James Innes, who came to
America from Canisbay, Caithness, in 1734, by his will gave his
plantation, a considerable personal estate, his library, and one
hundred pounds "for the use of a free school for the benefit of the
youth of North Carolina," the first private bequest for education in
the state. One of the first public acts of Gabriel Johnston,
Provincial Governor of North Carolina (1734-52), was to insist upon
the need of making adequate provision for a thorough school system in
the colony. Out of the host of names which present themselves in this
field of public service we have room only for the following:
James Blair (1656-1743), born in Edinburgh, was the chief founder and
first President of William and Mary College, and Mungo Inglis was the
first Grammar Master there till 1712. Francis Alison (1705-99), an
Ulster Scot educated in Glasgow, was Vice-Provost of the College of
Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania. David Rhind, tutor
of John Rutledge, "an excellent classical scholar, and one of the most
successful of the early instructors of youth in Carolina," was of
Scottish birth. The tutor of Thomas Jefferson was also a Scot. Samuel
Finley (1715-66), born in Armagh of Scots ancestry, S.T.D. of Glasgow
University, 1763, was President of the College of New Jersey, and one
of the ancestors of Samuel Finley Breese Morse, inventor of the Morse
system of telegraphy. In educational work in the eighteenth century no
name stands higher than that of William Smith (1727-1803), born in
Aberdeen, first Provost of the College of Philadelphia.
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