Lyceum Phoenix of Friends School - Phoenix Echo Yearbook (Providence, RI)

Page 74 text:

Jersey, in their last epistle, respecting the education of our youth in schools, under the care of solid Friends. They then recommend that an interest in the subject be created throughout New Eng- land, in all of their subordinate meetings, including the smallest of them.-C Y. Ill. Rec., Vol. f, p. 3365. They request reports and re- turns from the meetings within their jurisdiction next year, in or- der to ripen the subject for further advice and assistance in this in- teresting matter. The Yearly Meeting in 1780 receives satisfactory information from the Committee that during the previous year the subject had met the solid attention of the Quarterly Meetings everywhere. The meeting was profoundly moved by the report, and appointed a special Committee, of which Moses Brown and William Rotch of Nantucket were members, to take the matter into solid considera- tion, and report during the session. This Committee proposed a plan of subscription, throughout the membership of the Yearly Meeting, to create a permanent endow- ment to be held in trust perpetually by a Committee of the Yearly Meeting. They say, And in order to the speedy establishment of this necessary Institution, we recommend a subscription, in free- dom, to be promoted in all the meetings. Finally, to secure con- stant attention and progress, the matter 'is referred to the Meeting for Sufferings, a sort of Board of Directors, to manage the cause and collect money during the subsequent year.- Y. Ill. Rec., Vol. f, 17. 248. 8 The Meeting for Sufferings struggled with the difficulties of the situation at its meetings, Seventh Mo., 12th, 1780, Ninth Mo., 11th, 178og Sixth Mo., 6th, 17813 and Seventh Mo., 12th, 1782. The meeting at this last date issued a very important appeal to all the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings, giving the history of the cause in other meetings, and setting forth earnestly the measureless im- portance and necessity of the School or schools for the children of Friends. This document of nineteen pages was signed by Moses Brown, as clerk, and published in excellent form.-III. for Szj Rec., Vol. f, p. 177. A committee reported as follows :- We the Committee ap- pointed to consider of opening the Yearly Meeting's School, report that we have attended to the subject, and there appears the Sum of A107-gs, subscribed for the present year, which together with the interest of the money, subscribed for the fund, will amount tO

Page 73 text:

name was Elisha Thornton. He was an eloquent, poetic, and mag- netic preacher, and the distinnguished head of a private school in the Very neighborhood of this meeting, which was a beacon light of cul- ture and educational influence for many years. There were others of less note, but of similar substantial type of character, who hailed the dawning of a new light on the pathway of the church. It is a matter of simple justice that we note how essentially this School sprang out of the bosom of the church, as Minerva from the head of jove. The colleges and universities, in the beginning at least, all came in the same manner, and the com- mon schools from the colleges, while the common schools seldom remember with gratitude or affection the church which is the mother of them all. Religion, the school, and the State can never be long severed and each takes its own several way without loss and, at last, destruction to one and all. Sectarianism may be an evil if its aims are selfish and clannish 5 but religion is a public necessity for the public safety, and ought to enter the education of all youth in the community. The cause of the School was next presented at Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting of Friends, the Eighth of Fourth Month, 1779, at East Greenwich, R. I., and the record is as follows: 'tSmith- field Monthly Meeting signifying their desire, for the education of youth in schools, and that the consideration thereof might be laid before the Yearly Meeting. The subject was accordingly brought before the Yearly Meeting, Sixth Month, 12th, 1779, and from that day to this, more than one hundred and twenty years, the Yearly Meeting has never ceased to concern itself respecting this school and the education of all its children. The Yearly Meeting re- sponded to the suggestion from Rhode Island, in the following re- corded words: Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting in their account, desiring this Meeting to consider of a method to promote the estab- lishing of Schools, for the education of Youth Among Friends. Thereupon Moses Brown with fifteen other men, together with such other Friends as may feel an engagement to attend with them, are appoi-nted to the matter under consideration ' ' ' and to report their sense upon the same to the adjournment of this meeting. - Yearbf Zlleefing Rec., Vol. f,j1. 333-4. This Committee reported a few days later that they had solidly considered the proposal of Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting, and the recommendation of our brethren of Pennsylvania, and New

Page 75 text:

A4134-IQS, for the first year, which sum we think sufficient to attempt opening the schoolpwithf'-XII.for Szj Rec., Vol. f, jf. 190. The committee, and indeed the meeting, were in great doubt and perplexity about the location of the School, and about the teacher. The real solid man was not yet visible to the eyes of Friends, and, like Diogenes, they were searching for him. They at last concluded, after much examination of places and persons, to begin at the Portsmouth Friend's meeting-house, tradition says in the north-east chamber of it, with Isaac Lawton, preacher and poet, as teacher. Eleventh Mo., Sth, 1 784.-flf.f01' Szgjf. Ref., Vol. f, jf. 217, 218. ,1 ilM l llllllllllllllilllllMilQlllmllwlIIWWQQIQlwwlmllwllllllllwlHilllllillllliIlIllHllllilllllllllllllllllllllmllllllliilllllllllll l'l' W .',f f-f1:..?2i'5'EZ'f:3E'? 15 21422 r r 4- - X I- -:il -M J. Le: Ll: if aL.fqa,:::+f1 - n f l l .. lulunlllululluuullllllllmxullullllllllulullluulmulllluilllumIulluulumumlmllulmllunlulumuullluulwmuuluunuxuuullluvlununmeammnmnlnmlllulluxulllulmluuuululawlululululllllllullinmlt 1 1 Here, on this spot, o11 this day, the career of Friends School began, an event Which can never cease to interest the children of Alma Mater, now scattered world-wide over sea and land. Neither are we a great part of the human i11terest which will centre here. Generations upon generations yet unborn will arise with grateful hearts to commemorate this natal hour and these hallowed associa- tions. The School which then became an established fact in history, had arisen amidst difliculties of the most distressing nature. The Yearly Meeting of 1779, in which the cause began to shape itself, sat at Smithfield because the British army was in possession of Newport, and had been since 1776 during three years, terminating with Tenth Mo., 25th, 1779, the date of evacuation of the English from Newport. This date was about the middle, of the revolutionary War, as peace was secured by the treaty of Ninth Mo., gd, 1783. Friends - 3