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To the Reverend Patrick ReillyBiblio.com

1853 - Letter to the founder and headmaster of St. Mary's College in Wilmington Delaware

1853réf. 010796Philadelphia 1853. Envelope or Cover. Very good. This stampless folded letter is written on bifold stationery that measures 15.5" x 10" unfolded. It is datelined "Philadelphia 4th Nove. 1853" and was sent by Sunrow Paey sp to the Reverend Patrick Reilly the founder and headmaster of St. Mary's College in Wilmington Delaware. It bears a bold Philadelphia 5 postmark in blue and features a large letterhead illustration of the school. In nice shape. Paey was perhaps a patron or the father of attending students. His letter reads in part: "My brother has arrived today and . . . wants to spend 2 or 3 more days hear . . . so you see I can not visit on Monday. I send you with this the two papers that my father sent for you and a letter . . . you will please give the other paper to the boys. . ." . In 1834 the relatively recently ordained parish priest in Wilmington Patrick Reilly established a boarding school for boys in his residence in part to cover the expenses he incurred to care for his aging mother. It included only elementary subjects and operated on a very small scale until 1839 when many parishioners familiar with the Sisters of Charity's St. Peter's Female Academy petitioned him to expand his school which he did accepting 19 "scholars" in that first year and 28 the next. Demand increased especially following the arrival of Potato Famine immigrants and Reilly enlarged his school several times and by 1845 he was accepting boys from Baltimore Philadelphia and New York. He also expanded his curriculum to accommodate demand and began offering preparatory and college courses. With support and funding from the non-Catholic DuPont family he was able to acquire a college charter in 1847 and St. Mary's became one of the premier Catholic colleges of the east. It thrived enrolling students from Delaware Georgia Maryland Mississippi New Jersey New York Pennsylvania South Carolina Virginia Costa Rica and Cuba. The loss of Southern students with the outbreak of the Civil War was a major blow to the school and after the Bishop of Philadelphia ordered Reilly to devote his effort to build and pastor a new St. Mary's Church in Wilmington the college foundered closing its doors in 1866. For more information see Peterman's "History of St. Mary's College Wilmington Delaware 1847-1867" in the September 1966 edition of Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. A nice illustrated lettersheet featuring one of the earliest and most important Catholic colleges in the United States. . unknown