New Hampton School Revenue and Competitors

Forty-six private institutions of learning were chartered in the State of New Hampshire between 1781, when the first privately endowed school was established at Exeter, and 1830, when the first public school was established at Portsmouth. New Hampton was one. On June 27, 1821, William B. Kelley, Nathaniel Norris, and seventeen associates received a charter for New Hampton Academy in order to provide a general secondary educational for local boys and girls and for others who wished to board. By September 17, 1821, when the first term began, the construction of a 24 x 32-foot frame building — heated by an open fireplace, furnished with unpainted seats and desks, and containing no library, no equipment, and no blackboards — was almost completed. More than 50 students enrolled that fall (at $3.00 tuition per term), about one third of them Boston boys who boarded with townspeople (for $1.00 to $1.38 per week).