Leicester Academy was founded on March 23, 1784, when the Act of Incorporation for Leicester Academy was passed by the

Massachusetts General Court The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from th ...

as a private, state chartered institution. The charter issued to the Academy bears the bold signature of

John Hancock John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of t ...

, Governor of Massachusetts; and

Samuel Adams Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, an ...

, President of the Senate. The Academy opened on June 7, 1784 on land donated by Jewish merchant Aaron Lopez in

Leicester, Massachusetts Leicester ( ) is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts. The population was 11,087 at the 2020 United States Census. History What is now Leicester was originally settled by the Nipmuc people and was known by them as ''Towtaid''. On January 27 ...

. Early trustees of the academy included

Rufus Putnam Brigadier-General Rufus Putnam (April 9, 1738 – May 4, 1824) was an American military officer who fought during the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. As an organizer of the Ohio Company of Associates, he was instrumenta ...

(who was also one of its principal benefactors), Moses Gill,

Levi Lincoln Sr. Levi Lincoln Sr. (May 15, 1749 – April 14, 1820) was an American revolutionary, lawyer, and statesman from Massachusetts. A Democratic-Republican, he most notably served as Thomas Jefferson's first attorney general, and played a significant ro ...

, Joseph Allen, Seth Washburn, Samuel Baker, and several clergymen of the area. The purpose of Leicester Academy was to promote piety and virtue; and for the education of youth in the English, Latin, Greek, and French languages, together with writing, arithmetic and the art of speaking. The first faculty consisted of two teachers—a principal and an English preceptor. When the school opened, there were three students, two from Sturbridge and one from Leicester. By the end of the school year, the number increased to twenty, and within two years, there were seventy-five students. Shortly after it was founded, Leicester Academy became coeducational, a very unusual situation during those times. Prior to his entering law school and election to Congress,

William Whitney Rice William Whitney Rice (March 7, 1826 – March 1, 1896) was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. Born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, Rice attended Gorham Academy, Maine, and graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in 1846. ...

served as an English preceptor at the Academy. Because of its excellent academics, Leicester Academy attracted students from all over Massachusetts and from several other states as well. Many of its early graduates became nationally known. Among them were

Samuel Crafts Samuel Chandler Crafts (October 6, 1768November 19, 1853) was a United States representative, Senator and the 12th governor of Vermont. Early life Born in Woodstock in the Colony of Connecticut, Crafts graduated from Harvard College in 1790 ...

, who was a Congressman and Governor of Vermont; Eli Whitney, the famous inventor;

Navy Secretary The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the s ...

David Henshaw, and others representing every walk of life. In 1856, a compulsory education law was passed in Massachusetts, which caused Leicester and other surrounding towns to establish a public high school. This caused such a decrease in the academy's enrollment such that, in 1867, the town's high school was combined with Leicester Academy and town funds were used to support the institution. At the fourth Constitutional Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1917, an anti-aid amendment prohibited public funding of any privately owned school or college. After this amendment was ratified by vote the people, the trustees of Leicester Academy gave up the academy and leased a building to the Town of Leicester for the high school. In 1921, the Leicester Academy became the Leicester High School because of increased costs requiring financial assistance from the town of Leicester, thus making it a full public secondary school.

Notable alumni

* Thomas Hill (1837), former president of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

* Elliott P. Joslin (1886), pioneer in the clinical use of insulin * Eli Whitney (1786), inventor

Notable alumni

Notes

Further reading