In 1781 the meeting was advised that Samuel Rhoads of Philadelphia had offered to sell four acres of ground adjoining the schoolhouse lot, to be used for the promotion of the school, and the benefit of the schoolmasters.[373] The consideration asked was £60, and Rhoads and his two brothers-in-law, Joseph Pemberton and Samuel Pleasants, offered to donate £20, making it cost the meeting but £40. The committee on school support was directed to consider this proposal. Bristol Preparative also received very valuable assistance for the use of poor children’s schooling, in the bequest of £50 Pennsylvania currency which was left them by John Baldwin of Philadelphia.[374] The great concern of the meeting for the best expenditure of these donations for educating not only the poor Whites but also the Negroes, is seen in their minute of 1787.[375] Careful account was kept and the accounts frequently audited, sometimes at the request of individuals.[376] In 1790 the committee reported their concerns as follows: [Sidenote: Report of committee on education of the poor] We the committee appointed by the monthly meeting to have the care of schooling poor children; also to have the distribution of the interests accruing on the several donations given for that use, have given attention to the service to which we were appointed: and the schooling a considerable number of children has accordingly been paid for, but as it is allowed that a change of the teacher at times may be useful or advantageous to a school, we are united in the sentiment that if such a change was to take place in the school kept at this place, it would be a means whereby the school might be considerably enlarged and the design and end of the several donations left for the use of the said school more fully answered. (Report submitted and accepted and the committee continued to the further service.)[377] [Sidenote: Establishment of funds of basic importance] The establishment of these permanent funds was frequently expressed by the numerous committees as the most important consideration for the execution of the school idea. They attempted again and again to provide a uniform means of establishing such funds, but due to the unequal circumstances of the several meetings it was impossible to do so.[378] The uniform plan was kept as an ideal to be striven for and recommended to the quarterly meeting for its advisement in the matter;[379] in the meantime individual contributions were urged on all who felt inclined to endow a worthy cause.[380] The amounts given were frequent though small, many of them being about £5.[381]