256 Report of Committee of General Court

    [June 29 1722]

    The Committe appointed to consider of the Memorial of the Overseers of Harvard College at Cambridge having perused, and considered the Charter, granted to the said College by the General Court of the Colony of the Massachusetts in the year 1650, which is their present constitution—which being put in practice would answer the end of the Memorial, and be more beneficial to that Society than enlarging the number of the Corporation.

    1. 1 That it was the intent of the said College Charter that the Tutors of the said College or such as have the Instruction and Government of the Students there, should be Fellows, and members of the Corporation of the old College provided they exceed not five in number.
    2. 2 That none of the said Fellows be Overseers.
    3. 3 That the President and Fellows of the said College or the Major part of them are not warranted by the said Charter of the College to fix or establish any salary or allowance for their service without the approbation and consent of the Overseers.

    In the name and by order of the Committe

    Benj. Lynde

    In Council June 29, 1722:

    Read and sent down:

    In the House of Rep[resentatives] June 29, 1722:

    Read and accepted and resolved that the Corp[oration] for the future practice accordingly.

    Sent up for concurrence

    John Clark Speaker

    In Council June 29, 1722:

    Concur’d

    Josiah Willard: Secretary

    At a Meeting of the Overseers at the Council Chamber in Boston June 6, 1722

    The Question was put

    Whether there be an Application made by the Overseers to the Generall Court for an enlargement of the number of the Corporation, so as to take in the Resident Tutors?

    Voted in the Affirmative.

    [Endorsed:] Report of the Committe upon the Memorial of the Overseers of Harvard College accepted by both Houses, with their Resolution upon it.8

    College Papers, 1. 63 (Nos. 135–136). By this action the General Court, instead of enlarging the Corporation, tried to eliminate the non-resident Fellows from it. As a matter of politics, this was now the principal aim of those opposing the liberal administration of the College. Quoted in Quincy, History, i. 302; and see Hoffman, Commonwealth College, p. 550.