Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T21:25:08.492Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The High Church Origins of the American Boarding School

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

David Hein
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Historians of education have deepened our understanding of the development of American boarding schools by challenging he popular view of them as straightforward continuations of New England academies or as imitations of British public schools and by tracing their actual roots back to a distinctive series of institutions that began in the United States in the 1820s, ‘30s, and ’40s. Sociologists have increased our awareness of the social and economic conditions that contributed to the flourishing of these schools as upper-class domains during the Gilded Age.1 It remains for the student of religious history to point out the close connection that existed between the prototypical American boarding schools and representatives of the Episcopal High Church tradition, and to attempt to demonstrate that this association was no coincidence but that the schools were themselves concrete expressions of the High Church outlook.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , October 1991 , pp. 577 - 595
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See, especially: James, McLachlanAmerican Boarding Schools: a historical study, New York 1970Google ScholarLevine, Steven B.,‘ The rise of American boarding schools and the development of a national upper class’, Social Problems xxviii (1980), 63–94;Google ScholarCookson, Peter W.Jr and Caroline Hodges Persell, Preparing for Power: America's elite boarding schools, New York 1985Google Scholar

2 On the Round Hill School and the Flushing Institute see McLachlan, American, Boarding Schools, 71–101,105–35;Google ScholarCogswell, Joseph G. and George Bancroft, Prospectus of a School to be Established at Round Hill, Northampton, Massachusetts, Cambridge, Mass. 1823Google ScholarJohn Spencer, Bassett, ‘The Round Hill School’, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 27 (1917), 18–62;Google ScholarAnna Eliot, TicknorLife of Joseph Green Cogswell as Sketched in His Letters, Cambridge, Mass. 1874Google ScholarSkardon, Alvin W.Church Leader in the Cities: William Augustus Muhlenberg, Philadelphia 1971 ch. ii.Google Scholar

3 David, Hein (ed.), A Student's View of the College of St. James on the Eve of the Civil War: the letters of W. Wilkins Davis, Lewiston, NY 1988, 8–22.Google Scholar

4 McLachlan, American Boarding Schools, 181.Google Scholar

5 William, Augustus Muhlenberg, The Application of Christianity to Education, Jamaica, NY 1828, 7.Google Scholar

6 William A., Muhlenberg, ‘An address delivered at the laying of the corner-stonee of St Paul's College, College Point, L.I., Oct. 15, 1836', in Anne Ayres, (ed.), Evangelical Catholic Papers, 2 vols, New York 1877, ii. 63–73, at P- 68.Google Scholar

7 Anne Ayres, , The Life and Work of William Augustus Muhlenberg, 5th edn, New York 1894, 112–13, 144–9;Google ScholarFrederic Cook, Morehouse, Some American Churchmen, Milwaukee 1892, 127–32;Google ScholarJohn Frederick, Woolverton, ‘William Augustus Muhlenberg and the founding of St Paul's College’, Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church (hereinafter cited as HMPEC) 29 (1960), 192–218, at pp. 200–1;Google ScholarDeMille, George E., The Catholic Movement in the American Episcopal Church, 2nd edn, Philadelphia 1950, 77;Google Scholar

8 William Wilberforce, Newton, Dr Muhlenberg, Boston 1890, 247–8.Google Scholar

9 Ayres, , Life and Work of Muhlenberg, 161, 171–4.Google Scholar

10 On Muhlenberg's involvement in the Memorial Movement see Robert Bruce, Mullin, Episcopal Vision/American Reality: high church theology and social thought in evangelical America, New Haven 1986, 181–2.Google Scholar

11 The rudiments of this list may be found in McLachlan, American Boarding Schools, 131; Skardon, Church Leader in the Cities, 85–7;Google ScholarWilliam Wilson, Manross, A History of the American Episcopal Church, New York 1935, 244, 258;Google Scholaridem, The Episcopal Church in the United States, 1800–1840: a study in church life, 1938, repr. New York 1967, 96.

12 Skardon, , Church Leader in the Cities, 86;Google Scholar ‘John Henry, Hopkins III, John Henry Hopkins, first bishop of Vermont’, HMPEC 6 (1937), 187–206, at p. 198;Google ScholarJohn Henry, Hopkins Jr, The Life of the Late Right Reverend John Henry Hopkins, First Bishop of Vermont, and Seventh Presiding Bishop, New York 1873, 161, 174–6, 185–6, 201;Google ScholarManross, , History of the American Episcopal Church, 258;Google ScholarAlbert Sidney, Thomas, ‘Christopher Edwards Gadsden (1785–1852): fourth bishop of South Carolina, 1840–1852’, HMPEC 20 (1951), 294–324,Google Scholarat p. 313; idem, A Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina, 1820–1957, Columbia, SC 1957, 777.Google Scholar

13 Journal of the Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of North Carolina... 1833, Fayetteville 1833, 36, 45, 46. Emphasis in original.Google Scholar

14 Michael T., Malone, ‘The Episcopal School of North Carolina, 1832–1842’, North Carolina Historical Review xlix (1972), 178–94, at p. 178;Google ScholarSkardon, , Church Leader in the Cities, 86.Google Scholar

15 Michael Taylor, Malone, ‘Levi Silliman Ives: priest, bishop, Tractarian, and Roman Catholic convert’, unpub. PhD diss., Duke University 1970, 65–6.Google Scholar

16 Malone, , ‘The Episcopal School of North Carolina’, 178, 194;Google ScholarMarshall DeLancey, Haywood, Lives of the Bishops of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC 1910, 106.Google Scholar

17 Nelson R., Burr, Education in New Jersey, 1630–, 1871, Princeton 1942, 80–1.Google Scholar

18 George W., Doane, An Appeal to Parents for Female Education on Christian Principles..., Burlington, NJ 1837, 7–8, 10–14.Google Scholar

19 Muhlenberg, , as quoted in Hall Harrison, , Life of the Right Reverend John Barrett Kerfoot..., 2 vols, New York 1886, 1. 47;Google ScholarHein, , A Student's View, 5, 8–11, 16–19.Google ScholarFor a glimpse of the discussions leading up to the founding of the school see the Journal of a Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Maryland... 1842, Baltimore 1842, 44, 47.Google Scholar

20 The Churchman xix (1 Dec. 1849), 157.

21 James P., Conover, Memories of a Great Schoolmaster, Boston 1906, p. xix.Google Scholar

22 For details on their individual views see Michael T., Malone, ‘The gentle Ives and the unruly Prescott: change in the Church’, Anglican Theological Review lxix (1987), 363–74, at p. 366;Google Scholaridem, ‘Levi Silliman, Ives’Robert Bruce Mullin, ‘Ritualism, anti–Romanism, , and the law in John Henry Hopkins’, HMPEC L (1981 ), 377–90, at p. 377;Google ScholarWilliam Francis, Brand, Life of William Rollinson Whittingham, 2 vols, New York 1883, ii. 213, 328, 336–7, 341–2, 344–5;Google ScholarHarrison, , Life of Kerfoot, ii. 492–;Google ScholarThomas, ‘Christopher Edwards Gadsden’, 316;Google ScholarWilliam Croswell, Doane, The Life and Writings of George Washington Doane, 2 vols, New York 1860, i. 67–9;Google ScholarClowes Chorley, E., Men and Movements in the American Episcopal Church, New York 1946, 228–59, 368–9;Google ScholarDeMille, , The Catholic Movement, 25–9, 35–7, 53–4, 90–2, 102;Google ScholarManross, , History of the American Episcopal Church, 274;Google ScholarEdward Roche, Hardy Jr, ‘The Catholic revival in the American Church, 1722–1933’, in Williams, N.P. and Charles, Harris (eds), Northern Catholicism: centenary studies in the Oxford and parallel movements, New York 1933, 75–116, at p. 91.Google Scholar

23 See, for example, Doane to Whittingham, 3 Oct. 1836;Google ScholarMuhlenberg to Whittingham,14 July 1840;Google ScholarIves to Whittingham, 27 Dec. 1836, 15 July 1841; and, generally, the entireGoogle Scholar

24 Journal of the Proceedings of the Forty-Fourth Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of New-York... 1829, New York 1829, 14.Google Scholar

25 See, for example, The Churchman v (19 Dec. 1835), 938; xii (6 Aug. 1842), 86; xii (11 Oct. 1842), 119; xii (17 Dec. 1842), 161; xix (11 Aug. 1849), 94Google Scholar

26 Arthur Stanwood, Pier, St Paul's School, 1855–1934, New York 1934, 12, 32;Google ScholarDeMille, , The Catholic Movement, 80.Google Scholar

27 Harry Croswell, , A Memoir of the Late Rev. William Croswell..., New York 1853, 331.Google Scholar

28 Albert Emerson, Benson, History of St Mark's School, n.p. 1925, 10.Google Scholar

29 Henry A., Coit, ‘The Resurrection Life’, in Conover, Memories of a Great Schoolmaster, 215–33, at p. 224.Google Scholar

30 James Carter, Knox, Henry Augustus Coit, New York 1915, 124;Google ScholarOwen Wister, , ‘Dr Coit of St Paul's’, Atlantic Monthly cxlii (1928), 756–68, at p. 758;Google ScholarRobert Hayes, Dunn, ‘A history of the diocese of New Hampshire, 1802–1952’, The New Hampshire Churchman v (1952), 3–94. at PP– 41, 4366, 68.Google Scholar

31 Wister, , ‘Dr Coit of St Paul's’, 756, 765.Google Scholar

32 Charles C., Tiffany, A History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, New York 1907, 472;Google ScholarDeMille, , The Catholic Movement, 77;Google ScholarHarrison, , Life of Kerfoot, i. 24;Google ScholarSkardon, , Church Leader in the Cities, 98.Google Scholar

33 As quoted in Charles Rockland, Tyng, Record of the Life and Work of the Rev. Stephen Higginson Tyng, D.D. and History of St Mark's Church, New York..., New York 1890, 580, 583.Google ScholarSee also Taylor, Jeremiah H., Sketches of the Religious Experiences and Labors of a Layman, Hartford 1860, 67n;Google ScholarJohn S., Stone, A Memoir of the Life of James Milnor..., New York 1848, 623.Google Scholar

34 Charles Newton, Brickley, ‘The Episcopal Church in Protestant America, 1800–1860: a study in thought and action’, unpub. PhD diss., Clark University 1949, 124.Google Scholar

35 James A., Bolles, The Revival System: a sermon, Cleveland 1858, 19–21, 23. Emphasis in original.Google Scholar

36 The Churchman xii (17 Dec. 1842), 161.Google Scholar

37 William A., Muhlenberg, Christian Education..., New York 1831, 8–9.Google Scholar

38 Mullin, , Episcopal Vision/American Reality, 75.Google Scholar

39 76–81.Google Scholar

40 See John Henry, Hobart, The Candidate for Confirmation Instructed, New York 1819, 18–21;Google Scholaridem, The Churchman: the principles of the churchman stated and explained, New York 1819, 15–17; John, McVickar, The Early Life and Professional Years of Bishop Hobart, Oxford 1838, 422–6;Google ScholarMullin, , Episcopal Vision/American Reality, 63–6, 130–4;Google ScholarNathaniel, Bowen, Sermons on Christian Doctrines and Duties, 2 vols, Charleston 1842, ii. 187–95, 351–64;Google ScholarWilliam Rollinson, Whittingham, ‘Defense of the worship, doctrine, and discipline of the Church’ (1829), in Prichard, Robert W. (ed.), Readings from the History of the Episcopal Church, Wilton, Conn. 1986, 90–9, at p. 98;Google ScholarLevi Silliman, Ives, The Apostles’ Doctrine and Fellowship, New York 1844, 15–24, 36–58, 79–95; H. U. O fnderdonk.,Google Scholar ‘Regeneration’, , The Churchman iv (22 Mar. 1834), 625;Google ScholarE. Brooks, Holifield, The Gentlemen Theologians: American theology in southern culture, 1795–1860,Google ScholarDurham, , NC 1978, 158–62; and cf. the somewhat different emphases of the evangelical bishop of the Eastern Diocese,Google ScholarAlexander V., Griswold, in his Discourses on the Most Important Doctrines and Duties of the Christian Religion, Philadelphia 1830, 202, 217–27.Google Scholar

41 Thomas C., Brownell, Errors of the Times: a charge delivered to the clergy of the diocese of Connecticut..., Hartford 1843, 21–31. Emphasis in original.Google Scholar

42 See The Book of Common Prayer, Philadelphia 1845, 323, 324, 325. This is the 1789 edition of the Prayer Book.

43 See Mullin, , Episcopal Vision/American Reality, 63–5.Google Scholar

44 Bowen, , Sermons on Christian Doctrines, 195.Google Scholar

45 John D., Ogilby, ‘Report of the Committee on Christian Education’, Journal of the Fifty-Seventh Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of New Jersey... 1840, New Brunswick 1840, 16.Google Scholar

46 ‘Education Catholic’, The True Catholic i (1843), 156–61, at p. 158.Google Scholar

47 ‘Education’, The True Catholic viii (1851), 529–37, at pp. 530–1, 537.Google Scholar

48 John, Kerfoot, Three Addresses..., Fountain Rock, Md. 1848, 29, 30, 33–4.Google Scholar

49 George W.|Doane, ‘Bishop Doane's contribution’, Memorial Papers, intro. Alonzo, Potter, Philadelphia 1857, 90–5.Google Scholar

50 Doane, George W., Episcopal Address to the Annual Convention of the Diocese of New Jersey, May 27, 1840, Burlington 1840, 29, 31.Google Scholar

51 John B., Kerfoot, The Confidence of a Certain Faith, Baltimore 1845, 11, 13. Emphasis in original.Google Scholar

52 The Churchman xix (n Aug. 1849), 94.Google Scholar

53 Whittingham to Kerfoot, 19 Jan. 1846, in Brand, Life of Whittingham, i. 391.Google Scholar

54 Phillida, Bunkle, ‘Sentimental womanhood and domestic education’, History of Education Quarterly xiv (1974), 13–30, at p. 16.Google Scholar

55 See, for example, G. W. Doane, Appeal to Parents, 14–15; Memorials of St. Paul's School, New York 1891, 139.Google Scholar

56 Frederick Joseph, Kinsman, Salve Mater, New York 1922, 21, 22;Google ScholarJoseph H., Coit, ‘Recollections of Bishop Kerfoot's life and work at St James's, etc.’, in Harrison, Life of Kerfoot, 1. 319–70, at pp. 325, 351.Google Scholar

57 W. Wilkins, Davis to Rebecca Dorsey, Davis, 19 Apr. 1859, in Hein, A Student's View,Google Scholar

58 . See Coit, , ‘Recollections’, 353–4.Google Scholar

59 Comment reported in Coit, , ‘Recollections’, 340.Google Scholar

60 McLachlan, , American Boarding Schools, 141, 145, 146, 149, 162;Google ScholarKatz, Michael B., review of James, McLachlan, American Boarding Schools, in Journal of American History l8 (1971), 453;Google ScholarCookson, and Persell, , Preparing for Power, 113.Google ScholarToward the end of his book, in his chapter on Groton, McLachlan remarks that ‘St Paul's maintained a tradition of High Church Episcopalianism’ (p. 268), but he seems to mean nothing more by this statement than that the school's churchmanship – in the narrow sense of liturgical custom - was ‘ high’, i.e. ritualistic, not that its raison d'etre and fundamental ethos were grounded in High Church theology. In his clsapter on St Paul's (pp. 136–57), he repeatedly refers to ‘ the evangelical impulse’ behind the school's founding, the ‘ intense evangelical fervour’ George Shattuck looked for in its first rector, and so forth.Google Scholar

61 Conover, , Memories of a Great Schoolmaster, 106.Google Scholar

62 Anne M., Boylan, ‘The role of conversion in nineteenth-century Sunday schools’, American Studies xx (1979), 35–48, at pp. 35–6.Google Scholar

63 I do not mean to suggest that all Roman Catholics (or Lutherans or Old School Presbyterians) were opposed to all forms of revivalism; see, for example,Google ScholarJay P., Dolan, Catholic Revivalism: the American experience, 1830–1900, Notre Dame 1978.Google Scholar On the parochial schools see Otto F., Kraushaar, American Nonpublic Schools: patterns of diversity, Baltimore 1972;Google ScholarLewis Joseph, Sherrill, Presbyterian Parochial Schools, 1846–1870, 1932, repr. New York 1969;Google ScholarLloyd P., Jorgenson, The State and the Non-Public School, 1825–1925, Columbia, Mo. 1987;Google Scholar and Anson Phelps, Stokes, Church and State in the United Slates, 3 vols, New York 1950, ii. 671–7.Google Scholar

64 Anne M., Boylan, Sunday School: the formation of an American institution, New Haven 1988, 146.Google ScholarSee also William G., McLoughlin Jr, Modem Revivalism: Charles Grandison Finney to Billy Graham, New York 1959, 157.Google Scholar

65 Boylan, , Sunday School, 149.Google Scholar

66 Boylan, ‘The role of conversion’, 46. High Church Episcopalians commented favourably upon Bushnell's discussions of revivalism and nurture, but they typically added the comment that the Church was the vehicle of grace, not the family, which was the focus of Bushnell's attention: Barbara M., Cross, Horace Bushnell: minister to a changing America, Chicago 1958, 71.Google Scholar

67 Lawrence A., Cremin, American Education: the national experience, 1783–1876, New York 1980, ch. ii.Google ScholarSee also Robert T., Handy, A History of the Churches in the United States and Canada, London 1976, 179–80;Google ScholarDavid Tyack, , ‘The kingdom of God and the common school’, Harvard Educational Review xxxvi (1966), 447–69;Google Scholar and William Bean, Kennedy, The Shaping of Protestant Education: an interpretation of the Sunday school and the development of Protestant educational strategy in the United States, 1789–1860, New York 1966, 53, 72–7.Google Scholar

68 Mullin, , Episcopal Vision/American Reality, 92.Google Scholar

69 Levine, , ‘The rise of American boarding schools’, 63–92; E. Digby Baltzell, Philadelphia Gentlemen: the making of a national upper class, Glencoe, 3. 1958, 301–11; idem, The Protestant Establishment: aristocracy and caste in America, New York 1964, 127–8.Google Scholar

70 It is noteworthy that some of those who began the schools seem to have truly lamented the necessity to attract and teach only boys from wealthy backgrounds. Muhlenberg complained to Whittingham, ‘ I have been obliged to expend myself upon the Children of the Rich none of whom can be expected to serve the Church’, Muhlenberg to Whittingham, 9 Jan. 1844,Google ScholarWhittingham Papers, W. R., Maryland Diocesan Archives, Baltimore. Muhlenberg told Kerfoot that ‘ as long as church schools can receive only the children of the rich, they will be raising crops of weeds’, Muhlenberg to Kerfoot, 28 Jan. 1851, in Harrison, , Life of Kerfoot, i. 136. Kerfoot went so far as to tell his pupils’ parents that ‘we all deeply regret’ having to teach only the children of the rich:Google ScholarJohn B., Kerfoot, An Address to the Parents and Guardians of the Pupils in St James's Hall, New York 1843, 8.Google Scholar

71 I am grateful to Professor Perko, F. Michael, of Loyola University of Chicago, for this suggestion, proffered in the session on ‘ Religion and Education in Early America’ at the annual meeting of the History of Education Society, Toronto, November 1988.Google Scholar