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Evidence of the Earliest Known Organized Female Educational Institution in the New World

This undated 18th-century manuscript document, a Spanish translation of a likely lost 1576 document in Latin, concerns an unnamed "casa" or proto-convent for the mestiza daughters of Spanish soldiers and indigenous women in New Spain established during the first two decades after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, circa 1529-1539. The text makes reference to the Archbishop of Mexico Juan de Zumárraga transferring the school's resources (originally funded from livestock gifted by the 16th-century Franciscan friar Pedro de Islas) to the Convento de la Purísima y Limpia Concepción, a famous early convent believed to have been founded in 1640. As such, the document presents evidence of a proto-convent or school that predates the Convento de la Concepción. While such early 16th-century proto-convents or casa-escuelas are known to have existed, documentary evidence of such early New World schools is virtually unknown.

According to María Concepción Amerlinck de Corsi, the foundational documentats of the Convento de la Concepción have not been traced by scholars and are presumed lost ("Los documentos fundacionales no existieron en forma, o se traspapelaron. Como no se encontraban en los archivos de la Audiencia, ni del arzobispado, y tampoco los tenían las religiosas....") An earlier researcher, Josefina Muriel complained of  "chronological anarchy" in trying to establish the actual foundation date of the first convent in New Spain, and relied mostly on secondary sources to form hypotheses about the early history of this important convent.  Based on Muriel's work and her own archival research Amerlinck describes how an earlier proto-convent school, the Casa de Beatas de la Madre de Dios, founded by a group of Spanish women who arrived in Mexico around 1630, presaged the actual convent.  Although not officially a convent, this school aimed to educate and evangelize niñas indias, hijas de caciques o de indios principales. By the late 1530s, however, the project failed, largely because indigenous men rejected marriage with mestizas trained by Spanish women, precipitating the abandonment of the school by its pupils. By 1540, despite the efforts of Zumárraga, the Casa de la Madre de Dios had closed, its premises absorbed into the neighboring Hospital del Amor de Dios, which he had also founded at nearly the same time.

While it seems unlikely that the school described in our document was the Casa de la Madre de Dios, it must have been a similar proto-convent, this one specifically for mestizas, for the education of "the daughters of soldiers and those of the Indians." The context of the present document, the original of which was written in 1576, concerns the historical funding of the Convent of the Concepción. It was likely part of the effort toward getting official papal approval for the institution, which was ultimately achieved in the 1580s.

The docket title on the covering sheet translates as follows:

Brief of Paul III in which His Holiness removes all scruples regarding what may have been allocated to the Convent since the year 1549. The original on parchment, this Spanish translation is on paper, this the estate of Pedro de Islas. This brief contains the provision by which Pedro de Islas granted certain assets for the education of the daughters of soldiers and those of the Indians.

Breve de Paulo 3o en que quita su santidad todo escpulo acerca de lo que se hubiese aplicado al Convento desde el Año de 1549= Esta en Pergamino Original, y su traslado Castellano en papel esta la finca de Pedro de Islas.  Este vrebe contiene el que Pedro de Yslas se dio algunos vienes para que se Educara á las Hijas de los Soldados y de las de los Yndios

The document very specifically refers to a school for girls in colonial New Spain intended for the daughters of Spanish soldiers and indigenous women, established during the first half of the 16th century. The text recounts the efforts of the Spanish-born Pedro de Isla to found a "casa" or house dedicated to educating and instructing these girls in the Catholic faith, with financial support derived from his donated livestock holdings. However, the school was not sustainable, and its students did not remain, prompting Archbishop Juan de Zumárraga, the first bishop of Mexico, to redirect its resources to support the Convent of the Concepción of Santa María in Mexico City. The latter, believed to have been founded in 1540, did not receive papal approval until 1586.

Our document thus suggests that the institution in question, which did not endure, must have been a very early example of formal female education in the New World, perhaps the earliest. Its assets were absorbed by a well-known Mexico City convent, which was one of the major religious institutions for women in colonial Mexico. The nuns or Monjas de la Concepción, were among the earliest female religious orders in the Americas, and they played a significant role in the spiritual and social life of New Spain.

The source document from which ours is derived was dated February 15, 1576, and signed by Archbishop Pedro de Contreras. It is described as a vellum document with wax seals housed in a metal box with "crimson-colored cords."  Whether the original survives is unknown.

Pedro de Islas was likely Pedro de Isla who was present in Mexico in 1529, a native of Medina de Pomar, Burgos, whose expedition is referred to by Las Casas. Isla was reportedly appalled by the Spanish treatment of indigenous peoples. After a brief time in Mexico, he returned to Santo Domingo where he became a Franciscan friar.

If the school in question was first funded circa 1530 with resources provided by Isla, it would stand as one of the earliest documented formal institutions for the education of women in the New World.

A partial English translation and transcription of the original Spanish text here follows:

Nuns of the Monastery of Religious Women of the Order of the Conception of St. Mary of the City of Mexico, in the regions of the Indies, New Spain...

The petition presented to us on our behalf contained that, in times past, Pedro de Ysla, while still alive, had ordered the founding of a house in which daughters born of Christian soldiers—who had been assigned in his time to subdue the infidels in these regions—and of Indian women would be educated and instructed in the Catholic Faith. To this end, he had left a certain number of sheep or livestock, and in the execution of this will, another house had been built, and certain religious women had entered it to oversee the care and instruction of these daughters.

Juan de Zumárraga, of blessed memory, the first bishop of Mexico, seeing that this house could not sustain itself and that the daughters of Christians and Indians who had been brought into it had all left and that none of them had persevered, sought to address the needs of said monastery—which the same bishop had founded—and since other faithful were inclined to do good for the same monastery, after marrying one of the daughters who were said to be from Pedro de Ysla and endowing her with a suitable dowry of six hundred coins of that region, called pesos, he applied the remainder of the sheep or livestock to said monastery, thus modifying the will of said Pedro. This, as is said, is more clearly contained in the letters patent of the said bishop or in other instruments or writings made on this matter. And as the said petition claimed, those matters in which the authority of the Apostolic See is involved are more firmly established...

These letters were written and corrected with their original on the fifteenth day of the month of February in the year of Our Lord one thousand five hundred seventy-six, with witnesses Francisco García and Diego García, cleric presbyters, present there in person, and for this purpose specifically summoned and requested. And I, Fernando de Cuebas, cleric presbyter and public notary with apostolic authority, at the request of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Don Pedro de Contreras, Archbishop of Mexico of His Majesty’s Council, wrote and corrected the above-written transcript with its original on the aforesaid day, month, and year, in the presence of the aforementioned witnesses. And for the sake of faith and testimony, I signed and sealed it with my customary name and seal.

Spanish original:

Este es un trasunto verdadera, y fielmente trasladado de las letras de el Sr. Papa III y de el Legado a [latene Rainuncio?] Presbitero Cardenal escritas en Pergamino y dictada en Latin, y con sello ingreso en zera incarnada, en una Caja de Metal con cordeles de colon encarnado, y que gende como es costumbre, cuyo tenor es el siguiente.

... Monjas del Monasterio de Religiosas de la Orden de la Concepcion de Sta. Maria de la Ciudad de Mexicana, en las partes de Indias Nueva España... La peticion que de parte nuestra se nos presento conteneria que despues de que en tiempos pasados Pedro de Ysla estando todavia vivo havia mandado fundar una casa en la qual servieran educar e instruir en la Fée Catolica las Hijas nacidas de los Soldados Cristianos destinados en su tiempo para develar los Infieles en estas partes, y de las Mujeres Indias, y que para esto havia dejado cierta cantidad de ovejas o de ganado, y que en execucion de esta voluntad se havia fabricado otra Casa, y que en ella se havian entrado ciertas Religiosas que asistieran al cuidado y Doctrina de dichas Hijas: Juan de Sumarraga de buena memoria primer obisbo Mexicano viendo que esta Casa no se podria sustentar, y que las Hijas de Christianos, y de Indias que havian sido conducidad a dicha Casa todas se havian salido, y ninguna de ellas havia penseberado y queriendo socorrer las nesesidad de dicho su Monastario, que el mismo Obsbo. avia fundado y que se inclinavan otros fieles a haser bien a el mismo Monasterio, despues que caso a una de las Hijas que dixselo de dicho Pedro de Isla, dotado con competente [Ddobe?] de seiscientas monedas de aquellas partes, que se llaman pesos commutando en esto la voluntad de dicho Pedro, aplico a dicho su Monasterio el risiduo de ovejas o ganado, dexando como dicho es por el mismo Pedro segun que se dise, el que mas tatamente se contiene en las letras patentes de dicho obispo o en otros instrumentos o escrituras hechas sobre esto. Y como segun que desia la dicha peticion sean mas firmes aquellas cosas en que interviene la autoridad de la Silla Apostolica....

.... fueron escriptas, y corregidas estas letras y corregidas con su original el dia quinse del mes de Febrero del año del Sr. de mil quinientos setenta y seis, siendo testigos Francisco Garcia y Diego Garcia Clerigos Presbiteros alli mismo presentes, y para esto especialment llamados y Rogados, y yo Fernando de Cuebas Clerigo Presbitero y Notario publico con autoridad apostolica, de pedimento del Illmo. y Rmo. Señor Don Pedro de Contreras, Arzobispo Mexicano del Consejo de S. Magd. escribi, y corregi con su exemplar el supra escrito trasunto el dia mes y año y supra escritos testigos, presentes, y por eso para su fee, y testimonio lo subscribi y sigue por mi nombre y sello aconstumbrados.

A fascinating source document, evidence of an unnamed early 16th-century New World institution charged with the education of mestiza women in Mexico City, shedding light on our understanding of mestiza education in the New World in the very early moment of the 1530s. In particular, the legal and ecclesiastical validation of the transfer of resources recorded herein reflects broader patterns of adaptation in colonial institutions where early educational efforts for girls were often integrated into religious convents.

Rarity

Any early original documents concerning the establishment of 16th-century convents and schools in New Spain are very rare in the market.