William Steadman, Little Horton, to Richard Fawcett, Esq., Horton Lane, for the Committee of the Woodhouse Grove Seminary, 16 February 1816.       

To the Committee of the Woodhouse Grove Seminary

Gentlemen

         With respect to the business on which you condescended to employ me, I beg leave to make the following Report.

         M.r Crowther appears to me well qualified for the situation he fills. With much pleasure I heard him read, in a very masterly style, without any mistake, or scarcely any hesitation, portions of Virgil, Horace, Cicero, the Greek Testament, & Homer, selected by myself on the spot, and of which selections he w[o]uld not therefore have had the least previous intimation. His Latin version of Knox’s 72nd Essay I have perused with all the care and attention I am capable of and find to be correct both in construction and spelling, and also to be expressed in as classical latin, as the Subject would well admit of, & could reasonably be expected from a person who had not been very much questioned to write on that language. I do not expect to see its equal soon.

         The pupils went through their exercises as well as I could reasonably expect, while at the same time their performances left sufficient room for improvement. The first class did well; the inferior classes moderately well. The different capacities of the pupils together with the different spaces of time they may have spent in their application to the latin and Greek, sufficiently account for the deficiencies of any of them, without the imputation of neglect to their tutor.

         Were I to suggest any improvement in the plan of education, it should be what I took the liberty of mentioning to M.r Crowther, that of introducing some of the lesser classics, such as Eutropius, Nepos, Justin &c prior to the pupils proceeding to Virgil and Horace; to which I would have added had it then occurred to my recollection, and submitted it to M.r C—s consideration, that the use of literal translations, such as those of Clark and Davidson, would very much facilitate and expedite the learning of the Latin tongue; whilst a little care and attention on the part of the tutor would sufficiently guard the pupils against the abuse of such assistances.

         Of M.r Parker, as he declined an examination, I can say but little. His Latin epistle written partly with design to be a specimen of his proficiency in that language, has certainly many blunders in it, in the voice and syntax, whilst in some instances it shews him to have attained to a considerable degree of knowledge of the peculiarities of the Latin tongue. I would willingly have imputed the mistakes to the haste with which his letter must have been composed, and therefore wished him, when I saw him the day following the examination, to write another letter, with more attention, & favour me with a sight of it; but as I have not yet rec.d any such communication, I can say nothing farther on the subject.

                                             I am

                                                      Gentleman

                                                               Yours very respectfully

                                                                                 W. Steadman

Little Horton

Feb. 16. 1816

Text: MAM. PLP. 100.9.8, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. 

Apparently Steadman had tested the pupils at the Seminary in Greek and Latin and was reporting on the results of the proceedings to the overseeing committee. Woodhouse Grove Seminary, near Bradford, was established in 1812 for the purpose of educating the sons of Methodist ministers. The school still exists as a preparatory school for students between the ages of eleven and eighteen. Richard Fawcett, Esq., was a wealthy Methodist layman who would later occupy two country estates—Westbrook-House, in the township of Great Horton, 2 miles from Bradford, and Acacia Cot, in the township and parish of Guiseley, 4 miles from Bradford. Jonathan Crowther (1794-1856) was headmaster at Woodhouse Grove (1814-16) and at Kingswood (1823-25). James Davidson (1732-1809) authored A Short Introduction to Latin Grammar for the Use of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia(Philadelphia, 1783), as well as a translation of Ovid (1790). Latin texts by John Clarke (1637-1734) that were widely reprinted throughout the eighteenth century include  Historiae Phillippicae: . . . , or, The History of Justin (8th ed., 1780), Introduction to the Making of Latin (1721), A New Grammar of the Latin Tongue  (1733),  and A Dissertation upon the Usefulness of Translations of Classick Authors (1734). See Thomas Langdale, A Dictionary of Yorkshire: Containing the Names of All the Towns, Villages, Hamlets, Gentlemen’s Seats, &c. in the County of York (Northallerton: J. Langdale, 1822), 433, 211; Thomas Steadman, ed., Memoir of the Rev. William Steadman, D.D. (London: Thomas Ward, 1838), 253-54.