The history of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, By a committee of the Dorchester antiquarian and historical society ...

HISTORY OF DORCHESTER. 447
the town voted, that a writing school be kept in the
south-end of the town, for four months, to commence on the first of November.
In 1734, it was proposed-" Whether ye Town
would have a writing school in ye South end of ye
Town, part of ye year current? " The vote was in
the negative. Some years afterwards, we find, they
were again " allowed towards a school."
In the year 1759, and before, there was a schoolhouse standing on what is now Hancock street, a
little north of the present residence of Mr. William
D. Swan. When this house was erected, we have
not the means of ascertaining. It is described as
being a low building, with a pitched roof. The
school-room was nearly square. On three sides of
the house a seat was attached, for the boys to sit on,
in front of which, at a proper distance, was the
place to write and lay their books while studying.
This fiat desk or form was made of a sufficient width
to accommodate them with another range of seats on
the inside, so that the boys would write and study
facing each other. There was a shelf, also, running round the house on three sides, on which the
books were laid when not in use. The boys of the
inner seat, coming to the school, through mud and
snow, as they often did, by stepping on their own
seat to the place on which they wrote, had access to
their books on the shelves. The heavy, awkward
tread of a thoughtless boy on the writing place of a
school-fellow, would have no great tendency to improve said scholar in the art of penmanship. On
the contrary, his " pot-hooks and trammels" might