. And it appears requisite that a few Friends be appointed by each Preparative Meeting to have the immediate oversight of the school or schools within the limits of such meetings; said committee to unite and confer together as they see occasion, and the clerk is desired to notify each preparative meeting by a copy of this Minute.[519]
A still later report of 1797 is no more definite than the former; this is very generally characteristic of the reports, and even at a late date when other meetings were making very definite ones, indicates that a very unsatisfactory state existed in the schools of Westland. Many other reports examined, which were sent in before the committee, of the century, made no improvement in regard to definiteness.
SUMMARY
The schools in the limits of Abington, Gwynedd, Horsham, Warrington, and Westland meetings are discussed in this chapter.
Probably the first schoolmaster at Abington, who was connected with a regularly established school, was Jacob Taylor. Land for the meeting and school uses was deeded by John Barnes in 1696, and a meeting house built by 1700. Assistance was also afforded by a legacy granted by William Carter for educating poor children. Such funds were in charge of, and expended by, trustees appointed for that purpose. Fox’s and Crisp’s Primers are mentioned for use in the schools.
Mention is made of a schoolhouse near Gwynedd in 1721, but no records of the school are discovered. Marmaduke Pardo, an experienced teacher, came to Gwynedd from Wales, and being well recommended as such, it is likely that he was employed in school teaching; but nothing explicit to that effect is found. Late in the century Joseph Foulke states he attended school in Gwynedd. A schoolhouse at Morristown is mentioned in 1766. Committees on schools and funds followed the procedure noticed in other meetings. School land, schoolhouse funds, and a house for a master were provided in Montgomery township in 1793. Another school in the compass of Plymouth is mentioned, and another one, “adjoining the meeting house at Plymouth.” Other temporary schools, used under varying circumstances, are said to be maintained. Merion and the Valley do not appear to have met the yearly meeting’s requirements in any way.
No explicit mention is made of a school at Horsham in the early minutes, but the advertisement for a teacher in 1753 indicates they were supplied with a school. A report of Horsham Preparative in 1729 mentions four schools, kept “nearly agreeable to direction.” In 1783 a list of rules was adopted for their government. Each preparative meeting was directed in 1787 to have its own committee on schools.
Judging from the minutes of their transactions, the schools of Warrington and Westland meetings seem to have been organized and carried on in a very desultory fashion. Those at York and Warrington were the best situated. There were probably as many as twelve regularly established schools in the above meetings by the end of the century.