Preface.                    ix

      In July, 1694, Nicholson arrived in the Province. In September he

     summoned an Assembly to meet at St. Maries, and at once began to

     impress upon the members the importance of public education. He

     desired the doors of knowledge to be thrown open to the poor: the

     rich could open them for themselves; and what he wanted was a free

     school in every county. Our ancestors—with all respect to their

     memory—were a rather close-fisted generation, and this was a propo—

     sition to take their breath away. Ten counties—ten schoolhouses to

     be built—ten schoolmasters to be paid!

      But Nicholson was not the man to be turned from his purpose. He

     argued and pleaded with the Councillors and Burgesses. They would

     begin with one school at Severn. He would himself give more than

     anybody. He would pay sterling out of his own pocket at once,

     and L25 yearly as long as he held office. He would give his one-

     third of all vessels forfeited for violation of the navigation acts [see p.

     181]. In fine, he pushed and dragged and shamed them into liberality;

     and the Council and Burgesses at last loosened their purse-strings

     and contributed 45,000 pounds of tobacco toward building a school

     house and engaging a master. Indeed they thought they saw their

     way clear to two free schools, one at Severn for the Western, and one

     at Oxford for the Eastern Shore.

      Nicholson also turned his attention toward the insufficient provision

     for the clergy, whose condition in Maryland was, for the most part,

     deplorable, and urged the erection of a decent parsonage house with

     suitable glebe, in every parish; and with his usual liberality offered £5

     sterling out of his own pocket toward building each house, and to take

     on himself the expense of surveying the glebes. His zeal and

     generosity so impressed the Lower House, that they passed an

     address of thanks to him, which may be read in the Assembly pro

     ceedings.

      Another important act of his, in 1694, was to remove the seat of

     government from St. Maries to the new town on the Severn, called

     Anne Arundel, and afterwards Annapolis. It was a wise and indeed

     a necessary change. The centre of population had moved northward,

     and St. Maries was at the extrenie southern boundary, besides being

     unhealthy.

      In 1696 the desire of Nicholson's heart was fulfilled. An Act was

     passed providing for a free school at Annapolis to be called King

     William's School. The administration was to be vested in a Board of

     Trustees, with Nicholson at their head, incorporated as the Rectors,