Case 4: The Beginnings of the Academy at George-Town

15. Proceedings of the General Chapter in the Year 1786. " Resolves concerning the

Institution of a School"

These minutes record the decision to proceed to establish the school proposed by Carroll.

16. T. Digges, J. Ashton, C. Sewall, Sylv. Boarman, and J. Carroll. To the Reverend

Gentlemen of the Southern District. February, 1787

Not all favored the establishment of a school. In this reply the proponents argue: "The schools of the Society in Europe were not calculated merely to supply its order with members, or the Church with ministers, but to diffuse knowledge, promote virtue & serve Religion. This is just the end we propose by our school, & tho' no members should take to the Church, we conceive this end alone well worth our most earnest concurrence, since it is the object of our dayly labours & the establishment of this Mission."

17. The residence at Whitemarsh, Prince Georges County, Maryland. Silver albumen

print, ca. 1880

Site of the meetings of the general chapter of the clergy which approved the establishment of a school.

18. To all liberally inclined to promote the education of youth [ Baltimore? 1786?]

19. Proposals for establishing an academy [Baltimore? 1786?]

Carroll's letter of authorization for fund-raising and his Proposals were the first public notices of the proposed academy; the copies displayed were sent to Edward Weld of Lulworth, Dorset, March 30, 1787.

20. T. Cook. Right Reverend John. Bishop of the Catholic Church in the United

States. Baltimore: 1805

21. John Carroll to Rev. Charles Plowden, Maryland, March 1, 1788

"We shall begin the building of our Academy this summer. In the beginning, we shall confine our plan to a house of 63 or 64 feet by 50, on one of the most lovely situations that imagination can frame. It will be three stories high, exclusive of the offices under the whole. Do not forget to give and procure assistance. On this academy is built all my hope of permanency, and success to our H. Religion in the United States."

22. H. Carlile. Estimate for College... [no date]

The estimate and contract for the construction of the original building of the college.

23. [Old South] Engraving [1889?]

The original building stood on the south side of the quadrangle. It was demolished for the construction of the Ryan dormitory in 1904.

24. John Carroll to Rev. Charles Plowden, Maryland, January 22-February 28, 1787

"You will observe that the perfection of this plan requires great exertions; and in particular demands persons of considerable ability for the conduct of the academy."

25. Lulworth Castle in Dorsetshire, the Seat of Humphrey Weld, Esqr. Publish'd

as the Act directs April 1st 1785 by W. Watts, Chelsea

View of the site of the consecration of John Carroll as first Bishop of Baltimore and residence of Rev. Charles Plowden. The correspondence of Carroll and Plowden is one of the chief sources for the history of Anglo-American Catholicism in the period.