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Rev. Enoch Pratt, Griffin Child, and Hon. Ebenezer Everett, are among the few of the early teachers who now survive. Mr. Silas Randall, a native of Stow, Mass., who graduated at Brown University in 1804, was the immediate predecessor of the last-mentioned Mr. Everett in District No. 2.

LEMUEL CRANE, born in Milton in 1757, and removed to Dorchester in 1782. He taught the first school (1790-1797) in the school house erected on a lot given by himself to the town for that purpose. It was one story in height, fourteen feet long, twelve feet wide, with no plastering inside or clapboards outside, and was only comfortable in Summer. It had four small glass windows, and one without glass, closed with a wooden shutter. A door was in one corner, with no porch or entry. It was filled in, or lined, with brick, in the year 1791, ƒ but not plastered, and was sold for twenty-five dollars, in 1802. Mrs. Hawes, wife of Joseph Hawes, Miss Gillespie, and other female teachers, taught here in the Summer season. In the Winter of 1790 and 1791 Mr. Lemuel Crane kept school in his own dwelling-house, and afterwards in the school-house in Winter, the building having been made more comfortable by the filling in before mentioned. Mr. Crane also kept an evening school, to teach the apprentices and other boys in the fundamental branches of reading, writing and arithmetic. He also taught a singing school, and was devoted to fruit culture,-apple trees of his planting were in bearing in 1859.

FRANCIS PERRY taught the South School in Dorchester, previous to the 11th of June, 1791. He states, in a letter from Hallowell, Me., of the above date, that he is out of health-has had but £45 salary in Dorchester-that his expenses were £19 10s. for board, and for clothing £12-leaving him only 13s. 10d. He would like to renew his services as teacher in town, but wishes the compensation increased to £56.

JOSEPH GARDNER ANDREWs, born in Boston, February 7th, 1768, graduated at Harvard College in 1785. He was a physician. In a letter, written May 16th, 1792, to Ebenezer Tolman, one of the Selectmen of Dorchester, he says, "By reason of an appointment in the Federal army, I shall be necessitated to give up the school in the course of a few weeks;" but requests a dismission

this day."

Dorchester Influence on Connecticut and Georgia.*

It seems to have been thought extremely desirable, in the first settlement of the country, to be seated either on the sea-coast or the banks of a river. The inhabitants of the Bay had been early made acquainted by those at Plymouth with Connecticut river, although the court declined an application from that quarter, to join them in anticipating the Dutch in their attempts to get possession of it. Three or four individuals, however, from Dorchester, had as early as 1633 crossed the intervening wilderness, and explored this magnificent

stream.

Influenced by their reports of the noble range of pasturage to be found on its banks, aided, it must be confessed, by discontents in the Bay, an emigration was contemplated in 1634 by the inhabitants of Dorchester and Newtown. Mr. Ludlow, of Dorchester, it was said, was of opinion that some other persons, himself included, would fill the chair of State as well as Governor Winthrop; and the star of Mr. Hooker in the church at Newtown, it was thought, was not wanted so near the light of John Cotton. The emigration was warmly debated in the court. Fifteen out of twenty-five of the infant house of deputies, first elected that year, were for the removal; a majority of the magistrates placed their veto on the measure, and great heats ensued. It was opposed on various grounds, but the "procatarctical" reason (as Hubbard somewhat learnedly expresses it) was, that so many of its inhabitants could not safely be spared from the Bay. The next year the Rev. Messrs. Richard Mather and Thomas Shepherd, with numerous associates, arrived in the colony. Mr. Mather's company being prepared to fill the places of those desiring to leave Dorchester, and Mr. Shepherd's to succeed to their brethren at Newtown (Cambridge), the court gave way and permitted the undertaking. A portion of the emigrants went in the Autumn of 1635, the residue in the following Spring. Great were the hardships and severe the sufferings endured in this early American exodus through the wilderness, first faint image of that living tide of emigration which in all subsequent time has flowed westward from the Atlantic coast, till in our day it has reached the boundless west; and is even now swelling over the Rocky Mountains, and spreading itself on the shores of

Everett's "Oration delivered at Dorchester on the 4th of July, 1855-full of proud and affectionate memories of his native town.

the Pacific. Still may it swell and still may it flow; bearing upon its bosom the laws and the institutions, the letters and the arts, the freedom and the faith, which have given New England her name and praise in the world! The adventurers from Dorchester,-men, women, and children, -were fourteen days in making the journey now daily accomplished in three hours, and reached the river weak with toil and hunger, and all but disheartened. Both the Dorchester ministers, though it is said reluctantly, agreed to join their emigrating church. Mr. Maverick, the senior, died in Boston before starting; Mr. Warham conducted his flock to East Windsor, where they formed the first church in Connecticut, as they had been in Massachusetts second to Salem alone. Thus from our native town of Dorchester, and from Cambridge, not yet bearing that honored name, within five years from their first settlement, went forth the founders of Connecticut.

Two generations later, namely, in 1695, application was made to our minister, Mr. Danforth, both personally and by letter, from South Carolina, setting forth the spiritual destitution of that region, and asking aid from us. A missionary church was forthwith organized, in compliance with this request from the remote sister plantation. A pastor, Mr. Joseph Lord, was ordained over it; it sailed from Dorchester in the middle of December, and arrived at its destination in fourteen days. The little community established itself on Ashley river, in South Carolina, and fondly assumed the name of Dorchester. Here, for more than half a century, the transplanted church and settlement enjoyed a modest prosperity. But the situation proving unhealthy, and the quantity of land limited, a removal to Georgia was projected in 1752. The legislature of that colony made a liberal grant of land, where the emigrants from Dorchester founded the town of Midway, as being half-way between the rivers Ogeechee and Altamaha. This settlement constituted a considerable part of the parish of St. John's, afterwards honorably known as Liberty County in Georgia. Its inhabitants, in the third generation, retained the character and manners, the feelings and principles, which their ancestors brought from our Dorchester eighty years before. On the assembling of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia in 1774, Georgia as a colony not having chosen delegates, the parish of St. John's addressed themselves directly to that body, and received from them a copy of the "General Association." The convention of Georgia declining to join it without modification, the Parish of St. John's subscribed it on their own account, and sent one of their number, Dr. Lyman Hall, a native of [Wallingford] Connecticut, a member of the little DorchesterMidway church, to represent that parish in the congress at Philadelphia. this period," says Dr. Stevens, the intelligent historian of Georgia, "the parish of St. John's possessed nearly one-third of the entire wealth of the province; and its inhabitants were remarkable for their upright and independent character. Sympathizing, from their New England origin, more strongly with the northern distresses than the other parts of Georgia, and being removed from the immediate supervision of the Governor and his council, they pressed on with greater ardor and a firmer step than her sister parishes. The time for action had arrived, and the irresolution of fear had no place in their decisive councils. Alone she stood, a Pharos of liberty in England's most loyal province, renouncing every fellowship that savored not of freedom, and refusing every luxury which contributed to ministerial coffers. With a halter around her neck and a gallows before her eyes, she severed herself from surrounding associations, and cast her lot, while as yet all was gloom and darkness, with the fortunes of her country, to live with her rights or to die for their defence. Proud spot of Georgia's soil! Well does it deserve the appellation (Liberty county) which a grateful State conferred upon it; and truly may we say of its sons, in the remembrance of their patriotic services, "nothing was wanting to their glory, they were wanting to ours."

"At

Dr. Hall appeared at Philadelphia on the third day of the session of 1775 (13th May), and was admitted as a delegate. On that day Congress was composed of the representatives of the twelve United Colonies, and Dr. Lyman Hall, the deputy from the Parish of St. John's. The patriotic example was soon followed by the colony, and four delegates, of whom Dr. Hall was one, were in the course of a few weeks deputed to Philadelphia. In this way, and by the strange sequence of events which pervades our history, the pious zeal of a few humble Christians of our ancient town, in 1695, was the remote cause that the great empire State of the south, then in its infancy, was represented at the opening of the Congress of 1775.

THE FREE SCHOOL AT ROXBURY.

FOUNDERS, BENEFACTORS, AND TEACHERS.

"Divers free schools were erected, as at Roxbury (for maintenance whereof every inhabitant bound some house or land for a yearly allowance forever), and at Boston (where they made an order to allow forever £50 to the master, and an house and £30 to an usher, who should also teach to read, and write, and cypher, and Indian children were to be taught freely, and the charge to be by yearly contribution, either by voluntary allowance, or by rate of such as refused, etc., and this order was conformed by the general court [blank]."—Winthrop's Journal-under date of 1645; Savage's Edition, 1853. Vol. II., p. 2:4.

THE FREE SCHOOL in Roxbury was established subsequent to 1642, in which year Samuel Hugburne provided in his will that a certain sum (ten shillings per annum out of the necks of land, and ten shillings per annum out of his house and house-lot) should be paid unto "a free school when Roxbury shall set up the same in the town;" and prior to August, 1645, when sundry inhabitants-Mr. Thomas Dudley, afterwards Governor of the Colony; Mr. John Eliot, "the Apostle to the Indians;" Captain Goskins, who came from Virginia in 1644, and aided Mr. Eliot in his Indian work; Mr. Thomas Welde, the first minister of Roxbury, and sixty others, entered into an agreement to assess their estates for certain annual sums to be paid annually forever "for the support of a free school for the education of their children in literature," "to fit them for publicke service both in Church and Commonwealthe in succeeding ages." The original agreement, made in August, 1645, was destroyed by fire, and on the 20th day of December, 1646, the following instrument was duly signed, on the basis of which, and not by public statute or general town taxation, the free school was duly established and supported—a grammar school, open to the subscribers or donors, free to the extent that the subscription would pay, a great public blessing, but not a public school in our sense of the term:

Whereas, The inhabitantes of Roxburie, out of theire relligious care of posteritie, have taken into consideration how necessarie the education of theire children in Literature will be to fitt them for publicke service, bothe in Churche and Commonwealthe, in succeeding ages; they therefore unanimously have consented and agreed to erect a free schoole in the said towne of Roxburie, and to allow twenty pounds per annum to the schoolemaster, to bee raised out of the Messuages and part of the Lands of the severall donors, (inhabitantes of the said towne) in severall proportions as hereafter followeth under theire handes. And for the well ordering thereof they have chosen and elected seven Ffeoffees who shall have power to putt in, or remove the schoolemaster, to see to the well ordering of the schoole and schoolars, to receive and pay the said twenty pounds per annum to the schoolemaster, and to dispose of any other gifte or giftes which hereafter may or shall be given for the advancement of learning and education of children. And if it happen that any one or more

of the said Ffeoffees to dye, or by removal out of the towne, or excommunication to bee displaced, the said donors hereafter expressed de hereby covenant for themselves and for their heires, within the space of one month after such death or removall of any one or more of the Ffeoffees to elect and choose other in their room so that the number may be compleate. And if the said donors or the greater parte of them doe neglect to make election within the time forelimited, then shall the surviving Ffeoffees or the greater part of them, elect new Ffeoffees in the room or roomes of such as are dead or removed (as before) to fulfill the number of seven, and then theire election shall be of equal validity and force, as if it had been made by all or the greater number of the said donors.

In consideration of the premises and that due provision may not bee wanting for the maintenance of the schoolmaster for ever, the donors hereafter expressed, for the severall proportions or annuities by them voluntarily undertaken and under written, have given and granted, and by these presents doe for themselves, their heires and assignees, respectively hereby give and grant unto the present Ffeoffees, viz., Joseph Weld, John Johnson, John Roberts, Joshua Hewes, Isaac Morrell, Thomas Lambe and theire successors chosen as is aforesaid, the severall rents or summes hereafter expressed under their handes issueinge and goeinge forth of their severall messuages, lands and tenements in Roxburie her after expressed, to have and to hould, perceive and enjoy the said annual rents or su ames to the onely use of the Free Schoole in Roxburie, yearely payable at or upon the last of September, by even portious; the first payment to begin the last of September in this present yeare. And the said donors for themselves, their heires and assigneess do covenant and grant to and with the Ffeoffees and their successors that if the said annuall rent or any parte thereof bee arriere and unpayed the space of twenty days next after the days appointed for payment, that then and from thence forth it shall be lawful for and to the said Ffeoffees and theire successors unto the said messuages lands and premises of the partie or parties making default to enter and distreine and the said distressed then and there found to leade, drive and carry away, and the same to prize and sell for the payment of the said rents returning the overplus unto the owners or proprietors of the said houses and lands. And further the said donors doe for themselves, theire heires and assignees covenant and grant to and with the Ffeoffees aforesaid and their successors, that if no sufficient dis resse or distressed can be had or taken in the premises according to the true intent and meaneing of this present deed, or if it shall happen that any- -to bee made or replevie or replevins to be sued or obtained of or by reason of any distresse or distressed to be taken by virtue of the presents as is aforesaid, that then and from thenceforth it shall and may bee lawfull for the said Ffeoffees and theire successors into the said messuages lands and premises to enter and the same and every part thereoff to have use and enjoy to the use of the schoole and the rentes, issues and profitts thereoff to receive and take, and the same to deteine and keepe to the use and behoofe of the schoole as is aforesaid, without any account makeing thereoff unto the said donors, their heirs or assignees and to use and to occupie the said houses, lands and premises to the use aforesaid untill such time as the said annuall rents or summes and every parte or parcell thereoff with all arrearages and damages for non-payment be fully satisfied and paid unto the said Ffeoffees, their successors or assignees by the said donors, their heires or assignees or any of them; of which said rentes or summes the said donors every and singular of them have putt the said Ffeoffees in full possession and seisin at the delivery hereof. And for the further ratification hereof, the said donors become suitors to the honoured General Court for the establishment hereof by their authority and power. Alwayes provided that none of the inhabitantes of the said towne of Roxburie that shall not joyne in this act with the rest of the donors shall have any further benefitt thereby than other strangers shall have who are no inhabitantes. And lastly it is granted by the said donors that the Ffeoffees and their successors shall from time to time be accountable unto the Court of Assistants and the donors for the trust committed to them when at any time they shall bee thereunto called and required. In witness whereof the said donors aforesaid have hereunto subscribed theire names and sommes given yearly the last day of August in the year of our Lord 1645.

It is agreed by all of the inhabitantes of Roxburie as have or shall subscribe theire names or marke to this booke for themselves severally and for their severall and respective heires and executors that not only theire houses but also theire yards, orchards, gardens, outhouses and homesteads shall bee, and are hereby bound, and bee made liable to and for the severall yearly sommes and rentes before or hereafter in this booke mentioned to be paid by every of

them. Dated the twentieth day of December, 1646. (This latter clause is inserted in the midst of the subscriptions.)

The several rents created by these agreements were first collected in 1636, and thereafter for one hundred years-sometimes by a collector designated by the Feoffees, and sometimes by the schoolmaster, who was often obliged to take it out in board, and more frequently in marketable produce. Several attempts were made to get the whole town to assume the work, and from time to time to induce new families to join by voluntary agreement. In 1666, according to the historian of the school (in 1826), a meeting of the subscribers was held, of which the original record says:

In the year Sixty-Six, in the month of January, Mr. Daniel Weld being formerly dead the Feoffees thought it needful for them to meete together and accordingly did to consider what course was best to be taken for the settling of the schole in Roxbury, and upon consultation they judged it convenient to advise with all the donors to have there counsell therein, wherupon the Feoffees sent out to call together the donors, who upon warning and notice came in and mett the same month aforesaid and after some discourse it was thought convenient and a matter most tending to peace and love to propound the case to the whole towne that so opportunity might be given to as many as thought good of the Towne to come in and joyne in this worke; and as to help beare the charge, so to have the priveledg of the schole; according to which conclusion at the generall towne meeting that was in January it was propounded to the towne that they would apoynt a time to meete and consider of the schole and either come in and joyne with us in this foundation of the schole or ells that they would present a better way settled upon as good or a better foundation and we would gladly joyne with them when it should be presented to us. Upon the proposition of this motion to the towne it was voated and conclu led to meete that day seaven night, and upon that day the towne mett, and when they were mett the scope of the discourse of some persons that spake most was for the removall of the schoole (which was not the worke of the day) without which there seemed to appeare (we will not say a party) severall persons that would not doe anything for the schoole; so after much discourse spending the day, they neither coming in to joyne in the old foundation of the schoole nor present us any other or better, that meeting was orderly dissolved and nothing done.

In the year 1669 the following petition, signed by Mr. John Eliott and Mr. Thomas, was presented to the General Court:

Whereas, The first inhabitants of Roxbury to the number of more than sixty families, well nigh the whole town in those days, have agreed together to lay the foundation of a Grammar School, and for the maintainance thereof have by voluntary donation given a small rent forever out of their several habitations and homesteads, as appears in the record of our school book, and have settled a company of Feoffees to gather and improve the same rents. Second, whereas, by Divine Providence our first book and charter was burned in the burning of John Johnson's house, it was again renewed in this form and manner as we do now present it, yet by reason of sundry of the donors, and the alienations of tenements, we are under this defect that some of the hands of the donors are not unto this second book personally which were to the first, nor are they attainable, being dead; therefore, our humble request is that the Honored Court empower the Feoffees to receive and gather the same as if the names of the donors were written with their own hands.

The petition was referred to a committee, who reported that the school had been carried on on the original foundation, although certain subscribers had not paid according to agreement, and certain townsmen objected to this mode of providing a school, yet in the absence of any other mode, the committee advise the Feoffees be empowered to collect former subscriptions, and to receive certain

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