private black schools, it is hoped that plans to transform the tiny Elliot schoolhouse on Jubilee Road into a museum will become a reality.

To that end, a board of trustees headed by former government minister Gloria McPhee, is appealing for financial and research assistance. A programme of restoration is already in place for the historic building which is currently being used by the New Testament Church of God.

"The story of Elliot School is a remarkable one,'' she says. "Just 14 years after emancipation (in 1834) 12 black, mostly uneducated, but very courageous men who were way ahead of their time, got together and built a schoolroom for the black people of Devonshire. The school was named for Governor Charles Elliot who encouraged the project with both practical and financial help. I like to give him credit because his main concern while he was here as Governor was the education of `the poor white and coloured' and he was largely responsible for the formation of Bermuda's public education sytstem.'' The Trust's aim is to not only honour those 12 men and the teachers and early students who were educated at the little schoolhouse, but also the memory of the late Reginald Ming. It was the former government youth organiser and driving force behind Bermuda's `Heritage' concept, who had the idea of forming `The Old Elliot School Trust'.

"He had a great love of Bermuda, of Devonshire in particular, and a very strong sense of history'', says Mrs. McPhee who took over the chairmanship when Mr. Ming died in 1991.

It was Joyce Hall, now serving as a trustee, who "accidentally'' discovered the original Deed of Trust for the 35 by 25 feet property, dated March 1848.

With building starting, probably in 1847, The Old Elliot School finally opened in 1848 with first, Henry Robinson, followed by Mrs. Rebecca A. Newbold a year later as teacher. 34 pupils were enrolled, 21 boys and 15 girls. Subjects taught were spelling, reading, writing, grammar, arithmetic, geography, church catechism and sewing.

The Young Men's Friendly Institution which had been established in 1832 sent a report, in April 1848, to The Royal Gazette which noted: "We have made a donation of Four Pounds to the Committee of Devonshire School in aid of their building; knowing that the people of that parish contributed towards the erection of this room (Lane School) which has been so unspeakably useful to us, we felt that we were only releasing ourselves from an obligation in assisting to afford them a similar convenience.'' Mrs. McPhee points out that the Jubilee Road building was also used as a Sunday School and that the most important item on the curriculum would almost certainly have been Religion. The Old Elliot building remained a school room until it was damaged by a hurricane. Possibly this speeded the construction of a new Elliott School, constructed further down on Jubilee Road in 1926, and now located on Hermitage Road. (It was at this time, incidentally, that the extra `t' seems to have been inadvertently added to the former Governor's name). After the school had been built, Robinson and Williams sold the land on which it stood to the school trustees for the sum of one shilling.

Even when crowded Elliot School moved to larger premises, another notable school took its place when Edwin Skinner moved his school out of his home and into the Jubilee Road building. For a long time it was referred to as `Skinner's School' but eventually became Howard Academy. It was named, apparently, partly for the institution of the same name in the US, but also for the "unusually large number of pupils called Howard at the time''. In 1951 Edward DeJean became head of the school. There was another brief association with today's Elliott School when an overflow of pupils were accommodated there.

As noted in the extensive research for the Bermuda National Trust's Historic Buildings Book Project (published in 1995), the building of Elliot School was a pioneering feat in Bermuda's institutions of education. As the land was purchased in 1840, just six years after the abolition of slavery, it may be assumed, says the book, that at least some of the `Twelve Men' had been slaves. This land was bought by William Robinson and John Williams who paid L80 for two and one-half acres acquired from the three granddaughters of William Watlington, the school being built on a small portion of the land. The ten other men seem to have joined the scheme some time before 1848.

The National Trust's researcher Margaret Lloyd has supplied the Trust with much of its information on the 12 educational pioneers. John Williams died in 1874 leaving a widow, seven children and 18 grandchildren. Although he was unable to sign his name, the co-purchaser of the land was assessed as owning a half-lot of land worth L20 and cattle worth L10. Stonemason William Robinson appears to have been the most affluent, a voter and sexton of Devonshire Church (where he held his own pew) -- in fact, there is evidence that he may have been the first black man to hold an important church post in the parish.

Married to Christina Trott in 1858, he was assessed as owning two lots of land, three houses, cattle, furniture, stock and a cart.

The remaining ten men included William Thomas Robinson, another stonemason who married Mary Ann Wilkinson and by 1871 owned six acres of land worth L120 and purchased his own pew in 1860. Thomas Smith, also a stonemason and pew owner, has been harder to trace, although there is a record of a man of that name purchasing land in Flatts in 1892 and of another in Smith's who left property to his son Solomon and daughters Athalia Ruth Ann (his other son Gabriel being left just one shilling). There is little information on Richard Tuzo, but he married in 1851 and had a son, Richard Thomas. When he died in 1864 (aged 92) he was a "valued'' member of the Young Men's Friendly Institution in Pembroke.

Hearse-keeper Thomas Peter Burch, unable to write, was fairly rich, purchasing almost two acres on Brighton Hill Road, owning a church pew and paying dog taxes. His son Samuel Robinson Burch was a qualified voter by the 1880's.

Richard Zuill helped build Christ Church in Devonshire and married Rachel Mallory, who was known to have been a slave since her name appeared on an 1830 vaccination list.

Daniel James Johnson's wife, Ruth Ann Harvey, died leaving five young children, three of whom died of typhoid. A pew owner by 1856, he was assessed by the parish for stock, furniture and cattle. William Butterfield Jennings was a planter, constable and preacher and was involved in the attempt by `coloured' members of the Wesleyan Society in St. George's to build a schoolroom. He owned land in Devonshire and Paget and was a deacon in the Bermuda Methodist Episcopal (B.M.E.) Church.

Israel Smith, described as a labourer, was assessed for one-quarter lot of land worth ten pounds, a house and furniture. In 1874 this property was sold to Charles Henry Robinson. Thomas Robinson, a carpenter was married to Venus Mallory. By 1868 he was assessed for a cottage worth L60 and land worth L30 as well as cattle and furniture. House owner Richard James Jennings, also a carpenter by trade, married Deborah Saunders, whose mother Lydia gave them further land in 1848. He served as parish Pound Keeper and was an attendee of parish vestry meetings.

It is hoped, says Mrs. McPhee, that anyone who can shed further light on these people and/or their descendants, will contact the Elliot Trust (293-1999).

"Obviously, we are also anxious to gather as much material as we can on former pupils and teachers. One of our aims is to compile a list of persons who attended the school and, if possible, to acquire artifacts pertaining to the Victorian era.''