Elijah Corlet (1610 – February 24, 1687) was schoolmaster of the Cambridge Grammar School in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

for most of the late 17th century. Many of his pupils were early students of

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

, including the minister

Cotton Mather Cotton Mather (; February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728) was a New England Puritan clergyman and a prolific writer. Educated at Harvard College, in 1685 he joined his father Increase as minister of the Congregationalist Old North Meeting H ...

. From 1672 to 1700, the Cambridge Grammar School sent more students to Harvard than any other school.

Early life

Corlet was the son of Henry Corlet, a London wax

chandler Chandler or The Chandler may refer to: * Chandler (occupation), originally head of the medieval household office responsible for candles, now a person who makes or sells candles * Ship chandler, a dealer in supplies or equipment for ships Arts ...

. He was an

exhibitioner An exhibition is a type of scholarship award or bursary. United Kingdom and Ireland At the universities of Dublin, Oxford, Cambridge and Sheffield, at some public schools, and various other UK educational establishments, an exhibition is a sma ...

at Christ's Hospital. He began studying at

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...

in March 1626–27 at the age of 17 and was awarded his B.A. in or circa 1631. He was ordained as a deacon in 1633. He was awarded an M.A. from

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

in 1638. He worked as a schoolmaster in

Framlingham Framlingham is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Suffolk, England. Of Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon origin, it appears in the 1086 Domesday Book. The parish had a population of 3,342 at the 2011 Census and an estimated 4, ...

and the Halstead Grammar School in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

Career

It is not known when Corlet emigrated to the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...

but he was schoolmaster of the Cambridge Grammar School by 1642 and was the first schoolmaster who was paid in part with public funds. Corlet was mentioned in ''

New England's First Fruits ''New England's First Fruits'' was a book published in London in 1643 about the early evangelization efforts by the Puritans in colonial New England in defense of criticisms from England that little evangelism was being pursued in New England. It ...

'', a pamphlet written in 1642 and published in England in 1643 to promote the colony and Harvard. The authors wrote:

And by the side of the Colledge a faire ''Grammar'' Schoole, for the training up of young Scholars, and fitting of them for ''Academicall Learning'', that still as they are judged ripe, they may be received into the Colledge of this Schoole: Master ''Corlet'' is the Mr., who hath very well approved himselfe for his abilities, dexterity and painfulnesse in teaching and education of the youth under him

In his ''

Magnalia Christi Americana ''Magnalia Christi Americana'' (roughly, ''The Glorious Works of Christ in America'') is a book published in 1702 by the puritan minister Cotton Mather (1663–1728). Its title is in Latin, but its subtitle is in English: ''The Ecclesiastical Hist ...

,'' Mather wrote of Corlet:

...that memorable old school-master in Cambridge, from whose education our colledge and country has received so many of its ''worthy men'', that he is himself ''worthy'' to have his ''name'' celebrated in no less a paragraph of our ''church history''...

Corlet helped Mather manage his stammer, a stammer which Mather thought threatened to prevent him from becoming a preacher like his father and grandfather. Corlet advised Mather to speak in "a very ''Deliberate'' way of ''Speaking;'' a ''Drawling'' that shall be little short of ''Singing".'' This has been cited as an early example of speech-language pathology in America. Corlet also taught a number of Native American students at his school, including possibly Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck and Joel Iacoomes, both of whom went on to Harvard.

Later life and death

Corlet taught at the school until his death in 1687. He was the subject of a blank verse elegy by Nehemiah Walter (1663–1750), who was frequently employed by Corlet to run the school when he was absent. Corlet married Barbara Cutter around 1643. He was made a freeman in 1645. His son Ammi Ruhamah Corlet graduated from Harvard in 1670 and died of smallpox on February 1, 1679.

Legacy

Corlet is portrayed in Geraldine Brooks' book of historical fiction ''Caleb's Crossing''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Corlet, Elijah Neo-Latin poets 1610 births 1687 deaths American educators Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge