This morning I want to tell you about my Osher class that starts at 9:30 today. It’s about the Bray School Initiative, a joint venture of William & Mary and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. The Williamsburg Bray School Initiative will use the Bray School as a focal point for research, scholarship and dialogue regarding the interconnected, often troubled, legacy of race, religion and education in Williamsburg and in America.
Williamsburg's Bray School was established in 1760 by The Associates of Dr. Bray, an Anglican charity based in England, at the recommendation of Benjamin Franklin and with support from William & Mary’s president and rector of Bruton Parish Church, Reverend Thomas Dawson. During the School’s operation (1760-1774), its sole teacher, Ann Wager, educated almost 400 free and enslaved African American children. The school’s faith-based curriculum justified slavery; yet their practice of literacy seeded agency. The Bray School’s origins and mission provide a unique perspective on the role of religion, philanthropy, and education in both perpetuating slavery and attempting to address its consequences.
The Bray School building was lost for centuries, and most people thought it had probably been torn down over the years. But analysis conducted by Colonial Williamsburg in 2020 confirmed that the Bray School was housed in a structure previously located at 524 Prince George Street on the William & Mary campus. The building, now known as the Bray-Digges House, originally stood near the corner of Prince George and North Boundary streets, where a Virginia Department of Historic Resources marker commemorating the school was unveiled in early 2019. In February 2023, the Bray-Digges House was relocated to Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area at 331 Francis Street West, where it will become the 89th original structure restored by the foundation. This short video documents the move.
It is next door to the site of the First Baptist Church on Nassau Street in Colonial Williamsburg, which was founded in secret by free and enslaved African Americans in 1776. Together, these two sites will provide the foundation for expanding historical interpretation to include African-Americans, who made up 50% of the population in Williamsburg in the 18th century.
The Bray School Initiative is currently engaged in three projects:
The Bray School Legacy project is focused on uncovering, documenting, and disseminating the hidden stories of the Bray School students and teachers, and surrounding communities. This includes documenting the descendant community – people whose ancestors attended the Bray School – through oral history.
Through its focus on the history of African American Education, the Bray School researchers will study African Americans’ access to education and the legacies thereof.
A third focus is on African American culture, exploring its various facets and its impact on economic development, higher education, policy implications, and other elements of Williamsburg and William & Mary community life.
This elementary school has a story to tell as well. It is named after 9-year-old Matthew Whaley, whose grave can be found in the churchyard of Bruton Parish Church. His backstory is poignant and interesting. The only child of James and Mary Page Whaley, he attended the small grammar school his mother had in the family's backyard. Young Mattey died at the age of nine in 1705 and was buried in the churchyard of Bruton Parish Church where his tomb still stands. James Whaley, his father, died three years later in 1708 and was buried alongside Mattey. In the boy's memory, Mrs. Whaley established a free school for the poor. It had a schoolhouse, a master's house, and a stable. Mrs. Whaley left for England, entrusting the school's management to the Bruton Parish Church wardens. She died 34 years later in 1742, leaving a legacy to support the institution. A 1766 advertisement in the Virginia Gazette showed the school still existed. According to Lyon G. Tyler's "Grammar and Mattey Practice Model School" published in the William & Mary Quarterly: "I have seen persons who well remember this establishment, though it ceased to exist about the period when the Revolutionary War closed. "
By 1865, the buildings had disappeared based on an affidavit of William & Mary President Benjamin S. Ewell. After the American Civil War, the English court wrote to the Bruton Parish wardens regarding Mrs Whaley's trust. The wardens referred the matter to William & Mary. Since the college had a grammar school with the objective of teaching the "neediest children of the parish of Bruton", Mrs. Whaley's trust was transferred to William & Mary.
The name of the grammar school was changed to "Grammar and Mattey School" and teaching was begun in the Brafferton Building in October 1867. In 1870, the William & Mary Board of Visitors erected a brick schoolhouse on a lot where once the Governor's Palace stood.
In July 1873, the school was leased to the town authorities for a free school. This connection was dissolved in July 1894 and the Board of the college reorganized it as a Model and Practice School for William & Mary students to "observe the actual fact of teaching.”
When the Rockefeller Foundation began the extensive effort to restore and rebuild Colonial Williamsburg in the 1920s, one of the things they wanted to do was rebuild the Governor’s Palace, which had burned during the 1781 siege of Yorktown. Matthew Whaley School was built on the site where the Governor’s Palace had stood; it later became the high school for the city. The City of Williamsburg approved rebuilding the palace on the site where the school had stood in exchange for the Rockefeller Foundation building a new school adjacent to the Palace grounds. This new school later became the elementary school named for the little boy from 300 years ago.
The Osher class, called The History and Legacies of the Williamsburg Bray School (1760-1774), is being taught by three people who work for the Bray School Initiative, including a genealogist who is working to find living descendants of the children who attended the Bray School. I am particularly interested in meeting her because later this week I’ll be participating in a program for the City of Newport News focusing on doing genealogy research in this part of Virginia. The people sponsoring the program are interested not only in general guidance about doing genealogical research but also specifically in researching African-American family history. I don’t have any experience in that type of research, so I’m hoping that the presenters for today’s class will be able to give me some pointers.
I hope the class was helpful, Karen.
Am so glad you covered Bray School today! I have been fascinated by its story and learned a lot from you. (Think of how many of our friends did their student teaching at Matthew Whaley!). Two things I want to tell you:
1) I am embarrassed to tell you how many times I walked past that building in 1968-69, when I lived practically next door, and had no idea what it was! I suspect I am not alone in that.
2) Two classmates (and friends) of ours have been generous financial supporters of the moving and renovation of the School - Gale and Steve Kohlhagen. They have not tooted their horn about it, and might not appreciate my telling you, but I am so damn proud of their having taken this on.
So, hoorah for the Bray School and its rebirth. I can hardly wait for the tour.