JOHN ELIOT-THE APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS.

MEMOIR.

·

MR. JOHN ELIOT, teacher of the Church of Roxbury for fifty years after the first settlement of that town in 1631, will be remembered, by all acquainted with the history of New England, for his early and persistent efforts to civilize and Christianize the native Indians, and is entitled to our grateful recognition for his life-long interest in the mental and spiritual culture of the children and youth, not only of his own people, but of all New England. Of his perpetual resolution and activity to support a good school in the town that belonged unto him,' Cotton Mather,* in his elaborate Life of the Renowned John Eliot,' writes: "A grammar school he would always have upon the place, whatever it cost him; and he importuned all other places to have the like.' I can not forget the ardor with which I even heard him pray, in a synod of these churches which met at Boston to consider how the miscarriages which were among us might be prevented.' I say with what fervor he uttered an expression to this purpose: 'Lord, for schools every where among us! O! that our schools may flourish! That every member of this assembly may go home and procure a good school to be encouraged in the town where he lives! That before we die we may see a good school encouraged in every plantation of the country.' God so blessed his endeavors, that Roxbury could not live quietly without a free school in the town; and the issue of it has been one thing, which has made me almost put the title of Schola Illustris upon that little nursery; that is, 'that Roxbury has afforded more scholars, first for the colledge, and then for the publick-than any town of its bigness, or if I mistake not, of twice its bigness in all New England.' From the spring of the school at Roxbury, there have run a large number of the 'streams which have made glad this whole city of God.' I persuade myself that the good people of Roxbury will for ever scorn to begrudge the cost, or to permit the death of a school which God has made such an honor to them; and

* Magnalia Christi Americana. By Cotton Mather, D. D., F. R. S., and Pastor of North Church in Boston.

this the rather, because the deceased Eliot has left them a fair part of his estate for the maintaining of the school in Roxbury; and I hope, or at least I wish, that the ministers of New England, may be as ungainsayably importunate with their people as Mr. Eliot was with his, for schools that may seasonably tinge the young souls of the rising generation. A want of education for them is the blackest and saddest of all the bad omens that are upon us." Such was the appreciation of the educational labors of the Apostle Eliot by one who was a witness of their abundant fruitfulness, and who included him, in his 'Divine Illustrations,' among the FIRST GOOD MEN, who brought the Gospel into this wilderness, and settled churches here according to the order of the Gospel.'

He was born at Nasing, in Essex, England, Nov., 1604, of Puritan parents, who secured for him a thorough education in Jesus College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1622. After leaving Cambridge, he taught for a time in the school kept by the eminent Thomas Hooker, 'the quiet sanctity of whose household was a rich blessing to his soul.' He came over in the vessel which brought over Gov. Winthrop's wife and children, in Nov., 1631, and supplied the pulpit of the First Church, in a temporary absence of Mr. Wilson in England, with such acceptance that the Church would have made him their Teacher. But he had pledged himself to a company of friends to be their teacher, when they should come over, as they did in 1632, when he settled with them at Roxbury -being ordained Teacher in November, in the church of which Rev. Thomas Weld was invested with pastoral charge in July preceding. In the same year he was married to Ann Mountfort, born in 1604, to whom he was engaged before he left England. To them were born seven children-she died March 24, 1687, aged 84, and he in May 20, 1690, aged 86.

In the year previous to his death, he conveyed an estate of about 75 acres to trustees for the maintenance, support, and encouragement of a school and schoolmaster at that part of Roxbury, commonly called Jamaica, or the Pond Plains, for the teaching and instructing of the children at that end of the town, (together with such Indians and negroes as shall or may come to the said school) and to no other intent or purpose whatever.'

Before giving in some detail the original documents, connected with the Free School in the Easterly Part of Roxbury, which illustrates the peculiar character of the early Free schools of New England, we will note briefly the labors of Eliot, for which his contemporaries and posterity call him the Apostle of the Indians.

[1770.] On file is a list of names of scholars, with their studies. "Roxbury School, 1770.'"

Scholars-Latin,

9

Testament,
Psalter, .
Spellers,

10

10

19

"The requisitions for admission in 1789 were to read tolerably well by spelling words of four syllables.'

"On March 14, 1796, Hon. John Lowell and others were appointed a committee to lease the school farm and all the other lands belonging to the Grammar School in the Easterly part of Roxbury, except Mead's orchard, at public vendue, to the highest bidder for the term of 120 years . . . the net proceeds to be vested in other real estate.'

"[1805.] May 11. Another assessment for fire money.' If any neglect to pay, then the master is requested not to instruct such children. At the same meeting a vote was adopted requiring the school lands to be perambulated and the boundaries renewed once every five years.' This vote has been complied with from the date of its adoption to the present time.

"The property belonging to this Institution consisted at the time of its first legal incorporation of various pieces of real estate scattered over the town of Roxbury. Soon after the Act of Incorporation was passed, the Board of Trustees appointed under it thought it expedient to raise a capital which would be more productive than the said tracts of land theretofore had been, and for the purpose they solemnly resolved to dispose of said tracts and parcels of land. Among the members of the Board at that time were two gentlemen of high legal standing, who had taken an active part in procuring the Act of incorporation. They recommend the disposal of the land upon long leases. "So far as we can now perceive, the decision they made was a very wise one. The lands leased at auction for a term of one hundred and twenty years appear to have brought nearly or quite the prices then paid for the fee simple.

"It was a part of the conditions of the lease, and a very serious one too, that the Corporation should have a right of entry upon the premises leased twenty years before the expiration of the several leases, and to cause the buildings and improvements thereon to be appraised; and there was a provision that there should be no strip and waste made upon the improvements as valued, nor should the same be removed under the penalty of forfeiture of the remaining term of years.'

"Within the last twenty years [1840-60] some of our unscrupulous politicians, in one of those outbursts of zeal for the interests of our adopted citizens which periodically manifest themselves, attempted to create a popular excitement against the trustees. At a public meeting of the citizens a charge was brought that the funds of the school had been misapplied; that they had been given for the "maintenance of poor men's children" exclusively, but the trustees had allowed the children of the rich to share equally the benefit of them. A committee was appointed to inquire and report. The result of their investigation was not what they expected. It appeared that the funds originally contributed, and by which the school was supported from 1645 to 1672, were given by the wealthier class for the benefit of THEIR children; that a few boys, sons of men too poor to contribute, were admitted to the school gratis; that Thomas Bell, being desirous that the children of the poor generally should have the benefit of public instruction, left by his will sufficient property for this purpose, intending it evidently for the school already founded, and of which he had been a liberal friend during his lifetime; that legislative authority confirmed this intention, thus establishing on a liberal foundation a free institution, where the rich and the poor can meet together on common ground; and finally, that the trustees had not misapplied the funds, but had acted with a conscientious regard to the interests of the school and the design of its founders."

PRESENT CONDITION-1876.

The Roxbury Latin School of Roxbury, (now Boston Highlands), is an endowed free school, to which are admitted applicants residing in Boston, who are ten years of age, and who possess the requisite qualifications of scholarship :

1. To read English fluently, to know the parts of speech, to be able to analyze a simple sentence, and to spell common words.

2. To know the commonest facts of Mathematical and Physical Geography, to draw outline maps of North America and Europe, with their most important physical features and political divisions, and to have a general knowledge of the geography of the United States.

3. Practical facility in working the first four rules of Arithmetic, and the elements of Fractions or Compound Denominate Numbers. 4. Facility in writing legibly from dictation.

Candidates for admission must present a certificate of good moral character from the principal of the school last attended.

No boy over fifteen years of age is admitted to the lowest class, unless it appears by his examination that he is qualified to enter a higher class in English studies.

The following is the course of study :

Sixth Class.

FALL TERM.-Latin: Grammar and exercises. Mathematics: Written and mental arithmetic. English Language: English grammar, reading, exercises in elocution, poems learned, spelling, writing from dictation. Other Studies: Botany, writing, drawing.

WINTER TERM.-Latin: Grammar, reader, exercises. Mathematics: Written and mental arithmetic. English Language: English grammar, reading, exereises in elocution, selections from Longfellow, poems learned, spelling, writing from dictation. Other Studies: Modern geography, writing, drawing.

SPRING TERM.-Latin: Reader, Viri Romæ, exercises. English Language: English grammar, selections from Whittier, reading, poems learned, spelling, writing from dictation. Other Studies: Botany, modern geography, writing, drawing.

Fifth Class.

FALL TERM.-Latin: Viri Romæ, writing Latin. French: Grammar and reading. Mathematics: Arithmetic. English Language and Literature: Hawthorne, True Stories; poems learned, spelling, writing from dictation. Other Studies: Modern geography, drawing, writing, Roman history.

WINTER TERM.-Latin: Phædrus and Nepos, writing Latin. French: Gram-
mar and reading. Mathematics: Geometry, oral lessons. English Language and
Literature: Hawthorne, Wonder Books; spelling, writing from dictation.
Studies: Ancient geography, drawing, writing, Roman history.

Other

SPRING TERM.-Latin: Nepos, writing Latin. French: Grammar and reading. Mathematics: Arithmetic. English Language and Literature: Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome; spelling, writing from dictation. Other Studies: Botany, drawing, writing.

Fourth Class.

FALL TERM.-Latin: Cæsar, De Bello Gallico; writing Latin. French: Grammar and reading. Mathematics: Algebra. English Language and Literature: Scott, Lady of the Lake; spelling, writing from dictation. Other Studies: Grecian history, drawing, writing.

WINTER TERM.-Latin: Cæsar, De Bello Gallico; writing Latin. French: Grammar and reading. Mathematics: Algebra. English Language and Literature: Scott, spelling, writing from dictation. Other Studies: Drawing, writing.