History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 40

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 40

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This period, dating from 1692, marks the end of the first epoch in the history of the Massachusetts Colony, and likewise in that of the College. In the government established by the Puritans, "neither subscription to creed," says Quincy, "nor articles of belief was re- quired, nor were they necessary. The principle that none should be a freeman of the State who was not a member of the church, sufficiently secured the suprem- acy of the religious opinions of the predominant party. The inquisitional power was vested in the church and its officers." But the charter of William and Mary converted the Colony into a province, and, what was all important, it " made property, instead of church membership, the qualification for the enjoyment of civil rights." In the course of seventy years Puritanism had become diversified into sectarian shades more of less iutense; then, too, immigrants belonging to the Anglican Church were coming over in greater num- bers: so that, at the end of the seventeenth century, New England no longer wore its original uniform aspect of Puritarism. The party which held the old Calvinist doctrines undiluted were quick to see that the royal charter which replaced theological quali- fications by those of property undermined the theo- cratic Constitution of the State; and, although they were not able to prevent this revolution in politics, they were for a long time successful in resisting a similar change in the government of the College. It was with this purpose that Increase Mather and his son Cotton strove and intrigued, and fomented sec- tarian animosity ; it was for this purpose that they attempted to insert a religious test in the charter of the College; and it was owing to the chagrin and alarm felt by the Calvinist sect at their failure, that Yale College was founded (1700), to be a true " school of the prophets," where the brimstone doctrines of Cal- vin should not be quenched by waters of liberalism. At Yale a religious test was exacted so vigorously, that it closed the doors of that institution to all but simon- pure Calvinists. At Harvard, as I have said, the Cor-

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poration was thenceforth composed of those whom we may call, for lack of a better word, liberals, while the majority in the Board of Overseers was Calvinist : the struggle between them was long, and often very bitter, and produced a deadlock, so that one party could not push the College forward, nor the other drag it back. Through the decisive action of Governor Dudley, the Legislature passed, in 1707, that vote which re-established the College charter of 1650; and although, in so doing, Dudley plainly overstepped his powers, it cannot be denied but that he greatly bene- fited the College. The re-invalidated charter never re- ceived the royal sanction, why, we are not told ; nor was it objected to by the Crown; and it has remained in force, with some changes in the clauses relating to the qualifications of Overseers, down to the present day.

We may pause here for a moment to survey the material growth of the College during its first seventy years. From the Colony it had received in grants sums amounting to about £650 sterling, and £3720 in currency. It enjoyed also exemption from taxation on property to the amount of £500, and the earnings of the ferry between Charlestown and Boston. In 1657 it received a grant of 500 acres of land ; in 1653, 2000 acres, and in 1682, "Merriconeag, in Casco Bay, with 1000 acres adjoining," but the last two grants were never obtained. During the same period the dona- tions from private sources amounted to £9302 2s. 11}d. sterling, and £6748 19s. 6d. in currency. To these sums must be added several thousand volumes of books. The gifts came not only from the Colonists and from benefactors in England, but also from other lands. It is pleasant to record, for instance, that in 1658 the inhabitants of a certain place, supposed to be Eleutheria, Bahama Islands, "out of their poverty," gave £124 sterling ; and in 1642 some gentlemen of Amsterdam gave £49 "and something more toward furnishing of a printing-press with letters." This printing-press, the first that was operated in what is now the United States, was brought from England in 1638 by Joseph Glover. Glover died on the pas- sage, but his widow settled in Cambridge, where the press was set up and worked by Stephen Daye. Pres- ident Dunster married Mrs. Glover, and had charge of the press, which was run in the President's house until 1655. The first publication was " The Freeman's Oath," followed by an almanac, a Psalm-Book, a Cate- chism, and the "Liberties and Laws of the Colony." In 1658 was printed John Eliot's Indian translation of the Bible.

Among the other noteworthy bequests were that of Edward Hopkins, of £500 (1657); that of William Pen- noyer, of £680 (1670); and that of Sir Matthew Hol- worthy, of £1000 (1681).

The first school building was erected, as has been stated, by Eaton in 1637. President Dunster built a dwelling for himself, which was known as the Presi- dent's House. In 1682 a new hall-the first Harvard Hall-was dedicated, the cost of which was met by

public subscriptions. Finally, in 1699, Governor Stoughton built at his own expense (£1000) a hall, which bore his name, and which stood near the pres- ent site of the University.

Thus it will be seen that even in the early life of the College it owed more to private benefactors than to the liberality of the State-a sure proof that its importance was recognized by the community, and an omen that by-and-by it would grow so strong that it could dispense with all official support whatsoever. But while its prosperity at the end of the seventeenth century was far greater than Winthrop or Dunster could have foreseen, the College was still hampered in its means, as the following extract will show : "At a meeting of the Corporation, April 8, 1695, Voted, That six leather chairs be forthwith provided for the use of the Library, and six more before the Com- mencement, in case the treasury will allow of it."

In 1707, on the death of Willard, the Rev. John Leverett was elected President. He had the backing of Governor Dudley, upon whom the Mathers, rank- ling at the defeat of their faction, heaped scandalous accusations. According to them, he was guilty of covetousness, lying, hypocrisy, treachery, bribery, Sabbath-breaking, robbery and murder; and they expressed "sad fears concerning his soul," and be- sought that "in the methods of piety he would re- concile himself to Heaven, and secure his happiness in this world and the world to come." The Governor, however, refused to purchase eternal salvation by hu- miliating himself before the Mathers, and these able but repulsive fanatics failed to get control of the College, but did not cease to foment discord.

Leverett was an energetic administrator, seconded by Thomas Brattle, the Treasurer, and by William Brattle, Ebenezer Pemberton and Henry Flynt, his coadjutors in the Corporation. The financial condi- tion of the College was improved, but the quarrels between the Fellows and the Overseers did not cease. In 1718 the President refused to confer the second degree on a graduate named Pierpont, on the ground that he had contemned, reproached and insulted the government of the College, and particularly the tutors, for their management iu the admission of scholars. Pierpont threatened to prosecute Sever, the tutor who had brought forward the charge, in the civil court. It was suspected that Pierpont had been instigated by ex-Governor Dudley and his son; the Fellows, in alarm, requested the Overseers "to take the first op- portunity to discourse " with the supposed instigators. The Overseers did nothing; whereupon the Fellows appealed to Governor Shute, Dudley's successor, to summon the Overseers to a meeting. The meeting was largely attended; both Pierpont and Sever were heard-the former, according to Leverett, speaking with " confusion, impertinence and impudence," and the latter "with plainness, modesty and honesty.', The Overseers secretly supported Pierpont, and Shute supported the Overseers, so that the Corporation was

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

left in a position "which threatened the dissolution of the College." Happily, the courts of law quashed Pierpont's case against Sever, and thns was prevented the resignation of the President and Fellows-the consummation aimed at by the Overseers in second- ing the contumacious Pierpont.

The enemies of Leverett and the Corporation did not rest. At a meeting called "to petition the Gen- eral Court to enlarge the building (Massachusetts Hall) they were then erecting for the College from fifty to one hundred feet," Judge Sewall rose and said: "I desire to be informed how the worship of God is carried on in the Hall, and to ask Mr. Presi- dent whether there has not been some intermission of the exposition of the Scriptures of late." President Leverett replied that the question was out of order, and interrupted the special business of the meeting. The Governor supported this ruling, and the petition was passed; bnt the action of Sewall illustrates the persistence of the malcontents. The swift changes in politics caused the union of men who had previ- ously been opposed. Thus Dudley, who had been, while Governor, on the side of the Corporation, joined the other faction after he was superseded by Shute. Sewall, too, was now fighting with the Calvinists, although he had formerly been quite other than friendly to the Mathers, who led the Calvinists. In his diary, for instance, under date of October 20, 1701, there is the following amusing entry: "Mr. Cotton Mather came to Mr. Wilkins' shop, and there talked very sharply against me, as if I had nsed his father worse than a negro. He spake so loud that the people in the street might hear him. Mem. On the 9th of October I sent Mr. Increase Mather a haunch of very good venison. I hope in that I did not treat him worse than a negro."

But we cannot follow the quarrels of the sectarians, nor do more than indicate wherein they affected the fortunes of the College. The next occasion on which the conflict broke out was at the endowment of a professorship of divinity by Thomas Hollis, a Lon- don merchant. Hollis is, after John Harvard, the man among the early benefactors of the College who most deserves its gratitude. Of a wise and generous character, his liberal and Christian behavior seems all the more admirable when contrasted with the narrow and bigoted sectarianism of the colonists upon whom he bestowed his gifts. He wrote to Dr. Colman, a member of the Corporation, on January 28, 1721 : "After forty years' diligent application to mercantile business, my God, whom I serve, has mercifully succeeded my endeavors, and, with my increase, inclined my heart to a proportional dis- tribution. I have credited the promise: He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord, and have found it verified in this life." In his own faith he was a Baptist, but in founding a professorship he was guided by no sectarian motives. All that he asked was that no one should be rejected oa account of

Baptist or other principles, save that the incumbent should subscribe to the belief "that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the only perfect rule of faith and manners." "I love them," he wrote to Colman (August 1, 1720), "that show by their works that they love Jesus Christ. While I bear with others who are sincere in their more confined charity, I would that they would bear with me in my more enlarged. We search after truth. We see but in part. Happy the man who reduces his notions in a constant train of practice. Charity is the grace which now adorns and prepares for glory. May it always abide in your breast and mine, and grow more and more." On February 14, 1721, he executed the instrument of endowment. Leverett and the Corpor- ation accepted it, but the Calvinist majority in the Overseers were at first inclined to refuse the gift as being likely to encourage unorthodox doctrines ; then, having accepted it, they proceeded, by action which, to speak mildly, was deceitful, to contravene the terms of Hollis's foundation. The Rev. Edward Wigglesworth was chosen to fill the new chair (1721), but he was subjected to a theological test, in which he " declared his assent : 1. To. Dr. Ames' ' Medulla Theologia.' 2. To the Confession of Faith contained in the Assembly's Catechism. 3. To the doctrinal Articles of the Church of England. More partien- larly : 1. To the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. 2. To the doctrine of the eternal Godhead of the blessed Saviour. 3. To the doctrine of Predestination. 4. To the doctrine of special efficacious grace. 5. To the divine right of infant baptism." Several years elapsed during which negotiations were carried on between Hollis and the College, but it does not appear that he was treated candidly, nor that, to the day of his death, "the construction which substituted, in place of the simple declaration required by him, an exam- ination and declaration of faith in all the high points of New England Calvinism," was ever communicated to him.1

Simultaneous with this controversy, there broke out another of equal violence to trouble the stormy ad- ministration of Leverett. On June 23, 1721, the Overseers received a memorial from Nicholas Sever and William Welsteed, two College tutors, claiming their right to seats in the Corporation. They based their claim on the fact that, being engaged in instruc- tion, and receiving a stipend, they were Fellows of the College, and that the charter of 1650 designated the President, Treasurer and Fellows to be members of the Corporation. Their pretension, it will be seen, hung on the ambiguous meaning of the word Fellow. In 1650, when the Charter was granted, there were no Fellows in the sense in which that word is used at English Universities, which was the sense that Sever and Welsteed attached to it; and for a long time after that date it was not applied to any instructor who was

1 Quincy i, 263.

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not also a member of the Corporation. The majority of the five Fellows were non-residents, for it could not be expected, as Quincy remarks, that these officers, whose duties involved only an occasional superintend- ence of the affairs of the College, would agree to live in Cambridge, without salary, when the institution was still too small to require their daily presence. About the beginning of the 18th century the habit grew of calling tutors Fellows ; but in order to distinguish them, the expression "of the House" was added ; while the others were known as "Fellows of the College or Corporation." This distinction was clearly enough observed, for, in April, 1714, we find the record that Holyoke was chosen " a Fellow of the Corporation," and Robie " a Fellow of the House." Three years later the Corporation passed a vote "that no Tutor, or Fellow of the House, now or henceforth to be chosen, shall hold a fellowship with a salary for more than three years, except continued by a new election." Experience had shown that it was unwise to make unlimited appointments.

The Overseers heard the petition of Sever and Wel- steed, which seems to have been inspired not so much by the desire to have a mootpoint settled as to oust Colman, Appleton and Wadsworth from the Corpora- tion and to embarrass President Leverett. A commit- tee was appointed, consisting chiefly of malcontents. Meanwhile the Overseers petitioned the General Court to make a "convenient addition to the Corporation, and therein to have regard to the resident Fellows, or Tutors, that they may be of that number." But the malcontents, perceiving that their petition, if granted, would merely introduce their partisans into the Cor- poration, without removing from it the members at whom the intrigue was aimed, resolved that an increase of number was undesirable, and that "it was the in- tent of the College Charter that the Tutors, or such as have the instruction and government of the students, should be Fellows and Members of the Corporation, provided they exceed not five in number; and that none of said Fellows be Overseers." Evidently, our . pious ancestors lacked not the wisdom of the serpent ' on this occasion ; under this seemingly innocent reso- lution they hid a scheme for revolutionizing the gov- ernment of the College. Their report was actually accepted by the House of Representatives and by the Council ; the Governor, however, refused to consent to it unless Wadsworth, Colman and Appleton should remain in the Corporation. Then it appeared, both from the action of the Legislature and from that of the Overseers, that their intent had been to get rid of those three obnoxious members. Sever and Welsteed presented two other memorials; but the matter was finally disposed of (August 23, 1723) by the refusal of the Council, which now stood by Governor Shute and the Corporation, to concur in the policy of the House of Representatives, which still sided with the Over- seers.

The firmness displayed throughout the struggle

by the President and three Fellows, acting solely from a sense of duty in the interests of the College, is worthy of admiration. When we remember, moreover, that the President depended upon the Legislature for the annual grant of his salary, we shall appreciate his conrage the more justly. He was frequently obliged to petition that his salary should be more promptly paid, and his petitions were so often disregarded that he feared the Representatives intended "to starve him out of the service." "If such be their mind," he added, " it is but letting me know, and I will not put the House to exercise that cruelty." He died in May, 1724, after an arduous and honorable administration, leaving debts to the amount of £2000 to attest his de- votion to the College and the meanness of the State, which was in honor bound to provide for his decent subsistence. His term was one of the most critical in the history of the College. As we have seen, he held office just at the time when the colony was breaking asunder the original Puritanical limits; when the effects of the change in the political constitution were beginning to appear ; when a considerable part of the population no longer belonged to the Calvinist Church ; when a rival college had sprung up at New Haven. . Himself of a liberal cast, he struggled to stamp a more liberal policy upon Harvard, and to thwart the efforts of the more bigoted majority to regain complete con- trol of the College and to subvert its charter. That he succeeded was due in part to the co-operation of the Governors, Dudley and Shute, but chiefly to his own wisdom and firmness and to the support of his col- leagues in the Corporation.

The Corporation elected the Rev. Joseph Sewall to succeed Leverett. There were many aspirants, in- cluding the irrepressible Cotton Mather, who records in his diary : "I always foretold these two things of the Corporation ; first, that, if it were possible for them to steer clear of me, they will do so; secondly, that, if it were possible for them to act foolishly, they will do so. The perpetual envy with which my es- says to serve the kingdom of God are treated among them, and the dread that Satan has of my beating up his quarters at the College, led me into the former sentiment; the marvellous iudiscretion with which the affairs of the College are managed, led me into the latter." Sewall declined, and the Rev. Benja- min Colman was chosen ; but his experience as Fel- low had warned him what harsh treatment he might receive from the Legislature, and he, too, would not take the Presidency. In June, 1725, the Rev. Benja- min Wadsworth was elected, and he consented to serve. Thus, thrice within a year Cotton Mather was painfully reminded that Satan ruled the decisions of the Harvard Corporation. The Legislature, to re- lieve Wadsworth of justifiable apprehension, pledged itself to pay his salary promptly, and further appro- priated £1000 for the erection of a suitable dwelling for the President. This house, still called after Wadsworth, its first occupant, was not completed un-

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

til 1727, when the College had paid £800 beyond the State appropriation. A portion of the Presi- dent's salary was derived from the rents of Massachu- setts Hall (built, as stated above, in 1720), but the payment of the remainder, for which he had to look to the Legislature, was, in spite of promises, preca- rious.

Wadsworth was a man of "firmness, gentleness, and good judgment"-qualities which were soon put to the test by a new religious discussion which spread consternation throughout the orthodox in all parts of the Colony, and centred at the College. This time the dispute was no longer between factions of Cal- vinists, nor between Calvinists and Baptists, but be- tween the orthodox and the Anglicans. As early as 1682, Edward Randolph had suggested that the doe- trines of the Church of England might be propagated in the Colony by means of funds sent from the mother country ; and he even went so far as to pro- pose, in a letter to Sancroft, Archbishop of Canter- bury, "that able ministers might be appointed to perform the offices of the Church with us, and that for their maintenance a part of the money sent over . hither and pretended to be expended amongst the Indians should be ordered to go towards that charge." That fund for converting the Indians had beeu begun soon after the founding of Harvard; a school for In- dians had been built in Cambridge; some of the na- tives had been taught in it; but, on the whole, the effort had failed. A few Indians had entered the College, but only one, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, had taken the Bachelor's degree, in 1665. The others proved themselves either incapable of attaining the required standard in studies, or they fell sick and died of consumption. This was the case with Larnel a member of the Junior Class in 1714, who died at about the age of twenty, " au acute grammarian, an extraordinary Latin poet, and a good Greek one." Eliot's translation of the Bible and his mission to the Indians seem to have been the chief fruits of this endeavor to Christianize them. That Randolph should propose to pervert this fund from the intent of its contributors, and apply it to strengthen Epis- eopalianism in New England, might surprise us, had we not already had glimpses of the power of secta- rianism to blind the honor and dull the conscience of those who were its victims. We have no evidence that Sancroft or his successor connived at this scheme ; but other moneys were subseribed in England, and missionaries were sent over to the Colony, and the tenets of the Established Church were diligently spread. When King's Chapel was dedicated in Bos- ton, the orthodox took alarm ; but the membership of the Anglican Church increased, and the orthodox felt again their old dread of being persecuted by the Church which had the British Crown and State be- hind it. The crisis came in 1727, when the Rev. Dr. Cutler, a graduate of Harvard, in 1701, then minister of the church at Stratford, Conn. (1709), and Rector

of Yale College (1719), and then a convert to Episco- palianism, presented a memorial to the Lieutenant- Governor " that he might be notified to be present at the meetings of the Overseers." He claimed that as a minister of Boston he was ex officio, according to the Charter of 1650, entitled to a seat in the Board. The Rev. Mr. Myles, rector of King's Chapel, presented a similar petition. The Overseers declared that Cutler and Myles had no such right. The petitioners, never- theless, persisted : they affirmed that the orthodoxy of their church was questioned by no sound Protestant ; that its members bore an equal proportion in all pub- lie charges in support of the College; that its minis- ters were " equally with any others qualified and dis- posed to promote the interests of religion, good litera- ture, and of good manners ; " that they were " teach- ing elders " in the sense intended by the Charter. To this the Overseers replied that the question concern- ing the definition of a " teaching elder " could be de- cided only by referring to the meaning of that term. in 1650, when the Charter was granted; that then it plainly applied only to the ministers of the Congre- gational churches, because there were no adherents of other denominations in the Colony ; that the term had never been known in the Anglican Church ; and that, therefore, since it belonged only to Congrega- tional ministers, they alone had the ex officio right to be Overseers. The memorial was accordingly re- jeeted, and the Council and the Lieutenant-Governor concurred in the vote.

On the accession of George II, in 1727, the corpor- ation sent an address of congratulation for Mr. Hollis to present to the sovereign. The address had been prepared four years before, on the discovery of a con- spiracy against George I, and was now merely re- touched to suit the occasion. Mr. Hollis saw that its provincial style would hardly be acceptable at court, and he recommended that it be revised. " Your com- pliments," he wrote, "are fifty if not one hundred years too ancient for our present polite style of court ;" [yours is] " a Bible address, says one ; a concordance address, says another; though I think it an honest- meaning Christian address. What have courts to do to study Old Testament phrases and prophecies ? It is well if they read the Common Prayer-Book and Psalter carefully." It does not appear that the Cor- poration, after learning this frank advice, sent any congratulation to the King.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 40

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034