WMA was established by the merger of two 19th-century academies — Monson Academy, founded in 1804, and Wesleyan Academy, founded in 1817 in New Market, New Hampshire. Wesleyan Academy relocated to Wilbraham in 1825 and was renamed Wilbraham Academy in 1917. In 1971, when the school merged with Monson Academy, the name was officially changed to Wilbraham & Monson Academy. Wesleyan was the first coeducational boarding school in the country, and Monson Academy became the first to enroll Chinese students in 1847.