School Days

Back to school with Stratford Mail! This month we think about educational opportunity in the Virginia colony. The rural Northern Neck was slow to develop the kind of city and district schools found in the more densely populated New England colonies. This posed no problem for elites, who could afford to engage private tutors for their children and complete their education abroad at one of the English grammar schools or domestically at one of the newly established colleges. Differences of access and curriculum were stark depending on race, class, and gender. Death and inheritance interrupted the education of several Stratford Lees and dashed the romantic fortunes of a future revolutionary and statesman! Listen now to School Days! And if you haven't yet listened to Every Heart Throbs, be sure not to miss the tale of Lafayette's return(s) and his encounter with Arthur Lee!  

To support Stratford Mail or donate to Stratford Hall, please navigate to www.stratfordhall.org/donate, and let them know in the comment section you wish to support Stratford Mail.

Don't you dare forget to follow Stratford Mail, and visit us at Stratford Hall Historic Preserve! Check out our standalone website, StratfordMail.org, for enhanced content.

Transcript

SM 2:6 School Days

Intro.

As we lean into the new school year, we think about education of yesteryear and the clipped wings of a school days romance.

Schools across the Commonwealth of Virginia are back at it. Virginians have always been keen on the practical potentials and cultural value of education, though educational formats have not always looked the same. Indeed, on the other side of the COVID pandemic, we understand better than before how environment and circumstances can shape and reshape educational formats, which in 18th century Virginia responded to the particulars of geography, population patterns, the plantation economy, and the resources of individual families. Education as we know it did not exist, though (like today) education began at home.

Virginians of modest means did not lack formal educational opportunity. In his 1724 The Present State of Virginia, William & Mary Math Professor Rev. Hugh Jones observed that “In most Parishes are Schools (little Houses being built on Purpose) where are taught English and Writing.” In addition to parish schools, old-field schools, and charity schools, or possibly in place of them, the well-worn path of apprenticeship and mentorship provided many children with the rudiments of a formal education on the way to a useful trade. Educational opportunity for free and enslaved Africans and African Americans was rare, and where it existed, like at the Bray School in Williamsburg or a similar school in Fredericksburg, aimed at Christian instruction through Bible literacy. Such schools struggled to survive local opposition and legal disincentives. A statewide system of free public schools didn’t exist in Virginia until around 1870. By 1900 that system succeeded in almost halving the 1870 illiteracy rate which sat at 41% of all folks older than 10. In consequence of slavery African Americans accounted for a healthy majority of that 41%. And the struggle for educational parity with whites would stretch into our 21st century.

For children of elite whites living in the Northern Neck, tutorial schools were the first phase of formal education. Thomas and Hannah Lee of Stratford possessed ample means to secure top notch tutors for their children despite the remoteness of Stratford. Their 6 sons and 2 daughters were first educated under a succession of tutors, usually clergymen, who, beyond the fundamentals, provided instruction in classical languages and literatures, religious and moral subjects, and accounting. The school year was broken up by several months off in the summer, when the children might be expected to assist in various activities around the plantation. The Lee children weren’t separated by age-graded schools. The siblings slept together, ate together, played together, and were largely home-educated together, though the tutor adjusted the curriculum to the appropriate age level. Choosing the right tutor was critical; children spent the better part of most days with their tutor, who also participated in the social life of the family and shared the family table. The curriculum was gendered; while the boys wrestled with Sallust and Cicero, girls studied the social graces and perfected their domestic skillsets. The difference is perhaps best encapsulated in a letter from Stratford-educated Alice Lee to her daughter Nancy Shippen: “Needlework is a most important branch of female education, and tell me how you have improved in holding your head and shoulders, in making a curtsy, in going out or coming into a room, in giving and receiving, holding your knife and fork, walking and setting. These things contribute so much to a good appearance that they are of great importance.” [Alice Lee Shippen to Nancy Shippen, 22 September 1777]. Alice was adrift of countervailing currents on the question of women’s education, which began to favor more practical than ornamental learning for late colonial/early Republican women. With the exception of Francis Lightfoot Lee and William Lee, who completed their schooling at Stratford, the other Lee boys finished their educational round at an English grammar school, a rough equivalent of our secondary schools but with a classics-rooted curriculum designed to produce a gentleman agent of the British empire. Afterward, steeped in Latin and Greek, one might take a degree in law or medicine, where those languages still had practical value. By the mid-18th century the core grammar school curriculum adapted to the rise of a new commercial class who required modern language instruction and commercial subjects.   

Lacking a local alternative of comparable quality, elites of Virginia colony boarded their boys at one of the many excellent grammar schools of the mother country, though the modest trickle of American students to British schools dried up at the dawn of the Revolution and for some time after. Several overseas academies advertised for students in the Virginia Gazette:

"At the Academy in Leeds, Which is pleasantly situated in the county of York in England, Young Gentlemen are genteely boarded, and diligently instructed in English. the Classicks, Modern Languages, Penmanship, Arithmetick, Merchants Accounts, Mathematicks, Modern Geography, Experimental Philosophy, and Astronomy, for twenty guineas per annum, if under twelve years of age, by Mr. AARON GRIMSHAW, and able masters. Drawing, Musick, and Dancing, are extra charges. Due regard is paid to the young Gentlemens health, morals, and behaviour."

Well-to-do merchant Richard Ambler of Yorktown, Virginia shipped his sons to the mother country for schooling. In August 1748, Richard wrote to his sons, Neddy and Johnny, then students at the Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth at Wakefield in Yorkshire, urging them to: 

"[A]cquire such an Education as may set you above the common level & Drudgery of Life. You are now entering into Years which well enable you to reflect, that many Children capable of learning, are condemn’d to the necessity of Labouring hard, for want of ability in their Parents to give them an Education. You cannot therefore, sufficiently adore the Divine Providence who has placed your Parents above the lower class and thereby enabled them to be at the expence of giving you such an Education …[which] will preserve you in the same Class & Rank among mankind [Richard and Eliza Ambler to Neddy and Johnny, 1 August 1748]."

Richard Ambler wanted his young sons to be reflective about their privilege, its tendency to roll down hill, and its serendipity. Neddy and Johnny should thank their lucky stars. 

In a letter from April 1748, the Amblers’ maternal aunt informs the boys that “Two of Colonel Lee’s sons have been inoculated and are coming to Wakefield to go to your school” [Martha Jaquelin, 28 April 1748]. Col. Lee is Thomas Lee of Stratford, whose own education included ill-reputed William & Mary, an educational experience he did not think to recommend to his 6 sons. As late as July 1772, one of those sons, Richard Henry Lee, wrote to his brother William in London, soliciting advice about where to place his two boys, Thomas and Ludwell: “education is much cheaper obtained in England, than in any part of America, our College excepted. But there, so little attention is paid either to the learning, or the morals of boys that I never could bring myself to think of William & Mary.” 

Richard Henry finally shipped his sons Thomas and Ludwell off to St. Bees, a school on the coast of West Cumbria, around 250 miles north of London, and set aside 30 pounds sterling per annum per boy {which he insisted was as much as he could afford], or around $15,000 dollars today adjusted for inflation, a sum which would cover their tuition, room and board, and clothing. The boys were monitored by their uncles Arthur and William, who lived in London. In December 1775, uncle William recommended several subjects of study including French and Dancing (the latter especially important for contact with young women), important books to be read like John Locke’s Two Treatises of Civil Government,and he sent them this encouragement: “I am sure you have both too much sense, to regret the time which is spent in obtaining learning & knowledge; remember always, that until you are 20 or 21 years old at least you must be laying in a stock of learning that is to last you, your whole lives” [William Lee to Thomas and Ludwell Lee, 30 December 1775]. Education was a privilege and an opportunity not to be squandered, for it wouldn’t come round again.  

Richard Henry loved to recount an anecdote about Ludwell from his time at St Bees. A visitor to St Bees asked a Professor about a student standing nearby, ‘What boy is this?’ To which, the Professor replied, ‘He is a son of Richard Henry Lee, of America.’ Turning to Ludwell and placing a hand on his hand, the visitor said, ‘We shall yet see your father’s head on Tower Hill.’ Ludwell answered, ‘You may have it when you can get it!’ Richard Henry handed down to his boys the educational opportunity his parents provided him. The deepening conflict between the Colonies and Britain saw the boys take leave of St Bees and shelter with their patriot uncles who by 1776 had relocated to France. Thomas would later take a law degree at the Middle Temple, and Ludwell would complete his legal studies with Virginia jurist George Wythe at the much improved William & Mary. 

Of the two sons of Colonel Lee who joined the Ambler boys at Wakefield academy in 1748, we can be certain only that one of them was future revolutionary Richard Henry Lee, then 16 years old. Richard Henry and the other Lee boy were still at Wakefield in August 1750 when their presence was noted in the diary of Colonel William Beverly [of Blandfield] of Essex County, Va, who was scouting Wakefield for his own sons. 1750 was a momentous year for the Stratford Lees: Stratford matriarch Hannah died in late January, a loss compounded by the death in November of Colonel Thomas Lee, Stratford founder and acting Governor of Virginia colony. 3 perhaps 4 of Thomas and Hannah’s 6 sons were studying in England when their parents died. Eldest son and Stratford heir Philip Ludwell Lee cut short his law studies at the Inner Temple, returning to Virginia in April 1752. At the time of their father’s death, Thomas Ludwell Lee was further along at the Inner Temple than Philip. Tom stayed in London to complete his degree and was called to the bar in November 1752. Future revolutionary and statesman Richard Henry Lee was a teenager, and he elected to return with Philip to Virginia, where he took up residence at Stratford for almost a decade until he was able to build his own home, Chantilly, on property leased from his older brother, Colonel Phil, as his siblings now called him.  

The rich tapestry of school days abroad included a steep increase in knowledge and confidence, excursions to parts near and distant, the development of new social networks and nurture of old ones, dances and sometimes romance.  Most of us can recall from our school days an affair of the heart that left us distressed, despondent, and dispirited. Richard Henry’s departure from Wakefield left behind at least one broken heart (the other he likely carried home with him). We learn of this only indirectly in a letter from an E. Porteus, a family name with strong contingents in Yorkshire, England and Tidewater Virginia. The letter is dated October 19, 1751 and addressed to Edward ‘Neddy’ Ambler, who was a friend of Tom Lee and a school chum of Richard Henry’s at Wakefield:

"Sir, Last post Colonel Lee wrote to us all at our house about the affair between his Brother and my daughter. You will be surprised when I tell you that the affair between the two young people is at an end. Colonel Lee wrote me a long letter and tells me he has so great an esteem for my daughter he cannot agree to a match which must be very bad for her, as his Brother’s fortune will only maintain him alone when he is of age and he must go into some business to improve it which will be some years before that comes about." 

Colonel Lee here is twenty-four year old Col. Phil, the new master of Stratford still in England settling his father’s accounts. The subject of the Porteus letter to Neddy Ambler is 19 year old Richard Henry Lee and the daughter of E Porteus. Length of courtship varied from weeks to years, but the courtship between Richard Henry and Miss Porteus had advanced far enough to trouble his legal guardian Col. Phil, who decides to intervene in the relationship before promises are made. His objection to the match stems from Phil’s assessment of his younger brother’s finances, specifically, his inheritance, which is neither liquid (being tied up in land) nor available to him until his father’s estate has been settled and he reaches the majority age of 21.

"The coll ixpresses so much regard [for] her in all his letters that he whould be very unhappy & thought very unjust if he did not indever to prevent what wod be her destruction & begs I will insist on it being put an end [to] …"

The two teens had corresponded and possibly exchanged tokens of affection.   

"When you read this letter and once think what Miss Porteus has to say to you before you go to London surely you cannot refuse her tears and what she has to say to you we cannot write and she has some thing of consequence to send to poor Dickie Lee, therefore begs you will spare her one night to be with us …and we will let you see Colonel Lee’s letters which will make you amazed and not in my power to express to you what he has wrote to us all about his Brother and his Fortune. "

The Porteus family was “surprised” by this turn of events and likely by Phil’s candor about poor Dickie’s state of play. What was this thing Miss Porteus wished to return to Dickie? Perhaps his prior correspondence or perhaps some hitherto cherished token of affection. What kind of token? It needn’t have been extravagant or extraordinary, but may have been an ordinary object, a button or a bottle of jasmine–what mattered was that the object had been selected to convey affection and presence even when separated. With their romantic entanglement now at an end, Miss Porteus seeks to conclude the relationship with the ritual return of the physical debris of the relationship and a ‘last word,’ perhaps a request for the return of her favors. This will enable both parties to reintroduce themselves into society, once more to play the game of love in pursuit of a spouse. 

"As Miss Porteus is near me & begs if you have the least value for her you will see her before you go to London as she has something to say to you to tell Dick Lee…, as she does not think to write to him again. Upon my honor we have thought to send by you to him … with your power to keep Dickie Lee in England for many reasons I can give you …  You can not lose much time Miss Porteus begs so much to see you as the dear friend of Dickie Lee's, I hardly know what to say only that few young men would deny a young lady's request on an affair of such consequence to her."

We have no record of Neddy Ambler stopping at Helperby in North Yorkshire to receive Miss Porteus’ ‘last word,’ though surely this E. Porteus left him little choice in the matter, for the “few young men” who would “deny” such a request were implicitly of no account. We know neither what her ‘last word’ was nor how Richard Henry felt about his brother’s intervention, though Col Phil was within his rights as a guardian to refuse the relationship (a refusal he framed in the polite language of concern and esteem for Miss Porteus). And what were the many reasons E Porteus had to keep Dickie Lee in England? Did he fear damage to his daughter’s reputation? Did he seek to undo the reason for her pain and distress? What story would you construct to fill in the blanks? Future discoveries may enlighten us, but this particular piece of correspondence reminds us that not all romance, a rich accessory to school days, ends at the altar. Rather than being the first footfall on the inevitable march to matrimony, many courtships were transient, short-lived, and harrowing for the folks involved.

Six years later in 1757 Richard Henry married his first wife, Anne Aylett, mother to Thomas and Ludwell who later attended St Bees. His relationship with Col Phil was ever choppy. Sibling relationships were often the longest relationships folks had in the 18th century. And sibling relationships could provide a welcome counterbalance to larger hierarchical relations of power, but Phil’s oafish mismanagement of their father’s estate (which lasted decades) and his whimsical attention to the legacies owed to his siblings left him alienated from sibling camaraderie and warmth. Even the mild-mannered Francis Lightfoot Lee remarked, “I really fear he has lost sight of all good principles.” Francis, sister Alice, and brothers William and Arthur successfully petitioned to transfer guardianship from Phil to their cousin, Henry Lee II. And, excepting Hannah, his remaining siblings (including Richard Henry) sued Col Phil in Chancery court over the disposition of their father’s legacies.  

Outro  

Sound effects courtesy of Pixabay
Music is William Ross Chernoff's "In Shadows"
AI voices courtesy of Play.ht (except Dr. Steffey)

© Dr. Gordon Blaine Steffey, 2024

A note on the 2 Lees at Wakefiled: The likeliest candidates for the other Lee at Wakefield are (a) Thomas Ludwell Lee, who was admitted to study law at the Inner Temple on 11 August 1748, which puts him in London, some 250 miles distant from Wakefield; Tom was also a friend to Edward Ambler, with whom he undertook a walking tour of Scotland and England in 1751 [See Thomas Ludwell Lee to Edward Ambler, 3 January 1751]; (b) Philip Ludwell Lee, who must already have been in England, reportedly at Eton (though no evidence survives), and who was admitted to study law at the Inner Temple on 1 December 1749, or (c) Arthur Lee, by far the most precocious intellect of all the Lee siblings, and who is enrolled at Eton shortly after the death of his father, certainly by 1753. John Ambler is admitted to the Inner Temple only 3 days after Tom is called to the bar on 24 November 1752.