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of educational history there is no chapter so eloquent and so stimulating as the story of money appropriations for sound learning, whether by private philanthropy or by a poor but patriotic people.

VIRGINIA.

ATTEMPTS TO FOUND A UNIVERSITY.

To the Virginia colony belongs the honor of making the fist organized attempt to found a college in America. Very early in the history of the colony plans were discussed for the establishment of a school of learning of high order, but the first decided movements were made in 1619. The King favored the project, and "had formerly issued his letters to the several bishops of the kingdom for collecting money to erect and build a college in Virginia for the training up and educating infidel children in the true knowledge of God, and accordingly there had been already paid near fifteen hundred pounds towards it and more was expected to come."

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Sir Edwin Sandys, president and treasurer of the Virginia Company, had received from an unknown hand the sum of five hundred pounds sterling, to be applied by the company to educate a certain number of Indian youths in the English language and the Christian religion, and to bring them up to some trade, until twenty-one years of age, when they were to enjoy the same privileges and liberties as the native English in Virginia.

Sir Edwin Sandys was an enthusiast on all subjects that pertained to the well-being of the colonists, and he was especially devoted to the cause of education. At the General Quarter Court of the company he expressed the sentiment which has since been the foundation principle of all our public education. "He reminded them that the maintenance of the public in all states was of no less importance even for the benefits of private men than the root and body of a tree are to its particular branches." 2

By Sir Edwin's motion a grant of ten thousand acres was made for the benefit of the university, and this land was laid off and surveyed at Henrico, on the James River, below the site of Richmond. One thousand acres of this grant were to be devoted to the education of Indians, and the remainder was to lay the foundation of a seminary of learning for the English. The land was to be leased to "tenants at halves," and the rents arising therefrom were to be applied to the support of the university. Fifty men were to be sent out as tenants in 1619, and fifty more the following year. As the average wages of one man were estimated at ten pounds per annum, it was thought that an annual revenue

1Stith History of Virginia, 162.

2 Stith, 163.

of five hundred pounds thus derived would furnish ample support for the school.

In the spring of 1620 Mr. George Thorpe was sent over as the Company's deputy and as superintendent of the college, and three hundred acres of land were granted for his support. The sum realized from the collection by the bishops amounted to fifteen hundred pounds, and other donations increased this considerably; among the latter was a bequest of three hundred pounds from an unknown person for the conversion of Indian children.

To show the faith of individuals in the immediate realization of a working university, it may be related that an anonymous friend donated "a communion cup with a cover and a case, a trencher plate for the bread, a carpet of crimson velvet, and a damask table-cloth for the use of the college." "Thus," says Adams, "by the combined authority of church and State, was anticipated by more than two centuries the endowment of such institutions as are now represented by the Hampton School and by the University of Virginia."

But the terrible Indian massacre of 1622 thwarted these early plans for education, and no immediate fruits were realized, "beyond the subscription of one hundred and fifty pounds, in 1621, for a preparatory or collegiate school at Charles City, and the appropriation of one thousand acres of land, with five servants and an overseer to improve the same."

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In 1624, through the advocacy of Mr. Edward Palmer, the idea of a university was revived, and an island in the Susquehanna River was granted for the "Foundinge and maintenance of a university, and such schools in Virginia as shall there be erected, and shall be called Academia Virginiensis et Oxoniensis."3 Owing to the death of Mr. Palmer the movement failed, and for many years plans concerning a university were held in abeyance. Indeed, when we consider the condition of the country, in its undeveloped state, with a sparsely settled farming community, an unsubdued soil, and a feeble government, we must wonder that such institutions were so early proposed. And upon further consideration of the conditions necessary to the growth of a university, such as time for development of a people, government, wealth, and the cultivation of public sentiment in favor of higher education; when we consider these things, it does not seem strange that the university ideal was nearly two centuries in process of realization. Something more than money and books and teachers is required to make a successful university. Its very existence requires an advanced state of society. It is nourished by ideas which are themselves developed only in growing communities, and under social conditions which render university

1 Dr. H. B. Adams: The College of William and Mary; contributions to American Educational History, No. 1.

The College of William and Mary, 11.

"Neill: Virgina Vestuta, 183 (quoted by Professor Adams, 12).

maintenance desirable. Besides all this, there was for many years an uncertainty in the life of the Virginia colony which was not so appar ent in the compact, clearly-defined New England colonies, that always knew what they wanted and labored for a definite object.

PROVISIONS OF THE ASSEMBLY.

The second movement toward a system of education in Virginia was inaugurated by the Colonial Assembly in 1660, and although, in a measure, a revival of the first, it was characterized by different motives. In the former the kind patrons of the colony, with a financial interest in its welfare and with the disinterested benevolence of their church, attempted to superimpose a system of education made to order and wholly suited to the needs of the new colony. But in the latter case it was the movement of conscious self-development; it was advocated by practical men who had children to educate. It represented a young State looking toward the necessary shaping of its own growth.

In 1660 the Colonial Assembly of Virginia passed an act providing "that for the advance of learning, education of youth, supply of the ministry, and promotion of piety, there be land taken upon purchases for a college and free school, and that there be, with as much speed as may be convenient, housing erected thereon for entertainment of students and scholars."1

Here, as elsewhere in the colonies, private donations and public grants went hand in hand. It was likewise ordered in the same year that the commissioners of the various county courts be authorized to take subscriptions on court days, and that they send orders to the vestrymen of all the parishes to raise money from the inhabitants for the support of the college. The Governor, members of the Council of State, and of the House of Burgesses subscribed liberally in the currency of the day to aid the new enterprise. The people also petitioned the Governor, Sir William Berkeley, that the King issue letters patent authorizing collections in England for the support of colleges and schools in Virginia.2

But still the "free" or Latin schools were delayed, partly because there was lack of determination on the part of the majority of the people to have them, but more especially on account of the absence of towns and thickly settled communities. The decidedly rural life and the necessary independence of each plantation which must furnish its own tutors, naturally led to habits not easily changed.

There was little common sentiment, and institutions of learning are the result of well-directed public opinion. Here we must again admit the superior local advantage of the New Englanders in their compact communes, who could quickly determine and execute their plans.

1 Statutes of Virginia, II, Hening, 25.

2 H. B. Adams, 13.

of five hundred pounds thus derived would furnish ample support for the school.

In the spring of 1620 Mr. George Thorpe was sent over as the Company's deputy and as superintendent of the college, and three hundred acres of land were granted for his support. The sum realized from the collection by the bishops amounted to fifteen hundred pounds, and other donations increased this considerably; among the latter was a bequest of three hundred pounds from an unknown person for the conversion of Indian children.

To show the faith of individuals in the immediate realization of a working university, it may be related that an anonymous friend donated "a communion cup with a cover and a case, a trencher plate for the bread, a carpet of crimson velvet, and a damask table-cloth for the use of the college." "Thus," says Adams, "by the combined authority of church and State, was anticipated by more than two centuries the endowment of such institutions as are now represented by the Hampton School and by the University of Virginia."

But the terrible Indian massacre of 1622 thwarted these early plans for education, and no immediate fruits were realized, "beyond the subscription of one hundred and fifty pounds, in 1621, for a preparatory or collegiate school at Charles City, and the appropriation of one thousand acres of land, with five servants and an overseer to improve the same."

772

In 1624, through the advocacy of Mr. Edward Palmer, the idea of a university was revived, and an island in the Susquehanna River was granted for the "Foundinge and maintenance of a university, and such schools in Virginia as shall there be erected, and shall be called Academia Virginiensis et Oxoniensis."3 Owing to the death of Mr. Palmer the movement failed, and for many years plans concerning a university were held in abeyance. Indeed, when we consider the condition of the country, in its undeveloped state, with a sparsely settled farming community, an unsubdued soil, and a feeble government, we must wonder that such institutions were so early proposed. And upon further consideration of the conditions necessary to the growth of a university, such as time for development of a people, government, wealth, and the cultivation of public sentiment in favor of higher education; when we consider these things, it does not seem strange that the university ideal was nearly two centuries in process of realization. Something more than money and books and teachers is required to make a successful university. Its very existence requires an advanced state of society. It is nourished by ideas which are themselves developed only in grow. ing communities, and under social conditions which render university

1 Dr. H. B. Adams: The College of William and Mary; contributions to American Educational History, No. 1.

The College of William and Mary, 11.

Neill: Virgina Vestuta, 183 (quoted by Professor Adams, 12).

maintenance desirable. Besides all this, there was for many years an uncertainty in the life of the Virginia colony which was not so appar. ent in the compact, clearly-defined New England colonies, that always knew what they wanted and labored for a definite object.

PROVISIONS OF THE ASSEMBLY.

The second movement toward a system of education in Virginia was inaugurated by the Colonial Assembly in 1660, and although, in a measure, a revival of the first, it was characterized by different motives. In the former the kind patrons of the colony, with a financial interest in its welfare and with the disinterested benevolence of their church, attempted to superimpose a system of education made to order and wholly suited to the needs of the new colony. But in the latter case it was the movement of conscious self-development; it was advocated by practical men who had children to educate. It represented a young State looking toward the necessary shaping of its own growth.

In 1660 the Colonial Assembly of Virginia passed an act providing "that for the advance of learning, education of youth, supply of the ministry, and promotion of piety, there be land taken upon purchases for a college and free school, and that there be, with as much speed as may be convenient, housing erected thereon for entertainment of students and scholars."1

Here, as elsewhere in the colonies, private donations and public grants went hand in hand. It was likewise ordered in the same year that the commissioners of the various county courts be authorized to take subscriptions on court days, and that they send orders to the vestrymen of all the parishes to raise money from the inhabitants for the support of the college. The Governor, members of the Council of State, and of the House of Burgesses subscribed liberally in the currency of the day to aid the new enterprise. The people also petitioned the Governor, Sir William Berkeley, that the King issue letters patent authorizing collections in England for the support of colleges and schools in Virginia.2

But still the "free" or Latin schools were delayed, partly because there was lack of determination on the part of the majority of the people to have them, but more especially on account of the absence of towns and thickly settled communities. The decidedly rural life and the necessary independence of each plantation which must furnish its own tutors, naturally led to habits not easily changed.

There was little common sentiment, and institutions of learning are the result of well-directed public opinion. Here we must again admit the superior local advantage of the New Englanders in their compact communes, who could quickly determine and execute their plans.

1 Statutes of Virginia, II, Hening, 25.

"H. B. Adams, 13.

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