The Governor's Academy (informally known as Governor's) is a co-educational, college-preparatory day and boarding school in Byfield, Massachusetts. Established in 1763 in memory of Massachusetts governor William Dummer, Governor's is the oldest boarding school in New England.
Governor's educates approximately 400 students in grades 9–12, 70% of whom live on campus. Its 456 acres (1.85 km2) campus is 33 miles (53 km) north of Boston.
In 1763, the Dummer Charity School was founded in memory of William Dummer (d. 1761), who served as the acting governor of Massachusetts from 1723 to 1728.[3] A widower with no children,[3][4] Dummer bequeathed his family farm in Byfield, MassachusettstoCharles Chauncy, Thomas Foxcroft, and Nathaniel Dummer with instructions to establish a "Free Grammar School."[5] The school opened in March 1763 with 28 boys and Samuel Moody as the first preceptor (headmaster).[6] Byfield residents attended the school for free until 1837.[7]
Governor's is the oldest boarding school in New England and the third-oldest boarding school in the United States, after Maryland's West Nottingham Academy and Pennsylvania's Linden Hall.[8] At times, the academy has billed itself as the oldest continuously operating boarding school in the United States.[9][10] However, it temporarily shut down several times, including in 1790 and 1819.[11]
Dummer School was founded to prepare students for college. Although William Dummer was not a college graduate, his brother Jeremiah attended Harvard and provided important early support to Yale.[12] William foresaw a need for college-preparatory schools in outlying areas, particularly in Essex County; most prep schools at the time were concentrated near Boston. Under Moody, two-thirds of Dummer students commuted to campus from nearby communities.[13]
However, the more historically notable aspect of Dummer School was its boarding program. For the first 15 years of Dummer School's existence, it was the only boarding school in Massachusetts.[13] It was "the first school of its kind in America" to operate on-campus residential facilities for boarders,[14] who comprised the remaining one-third of the student body and lived in Governor Dummer's old mansion.[13] (Today, "Mansion House" serves as the headmaster's residence and plays a regular role in student life.)
The curriculum focused on instruction in Latin, Greek, and the classics, with supplemental teaching in sacred studies, basic math, and English. Universities considered classical studies integral preparation for college until the turn of the twentieth century.[15] From 1768 to 1790 (when Moody retired), the Dummer School educated 128 (25.5%) of Harvard's 501 graduates.[16]
The Dummer School lost its monopoly on both Essex County and Massachusetts in 1778, when Dummer alumnus Samuel Phillips founded Phillips AcademyinAndover. The Phillips Academy historian wrote that Phillips wanted to found a more distinctly sectarian (Calvinist) institution, in contrast to Dummer, where religion was not "a central part" of student life.[17]
In October 1782, the school received a corporate charter, which renamed the institution to Dummer Academy.[5] (The academy formally adopted the name Governor Dummer Academy in 1950.[18]) During the early republican era, the term "academy" typically signaled an institution's intention to broaden the academic curriculum beyond Latin and Greek.[14] However, Dummer Academy did not formally establish a non-classical course of study until 1837, and the director of the "English Department" resigned in 1842.[19]
To help raise money, an alumni association was established in 1822.[20]Henry Durant (p. 1849-52) ran the school for two (according to the school historian, unsuccessful) years, after which he moved to California and founded the University of California.[21]
By the time of the school's centennial in 1863, the Dummer Academy had grown into a well known 19th-century prep school that catered mostly to children from affluent families who aspired to the Ivy League. By the turn of the 20th century, however, the school had fallen on hard times, with enrollment and income down, as the school struggled under the shadow of Andover and Exeter, and other schools that had grown to become very well known and prestigious.
In 1908, Dr. Charles Ingham became headmaster and launched great efforts to revive the academy. As a result, Dummer Academy became stabilized and began to again thrive as a premier New England prep school that sent over a third of its graduates to Ivy League colleges during that period. Upon Dr. Ingham's retirement in 1930, Edward "Ted" Eames became headmaster, a post he held for 30 years.
With limited exceptions, the school educated only boys until 1972.
In December 2005, the board of trustees voted to change the business name of the academy to The Governor's Academy (its legal name remains Governor Dummer Academy). A marketing company had found that the name "Dummer" was deterring prospective students from applying.[22] According to the Washington Post, the school's name was frequently "fodder for all manner of insulting puns."[23] Some students and alumni resisted the change, questioning why the academy should let "shallow" teenage jokes supersede tradition.[22][24]
From 2017 to 2024, Governor's has been conducting a large-scale fundraising campaign, which seeks to raise $100 million, including $23 million to support financial aid.[25]
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(November 2015)
Wentworth Cheswell (1765), the first African American elected to public office in the United States
Samuel Tenney, scholar, judge, physician/surgeon who treated wounded at the Battle of Bunker Hill, attached to the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, encamped at Valley Forge, PA, designated acting Surgeon General of the Army by General Washington, delegate to New Hampshire's Constitutional Convention, U.S. congressman
Sir David Ochterlony, American "Tory" officer in the British Army who served in India from 1777 until his death in 1825, rising to the rank of general while helping to consolidate British colonial rule there
Joseph Willard, President of Harvard University (1781–1804)
Samuel Webber, President of Harvard University (1806–1810)
Parker Cleaveland (1795), professor of mineralogy at Bowdoin College, leading early American authority on this subject, known as the "Father of American Mineralogy"
Reuben D. Mussey, Jr. (1846), Brig. Gen. USA, later private secretary to President Andrew Johnson, professor at Howard University Law School; he married Ellen Spencer Mussey, who became one of the first female attorneys in the District of Columbia and who was leading suffragist. She also became a founder of the Washington College of Law.
John W. Candler, member of Congress from Massachusetts during the 1880s
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