Editing Phillips Exeter Academy (section)

=== Origins ===
Phillips Exeter Academy was established in 1781 by [[John Phillips (educator)|John and Elizabeth Phillips]], prominent citizens of Exeter, New Hampshire. It is the nation's sixth-oldest boarding school.<ref name=":10">{{Cite news |last=Fabrikant |first=Geraldine |date=2008-01-26 |title=At Elite Prep Schools, College-Size Endowments |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/26/business/26prep.html |access-date=2024-03-10 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

John Phillips had earned degrees from Harvard College and came to Exeter as a young man in 1741, initially as a teacher. He made his fortune as a merchant and banker, and gained influence over time as an advisor to the colonial governor, circuit court judge, elected representative, and senior militia officer in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. In 1778, he supported his nephew, [[Samuel Phillips Jr.]], financially when the latter founded [[Phillips Academy]] in [[Andover, Massachusetts]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Myron R. |title=The Story of Phillips Exeter |publisher=Phillips Exeter Academy |year=1957 |location=Exeter, NH |pages=13–16}}</ref> about 40 miles away. As result of this original family relationship, the two schools share [[Andover–Exeter rivalry|a friendly and historic rivalry]].<ref name="Echols">{{Cite journal | last=Echols | first=Edward | title=The Phillips Exeter Academy, A Pictorial History | publisher=Exeter Press | year=1970| page=49 }}</ref> John Phillips stipulated in Exeter's founding charter that it would "ever be equally open to youth of requisite qualifications from every quarter."<ref name="Crosbie-1923">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ywHhswEACAAJ |title=The Phillips Exeter Academy; A History by Laurence M. Crosbie |date=1923 |publisher=The Academy |language=en |access-date=April 10, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418135628/https://books.google.com/books?id=ywHhswEACAAJ |archive-date=April 18, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The new academy benefited from donors besides John Phillips. Phillips had previously been married to Sarah Gilman, the wealthy widow of Phillips' cousin, Nathaniel Gilman,<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.exeter.edu/documents/Exeter_Bulletin/summer_05/BehindEverySuccessfulMan.pdf| title=Behind Every Successful Man| last=Brown| first=Connie| publisher=The Exeter Bulletin| date=Summer 2005| access-date=August 27, 2012| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405142954/http://www.exeter.edu/documents/Exeter_Bulletin/summer_05/BehindEverySuccessfulMan.pdf| archive-date=April 5, 2012| df=mdy-all}}</ref> whose large fortune, bequeathed to Phillips, enabled him to endow the academy.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/phillipsexeterac00bell|title=Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, Charles Henry Bell, William B. Morrill, Exeter, N.H., 1883|publisher=W. B. Morrill, printer|year=1883|last1=Bell |first1=Charles Henry }}</ref> The Gilman family also donated to the academy much of the land on which it stands, including the initial 1793 grant by [[Governor of New Hampshire|New Hampshire Governor]] [[John Taylor Gilman]] of the Yard, the oldest part of campus; the academy's first class in 1783 included seven Gilmans.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NVNm_97RrcwC&pg=PA163|title=New Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite State, Federal Writers Project, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1938|isbn=9781603540285|year=1938|publisher=Federal Writers' Project|access-date=September 24, 2016|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418104100/https://books.google.com/books?id=NVNm_97RrcwC&pg=PA163|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6UZAAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA5|title=General Catalogue of Officers and Students, 1783–1903, The Phillips Exeter Academy, News-Letter Press, Exeter, 1903|year=1903|access-date=September 24, 2016|archive-date=December 22, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222065106/https://books.google.com/books?id=6UZAAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA5|url-status=live|last1=Academy |first1=Phillips Exeter }}</ref> In 1814, [[Nicholas Gilman]], signer of the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]], left $1,000 to Exeter to teach [[sacred music]].<ref name="Trustees">{{cite web |last=The trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy |title=Phillips Exeter Academy {{!}} Academy Chronology |url=https://www.exeter.edu/about-us/academy-chronology |access-date=July 16, 2019 |archive-date=April 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418135417/https://www.exeter.edu/about-us/academy-chronology |url-status=live }}</ref>[[File:Original Phillips Exeter Academy Building.jpg|thumb|First Academy Building c. 1910, where the school opened in 1783|left]]The academy's first schoolhouse, the First Academy Building, was built on a site on Tan Lane in 1783,<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Tolles|first1=Bryant Franklin|title=New Hampshire Architecture: An Illustrated Guide|last2=Tolles|first2=Carolyn K.|publisher=[[University Press of New England]]|year=1979|isbn=978-0-87451-167-3|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=h6QQsklqqKwC&pg=PA49 49]|language=en}}</ref> and today stands not far from its original location. The building was dedicated on February 20, 1783, the same day that the school's first Preceptor, [[William Woodbridge (educator)|William Woodbridge]], was chosen by John Phillips.<ref name=Crosbie-1923 />

Exeter's ''Deed of Gift,'' written by John Phillips at the founding of the school, states that Exeter's mission is to instill in its students both goodness and knowledge:
{{blockquote|"Above all, it is expected that the attention of instructors to the disposition of the minds and morals of the youth under their charge will exceed every other care; well considering that though goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous, and that both united form the noblest character, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind."<ref name=Echols/>}}