The Board of Treasury, to whom was referred the petition of Paul Fooks, praying an increase of his salary, brought in a report; Whereupon,
Resolved, That Paul Fooks be allowed a salary of 2400 dollars per annum for acting as interpreter to Congress in the French and Spanish languages.
Any one know him?
III-1750-1770
What progress, if any, was made in the acquiring of French in America in the years 1750 to 1770? We may say, first of all, that there is no reason to suppose any lower percentage among the Americans could read or understand French than in the previous years; and we may add, in the second place, that the period is marked by an increase in the amount of formal instruction in the French language.
Thus, following the debacle of Langloisserie at Harvard, Mr. Curtis, on avowing himself to be a protestant, was permitted to teach French in 1769. At the future University of Pennsylvania in 1754 Professor William Creamer became the first faculty member to teach French and German, continuing until 1775; Professor Creamer's position originated from Franklin's idea of teaching French at the Academy of Philadelphia (founded in 1749) as an extra-mural or private study. In the same university Paul Fooks commenced to teach French and Spanish in 1766. Paul Fooks,by the by, did legal work in three languages. In the same city Elizabeth Murphy offered instruction in French from seven to nine in the morning so that children might go to school-a fact in itself significant as to the spread of French. Meanwhile the petits maztres were regularly offering to teach French as well as dancing and fencing. In 1750 Franklin drew up a scheme for the university in which French had a prominent part. At Princeton President Witherspoon introduced French into the curriculum in 1768.