A history of public education in Rhode Island, from 1636 to 1876 ... Comp. by authority of the Board of education, and ed. by Thomas B. Stockwell ...

COLONIAL SCHOOLS. 9
"The humble request of William Turpin, now schoolmaster of the said town,
is, that whereas there was a parcel of land formerly granted by the ancestors of
said town, and was to be to the use and benefit of a schoolmaster, as by the
records of the town book will more at large appear, which said order or grant
was read to me in the presence of several gentlemen, that were the occasion of
my settling at this town, who promised to be instrumental in the performance
thereof. Gentlemen, my desire is that the aforesaid land may be forthwith laid
out, according to the said order or grant, and that the said master or his heirs
may be invested in the said land, so long as he or any of them shall maintain
the worthy art of learning. Thus leaving it to you, gentlemen, to give a speedy
answer, according as you shall think meet, I rest yours to command.
WILLIAM TURPIN."*
There is no record as to the answer given to this petition, nor does it
appear how long the petitioner could " maintain that worthy art of
learning." He must have been a man of some weight and influence as
he was afterwards, successively, town representative, town clerk and
town treasurer.
Thus much for Newport and Providence. In Barrington, then a part
of Swansea, Mass., a school was established in 1673, "three years after old
Plymouth had voted a free school within her borders," "for the teaching of
grammar, rhetoric and arithmetic, and the tongues of Latin, Greek and
Hebrew, also to teach English and to write." Of this school Rev. John
Al'yles was appointed teacher " at a salary of ~40 per annum in current
country pay." It is probable that this included his clerical services also,
as one of his successors had but ~18 per year, " one quarter in money
and the other.three quarters in provisions at money price," and another
had "~12 current money of New England, to be paid quarterly, and the
town to'pay for his diet'," besides 20s. "toward the keeping of his
horse." Each of these teachers was expected " to teach in the several
places of the town by course," so that the horse was quite essential.t
In Bristol it appears that the original proprietors, in 1680, granted
land " for the common improvement, for the encouragement and use of
an able orthodox minister, and for the use and encouragement of an able
schoolmaster in the town." The first recorded act of tle citizens of
Bristol in regard to schools is dated in September, 1682, when it was
voted:
"That each person that lath children in town ready to go to school, shall
pay three pence the week for each child's schooling to the schoolmaster, and
the town by rate according to each ratable estate shall make the wages to amount
* Staples' Annals of Providence, p. 494.
t Stone's Hist. R. I, Inst. p. 9.