10 
INTRODUCTION. 
North Salem Academy in Westchester, were established in 1790. Montgomery 
Academy, then in Ulster but now in Orange county, was incorporated in 1791. 
Dutchess Academy at Poughkeepsie, and Union Hall in Queens county, received 
their charters in 1792. In 1820, the number of academies subject to the visitation 
of the regents had risen to 30; in 1830, to 55 ; in 1841, to 127; and the number 
at this time is 131. In 1820, the number of pupils in all the academic institutions 
was 2,218 ; in 1830, 3,735 ; in 1840, 10,881; and the present number is 11,306* 
The income of the public literature fund distributed to the several academies in 
1820, was two thousand five hundred dollars, being in the proportion ol three 
dollars and ninety three cents to each pupil pursuing classical studies; in 1830, it 
was ten thousand dollars, or five dollars to every such pupil; and the amount now 
annually distributed is forty thousand dollars, being about three dollars and 
seventy-eight cents for every such pupiLf 
No especial public patronage was bestowed upon female education until 1821, 
when the legislature incorporated the Albany Female Academy, and conferred 
upon it a donation of one thousand dollars. A law of 1827, increasing the litera¬ 
ture fund and extending to scholars in the higher branches of English education 
the advantages before enjoyed exclusively by those pursuing classical studies, 
resulted in admitting to a participation in the benefits of that fund, institutions 
devoted either entirely or in part to the education of females. The number of 
female pupils who, at the time that law was passed, enjoyed the benefits of aca¬ 
demic instruction under the sanction of the regents, was one hundred and fifteen; 
the number at the present time is fifteen hundred and seventy. Institutions ex¬ 
clusively devoted to female education, and subject to the visitation of the regents, 
have been founded in Albany, Canandaigua, Poughkeepsie, Troy, Schenectady, 
Utica, Batavia, Rochester, New-York, Auburn, Le Roy, Fulton and Albion. In 
these institutions, instruction is given in arithmetic, algebra, botany, Biblical anti- 
* Minutes of the Regents of the University. 
t Notes concerning colleges and academies were received from Gideon Hawley, L.L.D. 
