In 1840 approximately two acres of land was purchased by John Williams and William Robinson for eighty pounds from three granddaughters of William Watlington. Mr. Robinson subsequently bought back the property, and set aside a small portion of it, 35 feet by 25 feet, for a school for the black children of Devonshire.

The tenet of a charitable trust was indentured in March 1848 to administer and manage the land and the school building, and in April of that year the original Deed of Trust was recorded with the signatures of twelve black men who each paid one shilling for the legal fees involved in setting up the Trust. Their names were John Williams, William Robinson, William Thomas Robinson, Thomas Smith, Richard Tuzo, Thomas Peter Burch, Richard Thomas Zuill and Daniel James Johnson, all of whom were stone masons. William Butterfield was a planter, Israel Smith a labourer, and Thomas Robinson and Richard James Jennings were carpenters.

Financing came from the Governor, Captain Charles Elliott, after whom the school was named, plus benevolent individuals, including a group known as The Young Men's Friendly Institution, who contributed money, labour and building materials to the project. The Governor also encouraged and supported the project with practical help, since the education of black people and poor whites was one of his main concerns. In fact, through pursuing this interest he was largely responsible for the establishment of Bermuda's public school system. Elliot School opened in April 1848 with Henry Robinson as its first teacher. There were 21 male and 15 female students. The school report of July 1849 records `48 coloured and two white students'. Subjects taught were reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, grammar, geography, church catechism and sewing. The children played games, and Sunday School was held in the schoolroom. According to a 1919-1920 Cavendish School pamphlet, in November, 1920 Mr. E.P. Skinner, a distant relative of the Watlington family from Barbados, was brought in, with his Bermudian wife, to open the new term, and she taught music.

The hurricane of 1926 severely damaged the Old Eliot School, which was already overcrowded and in need of more space, so students were moved further up Jubilee Road to a building which belonged to the St. Mathias Guild. Again, the children were housed in one room, and Mrs. Rosalie Pearman Smith, who had been assistant teacher at `Elliot No. 1' became the principal at `Elliot No. 2'.

In 1929 it is recorded for the first time that Cavendish attended a schools' service, and in an early foretaste of amalgamation another service of Dismissal was held jointly for Cavendish and Eliot schools before they dispersed for the Easter holiday.

By 1934 the student body had grown so large that a two-storey wing with four classrooms was added at the expense of the Department of Education. One classroom of students was moved back to `Elliot No. 1,' which proved of little help.

By 1943, Mr. Skinner began to suffer from ill health and for a while his wife took charge. At the end of the 1945 summer term, he retired. It is said that he opened his home to three black students who could not get into Berkeley Institute and two white students. The number of black students increased so quickly that Mr. Skinner re-opened `Elliot No. 1' which became known as The Skinner School.

With Mr. Skinner's sudden death in May 1951, Mr. Burgess took over the running of the school for a short period, as well as teaching. He renamed `Elliot No. 1' `Howard Academy' after a few students who shared the same name, and Mr. Edward Dejean was brought in from Canada to teach. He found the building far from suitable and returned from whence he came. However he came back and, together with Eliot students, rehabilitated a former British garrison wooden structure at Prospect, but kept the name Howard Academy.

In 1957, `Eliot No. 1' was used for the overflow of students from `Eliot No. 2,' with Mrs. Lorraine Fubler as the teacher, assisted by Mr. Clevelyn Crichlow. From 1964 to 1967 Mrs. Helena Simmons Brice, a direct descendant of one of the builders of the original Elliot school, used the building as a meeting place for the Boys Brigade of St. Mathias Guild. From 1979 to 1999 the building was occupied by the New Testament Church of God. March 2000: Old Elliot School becomes a Listed Building "of special architectural or historical interest" under the Development and Planning Act, 1974.

Just as there are many living descendants of the original 12 who built the school in Bermuda today, so too are there many Bermudians who recall attending school in the Old Elliot School building, most of them as pupils of The Skinner School or Howard Academy during the years when the structure accommodated the overflow from `Elliot No. 2.'