NEW BERN ACADEMY EXAMINATION, 1794
The pupils of the Newbern Academy, were yesterday examined by the Trustees, (it being the day appointed for a quarterly examination,) a respectable number of the inhabitants of the town attended—Mr. Gaston and Mr. Guion cannot be too highly commended for the Accuracy and elegancy of their translations of Homer and Horace—
Those who were examined in Virgil and other classic authors, deserved applause—
The Geography class astonished their auditors by the facility and accuracy with which they answered the most difficult questions that were proposed—
A number of young gentlemen of the Mathematics class demonstrated several propositions of Euclid with great facility and exactitude—
The younger Pupils to the number of fifty, who were examined in the Orthography of the English language, displayed a proficiency rarely to be found in scholars of a more advanced age—
The business of the day was then closed by a parliamentary debate very spiritedly spoken, by Messieurs Gaston, Guion, Barron, Pasteur, Cobb, and Forbes— The whole performance was such as confers on Mr. Irving (the Preceptor) the highest praise—and we can congratulate our friends on the flattering prospects afforded us by the proficiency of his Pupils—his abilities and assiduity as an instructor are evinced to be such as are seldom to be met with—From the present flourishing state of our Academy we have reason to hope that we shall no longer regret the disadvantages, under which we have long laboured in obtaining an education for our youth.
April 5.
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New Bern (N. C.) Gazette, April 5, 1794.
(Source: North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840, By Charles L. Coon 1914) 
