History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

180 HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON. [1748.
the following April. This was in addition to the salary,
which amounted to £60 for the half year. No vote appears
ordering any such change, and there is nothing to sliow by
what authority it was made. Possibly the rapid depreciation
in value of Bills of Credit had something to do with
the matter. From that time, similar payments were made
annuall3^ applying to all sections of the town. It may be
surmised that this change affected the schoolmaster in
many ways. Not only was he benefited pecuniarily, but
his social standing was greatly improved by familiar association
with tlie families of the town's best citizens. Wliat-
-ever may have been his position previous to this action, he
certainly found a home afterwards in such households as
those of Col. Seth Pomeroy, Caleb Strong, Rev. Mr.
Hooker, Joseph Hawley, John Hunt and Thomas Allen.
Undoubtedly the society of these young men, most of them
college graduates, was much sought by the cultivated
among the inhabitants, especially when accompanied by an
occasional warrant upon the town treasury. In a letter
written to his wife during the campaign of 1755, Col. Pomeroy
sends his " service to Sr. Ely," meaning Richard Ely,
schoolmaster, then boarding in his family. The price
allowed varied from 4s., 4s. 8d., to 5s. per week.
scliools Were established in the so called
New Schools E s - Two
tabiished. outer districts, in 1743 ; five years afterwards
a still further extension was made,
and three more were provided, this time literally in ''the
remote parts of the town." In December, 1748, the town
voted that schools should be kept "for the instruction of
children in reading and writing, viz. : one upon the Plain,
•one over Mill River, one at Pascommuck, one at Bartlett's
Mill, and one at the new Precinct, at the cost of the town.''
The two first named were identical with those instituted
three years before, the others were new.
Improvements in Still further progress was in contemplation,
the Schools Sug- g^j-^j during the succeeding year another
gested. New o ./
School -House stcp in advauce was suggested. Early in
Ordered. 1749, a Committee consisting of Col. Timothy
Dwight, Mr. Joseph Hawley, and Samuel Mather, was