Early Schools to 1754

The first notation of a school in North Parish was in the town report of 1693. The first schools in North Parish were moving or roving schools. As there was no specific building, school was often held in the front room of local citizen. Remember that in 1685 only nine known families were settled in North Parish.

"In 1642, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed the first law in the New World requiring that children be taught to read and write. The English Puritans who founded Massachusetts believed that the well-being of individuals, along with the success of the colony, depended on a people literate enough to read both the Bible and the laws of the land. The English Puritans who settled Boston in 1630 believed that children's welfare, on earth and in the afterlife, depended in large part on their ability to read and understand the Bible." 1

The Massachusetts law of 1647 stated that there should be a school in every community where there were fifty families, and a grammar school in every community of one hundred families. In 1693 this law provided for a ten pound fine annually for the violation of the law. In 1701 the law imposed a fine of twice that amount. It was also stated that the grand jurors were to report all breaches of the law.

When the Parish settled its first minister, Reverend Daniel Putnam, in 1721, the interest in schooling began to grow and school money was raised in the parish rates to assist with children’s education.

It wasn’t until 1754, however, that the Parish voted that some particular persons have liberty to set a school house on land near the meeting house at their own cost. Even then, the majority of inhabitants were not yet behind the notion of established school houses.

Reference:
LePage, Samuel. A History of North Reading, Tercentenary Edition. 1944.

1. http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=113

1761 Rev. Eliab Stone – 2nd Minister of North Parish

On December 6, 1760 the warrant for a special parish meeting was called “to see whether the parish will concur with the church vote in making choice of Mr. Eliab Stone to be our minister.” It was voted to give him L160 as a settlement, and L73 6s 8p for his annual support. He accepted the invitation.

Eliab Stone graduated at Harvard College in 1758. He was ordained May 20th 1761 as pastor of the second church. Delegates from the first church to the ordination were Deacon Benjamin Brown and Brown Emerson, Colonel Nichols, Captain Gardner and Jonathan Eaton.

He died August 31, 1822 in the eighty-sixth year of his age and sixty second of his ministry. In his long service he married some of the great grandchildren on those married at the beginning of his ministry.

1713 North Parish Established

Also known as Second Parish or North Precinct.

Actual settlement progressed slowly and none of the original recipients of the land ever went north of the Ipswich River to live. It is not certain who was the first to settle this area, although tradition suggests that Sergeant George Flint had a sturdy house there about 1677. By 1685 there were nine known families living in the wilderness of North Reading.

The people in this isolated area faced great hardship to attend church. They had to cross the Ipswich River and Bear Meadow Swamp and had little more than a bridle path to travel. They had to make their way over five miles to the mother church in what is now Wakefield. Because the church was so far and the hardships were so great, they inspired a town vote in 1696 that “as soon as there was a suitable and competent number of inhabitants (north of the Ipswich River) they might call, settle, and maintain a godly, learned and orthodox minister of their own”.

In 1711 there were less than fifty families living in this northern section, making it difficult to maintain and support its own minister. In that year a petition to make the area a distinct parish was denied. However, on October 14, 1713 the petition was granted and it was voted to set off the territory north of the Ipswich River, together with Saddler’s Neck as a distinct parish, known as the Second, or North Parish. It was on the 27th of November, 1713 that the first parish meeting was assembled and Sergeant George Flint elected Moderator. It was also voted that they raise thirty-five pounds for the support of a minister. Not enough, however, to entice a permanent prospective minister. They also began construction on a rudimentary first meeting house on land given by John Eaton and George Flint. The Parish hired part time preachers and offered land and other enticements to prospective permanent ministers.