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The leading men of the county were not disposed to be harsh in carrying out the laws of non-conformity against the Quakers, and although a few of them were fined, they generally met when and where they wished, and in 1699, their meeting houses were regularly licensed and the only complaint they had was that they were taxed to support the Established Church.

     There is no Quaker church in this county at the present time, but there is one not many miles from the line in the county of Southampton, once a part of this county.

     There are other churches in the county with an interesting history, but space will not admit of discussion as to them here. All of the churches in this county are hereunder named.

Episcopal: "Old Brick Church" and Christ church, at Smithfield.

Baptist: Mill Swamp, Smithfield, Windsor, Colosse, Beaver Dam, Central Hill,

Whitehead's Grove, and Battery Park.

Methodist: Benn's Smithfield, Uzzells, Bethel, Bethany, Windsor (Shiloh), and

Woodland.

Christian: Antioch ("On site of old "Isle of  Wight chapel," hereinabove referred to), Windsor, Mt. Carmel and Courthouse.

There are several colored churches of the Baptist, Methodist and Christian denomination scattered throughout the county.

Schools.

IN EARLY colonial times some little effort was made, by donations of pious individuals, to maintain a few free schools, separate and apart from the parochial schools which the ministers of the Established Church were required to teach or have taught in the parishes.

     At a meeting of Thomas Bennett's men, had the 7th of February, 1625, we find that Benjamin Sims, who came over in ___ ship, was present. This man was a survivor of the Indian massacre and lived in Isle of Wight, near the "Rocks." He afterwards moved to Elizabeth City county and, by his will, in 1634, provided for the first free school in America. Funds from this donation are still used in the conduct of the high school in Hampton, Virginia.

     In 1635 Captain John Moon, in his will, left to the overseer of the poor money and cattle for the clothing and schooling of poor children.

     In 1668 Henry King's will reads: "I give one hundred acres of land lieing and being next adjacent to Mr. England, to this Parish where I now live towards the maintenance of a free school."

     There is a small creek in the vicinity of "Ballace Marsh" called King's Creek and not far from it a farm called King's. Probably this Henry King lived in this section.

     In 1719 Rev. Thomas Bailey in a letter to the Bishop of London says: "There are four hundred families in my parish and four small free schools, taught by a Mr. Hunt, a Mr. Irons, a Mr. Gills and a Mr. Reynolds." Where these schools were located no one will ever know.

     In 1753 Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, the wife of Arthur Smith, who had recently had incorporated the town of Smithfield, purchased a lot and had built thereon a house twenty-eight feet by sixteen feet, in which should be taught six poor orphan children; the boys for three years and the girls for two years. The master was to receive twenty shillings and had the privilege of taking as many additional pupils as he might deem necessary.

     This good lady died in 1774 and by her will gave "one hundred and twenty pounds to the school for the teaching of six more indigent children." Colonel Byrd says she was a lady who had "copied Solomon's complete housewife exactly."

     This was the nucleus of a free school and remained as such for about twenty years when it became a private school at which many men of an elder generation of Smithfield were prepared for college and university education.

     This building was conveyed to the Masonic fraternity in 1788 and had been in continual use as a Masonic Lodge for one hundred and eighteen years, the next oldest building for that purpose in Virginia, the Lodge in Richmond, having been, three years prior to this, dedicated.

     These feeble efforts at public or free schools seem paltry, but there were good private schools in those days, nor were the people indifferent to the education of their children, for in almost all the old wills the testators made some provision or left some directions for their education.

     The usual plan adopted was for some rich or well-to-do man to build a school house, employ a teacher for the education of is own children and to invite his neighbors to send their children and to help defray the expenses.

     These early teachers, male and female, were generally from the Northern States, as the Southern youth, after the completion of their college education invariably rushed into the professions of law, medicine or politics; but these educators, from a section that we afterwards, for a time, learned to hate, were almost universally well trained, well prepared, conscientious and efficient teachers, and very man of them took the Southern view of the political situation of 1861 and remained with us during the war -- a war fated with many direful results to this Southland, but none more disastrous than the complete annihilation of every school.

     Immediately after the war, although its horrid devastation required every effort of the people to obtain a bare subsistence, efforts were made in many places to maintain private schools, the teachers being often partly paid in products of the farm; when, happily, for the moral good of the community and the salvation of the rising generation from almost complete ignorance, in 1870 the Public School System was adopted; which, at first, met with considerable opposition, largely on account of the necessity of providing schools for the negroes; but thanks to the inherent goodness of the people, a broader philanthropy prevailed and that feeling has happily perished.

     From the date of its adoption to the present there have been but three County Superintendents of Schools,

E. M. Morrison, for twelve years;

Wm. S. Holland, for four years,

and Dr. Gavin Rawles, the present incumbent.

     In May, 1871, the people of the county showed their approval of the new public school system by voting to levy a special capitation tax of fifty cents for the maintenance of their free schools.

     The intellectual status of its corps of teachers has gradually improved until it stands equal to that of any county of the State, which felicitous result has been gained by free scholarship in colleges and the training at normal schools.

     The county is divided into three school districts, which correspond to and bear the same name as the three Magisterial Districts, viz.: Newport, Hardy and Windsor; with the town of Smithfield as a separate district.

     The school population, white and colored, is four thousand three hundred and ninety-six; number schools, seventy. The amount expended annually for teachers' wages is fourteen thousand dollars. The length of the school term varies. In Smithfield it is nine months, in Windsor District it is eight months, and in Newport and Hardy Districts it is seven months. Smithfield, Windsor and Isle of Wight courthouse have each a high school, and in other parts of the county there are seven graded schools, in all of which some of the high school branches are taught.