Background of New London Academy

For local history buffs, an excerpt from the linked document:

Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for the year ending June 1, 1877.
By Pennsylvania Dept. of Public Instruction

In 1743, Reverend Francis Alison opened an academy at New London, with a view to the general improvement of the community in which he lived, and the promotion of usefulness and learning. It became a justly celebrated institution and furnished the Church with well qualified ministers and the State with men fitted for its arduous and responsible duties and who made their mark upon the age. Among those who were educated there were, Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress; Doctor John Ewing, provost of the University of Pennsylvania; Doctor David Ramsay, the historian; Doctor Hugh Williamson, author of several scientific and historical works; Reverend Doctor James Latta, who became eminent as a teacher at Chestnut Level Lancaster county; Reverend Doctor Matthew Wilson, and three signers of the Declaration of Independence, Governor Thomas McKean, George Reed, and James Smith.

In 1752, Doctor Alison removed to Philadelphia, and became vice provost of the Philadelphia College, where he continued until his death, in 1779. He earned for himself the distinguished name of "the Busby of America," and to his zeal for the diffusion of knowledge, Pennsylvania owes much of that taste for solid learning and classical literature for which many of her principal characters have been distinguished. He was succeeded, at New London Academy, by Alexander McDowell, by whom it was removed to Newark, Delaware, where it became the basis on which was founded the Delaware College.

In 1828, the present New London academy was organized, and became the successor, in name and locality, of the old school of Doctor Alison. It has, with one or two brief intervals, always been in a highly prosperous condition, and many hundreds of pupils, some of whom have become eminent in their calling, have received their education there. Since its reorganization, in 1828, it has had, as principals, among others, James Magraw, T. Marshall Boggs, William S. Graham, Walter Scott, F. Graham, William F. Wyers, George Duffleld, and Edward D. Porter, now president of Delaware college. The highest number of pupils, at any one time, has been eighty-five.

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