# Trenton Academy

Trenton Academy was a private school in the city of Trenton, New Jersey from 1781 to 1884 that served children ages 4–16. It was located on Academy Street where the Trenton Public Library is presently located.

## History

In 1781 prominent members of the Trenton community created a company promoting the cause of education in the city. It was organized as a stock company and the board of trustees were elected annually from the stockholders. By 1785, the school was formally named Trustees of Trenton Academy. After 1789 the school issued a certificate under the seal of the corporation to scholars which studied the English language grammatically and gained competent knowledge of at least 2 branches of Extraction of the Roots, Algebra, Mathematics, Geography, Chronology, History Logic Rhetoric, Moral and Natural Philosophy, Spirit of Laws and Criticism, the students also read, what is usually read in schools: Caesars Commentaries or Ovid's Metamorphoses, Justin or Sallust in Latin and any two of the four following books, The New Testament, Lucian's Dialogue, Xenophon or Homer in Greek.
During the late 1790s, the Academy held a lottery to raise money. In 1800, they leased part of the Presbyterian church ground on State street for a girls' school. The Trustees of the Academy passed a resolution prohibiting the students from shooting guns within the limits of the school in the year 1807. In the winter of 1815-1816, the Academy was used by the Methodist church to hold one of the first Sunday schools in the country. The school flourished for many years as a notable institution in Trenton New Jersey. Many statesmen and notable citizens attended the institution.
In 1847 a new building was erected and the trustees reduced the tuition. By 1870 the principal of the academy was George R Grosvenor. The Trustees were Thomas J Stryker, Gregory Anthony Perdicaris, Barker Gummere, Philemon Dickinson, and John S. Chambers. By the year 1881, the school contained nineteen students and after 103 years around 1884, the school closed, currently the lot where the Trenton Academy once stood is now the Trenton Public Library. There is a plaque on the library describing the Trenton Academy.

## Trustees

Stacy Potts 1781–1783, 1785-1787
Moore Furman 1781, 1783-1791
James Ewing 1781-1782
Isaac Collings 1781–1784, 1786-1796
William Houston 1781
David Brearley 1782-1784
Isaac Smith, 1782-1785
Conrad Kotts 1783, 1785-1800
Samuel W. Stockton 1784
Benjamin Pitfield 1784
Maskell Ewing 1788–1789, 1792, 1800
Charles Tompkins 1790
Peter Gordon 1791–1796, 1800
Alexander Chambers Jr. 1794 1800
Joseph Brearley 1798
Randall Rickey 1798
James S. Ewing 1804
Gideon H Wells 1804-1817
Charles Ewing 1804-1823
George Sherman 1817, 1822-1830
William Potts 1817-1821
Zachariah Rossell 1821-1835
Thomas L. Woodruff 1821-1830
Charles Higbee 1823-1835
John S Chambers 1830
Charles Burroughs 1835-1861 (Former Mayor of Trenton)
Henry W Green 1835-1847
James Ewing 1835-1852
Thomas J Stryker (1843-1872) Attended Civil War peace conference
Francis A. Ewing 1843-1847
Philemon Dickinson 1847-1881
Rev Samuel Staar 1847-1858
Stacy G. Potts 1847-1865
William C. Howell 1847-1869
Gregory Anthony Perdicaris 1847-1880
Rev. John Hall 1887
William L. Dayton 1847-1859
Barker Gummere 1859-1881
Edward W. Scudder 1859-1880
John S. Chambers 1859-1880
William S Stryker 1880-1881
William Lewis Dayton Jr. 1880-1881 :

## Notable alumni

* Charles Conrad Abbott.
* William L. Dayton
* William Lewis Dayton Jr.
* Thomas Story Kirkbride, 1809-1883
* Ion Hanford Perdicaris, 1847-1855
* Samuel R. Gummere
* William S. Gummere
* John Storey Chambers
* Joseph L Naar
* Washington Roebling
* J. Hart Brewer
* Charles Skelton
* Daniel Bailey Ryall
* Gershom Mott
* William E Hoy
* James Hoy Jr.