Forasmuch as the good Education of Children is of Singular behoofe and benefit to any Common-wealth, and wheras many Parents & Masters are too indulgent and negligent of their duty in that kind;

It is Ordered that the Select men of everie Town, in the several Precincts and quarters where they dwell, shall have a vigilant eye over their brethren & neighbours, to see, First that none of them shall suffer so much Barbarism in any of their families as not to indeavour to teach by themselves or others, their Children & Apprentices, so much learning as may enable them perfectly to read the English tongue, & knowledge of the Capital Lawes: upon penalty of twentie shillings, for each neglect therin.

Also that all Masters of families, do once a week (at the least) Catechise their children and servants in the Grounds and Principles of Religion, and if any be unable to do so much; that then at the least they procure such children and apprentices, to learn some short Orthodox Catechisme without book, that they may be able to answer unto the questions that shall be propounded to them out of such Catechism by their Parents or masters, or any of the Select men when they shall call them to a trial, of what they have learned in that kind.

And farther that all Parents and Masters do breed and bring up their chil[d]ren and apprentices in some honest lawful Calling, Labour or imployment, either in husbandry, or some other trade, profitable for themselvs, and the Common-wealth, if they will not or cannot train them up in learning, to fit them for higher imployments.

And if any of the Select men; after admonition by them given to such masters of families shall find them still negligent of their duty in the particulars afore mentioned, whereby Children and servants become rude, stubborn and unruly: the said Select men with the help of two Magistrates, or the next County Court for that Shire, shall take such children or apprentices from them, and place them with some Masters for years, (boyes till they come to twenty one, and girls eighteen years of age compleat) which will more strictly look unto, and force them to submit unto Government according to the rules of this Order, if by fair meanes and former instructions they will not be drawn unto it.