The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1891-07-12
VIRGINIA COLONIAL CULTURE.
address Of Er. Wyndham R. Meredith al
Williamsburg.
VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION TO HISTORY
Abstract of tho Speech Old statements hoo"'
Ignorance I'm Colonial virginia Den'o"
and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Cited.

difh of this city. durlngtho recent coHi"lo"O'
,neut At William and Mary College, was
r,ost interesting and valuable contribution
30 tine early History Of the state. Owing
60 its great length. it is impossible 10Y
il 10 be published in full IN these col
nmus but tie following careful and elao-
CRATE abstract, prepared expressly for TIE
TINES. will be read with great proht ana IN
ferest. ;,
Ne give below some extracts indicating the
line OF argument and maps OF historic facts
presented by MIR Wyndham X. Meredith IN ms
recent address before William and Mary Col
lege on Colonial Culture in Virginia After
speaking OF the number of lllustriuus alumni,
visitors and officers Of the institution. Mr..
Meredith said:
In street in Florence there stand on each
side statues OF the famous fiOrepiines or the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Dante
GiottO. Petrarch Boccaccio. GhDertl. Ma
chiayelI Michael Angelo and others scarcely
less illustrious. all natives of the little city
which in their day had never population OF
more than sixty thousand souls. lDrycc
Amer. Comth., Vol. II. p. GIL il gratelut
people. as they should do, were 10 erect statues
TO all the deserving sons who acquired tneA
training N this institution, wnen tne nhuoeI
of its students never exceeded one hundred
and forty catalogue of William and Mary Col-
lere. lS3g-gO D. 800, II Is not too much 10 say
that the noble avenue, thfee-quarters OF a
mile in length, and stretching from TINS col,
lege TO where formerly the colonial capltai
stood. IS scarcely sufficient space III WHICH
10 hold the monuments of her great.
He said he did not intend. however, 70 de-
pict the character or describe the work ny
which these men earned the title OF states
men and raised the standard Of public life IN
America TO height greater than 1t has ever
since attained
His was a more humble task he proposed
to speak of Colonial Culture in Virgins" -
that is TO recount some facts which would
enable us TO Judge of the formative influences
which from 1920 to 1776 moulded the Sir-
GINA character and trained generation after
generation until it produced people far IN
advance of other nations IN purity Of social
life and manners in love of freedom. IN capa-
city for self-gOvernment and hberallty OF cul.
ture He would sketch with some degree OF
minuteness colonial education. the legisla-
ton upon the subject, the character OF the
education which finally obtained, and the
schools, libraries and colleges of re-Revolu-
tiOnary times He said the necessity Tor such
al attempt was shown in the remarkable man
ner in which the appearance OF VIRGIN man
leaders Of l776 upon the stage of history had
hitherto been treated 1t was not an exag-
geratiOn 10 say that their appearance had
been held by most historians TO have par
taken of the miraculous.
AUTHORITIES QUOTED.
Mr.. Meredith then quoted from Henry
Cabot Lodges history Of the American col
onies: from the works of the Rev. Edward -.
Neil. a leading authority on early Nlr-
ginian history: from John /. MOSS Ire ol
jefferson and from w. Gordon McCabe 8 adj
dress on Virginia Schools" TO show that the
usual view of education prior TO the Reyolu-
ton was; that il was at as low an ebb as
can well be imagined; that there was no lndl-
cation in the statutes of the General AS
sembly Of any desire 10 provide education,
and that there was little or none OF any sort
at that period III Virginia.
nLTERACY IN VIRGINIA.
In combating these views he took up first
the subject OF illiteracy in Virginia If il
was true he SAID. that we had no education,
then we would expect to ind q great amount
of illiteracy: the testimony however. pointed
in the other direction. THUS, upon the mar
rage bonds Of Norfolk county for 1850 &c
1901 there were 432 signatures and marks
made by those who could not write. of these
4l6 could write and sixteen had to make their
mark. In other words, these bonds showed
that ninety-four per cent of the inhabitants
of Norfolk county could write. similar
list of bonds in Henrico county fol-
the years after the Reyoiuton-that Is,
from 1881 10 1798-shOwed that fifteen
per cent. of the people in that
county were illiterate Comparing these fig
uTes with those contained in the census oil
1870 under the head Of "llliteracy' in the
United States. Mr. Meredith showed that
there was in the State of Massachusetts II
the year 1880 about twice the number OF
white males over twenty-One who could not
write as in the county of Norfolk Just prior
10 the Revolution: and that the illiteracy IN
the State of Virginia in 1880 was four times as
great as the illiteracy in Norfolk county prior
TO the Revolution and equal to that in Hen
rico county in the latter quarter Of the eish-
teenth century.
With so small an amount Of illiteracy we
would expect TO have a continuous account OF
primary or parish free schools. To establish
this he proceeded to quote from the Original
authorities: THE author Of the New
Description of Virginia, printed IN 1919, after
telling of the splendid free school of Mr.. Ben.
jamin Symes, adds. other pretty schools also
we have thus showing a system of education
even at that early period. lie then described
the Henry Peasey school, established in 1865
and dwelt with particularly upon the account
given by the native historian, Beverley OF
the large tracts of land and houses and other
things granted to free schools in many part,
of Virginia In all other places where such
endowmeuts have not already been made the
people form and build schools for their chill
dren." This work was published in 1905.
THE MINUTE BOOK.
MIR. Meredith then quoted from the minut,
book now preserved in the HenricO Count,
Court, and showed by an order of the cour
that in 100 there were FIVE schools in tina
county alone. He showed that the total male
population of the county was only 500, anC
that this proportion of schools to the popula
ton will compare fayorably with any moder1
State.
He then gave an account of the free schoo
founded in 17l0 by Samuel Sanford, of on
don in Accomac county His next authorit,
was the Rev. Hugh Jones, a former professor
OF William and Mary College, whose work Oh
the Present State of Virginia. published il
1924. tells us that I'm most parishes arc
schools-little houses being bullion purpose
where are taught English and writing" He
then gave an account of the Eaton Free
School, founded in 1886, in Elizabeth county
Passing to the Valley of Virginia and pay
ing a handsome compliment to the Scotch
Irish who had settled it, Mr. Meredith showed
from the records that the first thing built
after the erection of their houses were schools.
that the records showed that the illiteracy
scarcely existed among these Yirginians. and
that their devotion 10 education was such as
would toe expected from the followers OF John
Knox. who as early as 1898 had inauguratel
asystem of free schools in Scotland and
which these Scotch-lrish had brou Int with
them to Virginia
LEGISLATION ON THE SUBJECT
Passing to the legislation on the subiect
Mr. Meredith traced the various acts con.
tanned IN Hening and showed that there was
no subject which exercised our early leeisia.
hon hat r. r..