At the age of nineteen, Henry Coit became a tutor in Greek and Latin at St. James’s College, Hagerstown, Maryland, which had conferred on him the degrees of B.A. and M.A. From there he went to Philadelphia to study for the ministry. He was then called to take charge of a parish school at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, under the Rev. Dr. Samuel Bowman (whose niece, Mary Bowman Wheeler, he was later to marry). In 1853 he was ordained priest and began three years of work as a missionary in northern New York, founding at least three congregations. In January 1856, at age 26, came the call to the young clergyman to be the first Rector of St. Paul’s School. On March 27, 1856, he married Mary Bowman Wheeler in the Church of the Epiphany in Philadelphia, and on April 3, 1856, he and his bride arrived in Concord with the first three students. Thus began the life of St. Paul’s School.