Education. 143 



PRIVATE SCHOOLS. 



Any enumeration of the private schools in Hingham would be 

 very imperfect, since they have been subjects only of incidental 

 record or personal recollection. 



Among the buildings of the town, however, well known and 

 often spoken of, was Willard Academy. This was upon Main 

 Street, between the Old Meeting-house and the present dwelling- 

 house of Mr. Henry Siders. It was built in 1831 by an associa- 

 tion of thirteen gentlemen for the special purpose of providing 

 accommodations for the private school kept by Rev. Samuel Wil- 

 lard, D. D., and Mr. Luther B. Lincoln. The building may be 

 seen at the left of one of the engravings of the Old Meeting-house 

 drawn by Mr. William Hudson. According to the records of the 

 proprietors, it seems to have been occupied for private schools 

 some six or seven years, after which it was occupied for mechan- 

 ical and mercantile purposes. The records of the proprietors end 

 in 1841. The Hingham Patriot gives the following account of the 

 burning of the building : — 



"Last Monday evening [Jan. 18, 1847], at 10 o'clock p. m., Willard 

 Hall was burned. It was owned by J. Baker & Sons and Capt. Barnabas 

 Lincoln, and was occupied, in the lower story as a box factory, planing, 

 sawing, and turning steam-mill, by Capt. Job S. Whiton, and in the upper 

 as a weaving-room connected with the establishment of Baker & Sons. 

 The building in the rear, owned and occupied by J. Baker & Sons, used 

 to twist their long cords in, was also consumed. The houses of Mr. 

 Siders and Mr. Marsh were in great danger, also the Old Meeting-house." 



Some of the persons who kept schools in this building were 

 Messrs. Willard and Lincoln, Mr. Claudius Bradford, Miss Har- 

 riet Topliff, Misses Martha Ann and Mary H. Lincoln, and Miss 

 Deborah H. Wilder. 



The building originally built for an engine house on South Street, 

 a few rods west of Thaxter's Bridge, was occupied for some thirty 

 years, beginning about 1851, for a private school, and the number 

 of children who began their education there is very large. The 

 ladies who taught there or in the immediate vicinity successfully 

 and successively were Lucy P. Scarborough, M. Adelaide Price, 

 Adeline Whiton, and Elizabeth D. Bronsdon. 



Among others who have kept private schools in Hingham may 

 be mentioned as worthy of notice, Mrs. Butler, from about 1797 to 

 1800 ; Misses Elizabeth and Margaret dishing, for many years in 

 the early part of this century, their school being a boarding-school 

 of considerable renown, for young ladies from out of town ; Mr. 

 Winslow Turner, about 1827 to 1828 ; Miss Sophia Cushing about 

 1830 and later ; and in more recent years, Miss Mabel Hobart, in 

 the north part of the town ; Miss Mary W. Bates at Hingham 

 Centre ; and Mrs. J. W. Dukes of the " Keble School." 



