The Earle family : Ralph Earle and his descendants

I
Gen.] GENEALOGY. IO9
Quaker, free from bigotry, and without unchristian prejudice against
any man because of his association with some other denomination.
He took but little part in the church business of the Society, but his
house was ever open to its members, and he took pleasure in seeing
it filled to the extent of its accommodations at the time of the
" monthly" and " quarterly meetings."
In politics he was a federalist, among the staunchest of the staunch,
but he rarely attended political gatherings ;
and in the town-meetings
he used his right of franchise by casting his vote, but always refused
to accept a public office.
In the second edition (i860) of his history, Gov. Washburn says,
in allusion to him : " He was a man of much intelligence. His wife
was a woman of strong and cultivated intellect, and their house was
the seat of a generous hospitality."
The children of Pliny and Patience (Buffum) Earle were :
868-1. John Milton Earle, b. April 13, 1794 ; m. Sarah Hussey.
869-2. Thomas Earle, b. April 21, 1796; m. Mary Hussey.
870-3. Lydia Earle, b. March 24, 1798 ; m. Anthony Chase.
871-4. Sarah Earle, b. April 8, 1800; m. Aug. 3, 1831, Charles
Hadwen ; d. Oct., 1834; without issue.
872-5. William B. Earle, b. Dec. 20, 1802 ; m. Harriet Brown.
873-6. Lucy Earle, b. May 7, 1805 ; d. unm., Feb. 15, 1887.
874-7. Eliza Earle, b. June 8, 1807 ; m. William E. Hacker.
875-8. Pliny Earle, b. Dec. 31, 1809.
876-9. Jonah Earle, b. Nov. 16, 1813 ; d. unm., March 25, 1857.
On the 15th of May, 1827, Sarah Earle [871-4], who had much
native energy of character, and who for some years had been a
teacher in the Friends' School at Providence, R. I., opened a board-
ing school for young women at her father's homestead. It met with
unexpected success, and in a very short time the Mulberry Grove
Boarding School had become widely known, and had established a
reputation for its very thorough instruction in the useful branches of
education, and for the excellence of its pupils as scholars in the Eng-
lish language. French was the only language other than English,
and painting by theorems, in water-colors, the only then so-called
"ornamental" branch that found a place in the curriculum of
instruction.
Pupils came from nearly all parts of Massachusetts, as well as from
several of the neighboring States, and before 1831, when the Princi-