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.332 It is the purpose of this appendix to suggest the probable sequence of entries in Book I, to reconstruct Book II from other sources that have survived, and to establish a late date for the compilation of Book III.

    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.333

    College Book I

    Overview and Purpose of Note

    This volume, originally called the “old Colledge-Book” or the “Long. College Book,”334 contains a sheaf of long, narrow pages (16½″ × 6¾″), all apparently of the same heavy but weathered parchment, all creased in the middle from being folded before being bound, and all collected and stitched together at least by President Benjamin Wadsworth’s day. The first pages include the oldest surviving records of Harvard College, dating from 1642 or 1643: a few earlier records, such as Nathaniel Eaton’s building accounts, are transcribed into College Book III, and “the psedentes booke” of Henry Dunster, which he may have kept since 1640, is referred to in Thomas Chesholme’s Steward’s ledger; but College Book I contains the first extant records of the institution—a meeting of the Overseers of December 27, 1643, some building accounts beginning at least a month before, and certain Commencement forms possibly noted in 1642.335 These records were continued with increasing regularity until the College lost its constitutional footing in 1686, after which, except for two or three entries the following year, Wadsworth and his successors partly filled the remaining pages with the College Laws of 1734, the Library Laws of 1736, and a list of graduates from 1642 to 1795. Sometime in President Josiah Quincy’s administration (1829–1845), the volume was rebound, and mislabeled “College Book No. 1. & 2.,” and again in 1917, after several pages had come loose, the entire sheaf was mended and fastened into the old covers.336

    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.”337 Yet the sequence of entries can be reasonably conjectured, notwithstanding the ripped and remounted pages, the duplicate and inaccurate pagination, and the vicissitudes of the manuscript over the years; and the apparent chaos of College Book I can be clarified, to the point of illuminating the pace of Harvard government in the first half century.

    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.338

    Before about 1645 the first quire (3–15 [1–26])339 was used to record the cost of glass for the “College,” the expense of finishing a score of studies and chambers in the building, and the quarterly rent as well as the “income” or entering fee of the individual studies.340 Most of these anonymous entries fill only a fraction of the page, allowing someone to rip off the bottom portion of one sheet [23–24], which was restored to full size only by attaching two fragments that record Corporation meetings in 1673 and 1675. Since the building entries take up scarcely half the signature, Presidents Chauncy and Hoar were able to appropriate blank pages, for a Corporation meeting [14], and for some financial notes [5–6]—although either one of these sheets or the sheet of Commencement forms [1–2] must have been separately inserted into this quire, inasmuch as the next quire logically begins after twenty-six rather than twenty-four pages. If these miscellaneous entries are seen as intrusive, then the building entries give the first signature a unity of its own.

    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,341 the pages of which, interestingly, are rather more creased than those of the Latin version. Chauncy and Hoar again filled up blank sheets with extraneous material [31–34], but the quire is primarily a document of the Dunster administration.

    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).342 In addition, the third quire includes a Corporation order of June 10, 1659, defining the jurisdiction of the town watch; the Overseers orders of March 27, 1667, regulating the College servants; and a Corporation order of June 17, 1667, regarding Commencement proceedings—the first written and probably conceived by Thomas Danforth, Treasurer of the College and newly chosen magistrate of Cambridge; and the second entered by John Richards, his successor as Treasurer, who also listed the College Stock as of June 3, 1669, and a subsequent legacy. Beginning on October 4, 1669, however, specific orders of the Corporation are recorded for the first time, apparently by one of the Fellows, by Richards, and finally by President Hoar. Although blank pages were later used for extracts from three wills [55, 57], the quire thus documents the point in Chauncy’s administration at which miscellaneous records of recurring usefulness gave way to regular entries of particular Corporation meetings.

    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 1687.343 Yet the volume would not seem to have been bound before Hoar began a new manuscript after his inauguration, a point corroborated by the scribble on one of his miscellaneous records which, by copying certain words from an earlier entry, suggests that the sheets of the second quire were still unattached in 1673 (compare note 6 on [23] with the first line of [39]). Hoar may have stitched together most of the quires of Book I at the same time that the official copy of the College laws of 1655, with additions to 1667, was bound, and his signature inscribed on the cover.344 After all, he initiated another record-keeping project, the Triennial Catalogue of graduates, at the end of his administration.

    Pagination

    The pagination of Book I can also be inferred, even though it seems “both puzzling and confusing.”345 Apart from two apparent cross references (51, 229m), the first extensive notations (collated as series C) were made by President Wadsworth. By his day, certain pages could have come detached from the original binding, including the two sheets used for study rent schedules [25–26, 31–32], both of which he mistakenly numbered 1 and 2. (Worn and tattered, these sheets, like [23–24] and [29–30], were later remounted.) After completing at least one-third of his pagination, Wadsworth apparently bound the first and fifth quires into the front and back of the volume (inverting the fifth quire so that it began when the book was turned over and opened from the back).346 Having thereby preserved the records of the original building and the lists of early gifts to the library, colonial Harvard’s most systematic President appropriated the blank sheets of “College Book No. 1.” (as he inscribed on the first page) both for College and library laws of his own day and for a “Catalogue of Graduates” since 1642.347

    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,”348 was a volume of early records known as College Book II. Although burned, the contents of this book can be largely determined from excerpts and references in various manuscripts that are still extant: President Charles Chauncy copied a few orders into his code of College laws; a few more were written into College Book I; then Treasurer Thomas Danforth transcribed the minutes of many meetings into College Book III; and finally President John Leverett and the tutors, Henry Flynt and Nicholas Sever, noted and discussed several passages. By correlating these references, by collating many of them with President Benjamin Wadsworth’s index of early College records, and by comparing others with miscellaneous sources such as diaries, it is possible to draw up a calendar of entries indicating the nature and scope of College Book II.349 To reconstruct the volume in its entirety, in the chronological order that it was written, not only lays bare the pattern of official actions of the Overseers in the seventeenth century, but precludes wild speculation about the contents of Book II.350

    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,351 and most excerpts from it clearly involve Overseers orders. The President and Fellows may have compiled two inventories on its pages and, as a group, may have attended Overseers’ meetings informally if not formally,352 but the volume did not include Corporation business as such.

    Although mistakenly described after the fire as “the first or most ancient” book of records,353 Wadsworth correctly numbered it second: it was probably bound before Book I, with which it was later confused, but the earliest references to it are dated June 7, 1654, more than a decade after the first quire of Book I was begun. From every indication, it was entirely devoted to original, contemporaneous records until June 11, 1685, the date of the last Overseers orders before the Colony Charter was vacated and the College’s constitutional basis changed. Thus Book II documented the course of Overseers government from the last meeting before President Henry Dunster resigned to the first meeting of Increase Mather’s administration.

    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.354 Precisely because the volume was not only limited to records before 1686, but substantially transcribed during the next half century, it was no longer needed for immediate reference by 1764, causing it to be left to its fiery fate in the Library of Harvard Hall while other College Books survived in President Edward Holyoke’s study. Yet even a skeletal outline of Book II is an invaluable guide to early Harvard government, delineating more clearly the picture begun in the analysis of Book I.

    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 …

    R

    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

    1642

    September 23
     

    “At this commencement, complaint was made to the governors” of two students, who “were corrected … for foul misbehavior” (Winthrop’s Journal; “History of New England,” 1630–1649, ed. James Kendall Hosmer, 2 vols. (New York, [1908], II, 84–85).

    1643

    December 27
     

    in the Colledge-Hall (I, 16).
     

    Orders regarding the “Veritas” seal and John Harvard’s gift, notes on the Mowlson fund and another English donation, and choice of Herbert Pelham as Treasurer and of George Downing (1642) and John Bulkley (1642) as tutors (I, 16–17; E, 175–176, and Winthrop’s Journal, II, 152).

    1650

    May 6
     

    in Harvard Colledge (I, 27).
     

    Orders regarding admission to the College, absence from it, examinations, and tobacco (I, 27–29, 190–191).

    Calendar of Entries in Book II

    		  

    1654

    June 7

    3

    at the Presidents House (IV, 49).
     

    [For attendance, see IV, 49.]
     

    Overseers of ye Coll. chose a Clark (W, 29).
     

    Charlestown Ferry, let at £40 (W, 22).
     

    President’s Salary (W, 38).
     

    2s. a quarter out of every Scholar’s Tuition money, went to ye President’s salary (C: W, 30, 42).
     

    His House & Land rent free (C: W, 30, 42).

    3–4

    Tutors Salary.
     

    ye 3 Fellows had, ye first £12[,] ye 2nd £11[,] ye 3d £10 per An. (W, 52; NW, 21).
     

    Fellows had, chamber & studies rent free (C: W, 53, 19, 21).
     

    (Salaries of President and Fellows settled. IV, 50; F, 360.)

    4

    For Tuition, some gave more some less (W, 54).
     

    All student debts payable to the Steward, at Cambridge and in money or useable goods (C, I, 191; IW, 10, 51, 55).

    5

    first Degree deni’d to those of 3 years standing (W, 12).
     

    Fellowship of Samuel Eaton (1649) made contingent on his being resident at the College (C: IV, 50; F, 360; N: IV, 379; L).
     

    Thomas Dudley (1651) chosen Fellow; Thomas Shepard, Samuel Hooker, and Nehemiah Ambrose (all 1653) chosen first, second, and third Probationer Fellow respectively (C, F, 360; N, L). (Misdated as June 11 and inaccurately summarized in SC, 304n, 312n.)

    6

    A scholar in debt above 20 days, to be turn’d out of his study (W, 13).

    (7)

    (Last item on page 3 repeated) (W, 30).

    1654

    October 24

    15

    President Dunster’s final resignation (C, I, 186; IW, 45).
     

    Chauncy to be approached (C, I, 206).
     

    Government of College committed to Fellows (C, I, 206).

    1654

    November 2
     

    at Boston (IV, 50).
     

    Chauncy offered presidency (C, I, 206–207; E, IV, 50; IW, 31).

    1654

    November 27

    16

    Colledge Hall in Cambridge (I, 207).
     

    Chauncy inaugurated (C, I, 207; IW, 25).
     

    Tutors Shepard, Hooker, and Ambrose (all 1653) chosen Fellows (C: I, 207; IV, 51; compare SC, 305n, 323).
     

    Agreement with Dunster on vacating President’s House (C, I, 207).

    1654/55

    March 19

    17

    [For some of those present, see IV, 380.]
     

    This joint meeting of the Corporation and Overseers may have been devoted to the preparation of the College Laws codified by the two boards on April 30, 1655; according to Nicholas Sever in 1723, the meeting was “when those laws must be supposed to have been in fieri” (Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 1st Ser., xvi [1878], 56).

    (1654 December 10)

    		  

    18–19

    Inventory of College estate or stock (C, I, 208–210; IW, 15, 49).
     

    References to specific items:
     

    Goffe’s College (I, 265).
     

    Joseph Cook’s land (I, 266).
     

    Bradish Lot (I, 266).
     

    Robert Cook’s gift (I, 284).
     

    Sedgwick’s shop (I, 286–287; IW, 47).
     

    Ward’s payment of land (I, 283; IW, 56).
     

    Mowlson-Bridges scholarships (IW, 48).

    19

    College plate (C, I, 207?; IW, 41).

    (1654/55 January 15)

    		  
     

    Summary of Dunster’s final accounts (C, I, 186), accompanied by Overseers’ settlement with his widow, after his death, February 27, 1658/59 (C, I, 187).

    1655

    April 30

    ?

    Chaunceian code of College laws ratified (III, 327–339).

    ?

    Corporation ordered to redress certain defects in the diet and lodging of students (III, 339).

    1655/56

    February 28
     

    Tutors Samuel Nowell (1653) and Joshua Moody (1653) chosen Fellows (C, I, 207).

    1656

    August 12
     

    Tutor Samuel Bradstreet (1653) chosen Fellow (C, I, 207).

    1660

    April 9

    21

    Boston (F, 355).
     

    Orders regarding students living or boarding out, and their delinquent payments (C, III, 341; I, 192; IW, 1, 3, 10, 11).
     

    Voted That the Treasurer pay the President £10 due to him and £10 as a gratuity out of the 1st payment of Mr. Kaine and Mr. Wards Gifts (F, 355; IW, 32).

    1660

    July 16

    22

    [place not mentioned] (F, 359; Flynt’s brackets).
     

    Present/Mr. Richard Bellingham Dept. Govr./Capt. Daniel Gookin/Major Humphry Atherton/Mr. Richard Mather/Mr. John Wilson/Mr. Charles Chancey/Mr. Zechariah Syms/Mr. John Norton/Mr. Mayo/Mr. John Sherman/Mr. Samuel Danforth/Mr. Jonathan Mitchel/Mr. Thomas Shepard/Thomas Danforth Cler. (F, 359 [diagonals added]; E, IV, 50).
     

    The Overseers doe Order that the Treasurer of the Colledg doe take Special Care for the Examining and calling in the Estate of the Colledg that it may be disposed of according to the wil of the Donor and in special that of Mr. John Ward Late of Ipswich and that the revennues thereof not otherwise determined by the Donor shal from time to time be disposed of according as the Overseers shal Judge most meet for the Supply of the fellows or otherwise (F, 359).
     

    Income from £300 in Richard Saltonstall’s hands to be used for Fellows’ salaries (C: IV, 50; F, 359).
     

    Treasurer ordered to pay the Fellows their due using for this “the Colledge peage” (C: IV, 50; F, 359).
     

    Treasurer ordered to pay President Chauncy £10 as a gratuity (C: IV, 50; F, 356, 359; IW, 32).

    1663

    August 24

    23

    at the Presidents (F, 380a).
     

    Tutors Samuel Eliot (1660), Peter Bulkley (1660), and Nathaniel Chauncy (1661) chosen Fellows (C, I, 210; IV, 51).
     

    Order regarding damages to the College (C: I, 192–193; III, 341–342; F, 380a; UA.II.26.63 [Harvard University Archives]; IW, 44).

    24

    Order regarding College exercises (C, I, 193; E, III, 340; IW, 14).

    1666

    November 28

    25

    Tutors Thomas Graves (1656), Solomon Stoddard (1662), and Alexander Nowell (1664) chosen Fellows (C, I, 210; IV, 51).
     

    Order requiring salaried Fellows to room and board in the College (C, I, 194; IW, 16).

    1667

    March 27

    26

    at ye Presidents House (I, 48).
     

    Present/Francis Willoughby Esq., Dep. Govr./Capt. Gookin/Mr. Richard Mather/&c. with the President and fellows (F, 360 [diagonals added]; E, IV, 50; IW, 7) (“three Fellows”: IV, 380).
     

    It is committed to the care of the Corporation of the Colledge to prepare and present to the Overseers at their Next meeting Orders for the regulating some inconveniences and disorders at Commencements (F, 360; IW, 8).
     

    The Colledge being found Endebted to the Stew[ar]d The Treasurer was Ordered to pay the Stew[ar]d provided it be not [providential?] to draw Supplys to the Stew[ar]d out of the Treasurers Stock (C: F, 360; EF, 356).
     

    Treasurer ordered to use up to £50 for utensils (C, I, 210).
     

    And the Treasurer is Ordered to pay the President one fourth Salary of a fellowship for his Extraordinary paines in the Want of fellows (C: F, 356, 360; IV, 50 [SC, 51]).

    27

    Library rules (C, I, 194–196; IW, 27).
     

    Solomon Stoddard chosen Library keeper (C, I, 210).
     

    Orders for College servants confirmed (I, 48, 201; EF, 248).

    1667

    December 5

    29

    at Boston (III, 342).
     

    [A joint meeting of Overseers and Corporation (IW, 7); for attendance, see I, 218; N, IV, 380.]
     

    Thomas Danforth offered post of Steward, which he subsequendy accepted, having resigned as Treasurer (C, I, 218).

    30

    Orders regarding payments to Steward (C: I, 196; III, 342; F, 380b; IW, 10, 13, 43).
     

    Recommendation to President and Fellows to prevent “fagging” (C: I, 196; III, 342; F, 380b; IW, 17, 34).
     

    Coll. Stock, Incomes of it to maintain Coll. officers (IW, 50).

    1667/68

    January 1

    ?

    Joseph Pynchon (1664) chosen Probationer Fellow (C, I, 210).

    1667/68

    January 27

    31

    at Boston.
     

    [A joint meeting of Overseers and Corporation (IW, 7).]
     

    The Overseers being Informed of the Presidents Necessitys and Straites under advers afflictions Especially the late bereavement of his wife Order the Treasurer to disburse £10 toward the discharge of his present Engagements (F, 356; IW, 32). [Chauncy’s wife died January 23 or 24, 1667/68; William Chauncey Fowler, Memorials of the Chaunceys … (Boston, 1858), p. 31.]

    1669

    June 3

    32

    at Boston (I, 219).
     

    [For attendance, see I, 54; IV, 50.]
     

    John Richards chosen Treasurer (C, I, 218).
     

    Henley gift to be acknowledged (C, I, 219).
     

    Piscataqua gift distributed (C: I, 219; F, 346; IV, 50 [SC, 13n, where addition to Senior Fellow’s annual salary is given as £15 rather than £16; compare SC, 52]; IW, 20, 24, 35, 52).

    1671

    May 15

    33

    The Stew[ar]d is Ordered to repair the Presidents House at Coll. Charge Not Exceeding £50 (F, 356; IW, 30, 40).

    1671

    August 21
     

    at Boston.

    ?

    Letter to nineteen Dissenting ministers in London, signed by nine clerical and seven lay Overseers (Charles Chauncy, John Eliot, John Oxenbridge, Thomas Thatcher, John Mayo, James Allen, Samuel Danforth, Thomas Shepard, Increase Mather; Richard Bellingham, John Leverett, Daniel Gookin, Richard Russell, Edward Tyng, Thomas Danforth, William Stoughton) (ed. Albert Matthews, Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, xi [1906–1907], 338–341).

    1671/72

    January 1

    35

    The Treasurer is Ordered to pay the President 10 pounds for his Supply (F, 356; IW, 32).
     

    President’s horse [house] repair’d (W, 40; compare Order on May 15, 1671).

    1671[/72?]

    		  

    32

    Orders regarding Commencement: limiting each commencer to one gallon of wine, and authorizing the Senior Fellow to act as proctor (C, I, 196–197 [misdated 1681 (compare I, clxxiii)]; EF, 345; IW, 5, 23).

    [Between January 1 and March 7, 1671/72?]

    		  

    38

    College lands (C, I, 198–199?; IW, 28).
     

    References to specific items in inventory: Betts lot, bought with Paine money (I, 198, 265).
     

    Glover annuity (I, 286; see 52).

    1671/72

    March 7

    39

    at Boston (IV, 50).
     

    President Chauncy buried at College charge (£15 16s. 2d.) (C, I, 217; NF, 356; IW, 36; cost in R, 4 [July 25, 1672]).
     

    Resident Fellows temporarily put in charge of the College and promised extra compensation (IV, 51; IW, 18).
     

    Richard Saltonstall’s motion proposing John Knowles for President, placed “on file for further Seasonable Consideration” (Endorsement on Letter of March 5, 1671/72, ed. John Noble, Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, viii [1902–1904], 198).

    1672

    June 20
     

    [For attendance, see I, 220–221.]
     

    Stewards (John Cooper and William Manning) and a committee of Overseers appointed to manage construction of a new building (C, I, 220–221).

    1672

    [July 30?]

    Hoar elected President (I, 219).

    President’s Salary Judg’d by ye overseers. 1672. should be £150 at least … (W, 38).

    48

    His House & Land rent free (W, 30).
     

    President’s horse [house] repair’d (W, 40).

    49

    President’s Salary … ye General Court to be address’d about it (W, 38; remainder of indexed reference to page 47).
     

    And to Encourage Dr. Hoar to quit the South Church and accept the Presidentship (according to advice of friends in England) the Overseers offer to bear the Charges of his transportation and grant a £100 for that purpose out of the Colledge Stock (F, 356).

    1672

    December 10
     

    Dr. Hoar Inaugurated President. (An entry, without book or page reference, in Wadsworth’s index; printed in Albert Matthews, “The Harvard College Charter of 1672,” Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, xxi [1919], 366, and assigned to College Book II.)

    1672/73

    January 20

    51

    Overseers order Treasurer to pay £100 on President Hoar’s transportation costs (C, I, 221; IW, 39; noted on May 31, 1673, and balanced against £100 “from mr. Ashhurst as a benevolence of sundry in England,” in R, 5, 55a; see I, 223. R, 5 is printed in Clifford B. Clapp, “The Gifts of Richard Baxter and Henry Ashurst to Harvard College,” Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, xx [1917–1919], 201).

    1673

    September 15

    53–54

    at Col. in Cambr. (I, 226m).
     

    Certain Fellows were chosen while others resigned (compare I, 57, 221, 226, 226m, and V, 421).

    1673

    October 2
     

    Urian Oakes (1649) and Thomas Shepard (1653) requested to continue as Fellows (C, I, 227).

    1673

    November 26
     

    Tutors Samuel Sewall (1671) and Daniel Gookin (1669) accepted as Fellows (C: I, 227 [misdated, 227m]; F, 346).

    1673/74

    February 26

    ?

    Difficulties began again in the College. Overseers meet. (Diary of John Hull, ed. S. F. Haven et al., Archaeologica Americana; American Antiquarian Society, Transactions and Collections, iii [1857], 238.)

    1674

    November 10
     

    Day of prayer due to “some dissettlement in the Colledge” (C, I, 221).
     

    Treasurer ordered to pay £10 to Chauncy’s son Bamabus (C, I, 231).

    1674

    December 3

    62

    at Boston (I, 228).
     

    Corporation urged to fill its ranks, to avoid any lessening of its Charter powers (C: I, 59m, 228; L).
     

    Order regarding payment to Steward (IW, 43?).

    1674/75

    March 11
     

    at Boston (I, 232).
     

    [For attendance, see I, 232.]

    ?

    Increase Mather (1656) presented as Fellow (see I, 231).

    1674/75

    March 15

    63

    at Cambridge (I, 231; NR, 7).
     

    Oakes and Shepard accepted as Fellows (C: I, 59m, 231).
     

    President Hoar’s resignation (C: I, 222, 231; IW, 46).
     

    Mather accepted as Fellow (C: I, 59m, 231).
     

    Oakes “Nominated and Requested to Accept the Place of the President of the College pro Tempore” (L).

    1675

    April 7
     

    at Cambridge (L).
     

    [For attendance, see I, 232; NR, 7.]
     

    Oakes’ acceptance as President pro tempore (C, I, 232).
     

    Corporation ordered to provide for returning students (C, I, 233).

    1675

    September 30

    ?

    After Lect. overseers of Colledge met (M, 352).

    1675

    October 27
     

    Oakes elected President (C, I, 234).
     

    Tutor Samuel Danforth (1671) approved as Fellow (C, I, 234).

    1675

    November 28

    ?

    After Lect. at Meeting of overseers of Colledge (M, 354).

    1675/76

    January 1
     

    Tutor Ammi Ruhamah Corlet (1670) approved as Fellow (C, I, 235).

    [1676 April 3]

    at Cambridge.
     

    Corporation mett to consider of Colledge affairs (M, 363).

    [1676 August 31]

    		  
     

    at Boston (“at my house,” R, 9).
     

    After Lect.… at Corporate, meeting (M, 370).
     

    Piscataqua income distributed to former tutors, Joseph Browne (1666), Alexander Nowell (1664), and John Richardson (1666) (R, 9).

    1677/78

    January 28

    66

    at Boston (I, 236).
     

    [For attendance, see I, 236; compare R, 11, 55a, suggesting a joint meeting of Overseers and Corporation.]
     

    Recommendation that Corporation choose one or two new Fellows (C: I, 65m, 236; L; IV, 50; N, IV, 380).

    1678

    May 21
     

    [For attendance, see I, 237.]
     

    Oakes urged to continue as President pro tempore (C, I, 237).
     

    One Overseer (John Sherman) and one tutor (Isaac Foster, 1671) approved as Fellows (C, I, 237).
     

    Case of Samuel Gibson and warning to students (C, I, 237–238).

    1679/80

    February 9
     

    Oakes approved as President (C, I, 239).

    1681

    July 26

    70

    at Cambridge (I, 240).
     

    Orders for managing Commencement, President Oakes having died (C, I, 240; IW, 9).
     

    Fellows authorized to carry on College affairs (C, I, 240; IW, 18, 37).

    1681

    July 28

    71

    at Boston (I, 241).
     

    Further orders regarding Commencement, limiting each graduate to three gallons of wine, and appointing Samuel Andrew (1675), the Senior Fellow, as proctor (C, I, 241–242; EF, 345–346; IW, 5, 9, 23).

    1681

    August 9

    ?

    [A joint meeting of Overseers and Corporation (IW, 7).]
     

    Tutor John Cotton (1678) approved as Fellow (C, I, 68).

    1681

    August 24

    ?

    The Overseers of the College met at Cambridge spending the day in Prayer (M, 409).

    1682

    July 20

    73

    Commencement order’d to be on ye second Wednesday in sept, & to continue so (W, 6).

    1682

    July 27
     

    Increase Mather asked to “manage ye next Comencement” (Diary of Increase Mather, in Albert Matthews, “Harvard Commencement Days, 1642–1916,” Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, xviii [1915–1916], 328).
     

    Order of July 20 “reversed,” Commencement being held at the traditional time, August 8, 1682. (See Diary of Noadiah Russell, in Matthews, “Harvard Commencement Days,” p. 327.)

    1683

    August 12
     

    John Rogers (1649) inaugurated as President (C, I, 253; NL).

    1683/84

    January 3

    74

    at Boston (I, 254).
     

    Commencement day (on September 12 in 1683) rescheduled on the first Wednesday in July (C, I, 254; IW, 2).

    1684

    July 1
     

    at Cambridge.
     

    [For attendance, see I, 76.]
     

    Order for managing Commencement, President Rogers having taken sick (C: I, 76, 255).

    1684

    September
     

    Joshua Moody (1653), approved for presidency, to be approached (C, I, 256–257).

    1684

    October 14
     

    Corporation ordered to nominate another candidate for President (C, I, 257).

    1685

    June 11
     

    at Boston (I, 78).
     

    Increase Mather requested to act as President (C: I, 78, 258).
     

    Order, written by Samuel Sewall, for managing forthcoming Commencement (IV, 151).

    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.355 Although the following list dates or identifies about three dozen meetings, it does not include the many instances where the preceding Calendar of Entries supplements the printed records of specific meetings. Throughout the seventeenth century, as Harvard’s former archivist pointed out, “the President, the Secretary of the Board of Overseers, and the Treasurer”—as well as each subsequent investigator before the fire of 1764—“kept only those parts of the college records which interested him,”356 making at best a fragmentary collection of minutes; yet by correlating their notes, not only may Book II be reconstructed, but Matthews’ analysis of Books I and III may be revised and enlarged.

    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

    1667

    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.357

    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, 1682/83.358 Thus he is variously supposed to have begun Book III “about 1654” or “not long after” that date, to have kept it during his financial tenure, and to have made entries “at any time between 1650 and 1684.”359 But Danforth’s annals were not compiled at different times, more or less contemporaneous with the events recorded; on the contrary, the work was done all at once, about 1687, in an effort to document Harvard’s first half century. Proof of such late, unitary composition, by throwing the early entries of Book III into historical perspective, corrects the traditional understanding of the volume.

    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.360 With imperial authorities wanting Harvard “supressed” or at least “duly regulated,” and with Governor Edmund Andros, an Anglican, assuming the right of visitation upon his arrival late in 1686, a pall of uncertainty hung over the Puritan college—which deepened during 1687 when Sir Edmund imposed his chaplain upon the Commencement proceedings, “demanded” an accounting of Treasurer John Richards, and led Rector Mather to believe that he would be “dismissed.”361 In these circumstances, Danforth was undoubtedly apprehensive (a decade after Andros’ fall, he still stipulated that his bequest to Harvard revert to his heirs should “any Prelatical Injunctions” be imposed on the institution).362 Thrown out of public office, resigned from College responsibilities after thirty-six years, not only fearful of Harvard’s fate, but practiced as clerk of Cambridge, of the Middlesex County Court, and of the Board of Overseers, he had by 1687 every reason and inclination to copy Harvard records into a single volume for safekeeping. Not until he no longer kept College Book II was there an incentive to begin College Book III, which Anglican officials need never know about should they seize the books and muniments of the Puritan seminary.

    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.363 The early entries in Book III give the appearance of a single compilation: in contrast with the crabbed handwriting, random spacing, and blank pages of older documents, Danforth’s records are evenly inscribed, spread across every page, entered on successive pages (with one exception), and replete with catch-words, anticipating at the foot of one page the first word of the next, as in printed volumes of the time.364 Not only surrounding circumstances but characteristics of the volume itself point to its initial use about 1687.

    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.365 Departing from chronological order as particular topics or convenience in copying seemed to require, he included not only many constitutional documents, official forms, and regular minutes of the Overseers and Corporation, but lists of individual gifts, important inventories and accounts, and most College laws.366 In transcribing the principal records of early Harvard, Danforth misdated a few extracts, condensed or expanded many more, and reworded still others.367

    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.368 Not only internal evidence, but comparative analysis; not only Danforth’s language, but the source of one of his important entries—a list of contributions under the heading “1672” which was actually derived from a document submitted in 1682—would suggest the late date of his compilation.369 Precisely because he began Book III at the end of his services to Harvard, he could not remember the details of the College’s first years. At least fourteen times, he either mistook or left a space for the first name, title, or town of one of the early benefactors.370 Apparently improvising to complete the record, he supposed that Nathaniel Eaton was engaged in 1637 (after erasing 1638), even though the College’s first mentor could not have moved to Cambridge before spring, nor begun instruction before summer, of the latter year; he assumed that responsibility for “carrying on the building” after Eaton left was initially entrusted to Samuel Shepard, whose accounts survive, rather than a committee of Shepard and two others, as Henry Dunster himself stated; and instead of sketching the “Veritas” shield when he copied the minutes of the 1643 meeting which approved it, he attached a mottoless College seal, probably designed, cut and used long after, rather than before, the corporate seal of 1650, which had been authorized in the Charter and inscribed with the legend “In Christi Gloriam.”371 Having retired from Colony politics and the governance of Harvard, Danforth had by 1687 the time and desire to consolidate the institution’s records in a compendium safe from Governor Andros’ grasp; but already the details of early College history were slipping away from him.

    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;372 but the Fellowship Controversy of 1720–1723 caused him and the leading tutors, Henry Flynt and Nicholas Sever, to become students of the records. Probably after he searched through Book I to document his belief that non-residents sat on the Corporation in the seventeenth century,373 the embattled President more or less systematically interpolated into Book III certain excerpts from Books I and II. In this way, he not only clarified, corrected, and completed Danforth’s entries, but carried the compilation down to 1686. It would seem that Leverett filled out Book III at least partly because he need then only consult one volume of records in order to advance or refute historical points in the Fellowship controversy. He thereby served as Danforth’s first editor, making the pages of the earlier chronicle continuous with the ongoing records of the College.374

    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,”375 and by including copies of deeds and notes on leases, descriptions and plans, cross references and an index, he made it the most comprehensive survey of College property in the colonial period. Probably earlier in the century the volume had been opened from the back and used for transcripts of honorary degree diplomas dating from 1703, and for copies of two Memorials on Massachusetts Hall (1717–1718).376 Presidents Edward Holyoke and Samuel Langdon continued both kinds of entries until they almost met and all pages were exhausted, about 1779. By then the volume contained twenty-five diplomas from Harvard and half a dozen foreign universities, and detailed information and a dozen sketches of perhaps forty parcels of real estate.

    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.”377 Likewise, Danforth’s wording on the location of an early building caused his first modern editor to suggest that “the greater part of [his] work was done just before” January 3, 1683/84, the date of his last entry.378 But these doubts were not systematically developed; and twentieth-century historians have confidently used Book III as a direct source for the College’s first half century. It was instead a copy of records of that period, a valuable copy as other manuscripts became lost, but nonetheless a palpable copy. To suggest that Danforth could not have begun Book III before 1686, and that Leverett continued it thirty-five years later, is not to deny the authenticity of their entries, but only to establish their work as a retrospective rather than a contemporary picture of Harvard.