WETHERSFIELD, CONNECTICUT SCHOOL LEDGER, RECORD OF MEETINGS, SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION, AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION, 1757-1856.

Manuscript ledger, 40 x 16 cm. approx. 134 pp. bound in leather (cracked, dry, worn, torn) over paper boards, spine perished. Some pages detached, some dozen or so pages laid in out of chronological order, some chipping to edges of pages with a bit of loss, but overall the entries, kept in various hands, are legible. The record contains nearly 100 years of information on the growth and changes in management of the school district, variously called the Southwest part of Wethersfield; Wethersfield called Beckley District; Beckley District in the Eastern part of Berlin; and the Northeast School District in the Parish of Worthington.
The ledger begins with a true copy of the resolution by the Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut dated the second Thursday of October, 1757, in response to a petition from Joseph Beckley, Joseph Deming, Ezekiel Kelsey and the rest of the inhabitants of Weathersfield [ie: Wethersfield, spelled variously here], annexed to the parish of Kensington stating that they were "situated that they can have but little advantage by the school kept in said parish, that they have a sufficient number of children for a school among themselves, and that that part of Kensington with which the memorialists have been joined in maintaining a school are willing they should be released from any future costs...." The colonial Assembly granted permission for the town of Wethersfield to create a separate school and to "do any and everything relating to the erecting regulating maintaining & supporting a school in said District, as Towns and parrishes within this Colony by Law have and are enabled to do."
Meetings were recorded yearly, (the first one here is in 1758), initially in December, to choose a moderator, clerk, auditors, rate collectors, and members to "order ye prudentials of said school for the year." Other meetings were held sporadically throughout the year to choose teachers, male and female, or organize the building or repairs needed for the school, etc. The names of the teachers, their term and salaries were fairly regularly recorded. Inhabitants were assessed taxes for the payment of the teachers, the cost of boarding them, wood for heating the school, and other purposes. The assessments could be paid in grain or currency. In 1763, the inhabitants voted to build a school 16 ft. square, the work to be undertaken by Sgt. Ezekiel Kelsey, Corp. Elias Beckley, and Corp. Charles Kelsey.
In April 1765, the school district agreed to accept 31 pounds obtained from the First Society in Wethersfield as the portion of the "monies granted by Act of Assembly for the sale of Western lands sundry years since for the supporting of schools in this government belonging to this school district." Again in December 1766, they voted to build a school, this time 17 ft. square, near the county road at the east end of Lt. Deming's lots. Construction must have gotten underway as there is a record of expenditures for window frames, shingles, clapboards, squares of glass, and bricks paid to various people in January 1768. Annual meetings were moved to October in 1770, and continued throughout the years of the American Revolution.
By 1782, the school district was referred to as Beckley District, and by 1785, as Beckley District in Berlin. In December 1788 a group of the inhabitants in the area petitioned to be exempt from paying for the school owing to inconvenience by reason of distance, and new boundaries were drawn for that purpose. The building of another new school house 18 ft. wide and 22 ft. long near Aaron Porter's lot was also voted on. A second floor was planned in 1794. At that same meeting in October 1794, there was some friction with the Society of Worthington which was attempting to alter the bounds of the school district which had been established by act of assembly more than 30 years before. "[T]his meeting disapprove of any alteration of the bounds & limits of this District, by diminishing or taking off any of the inhabitants thereof...." At a meeting held in January 1798, it was decided to move the school house to a spot on land belonging to Jonathan Beckley, east of the road running toward David Webster's house. A small foot bridge for the convenience of the children to "pass & repass to school" was also to be constructed. Disagreements continued with the Society of Worthington and by January 1801, the school society of Worthington was settling all old accounts remaining unsettled at the time the General Assembly rendered the act of incorporation of Beckley School null and void.
Meetings resumed in November 1801 for the school, now referred to as the Northeast School District in the Parish of Worthington, with Samuel North as moderator, and David Webster, Jr. as clerk. The ledger was used sporadically over the next couple of decades before resuming more regularly to record meetings in October 1822. At a meeting held in September 1835, the inhabitants voted to keep the school on the Lancasterian system "so far as the teacher thinks it advisable." The plan approved included a preamble and five resolutions: "Believing that some method may be adopted to increase an interest both among parents and children, in regard to Education in our common schools; and for the purpose of infusing and carrying this principle into operation in the North East District in Worthington School Society. The following plan is suggested—Resolved 1. That the Inhabitants be divided or arranged into Five classes for the purpose of visiting the school once in Three or Four weeks. Resolved 2. That the name of the head of every family in the District be placed in a little book prepared for that purpose…. [resolutions 3 & 4 relate to school visits]... Resolved 5. That we (as parents who seek the welfare of our children) feel it incumbent on us to instill into the minds of our children the benefits of Education and that we, in conjunction with the Teacher will use all proper and laudable means to arouse and stimulate our children to action on this important subject….” The final entry in the ledger, dated Dec. 22, 1856, mentions the appointment of a committee to ascertain the boundaries of the school district. Item #66946

In New England in the late 17th century, various laws were enacted requiring towns of one hundred families or more to maintain grammar schools. As populations increased and towns expanded, certain exemptions from the rate scale to maintain these schools were made for families living further than three or so miles from the school. Lawrence Cremin in his book "American Education: The Colonial Experience 1607-1783," [NY: 1970, pp.524 & 557] notes that this was a nod to the fact that "the assumption that assessments for town services demanded at least their availability to the assessed." This led to the development of other precincts "which were either assigned or arrogated unto themselves the responsibility for managing education" for their expanded population. "The result, by the time of the Revolution, was the popular control of schooling as a civil responsibility by elected laymen at the provincial, town, and precinct (later, district) levels."
According to an article published by Judith Lohman in 1998 entitled "Development of the Right to an Education in Connecticut," schools in colonial Connecticut were originally supported by the towns' ecclesiastical societies: "In 1677, the General Court gave local towns broad discretion over what portion of their taxes had to be allocated to schools. In laws enacted in 1766 and 1774, the colony allowed for decentralization of the school system, leaving the financial responsibility for education to local governments. In 1766, towns were allowed to establish school districts."
Wethersfield, founded in 1634, is considered one of the oldest settlements in Connecticut. In 1713 Wethersfield incorporated the area known as Beckley Quarter, and when the two ecclesiastical societies of Kensington and New Britain were established in May 1754, Wethersfield and Beckley Quarter were retained by Kensington. Wethersfield split from Kensington in 1757, with support from the First Society of Wethersfield. Kensington was divided into the two societies of Worthington and Kensington in 1772, and when the town of Berlin was incorporated in 1785 it became part of Worthington Society. "In 1795, the state passed a law prohibiting ecclesiastical involvement in school affairs [giving] responsibility for overseeing district schools to selectmen or school committees." Financing for the "Common School Fund" was to come from sales of Connecticut's lands in the Western Reserve of Ohio. [see also: "The History of Ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut: comprising the present towns of Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, and Newington...." by Judge Sherman Adams, enlarged by Henry Stiles (NY: 1903)].

Price: $5,750.00