UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 12, Page 3
November 19, 1992
Recent discovery; Old papers shed new light on school's earliest days
Not all buried treasures are found on uncharted tropical islands,
marked by mysterious maps. Some are discovered buried in forgotten
boxes on closet shelves. That's how an exciting discovery was made
recently, and the "treasure" is a new collection of documents dating
back to the time when the University of Delaware was known as the
Academy of New-Ark in the pre-Revolutionary period.
According to Jean Brown, records manager of archival services,
Anna Perera of Pennsylvania was going through the papers of her late
sister, Ruth Cooch, when she came across some old family letters that
had belonged to their father, J. Edgar Rhoads.
A Newark family, the Rhoads had owned J. Edgar Rhoads & Sons, a
company that made belts for machinery and was, at one time, one of the
oldest corporations in America with ownership by the same family.
In the bottom of a dress box containing the family letters,
Perera discovered old documents and letters pertaining to the Academy
of New-Ark. No one knows how the documents were acquired, although her
father was known to be a collector of memorabilia.
She told a friend who had worked at Winterthur Museum about her
find, and the friend recommended calling the University's archives
office. Brown said she got a call from Perera about the papers out of
the blue.
Perera and her husband, George, showed the documents to Brown,
who was very excited about their significance, and Perera generously
decided to donate the papers to the University.
"Although we knew about some of the activities carried out by the
academy, we had no solid documentation, but these papers give us
specific information about such things as Dr. Hugh Williamson's (an
academy trustee) trip to Jamaica to raise funds for the academy,"
Brown said.
John A. Munroe, H. Rodney Sharp Professor Emeritus of History and
author of The University of Delaware: A History, has examined the
papers with care. Since most of the records concerning the Academy of
New-Ark disappeared during the Revolutionary War, these were an
extraordinary find, he said.
Putting the papers into a historical perspective, he said the
fundraising from outside sources was necessary for the trustees of
New-Ark Academy. Quakers who settled Philadelphia were not interested
in higher education-one reason being that their religion did not
require an educated minister or priest. The early Quakers learned to
read and write and tended to become merchants, artisans and farmers,
many of whom were well-to-do. Most Quaker colleges did not appear
until the 19th century, he said.
Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Catholics had to go further
afield for funds for their seminaries. Dr. Williamson, a trustee,
physician and preacher who never preached and who later became one of
the founding fathers of the fledgling United States, traveled
extensively on the academy's behalf. The newly obtained documents
detail his trip to Jamaica to appeal for funds from rich British
planters on the island. Later, with John Ewing, he visited the other
colonies, England and Scotland for funds, even receiving a gift from
the king.
According to Munroe, the trustees of the Academy of New-Ark
wanted college status for their school, but this was denied by the
Penn Proprietaries, especially Thomas Penn, because it was thought the
College of Philadelphia, later to become the University of
Pennsylvania, was sufficient. Although not chartered as a college, the
academy in pre-Revolutionary times offered a classical college
curriculum, Munroe said. The academy did not become a college until
1831, and it was chartered by the state in 1833.
The Academy of New-Ark Papers, donated by Perera, show that
fundraising was a concern of institutions of learning even in the
mid-1700s, and the discovered papers center around efforts to raise
money for the academy. Two similar documents are broadsheets,
describing the Academy of New-Ark, listing donors and the amounts they
gave. One is dated Feb. 2, 1772, and the other is undated.
In their plea for public funding, the trustees wrote about the
advantages of the New-Ark location, being only "five miles from the
Navigable Waters of Christiana River, and seven Miles from those of
the Elk."
They also pointed out that the "Situation of the Town is healthy.
There have been very few Instances of Sickness, not one Instance of
Mortality among the numerous Youth, who have been educated in this
Town."
In describing New-ark, the trustees pointed out that it
"generally inhabited by sober industrious People, affords no public
Amusement, nor any remarkable Instances of Profligacy, or Vice, which
generally draw the Attention of Youth."
Moving on to the faculty and administrators, the trustees stated
their determination that "no Rector, Professor, or Tutor, shall ever
be supported there, who is not a Man of decent Deportment and approved
Virtue, as well as accurate Learning."
The solicitation ended by saying, "The Trustees have only to add,
that whatever Sums of Money may be put into their Hands for the Use of
the Academy of New-Ark, shall be managed with utmost Care and
Frugality."
Other documents give insights into the operation of the Academy
of New-Ark. One was a mortgage held on the property of James Stewart,
a waterman in Philadelphia and his wife, another means of income for
the school.
A letter, dated Sept. 30, 1771, to Dr. Francis Alison, founder of
the academy when it was in New London, Pa., and trustee of the school,
is thought to have been written by James Popham. Apparently, Alison
had been in Newark, and the visit was not entirely successful. In the
letter Popham wrote that he was "sincerely sorry that you were treated
so disrespectfully here" and not to "condemn the innocent with the
guilty." The letter may have mollified Alison with an offer of two
acres upon which to erect academy buildings.
There are some records of Dr. Williamson's trip to Jamaica in
1771, including a speech, as recorded in the Kingston Journal, a
record of his expenses and the funds he generated for the academy.
The last document is a letter to Williamson from Joseph V. and
Eliph Fitch of Kingston, advising him that they were unable to collect
some of money that was pledged to the academy but were sending nine
puncheon of rum.
"These papers are significant," Brown said, "because they are
primary sources, documenting information we have from secondary
sources about the early days of the University. It is amazing that
they turned up more than 200 later. These records were all concerned
with funding, but, who knows, there may be other kinds of records that
were stored away for posterity."
-Sue Swyers Moncure