During the life-time of Miss Bolton it was justly celebrated for the thorough intellectual and moral training bestowed upon the young ladies who attended it, coming from every part of the United States antl sometimes from foreign countries. Miss Nannette Anne Bolton was herself an enthusiast in the cause of Christian education. Under her watchful care nearly a thousand young girls were educated in such a manner as to prepare them thoroughly for the higher as well as for the ordinary duties of life. While by no means sectarian, the influence of the Priory was always decidedly religious, and made itself felt, not only in the town of Pelham, but throughout a wide extent of the surrounding country. The decline of such a school, through the death of its principal founder and teacher, is much to be lamented. It is a loss to the county and State not entirely overestimated, and the more so that nothing has since arisen in the town or vicinity to take its place.

Besides the Priory, Pelham is indebted to the Bolton family for the first, and for many years the only, Episcopal Church within its bounds -- namely, Christ Church, of which the Rev. Charles Higbee is the present rector, and from whom the information contained in this sketch, with regard to the churches of the town, is derived. It is safe to say that without the persistent labors and sacrifices of this family, neither of these institutions-- the church or the priory, both so potent for good to Pelham and the wliole region around it -- would ever have existed. ^