Contents
Introduction |
801 |
|
College Book I |
802 |
|
Overview and Purpose of Note |
802 |
|
Organization by Quires |
803 |
|
Date of Binding |
805 |
|
Pagination |
806 |
|
College Book II |
807 |
|
Reconstructing a Lost Volume |
807 |
|
Overseers Records, 1654–1685 |
807 |
|
Notes on Reconstructing Book II |
809 |
|
Key |
810 |
|
Overseers Meetings Before Book II Was Begun |
811 |
|
Calendar of Entries in Book II |
811 |
|
Note on Matthews’ List of Meetings |
821 |
|
College Book III |
823 |
|
Overview and the Problem of Dating Danforth’s Entries |
823 |
|
Evidence of Composition About 1687 |
824 |
|
Sources and Contents of Book III |
826 |
|
Leverett’s Entries |
828 |
|
Later Entries and the Historiography of Book III |
829 |
Appendix
An Analysis of College Books I–III;
The Principal Records of Early Harvard
Appendix
An Analysis of College Books I–III;
The Principal Records of Early Harvard
John M. Hoffmann
This appendix is concerned with the most important sources for the history of Harvard College in its first half century, 1636 to 1686. These records, entered in three volumes denominated by President Benjamin Wadsworth as College Books I, II, and III, have been insufficiently described and understood by Harvard historians. While the second of these volumes was burned in 1764, the first and third are still extant and have been printed in Part I of this series of Harvard, College Records. Although Albert Matthews as editor clarified the pagination and identified much of the handwriting, he did not indicate to any extent the character or circumstances of the first College Books.
These three volumes are the fullest records of Harvard’s governing boards for the period to 1686: Book I includes the actions of the Corporation and many other matters; Book II, as reconstituted, sets forth the decisions of the Overseers; and Book III preserves the information that was deemed useful or worth preserving at the end of Harvard’s first half century. College Book IV, already printed in this series, is largely a record of Corporation business from 1686 to 1750, the latter date having been adopted as the terminal point for the many valuable documents in the present volumes. Since the Colonial Society of Massachusetts has now published most of the sources on Harvard before the mid-eighteenth century, it seemed reasonable to include at this point an interpretation of College Books I–III, records which have long posed various intricate but important problems in understanding the institutional history of the College in the Puritan period.
College Book I
Overview and Purpose of Note
This volume, originally called the “old Colledge-Book” or the “Long. College Book,”
College Book I is a miscellany of early records—of Corporation and Overseers meetings; of accounts, gifts, and deeds; of College laws, orders, and forms. Used for many years as a memorandum book of College affairs, its coverage is incomplete and unsystematic, its dated entries are frequently out of chronological order, and its contents (according to its editor) are “often jumbled together in a haphazard way now impossible of explanation.”
Organization by Quires
It would seem that the pages of Book I were originally stitched together as signatures or quires of twenty-four pages each. Although successive quires can no longer be distinguished in the present binding, a substantive analysis of the book in relation to what is known about the handwriting suggests that there were two quires set aside for different purposes in Henry Dunster’s day, a third quire first used in Charles Chauncy’s administration, a fourth begun by Leonard Hoar, and a fifth devoted to early donations to the Library. Book I can be described, and anomalous entries can be accounted for, within this general pattern of composition.
Before about 1645 the first quire (3–15 [1–26])
The second quire (16–35 [27–50]) was used until 1650 to record items of general interest—the Overseers meeting of December 27, 1643, which approved the seal sketched with the motto “Veritas”; the accounts of Samuel Shepard in constructing the “College,” probably entered right before the Colony Treasurer drew up a balance sheet between Harvard and “ye Country” on May 16, 1644; three diploma forms designed for students going to England, sandwiched in between copies of two gifts and a lease of 1646–1647; a compilation of College laws from 1642 to 1646, both in English and Latin; and two sets of College orders in 1650. Nothing is in Dunster’s hand, although he probably had successive tutors make most entries; thus Jonathan Mitchell, the future minister of Cambridge, wrote down the English statutes,
President Chauncy used the third signature (35–55 [51–74]) for official documents and forms which were recorded either in his hand or doubtless at his direction—the Act of 1642 reorganizing the Overseers and the Charter of 1650 creating the Corporation (although not the Appendix of 1657 relating the two bodies); the formulae for exempting College servants from taxes and public duties, for student confessions, for installing Fellows and Scholars of the House, and, on the first battered and creased page, for admitting candidates to the two degrees; and finally the magistrates’ order of May 10, 1649, against long hair, the substance of which was incorporated in the College laws as expanded and ratified in (this code was written down in a separate manuscript).
President Hoar dedicated the fourth quire (55–82 [75–100]) to the “Acts of ye Corporation” since his inauguration on December 10, 1672. Except for notes on three Overseers meetings, two kitchen inventories, and two entries on the William Pennoyer legacy, it was used for this purpose until July 23, 1686, when College Book IV was begun for routine orders. Two later meetings were recorded in both places (81, 828), Hoar made miscellaneous entries in earlier quires (as noted), and Urian Oakes apparently kept another manuscript which was transcribed all at once in John Rogers’ day [80–84]; but the practice of Chauncy’s last years of keeping regular records was generally continued in the fourth quire.
The fifth quire (156–168 [272–250]) is filled with lists of books donated to Harvard. As President Chauncy made two entries, this compilation may be part of the catalog called for by the Library orders of (see 195; compare 53, 59).
Date of Binding
Apparently College Book I came into existence at the end of President Hoar’s administration, although it lacked the first and fifth quires for another half century. It is referred to by Treasurer Danforth (224), who copied items from the second, third, and fourth quires into College Book III about 1687.
Pagination
The pagination of Book I can also be inferred, even though it seems “both puzzling and confusing.”
In its evolution from separate quires to a bound volume, and from miscellaneous and scattered entries to systematic and tightly written records, Book I illustrates the routinization of Harvard’s early government. As the College’s oldest and most crabbed manuscript, it conveys far more than the neatly printed text the exigencies of institutional development.
College Book II
Reconstructing a Lost Volume
Among the “valuable Curiosities” destroyed in 1764, when old Harvard Hall was “entirely consumed by Fire,”
Overseers Records, 1654–1685
College Book II was used for Overseers rather than Corporation records. Before it was numbered, it was always referred to as an Overseers book,
Although mistakenly described after the fire as “the first or most ancient” book of records,
The pattern of entries in the lost volume was remarkably even and compact. All references to Book II fall within the years 1654 to 1685, with page citations running from 3 to 74. Judging from the date of every item for which paging is given, all entries were made in chronological order. Unlike other early College books, there is no evidence that blank pages were appropriated for extraneous records. This unusually ordered and uncluttered use of Book II was probably due to its being largely kept by Thomas Danforth, who is often identified as Clerk of the Overseers.
Notes on Reconstructing Book II
Many references to Book II can be calendared only by inference, either because any one reference must be recognized as duplicating another, or because it must be assigned to a particular meeting when only its year is given, or because its entire date must be established from its page citation, on the assumption that records were kept in chronological order. Thus the 12 topical entries for June 7, 1654, were compiled from 21 primary references, only 4 of which give the exact date while 9 give no date at all. Where several entries occurred on a particular page, or at a single meeting, they are arranged in the most likely order of business.
If an item appears to have been copied into College Book I or III, or into Chauncy’s code of laws, it is summarized; if it is not in these printed records, it is given as transcribed most fully in such manuscript sources as Flynt and Richards or, if necessary, it is taken verbatim from Wadsworth’s index.
Dates and pages in parentheses are conjectural, either because the reference appears questionable, or because the original entry may not have entailed a meeting of the Overseers. Conversely, a question mark precedes the calendared entries for any meeting for which there may have been no recorded minutes, as when the Overseers appear to have gathered only for prayer, or only to confirm laws that scarcely could have been written down in the space available, or when their actions are known only from Book I, where any entry not a copy may have been made in lieu of an entry in Book II. By including all such meetings, even though a few probably went unrecorded in Book II, and by noting every specific reference to a meeting of the Overseers before they kept their own records, the calendar which follows becomes a complete listing of all known proceedings of the Overseers in the seventeenth century.
Key
Calendared entries, the sources for which are referred to more than twice, are identified with more economy than the abbreviations customarily used in footnotes. Although many citations include both letter and page, references to this series of printed Harvard College Records are by volume (or Part) and page. Where several pages are separated only by commas, the preceding letter or volume applies; and where no reference is given, the citation of the following entry applies. Several lettered abbreviations are used, as follows:
C… |
Copy or copies of the original entry recorded in College Book II. If in the Harvard College Records, the item is summarized; otherwise, it is quoted verbatim from the first copy cited. |
E… |
Excerpted in … |
F |
Common Place Book (“Diary”) of Henry Flynt, i (1712–1724). Massachusetts Historical Society. |
I… |
Indexed in … |
L |
John Leverett to [Benjamin Colman?], August 28, 1721. Ewer Papers, I. 59. New England Historic-Genealogical Society. Printed with some inaccuracies in J[ohn] E[rvin] Kirkpatrick, Academic Organization and Control (Yellow Springs, Ohio, 1931), pp. 240–246. |
M |
Diaries of Increase Mather, March 25, 1675 to December 7, 1676, and Jeremy Belknap excerpts, November 20, 1674 to May 1, 1687, ed. Samuel A. Green, Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 2nd Ser., xiii (1899–1900), 337–374, 397–411. |
N… |
Noted, discussed, or summarized in … |
John Richards, Treasurer’s Accounts, 1669–1693 (Journal and Ledger, 1669–1682, 1686–1693). Treasurer’s Papers. Harvard University Archives. Excerpts printed in John L. Sibley, “Account-books of Treasurers of Harvard College from 1669 to 1752,” Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 1st Ser., vi (1862–1863), 337–354. |
|
SC |
Samuel Eliot Morison, Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1936). |
W |
Benjamin Wadsworth’s Index to College Books I–VI. Harvard University Archives. Entries relating to College Book II are conveniently printed in Harvard College Records, i. xix–xxii. For specific reference, Wadsworth’s entries as printed have been numbered 1 to 56. Thus the entry under “O” [“Overseers of ye Coll.… chose a Clark. B.2.P.3. An.1654.”] is (W,29), assigned to June 7, 1654. All “W” items, if “W” is the first or only citation, quote Wadsworth exactly, although his page, year, and cross references, ellipses, and erratic periodization are omitted. |
Overseers Meetings Before Book II Was Begun
Note on Matthews’ List of Meetings
By calendaring the Overseers proceedings before 1686, particularly as recorded in College Book II, it is possible to correct and substantially complete the “Chronological List of Meetings, 1643–1750,” compiled by Albert Matthews as editor of College Books I and III, in Harvard College Records, i. clxix–clxxvi. The table following this paragraph assembles in compact form the points of difference between his analysis and the foregoing part of this appendix. Where he omitted an Overseers meeting (16 times), the complete date is italicized. (The same is done in brackets for two Corporation meetings, incidentally noted in listing the larger board’s activities.) Where he gave only the year of an Overseers meeting (4 times), the month and day are italicized, followed by the relevant page reference. Where his date appears mistaken (twice), it is corrected. And where he did not identify a meeting, or where he assigned it to one board, either the Corporation (C) or Overseers (O), when it probably involved the other, or both of them jointly (J), that is indicated. It appears that members of the Corporation frequently attended the meetings of the Overseers, even though orders were drawn up in the name of the senior board, and that this same kind of joint meeting was common for those unidentified gatherings “most, if not all” of which Matthews believed to have been limited to the Corporation.
1642 |
Sept. 23 |
|
1654/55 |
March 19 |
J |
1654 |
June 7 |
|
1655 |
April 30 |
J |
1655/56 |
(1656) |
|
Feb. 28 |
O |
|
1656 |
Aug. 12 |
O |
1659/60 |
Mar. 1 |
Not 1659 (58/59) |
1660 |
April 9 |
192 |
1660 |
July 16 |
|
1663 |
Aug. 24 |
O |
1666 |
Nov. 28 |
194 |
210 O/J, not C |
||
March 27 |
194 O/J, not O |
|
48, 201 (same) |
||
210 O/J |
||
1667 |
Dec. 5 |
196 O/J, not O |
218 O/J, not O&C |
||
1667/68 |
Jan. 1 |
O? |
1667/68 |
Jan. 27 |
J |
1669 |
June 3 |
218 O/J, not O |
219 O/J, not O |
||
1671 |
May 15 |
|
1671 |
Aug. 21 |
|
1671/72 |
Jan. 1 |
|
1671 [/72?] |
Not 1681 |
|
1672 |
Dec. 10 |
J |
1673 |
Sept. 15 |
221, 226, 226m |
O/J, not C&O |
||
1673/74 |
Feb. 26 |
|
1674/75 |
March 11 |
J, not O&C |
1674/75 |
March 15 |
O/J |
1675 |
April 7 |
J, not O&C |
1675 |
Sept. 30 |
|
1675 |
Nov. 28 |
|
[1676 |
April 3] |
|
[1676 |
Aug. 31] |
|
1677/78 |
Jan. 28 |
O/J, not O |
1681 |
Aug. 9 |
J, not O&C |
1681 |
Aug. 24 |
|
1682 |
July 20 |
|
1682 |
July 27 |
|
1683 |
Aug. 12 |
J |
College Book III
Overview and the Problem of Dating Danforth’s Entries
More than half of College Book III is filled with minutes of Corporation and Overseers meetings, financial notes, and other miscellaneous records relating to Harvard from 1636 to 1686. Except for information on proceedings after January 3, 1683/84, and a few interpolations before, all these entries are in the hand of Thomas Danforth (1622 or 1623–1699). Although some items duplicate College Book I, others were copied from sources no longer extant, such as College Book II.
Hence many of the entries are of great value, and several difficult problems could be solved if it were known exactly when the entries were made. But on this point, unfortunately, we are all at sea.
In search of paleographic anchors, Harvard historians have uniformly assumed that Danforth kept Book III as an Officer of the College, and that he laid it down at the time of the last entry in his hand. Named Treasurer in the Charter of 1650 and active since 1654, he resigned in to become Steward, only to be again entrusted with the Treasurer’s papers from April 10, 1682, to March 5, 1682/83.
Evidence of Composition About 1687
For Thomas Danforth, magistrate since 1659, Deputy Governor since 1679, sometime President of the Province of Maine and of the United Commissioners, and leading citizen of Cambridge and the Colony, the loss of the Massachusetts Charter in 1686 abruptly halted a long political career. Not one of the “moderates” who shared power in the provisional government of Joseph Dudley, he also bowed out of the College administration, submitting his last Steward’s accounts on July 23, at the same time that the new Council continued President Increase Mather and the resident Fellows in office as Rector and Tutors.
To preserve the archives he knew so well, Danforth obtained a volume similar to the one first used for the records of Rector and Tutors (College Book IV): although Danforth’s volume is lined as a ledger book for the accounts he planned to enter, and is less than half the size of the regular book of records (causing it to be called the “Thin Parchment Book” before it was numbered), the pages of both albums are 9″ × 14″, and the paper stock is the same.
Sources and Contents of Book III
Danforth compiled his chronicle of Harvard history from College Books I and II, financial documents, Colony records, the “Cambridge Towne-Book,” and a few wills.
Scattered through Danforth’s manuscript are certain words and phrases that point to its late, derivative character. Two series of entries are “extracted out of” older records, and at least five times a given property is “now” used in a particular way.
Leverett’s Entries
Although Harvard’s first archivist lay down his pen with a meeting less than three years before Andros’ arrival, the chronicle was evidently not brought down to 1686 until President John Leverett was faced with another crisis a generation later. During his days as tutor, Leverett kept the minutes of many governing board meetings in College Book IV, using the older volumes apparently at the same time for financial data;
Later Entries and the Historiography of Book III
The balance of Book III is largely filled with special compilations of the eighteenth century. On December 10, 1733, President Benjamin Wadsworth carefully began an inventory of “Lands & Annuities belonging to Harvard College,”
Twice in the nineteenth century investigators questioned the strict contemporaneity of certain entries in Book III. Finding that Harvard had received less than £400 from its namesake, President Josiah Quincy, instead of suspecting Master Eaton of embezzlement, discounted the figure of £779 17s. 2d. on Danforth’s first page. Apparently because of this point, but by implication either because Danforth was not Treasurer until 1650 or because he was given the accounts a second time in 1682, Quincy concluded that the volume had “no claim to the character of an original record.”