Elijah Corlet

Elijah Corlet (1610 – February 24, 1687) was schoolmaster of the Cambridge Grammar School in Cambridge, Massachusetts for most of the late 17th century. Many of his pupils were early students of Harvard College, including the minister Cotton Mather. From 1672 to 1700, the Cambridge Grammar School sent more students to Harvard than any other school.

Early life Corlet was the son of Henry Corlet, a London wax chandler. He was an exhibitioner at Christ's Hospital. He began studying at Lincoln College, Oxford in March 1626–27 at the age of 17 and was awarded his B.A. in or circa 1631. He was ordained as a deacon in 1633. He was awarded an M.A. from Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1638. He worked as a schoolmaster in Framlingham and the Halstead Grammar School in Essex.

Career It is not known when Corlet emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony but he was schoolmaster of the Cambridge Grammar School by 1642 and was the first schoolmaster who was paid in part with public funds. Corlet helped Mather manage his stammer, a stammer which Mather thought threatened to prevent him from becoming a preacher like his father and grandfather. Corlet advised Mather to speak in "a very Deliberate way of Speaking; a Drawling that shall be little short of Singing". This has been cited as an early example of speech-language pathology in America.

Corlet also taught a number of Native American students at his school, including possibly Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck and Joel Iacoomes, both of whom went on to Harvard.

Later life and death Corlet taught at the school until his death in 1687. He was the subject of a blank verse elegy by Nehemiah Walter (1663–1750), who was frequently employed by Corlet to run the school when he was absent.

Legacy Corlet is portrayed in Geraldine Brooks' book of historical fiction Caleb's Crossing.