The term Saint Grottlesex refers to several American prep boarding schools in New England. These schools have historically sent their graduates to the nation's most prestigious universities. All the schools are members of the Independent School League, except St. Paul's, which left the ISL in 2016. The schools are: St. Mark's School St. Paul's School St. George's School Groton School Middlesex School The term is a portmanteau of the St. part of St. Mark's, St. Paul's, and St. George's, then part of Groton, an extra t, and then ended with Middlesex. The St. Grottlesex schools were founded in the nineteenth century for well-to-do Episcopal Church boys (excepting nondenominational Middlesex, founded in 1901), and were consciously styled as the American equivalent of famous English public schools. In contrast, the Academies, notably Andover, Exeter, Milton, and Deerfield, were generally founded in the late eighteenth century as places to "combine scholarship with more than a little Puritan hellfire" and were originally often the first educational step in preparing men for the Puritan ministry. The St. Grottlesex schools retain an aura of preppy establishment. References Private schools in the United States Independent School League