Yale
.'
7701-1726
Sdwin Oviail
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OF
NEVINS
THE BEGINNINGS OF YALE
PUBLISHED ON THE FOUNDATION
ESTABLISHED IN MEMORY OF
HERBERT A. SCHEFTEL
OF THE CLASS OF 1898, YALE COLLEGE
THE BEGINNINGS
OF YALE
(1701-1726)
BY EDWIN OVIATT
Illustrated by Theodore Diedricksen, Jr.
NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MDCCCCXVI
COPYRIGHT, 1916
BY
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
First published October, 1916
THE HERBERT A. SCHEFTEL
MEMORIAL PUBLICATION FUND
The present volume is the second work
published by the Yale University Press on
the Herbert A. Scheftel Memorial Publica-
tion Fund. This foundation was established
January 12, 1915, by a gift to Yale Uni-
versity by Mrs. Herbert A. Scheftel, of
New York, in memory of her husband, a
member of the Class of 1898, Yale College,
who died September 12, 1914: "in recog-
nition of the affection in which he always
held Yale and in order to perpetuate in the
University the memory of his particular
interest in the work of the Yale University
Press."
PREFACE
A surprisingly small number of books on Yale University
are accessible to us. President Clap's quaint "Annals" of
1766 can now be consulted only in the few rare copies that
have survived; Ebenezer Baldwin's dry compilation of 1831
has long been out of date; President Woolsey's fine Anniver-
sary Address of 1850 is no longer in general circulation;
the late William L. Kingsley's monumental "Yale College"
was published as long ago as 1879. These old-time books,
together with a few chapters in Bagg's "Four Years at
Yale" (now out of print), and Professor Dexter's brief
epitome of the University's history, together with such other
narratives as may be found in periodicals and in American
college history compilations, comprise practically all that
has appeared in book form regarding Yale history. Much
fresh material concerning these bygone days has come to
light, of course, since 1879. Professor Dexter's researches,
for instance, have brought out new facts and revised old
statements. Delvers into Yale's past must needs become
acquainted with his numerous papers in the publications of
the New Haven Colony Historical Society, with his exhaust-
ive collection of facts in his "Yale Biographies and Annals,"
and with his "Documentary History of Yale University,"
to be published this year. Anson Phelps Stokes' "Me-
morials of Eminent Yale Men," published in 1914 by the
Yale University Press, has brought together a great amount
of hitherto scattered information regarding a number of
graduates of the early days. Colonial town records have
become much more accessible during these thirty-five
years; letters and diaries have been discovered and pub-
X
Preface
lished; new treatment has been given the whole Colonial
period by numerous scholars, including our own Professors
Fisher, Andrews, and Walker. As a result, much that had
previously been accepted as true (as stated by such supposed
authorities as Clap and President Quincy of Harvard and
his school of followers) has had to be revised. The present
writer has spent many an off-duty hour poring over these
original sources, ransacking town-record offices and town
and church histories, and visiting the scenes where Yale
had its beginnings. Where considerable portions of this
book give the modern understanding of certain epochs in
Yale history, I presume that these latter-day corrections
of the old views are responsible. Where I have given
perhaps a new interpretation to certain other movements
in this history, no one may be called to account but myself.
Mr. Diedricksen's illustrations for this book should form
not the least interesting and useful feature of it. Most
of them have been drawn from ancient woodcuts and
photographs; where an imaginary reconstruction has been
attempted, only myself may be blamed for such anachro-
nisms as may have crept in.
It has been my plan to treat the several Colonial periods
covered by these chronicles in such a way that one might
first renew his acquaintance with the broad events of the
times, and then follow the participants of the several acts of
the drama in a perhaps more intimate way against that
background. These three main periods are : the Davenport
epoch, during which New Haven was founded as a Separa-
tist church-state and attempts at a college were made; the
Pierpont period, during which the Collegiate School was
founded and carried on at the modern Clinton and the old
Saybrook; and the Andrew-Cutler-Edwards era, during
which Yale College was established and took root at New
Haven. It is a coincidence, but a happy one, that this book
Preface xi
on these beginnings of Yale appears at the time of the two-
hundredth anniversary of this latter event. That these
easy-going pages may serve to give something at least of
that new realization of how Yale's beginnings came about
which the author came to have in writing them, is the cordial
hope of the writer.
EDWIN OVIATT.
Ogden Street, New Haven, September 4, 1916.
CONTENTS
PART I
JOHN DAVENPORT AND His NEW HAVEN COLLEGE
PAGE
Chapter I. John Davenport 3
Chapter II. The New Haven Colonists 18
Chapter III. The New Haven Church-State .... 30
Chapter IV. The Davenport Education 52
Chapter V. Davenport's New Haven College .... 70
Chapter VI. The Downfall of the New Haven Republic . 86
PART II
THE FOUNDING OF THE COLLEGIATE SCHOOL
Chapter I. Connecticut after 1664 105
Chapter II. New Haven and James Pierpont . . . . 117
Chapter III. The Need of a Colony College . . . . 134
Chapter IV. The "Founding" by the Ministers . . . 148
Chapter V. The General Assembly Charter . . . . 172
Chapter VI. The Saybrook Organization 192
Chapter VII. Abraham Pierson 205
PART III
THE COLLEGIATE SCHOOL AND YALE COLLEGE
Chapter I. The Killingworth Beginnings .... 223
Chapter II. Saybrook Days 245
Chapter III. The Connecticut Colony in 1701-1714 . . 259
Chapter IV. The Saybrook Platform 277
Chapter V. The Gifts of Books 289
xiv
Contents
PAGE
Chapter
VI.
The Struggle for a Site ....
. . 304
Chapter
VII.
The Beginnings at New Haven
. . 324
Chapter
VIII.
"Yale College" at New- Haven . .
. . 344
Chapter
IX.
Rector Cutler
369
Chapter
X.
The New Haven of Timothy Cutler
. . 381
Chapter
XI.
The Result of the Books ....
. . 396
Chapter
XII.
The End of an Era
. . 413
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
THE GRANTING BY THE DEPUTIES OF THE COLLEGIATE
SCHOOL CHARTER, OCTOBER, 1701 . . Frontispiece
An imaginary sketch, based on representations of the
Second Meeting-house in standard New Haven histories,
and on costumes of the period. The scene pictures the
arrival of Deputies and members of the Upper House, and
of James Pierpont and the other ministers with the Colle-
giate School charter
THE DAVENPORT ARMS ...... 2
Crest and Arms of John Davenport's Coventry family,
from Kingsley's "Yale College"
COVENTRY IN 1600 ....... 5
Ford's Hospital Gate, from Benjamin Poole's "The History
of Coventry"
COVENTRY FREE SCHOOL ...... 7
From an engraving in Poole's "The History of Coventry"
MAGDALEN COLLEGE TOWER . . . . . 11
From Loggan's "View of Magdalen College, 1674," and
from modern paintings, etc.
LONDON SPIRES ........ 17
From an old English print, dated 1616
AUTOGRAPH OF THEOPHILUS EATON . . . . 18
From a letter by Davenport and Eaton to their friends in
Boston, 1638 (the original is in the New York Public
Library)
A COLONIST'S HOUSE AT LENHAM, ENGLAND . . . 21
From a photograph owned by a descendant of Henri
Thompson, Gent, who owned this house in the 17th
Century. The Anthony Thompson of colonial New Haven
is said to have been born here. The house, which is still
standing, is not far from London
xvi Illustrations
PAGE
THE "HECTOR" 22
From contemporaneous pictures of 17th Century English
ships
AUTOGRAPH OF JOHN HARVARD ..... 24
From Avery's "History of the United States"
THE FIRST QUINNIPIAC WINTER ..... 26
This imaginary reconstruction is based on drawings of
similar pioneer huts in Isham and Brown's "Early Con-
necticut Houses." The view is from the west side of
George Street near Church Street
AUTOGRAPH OF JOHN DAVENPORT .... 28
Several letters by John Davenport are in the possession of
Yale University
PORTRAIT OF JOHN DAVENPORT ..... 29
From the original painting in the University Dining Hall
STOCKS ......... 30
Based on sketches in standard American histories. The
imaginary reconstruction of the Watch-house is based on
Levermore's and Atwater's New Haven histories. The
Stocks and Pillory, and the Watch-house faced College
Street about opposite the present site of Phelps Hall
GOVERNOR EATON'S HOUSE ...... 34
A crude woodcut representation of this chief dwelling
house of colonial New Haven appears in Lambert's "His-
tory of the Colony of New Haven" (1838). Isham and
Brown, in their "Early Connecticut Houses," devote much
space to a careful study of this building and to its probable
floor plan and furniture arrangement. The house stood on
the north side of the present Elm Street, about 200 feet
east of Orange Street. Part of the original foundation is
said to be still standing in the house now on that site
NEW HAVEN IN 1640 ....... 39
Edward Atwater, in his "History of the Colony of New
Haven" (1881), published a map of the village of this
period, based on authoritative researches in the original
Illustrations xvii
PAGE
allotment of land to the planters made by the late Henry
White of New Haven. For the purposes of this book, the
Atwater map has been elaborated from much new data
gathered from the New Haven Colony Records, such as the
probable designation of a number of the streets and main
"corners," etc. The stockade and gates are problematical
for this date (see footnote to p. 32), though the Colony
Records look that way
TRAINING-DAY ON THE MARKET-PLACE, NEW HAVEN . 42
The details for this drawing were studied from the Colony
Records, and from descriptions by such authorities on New
Haven history as Levermore, Atwater, Blake, etc.
THE FIRST NEW HAVEN MEETING-HOUSE ... 46
Crude representations of this church building were pub-
lished by Atwater and Mr. Henry T. Blake. The Colony
Records supply such details as the location of the cause-
way and "Mr. Davenport's Walk," the accoutrements of
the soldier, the presence of a ladder at the Meeting-house,
the drummer, etc.
THE TOWN WATCH ....... 49
This imaginary reconstruction of the New Haven stockade
and guard in 1640-1650 is based on the Colony Records, on
Levermore's "Republic of New Haven," and on standard
representations of the pioneer Plymouth Colony palisade
A GUILFORD HOUSE IN 1660 ..... 51
The famous "Stone House" of the Rev. Mr. Whitfield,
built partly for protective purposes against the Indians,
and still standing (though greatly altered from its original
structure) as a public museum. An exhaustive archi-
tectural study of this well-known building may be found in
Isham and Brown's "Early Connecticut Houses"
EARLY NEW HAVEN WHARVES ..... 52
The principal "landing place" of colonial New Haven
appears to have been on the present Water Street, north of
Olive Street. The Colony Records contain numerous notes
respecting the water front at this point. In the rear were
the college "Oystershell-Fields"
xviii Illustrations
PAGE
THE FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE ...... 57
In this imaginary reconstruction, the schoolhouse is given
the pyramidal roof commonly adopted for most colonial
public buildings of the period. An example may be found
in Whitefield's "Homes of our Forefathers." The Colony
Records mention a causeway (corduroy road) from this
building to "Mr. Perry's Corner" (the present junction of
Church and Elm Streets). According to Mr. Henry T.
Blake, the schoolhouse probably stood just northeast of
the present United Church
AUTOGRAPH OF ISAAC ALLERTON ..... 58
From Avery's "History of the United States"
AUTOGRAPH OF EZEKIEL CHEEVER .... 60
From Avery's "History of the United States"
A NEW HAVEN STREET IN 1650 ..... 65
No representation has come down to us of any New Haven
pioneer-period house except of Governor Eaton's. This
imaginary sketch of a New Haven street of this period,
therefore, has had to be based on studies of contemporary
buildings elsewhere. For this purpose, Whitefield's "Homes
of our Forefathers" and Isham and Brown's "Early Con-
necticut Houses" have freely been drawn upon, a pro-
cedure made possible by Mr. Isham's statement that
pioneer New Haven and Hartford dwellings were much
alike, and by the known number of rooms in such New
Haven planters' houses as Thomas Gregson's. The width
of the roadway, height of fences, presence of ladders (for
fire protection), etc., are drawn from the Colony Records.
Lambert is authority for the use of diamond-paned
windows in at least some of the houses. Atwater's map
has been used to locate the relative positions of the houses
INTERIOR OF SCHOOLHOUSE ...... 69
Based on similar representations in standard American
histories
STATUE OF JOHN HARVARD ...... 70
From a photograph of the statue in the Harvard Yard
Illustrations xix
PAGE
THE DUTCH ARREST NEW HAVEN TRADERS ... 73
The various details for this drawing are based on early
prints of New York and of colonial shipping, and on books
on early costumes
THOMAS GREGSON'S CORNER OF THE MARKET-PLACE . 78
An imaginary reconstruction, based on Atwater's map, the
Colony Records (as to the footbridge and fences), and on
Isham and Brown's studies of contemporary houses in
Hartford that fit the known requirements of the Gregson
house. Isham says of this, that Gregson had "a parlor,
hall, and chambers, an arrangement which requires nothing
more elaborate than the two-room, central chimney plan."
The view is up the modern Chapel Street from the Green
corner of Church Street
AUTOGRAPH OF EDWARD HOPKINS .... 85
The University owns an original letter by Edward Hop-
kins, to John Winthrop, Sr., dated 1636
PORTRAIT OF GOVERNOR JOHN WINTHROP ... 86
The original painting, by some unknown artist, is in the
possession of descendants of Governor Winthrop in New
York City. A copy, by George F. Wright, is in the State
Capitol at Hartford
AUTOGRAPH OF GOVERNOR JOHN WINTHROP ... 91
From "The Governors of Connecticut"
THOMAS HOOKER'S HARTFORD HOUSE .... 93
From Avery's "History of the United States"
GOVERNOR LEETE'S GUILFORD HOUSE .... 95
From a woodcut in Lambert's "History of the Colony of
New Haven"
AUTOGRAPH OF THOMAS HOOKER .... 101
An original letter by Thomas Hooker to John Winthrop,
Jr., dated 1636, is in the University Archives
xx Illustrations
PAGE
GOVERNOR ANDROS' COAT OF ARMS . . . . 104
A copy is in the Collections of the Bostonian Society, and
is reproduced in Avery's "History of the United States"
AUTOGRAPH OF GOVERNOR WILLIAM LEETE . . . 105
An original letter by Governor Leete to John Winthrop,
Jr., dated 1661, is in the University Archives
AUTOGRAPH OF GOVERNOR ANDROS . . . . 109
The University possesses an original letter by Andros to
Governor Fitz-John Winthrop, dated 1687
A HARTFORD HOUSE IN 1660 . . . . . Ill
From a drawing in Whitefield's "Homes of our Fore-
fathers"
AUTOGRAPH OF GOVERNOR ROBERT TREAT . . . 114
An original letter by Governor Treat to Fitz-John Win-
throp, dated 1702, is in the University Archives
PORTRAIT OF JAMES PIERPONT . . . . . 117
The original painting, by an unknown artist, probably
painted in Boston in 1711, is owned by descendants of Pier-
pont in New Haven
SECOND MEETING-HOUSED 1685 . . . . . 126
A representation of this church building may be found in
Mr. Blake's "Chronicles of the New Haven Green"
GOVERNOR ANDROS IN NEW HAVEN . . . . 131
The costumes, etc., are largely based on paintings by the
late Howard Pyle
JAMES PIERPONT'S CHAIR AND TABLE . . . . 133
The original chair is in the University Library lobby; the
table is in the possession of descendants of Pierpont in
New Haven, by whom permission was given to make this
sketch from it
PORTRAIT OF INCREASE MATHER . . . . . 134
John Vanderspriet's original painting is in the Massa-
chusetts Historical Society Collections
Illustrations xxi
PAGE
HARVARD COLLEGE IN 1700 138
The drawing, adapted to this date, is from a woodcut in
Quincy's "History of Harvard"
INCREASE MATHER'S HOUSE, BOSTON . . . . 145
From Edwin Whitefield's "Homes of our Forefathers." A
later sketch, showing the changes due to modern business
needs, is to be found in Porter's "Rambles in Old Boston"
AUTOGRAPH OF INCREASE MATHER . . . . 147
The original letter by Increase Mather, dated 1701, in
which his scheme for the Collegiate School is suggested, is
in the University Archives
THE BRANFORD HOUSE DOORS . . . . . 148
When the parsonage of Samuel Russel of Branford was
torn down in 1836, these double front doors were saved
and later brought to New Haven and set up in the wall of
the private office of the University Librarian, where they
now may be seen. Except for having been sawn down to
accommodate the space allotted for them, these historic
doors are in their original condition
SAMUEL RUSSEL'S HOUSE, BRANFORD . . . . 160
A crude pen and ink drawing of this building was made
about 1836, and from it have come all later representa-
tions
AUTOGRAPH OF COTTON MATHER . . . . . 164
The University possesses an original letter by Cotton
Mather, dated 1714
PORTRAIT OF COTTON MATHER . . . . . 171
The original painting, by Pelham, is in the Collections of
the American Antiquarian Society
PORTRAIT OF JUDGE SAMUEL SEWALL . . . . 172
A copy of the original painting is in the Collections of
the Massachusetts Historical Society
xxii Illustrations
PAGE
MILES' TAVERN IN 1700 175
Adapted from a water color in the possession of Gen.
George H. Ford of New Haven, which in turn was painted
from a pen and ink sketch of the building made around
1850
AUTOGRAPH OF SAMUEL SEWALL . . . . . 178
This signature may be found on an original letter by
Samuel Sewall to James Pierpont, dated 1701, in the
University Archives
AUTOGRAPH OF ISAAC ADDINGTON . . . . 179
From Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of
America"
THE UPPER HOUSE GRANTING THE CHARTER . . 185
This imaginary scene in Miles' Tavern depicts Governor
Fitz-John Winthrop and his Council discussing the Colle-
giate School charter, October, 1701. The costumes and
furniture are from standard authorities on the period
AUTOGRAPH OF GERSHOM BULKELEY . . . . 189
From the original letter by Bulkeley to the Collegiate
School promoters, dated September 17, 1701, in which he
opposes the granting of a charter. The letter is in the
University Archives
AUTOGRAPH OF JAMES FITCH . . . . . 190
From the original letter of gift to the Collegiate School,
dated October 16, 1701, in the University Archives
PORTRAIT OF SECRETARY ADDINGTON . . . . 191
The original painting is in the New England Historical
and Genealogical Society rooms, Boston
AUTOGRAPH OF GOVERNOR FITZ-JOHN WINTHROP . . 192
The University owns an original letter from Governor
Fitz-John Winthrop to Joseph Dudley, dated 1704
THE FIRST MEETING OF THE TRUSTEES . . . . 195
Various portraits of ministers of the period, and photo-
graphs of contemporaneous houses still standing in Old
Illustrations xxiii
PAGE
Saybrook, have been used for this scene at Thomas Buck-
ingham's house
BLACK HORSE TAVERN, SAYBROOK .... 200
From a photograph of the original building still standing
in Old Saybrook, kindly loaned by Rev. Dr. Samuel Hart
of Middletown, Conn. This house was built in 1665
PORTRAIT OF GOVERNOR FITZ-JOHN WINTHROP . . 204
The original painting, by an unknown artist, is in the
State Library at Hartford
ABRAHAM PIERSON'S GREAT WAINSCOT CHAIR . . 205
This chair stands in the President's room in Woodbridge
Hall; for years it was annually used by Yale Presidents
at Commencements
THE FIRST NEWARK MEETING-HOUSE .... 212
From an old map of Newark, N. J., published in Jonathan
F. Stearns' "First Church in Newark"
ABRAHAM PIERSON'S STATUE ON THE COLLEGE CAMPUS . 219
A replica of this statue stands on the grounds of the
Morgan School, Clinton, just east of the site of the Pierson
parsonage of 1701-1707. The representation, of course,
is imaginary, as no portrait of the Collegiate School's first
Rector is known to exist. This statue was modeled by Mr.
Launt Thompson
AUTOGRAPHS OF THE COLLEGIATE SCHOOL'S ORIGINAL
TRUSTEES ....... 220
These signatures (in order) are of James Noyes, Israel
Chauncy, Thomas Buckingham (of Saybrook), Abraham
Pierson, Samuel Andrew, Timothy Woodbridge, James
Pierpont, Noadiah Russell, Joseph Webb, and Samuel
Russel. They are taken from original autographs on a
group of documents between 1701 and 1716, in the Uni-
versity Archives, and are here published (most of them
for the first time) with the permission of the University
Library Committee. The only letter by Samuel Mather
owned by the University is not in his own handwriting
xxiv Illustrations
PAGE
THE YALE ARMS AND CREST ..... 222
This Yale family coat of arms is from "The Yales and
Wales" by Rodney Horace Yale
THE FRANKLIN MILE-STONE . . . 223
i
From the original on the Clinton main street
A MAP OF KlLLINGWORTH (CLINTON) JUST BEFORE
RECTOR PIERSON'S DAY ..... 226
With additions to bring it to 1701, from a blue print in
the Killingworth Town Clerk's office, kindly loaned by
Mr. G. W. Jones of Clinton, Conn. This map was
originally prepared from the land allotments of Killing-
worth in 1665
THE KILLINGWORTH MEETING-HOUSE IN 1701 . . 229
From a drawing in Kingsley's "Yale College," and from
Clinton documents describing the schoolhouse of 1703
TUTOR JOHN HART'S CHAIR ..... 236
From a photograph taken in the Whitfield House historical
collection in Guilford, Conn.
RECTOR PIERSON'S PARSONAGE IN KILLINGWORTH . . 238
An imaginary reconstruction, based on measurements
made on the ground, and from descriptions in Stiles, etc.
The building itself is drawn from a contemporaneous
house, still standing, in Madison. The site of the well
was recently uncovered by the present owner. The road
at the right is the present Clinton main street. Rector
Pierson's inventory shows that he had apple orchards and
tobacco fields
INDIAN RIVER, KILLINGWORTH, 1707 .... 241
From a drawing made on the spot; the view is east,
looking up to the Meeting-house Hill, from just south of
the present main street bridge
MR. PIERSON'S CIDER-CUP ...... 244
From the original on exhibition in the University Library
Illustrations xxv
PAGE
THE PIERSON GRAVE-STONE ..... 245
Drawn from the original
THE LORD HOUSE, OLD SAYBROOK .... 248
From a photograph loaned by Rev. Dr. Samuel Hart of
Middletown, an authority on Saybrook history. The house
is still standing and was built in 1665
THE COLLEGIATE SCHOOL AT SAYBROOK . . . 253
This imaginary sketch is based on photographs of con-
temporary houses of the supposed Lynde house type, and
on the map of Saybrook Point in 1709 on page 256
SAYBROOK POINT IN 1709 256
President Stiles published a rough sketch of the streets and
houses on Saybrook Point in his "Itinerary" of 1793. The
contours of the Point and street layout in this map, with
such of the buildings as were standing in 1709, have been
taken from the Stiles map. I am indebted to Rev. Dr.
Samuel Hart, of Middletown, Conn., for numerous notes
on the Stiles sketch, which have made it possible to repre-
sent here, with a very close approach to historical
accuracy, what other houses were then standing
THE MORGAN HOUSE IN CLINTON .... 259
From the original building, on the Clinton main street, a
few rods east of the Green. This house, however, may
have been erected at a little later date than 1701, judging
from a manuscript account of the town's history loaned
by a Clinton antiquarian
GOVERNOR TREAT'S HOUSE IN MILFORD, 1699 . . 265
From Lambert's "History of the Colony of New Haven"
A MADISON HOUSE OF 1700 274
This building is still standing, opposite the Madison Green
PORTRAIT OF GOVERNOR GURDON SALTONSTALL . . 277
The University owns a contemporary portrait of Salton-
stall, from which was made the copy in the Connecticut
State Library
xxvi Illustrations
PAGE
GOVERNOR SALTONSTALI/S CHAIR .... 283
This chair stood in the Saltonstall house in East Haven
and is now in the possession of a private owner there.
This drawing of it is from a photograph reproduced in
Sarah E. Hughes' "History of East Haven"
SALTONSTALL'S CONNECTICUT TROOPS IN BOSTON IN 1710 287
Justin Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of
America" is authority for the fact that Saltonstall's Boston
headquarters on this military expedition was "The Green
Dragon Inn." This picture of that inn is taken from
Whitefield's "Homes of our Forefathers"
AUTOGRAPH OF GURDON SALTONSTALL .... 288
From a letter to Governor Fitz-John Winthrop, dated
1698, in the University Archives
PORTRAIT OF JEREMIAH DUMMER .... 289
From an engraving in Justin Winsor's "Narrative and
Critical History of America"
QUEEN ANNE SQUARE, LONDON ..... 292
Based on a plate in "The History of the Squares of
London," by E. Beresford Chancellor, which, being a little
later in date, probably does not show the Yale mansion.
The square, however, was practically the same in Elihu
Yale's day
PLASGRONO, ELIHU YALE'S WREXHAM HOUSE . . 295
From a photograph of an old drawing published in Rod-
ney Horace Yale's "The Yales and Wales"
THE ARRIVAL OF THE DUMMER BOOKS AT SAYBROOK . 299
The details for this imaginary reconstruction were studied
on the ground, the scene being laid at the old Saybrook
Point landing place at the south end of the main village
street
AUTOGRAPH OF BENJAMIN LORD . . . . . 311
From an original letter, dated 1776, in the University
Archives
Illustrations xxvii
PAGE
AUTOGRAPH OF THOMAS BUCKINGHAM (OF HARTFORD) . 314
From an original Trustees' document in the University
Archives
AUTOGRAPH OF THOMAS RUGGLES . . . . 318
From an original paper, dated 1720, in the University
Archives
AUTOGRAPH OF MOSES NOYES ..... 320
From an original endorsement of the minutes of the last
Trustees' meeting held at Saybrook, September 12, 1716,
in the University Archives
REV. AZARIAH MATHER'S HOUSE IN SAYBROOK . . 321
From a photograph loaned by Rev. Dr. Samuel Hart of
Middletown. This house, however, may have been built
at a later date than 1716
AUTOGRAPH OF STEPHEN BUCKINGHAM . . . 323
From a copy of a Trustees' letter to Jeremiah Dummer,
September 10, 1718, signed by the Trustees, and now in the
University Archives
AUTOGRAPH OF SAMUEL JOHNSON .... 324
From "The Life and Correspondence of Samuel John-
son," by Rev. E. E. Beardsley
THE SALTONSTALL HOUSE ...... 328
Reconstructed from a rough sketch in Whitefield's "Homes
of our Forefathers"
PORTRAIT OF TUTOR SAMUEL JOHNSON . . . . 331
From "The Life and Correspondence of Samuel Johnson,"
by Rev. E. E. Beardsley
FACSIMILE OF LETTER BY RECTOR SAMUEL ANDREW . 334
From the original in the University Archives, dated July
23, 1717
xxviii Illustrations
PAGE
BUILDING THE COLLEGE HOUSE ..... 339
This imaginary sketch is based on the actual dimensions of
the timbers, to be found in a memorandum on the back of
a Trustees' paper in the University Archives, and pub-
lished for the first time in Professor Dexter's "Docu-
mentary History of Yale University" (1916). Several
suggestions by Mr. Norman M. Isham, the Colonial archi-
tecture authority, have been incorporated in the framing
plans
AUTOGRAPH OF JOHN DAVENPORT (OF STAMFORD) . . 343
From an original document in the University Archives,
dated 1718
AUTOGRAPH OF ELIHU YALE ..... 344
From an original letter in the possession of the Elizabethan
Club at Yale University
AUTOGRAPH OF JEREMIAH DUMMER .... 349
From Avery's "History of the United States"
PORTRAIT OF ELIHU YALE ...... 352
From the original painting by Enoch Zeeman, probably
done in 1717 in London, and now in the University Dining
Hall
THE FIRST YALE COLLEGE HOUSE .... 354
The traditional view of this building is the Greenwood
plate published by Buck in Boston, around 1750. Pro-
fessor Dexter, in his "Yale Biographies and Annals," con-
siders the Greenwood representation as "a fancy sketch."
It obviously does not follow the dimensions of the struc-
ture, as given by the Trustees at the time or in their
memorandum of the timber specifications, nor by President
Clap in his "Annals of Yale," 1766. An attempt has here
been made, with the valued assistance of Mr. Norman M.
Isham of Providence, the recognized authority on early
New England architecture, to represent this building for
the first time in its known dimensions, which were about
165 feet long by 22 wide, and 27 feet high. Professor
Dexter's decision that there was no clock on this building,
Illustrations xxix
PAGE
as Greenwood's drawing has it, has been adopted for this
representation. On the other hand, accepting Mr.
Isham's decision, made after close study by him of all
available sources, that "Greenwood probably sat down
before this building and drew it 'just as it really was,' "
all of the other details of the traditional sketch have been
retained in this new representation. Says Mr. Isham:
"From my examination of the Greenwood engraving it
seems to me that, apart from the fact that it is inaccurate
and wrong in many ways in proportion and perspective,
it is correct in important items." As to the drawing in this
book Mr. Isham says: "It is a good interpretation of the
Greenwood engraving, and is as near as anyone can ever
get to the building as it was in 1718, though the element
of conjecture, of course, will largely come in in any
modern reconstruction." Later contemporary sketches of
this building are entirely at variance with each other,
from the correctly-elongated plan in Brown's Map of 1724,
and the high and short elevation in Wadsworth's Map
of New Haven "with all the buildings in 1748" (which
gives it six entries and a hip roof), to the views in Honey-
wood's sketches printed in Stiles' "Literary Diary." The
fact, however, that it had three entries, is fully established
both by Greenwood's sketch and by the rough pen draw-
ings in President Clap's manuscript College "Account
Books" in the University Archives, wherein he assigned the
rooms to the students
AUTOGRAPH OF WILLIAM TAILOR .... 358
From Avery's "History of the United States"
THE COMMENCEMENT AT NEW HAVEN IN 1718 . . 359
An imaginary sketch, based on Samuel Johnson's manu-
script account of the occasion in the University Archives,
from Brown's Map of 1724, and from the new view of the
College House in this book
THE HARTFORD STATE HOUSE OF 1719 . . . . 364
From a drawing in William DeLoss Love's "Colonial
History of Hartford"
BRINGING THE COLLEGE BOOKS TO NEW HAVEN . . 367
A sketch based on contemporary accounts of the proceeding
xxx Illustrations
PAGE
PORTRAIT OF RECTOR TIMOTHY CUTLER . . . 373
From Kingsley's "Yale College"
THE ENTRANCE TO ST. GILES CHURCH, WREXHAM . 376
From a photograph loaned by Mr. Warwick James Price,
and published in The Yale Alumni Weekly in 1907
THE YALE FAMILY CHURCH-YARD NEAR PLAS-YN YALE . 380
From "The Yales and Wales," by Rodney Horace Yale
THE MARKET-PLACE FROM THE COLLEGE YARD IN 1724 . 384
An imaginary reconstruction, based closely on contempo-
rary records of the sites, and New Haven histories of the
appearance, of the various buildings
AUTOGRAPH OF JOHN ALLING ..... 389
This original autograph of Yale's treasurer from 1702 to
1717 is taken from his will, found for this book among the
court documents of that period by John L. Gilson, judge
of the Probate Court of New Haven County
NEW HAVEN IN 1724 390
Reconstructed, with additions drawn from contemporary
public records, from Brown's "Map of New Haven in
1724"
AUTOGRAPH OF TIMOTHY CUTLER .... 394
From an original document in the University Archives
dated 1720, and signed by the Trustees and witnessed by
Cutler, who was not a Trustee
A YALE UNDERGRADUATE OF 1720 .... 395
This drawing is based on costumes shown in Greenwood's
sketch of the first College House, and from contempo-
raneous Harvard student costumes in the well-known
"Prospect of the Colleges in Cambridge, New England,
1726," published in George Gary Bush's "Harvard," and
elsewhere
Illustrations xxxi
PAGE
AUTOGRAPH OF JARED ELIOT ..... 397
From "Memorials of Eminent Yale Men," by Anson Phelps
Stokes
RECTOR CUTLER AND THE TRUSTEES .... 406
As described in the text, and showing the second-floor
Library of the College House, with the Dummer books,
globes, etc.
AUTOGRAPH OF DANIEL BROWNE, JR. .... 410
From an original paper of 1720 in the University Archives
PORTRAIT OF TUTOR JONATHAN EDWARDS . . . 413
From Anson Phelps Stokes' "Memorials of Eminent Yale
Men"
AUTOGRAPH OF JONATHAN EDWARDS . . . . 417
From "The Edwards Memorial," 1871
THE COLLEGE YARD FROM THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE . 419
An imaginary reconstruction, based on the new view of
"Yale College" in this book, and on the known location of
the President's house and gardens on Chapel Street
AUTOGRAPH OF ELIPHALET ADAMS .... 425
From an original letter, dated New London, 1717, in the
University Archives
PORTRAIT OF RECTOR ELISHA WILLIAMS . . . 426
The original portrait of Rector Williams was painted by
Smybert, the contemporary Boston artist, after 1724. The
copy owned by the University was made by Moulthrop in
1795
THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE, 1722 428
From a drawing in Kingsley's "Yale College"
AUTOGRAPH OF RECTOR ELISHA WILLIAMS . . . 430
From Kingsley's "Yale College"
PART I
JOHN DAVENPORT AND HIS NEW HAVEN
COLLEGE
TVie Davenport
Arms
CHAPTER I
JOHN DAVENPORT
I
N the latter days of the reign of the
good Queen Bess, the quaint little city
of Coventry, famed for its ancient
procession of the Lady Godiva and for
its wooden-headed Peeping Tom, was
still the considerable rural community
that it had been for two centuries of
English history. Around it still ran
that great city wall, three miles long and nine good English
feet in thickness, which, with its thirty-two towers and
twelve fortified gates, had done good service for the rebel-
lious Warwick against Edward VI and which, a half-century
later, was to defy Charles I and, still later, be demolished by
his son. It was, in 1600, a community of some twelve hun-
dred houses, built for the most part of great timbers filled in
with the plastered brick of the early I5th Century style, the
upper stories of which projected over the narrow paved
lanes below. Through it then, as in William Dugdale's day,
still flowed the river Sherbourne, to join the Avon a few
miles out in the country and then meander through pleasant
woods and meadows to Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon,
where William Shakespeare was shortly to end his days, and,
come a few years, John Harvard to be born.
Difficult it would have been to imagine, when John
Davenport was born in 1597 in this ancient walled English
city, that the seed was there to be planted that later, in the
The Beginnings of Yale
career of this famous son of Coventry, was to come to
flower in the New World church-state of New Haven, and,
two generations later still, to bring forth that institution
whose beginnings are again to be traced in the following
chapters.
Yet the occasion was forming, for the England of Eliza-
beth's day, as we will recall, was at the parting of the
established ways of the English centuries. The forty years
of Elizabeth had seen the highest development in Tudor
history of the power of the Crown; on the other hand, of
the most generally contented public under the traditional
English monarchy. Yet the underlying movement for what
we now know as the modern era was rising steadily. With
the tactless opening acts of James I's reign, it was shortly
to sweep up through the two decades of that grotesque
period, and end, at the close of the civil wars of Charles I,
in carrying Cromwell's Puritans over the decapitated body
of the King into Whitehall, and, when that furious religious-
political wave had subsided, in the beginnings of modern
England.
Coventry, as all Warwickshire, had been a storm-center
of this hardly-understood popular movement throughout
the half-century before John Davenport was born. During
his grandfather's later years, Elizabeth being queen, the
Protestant refugees who had scurried to Geneva during the
brief days of Bloody Queen Mary had returned to their
homes. They since, throughout rural England, had been
growing in numbers and influence; had come to assume high
offices in Church and State, and now, during the last years
of the 1 6th Century, were the predominant party among the
middle-class Englishmen, both in London and in the pro-
vincial cities. In Warwickshire, the Protestant movement
had been especially strong ever since the Lollard days.
Warwick men had been famous martyrs to the popular
John Davenport
Church reform under the earlier Tudors, and Coventry
friends and neighbors of Davenport's family had gone to
the stake for the new religious principles. So that, I fancy,
the majority of the people among whom John Davenport
was to grow up as
a serious-minded
and ambitious boy,
were prepared by
the year 1600 to
cast their lot with
the new party and
to add to the rapid-
ly growing public
feeling throughout
England against
the petty despot-
isms of the divine-
ly appointed James
and his impositions
of Church cere-
mony. In 1565 the
young Queen Bess
had visited Coven-
try and had been received with that genuine show of loyalty
which was life itself to her. Ten years later she was again
entertained, and the famous old Coventry play of "Hock
Tuesday" performed for her benefit. But twenty-five years
more, and the good Coventry townsfolk would have stood
silently in their narrow paved lanes had Elizabeth visited
them again, in strong aversion to the type of English life
and court morality which the Queen and her royal favorites
had come to typify for them.
This change, which made the Coventry of John Daven-
port's youth a different place from that of his father's, had,
The Beginnings of Yale
of course, permeated the whole of England. We may recall
how it had been coming. The introduction of the Bible as
a popular book had been reacting on the social as well as
the religious conditions of the people for a century previous.
The New Learning had come in with the Italian Renais-
sance and had brought with it the philosophy and poetry of
the Greeks and Latins. A broadened intellectual horizon
had thus come to Englishmen. The new sense of individual-
ism that grew out of the free study of the Bible had worked
to produce that swelling tide of popular learning and that
new sense of personal liberty which were shortly to lay the
broad foundations for our modern intellectual and political
democracy.
The Coventry people had long been taking part in this
new popular change. The great-grandfather of John
Davenport could have bought suppressed translations of
the Bible at the Coventry Corpus Christ! Fairs from
itinerant missionaries, just as his father probably did buy,
surreptitiously, the "Martin Marprelate" attacks on the
Elizabethan episcopate from discreet neighboring trades-
men in the Corpus Christi Fairs of his day. In fact, the
"Marprelate" printers at one time had taken refuge from
the Bishop of London and the Primate in friendly Coven-
try, and had secretly issued their anonymous and revolution-
ary pamphlet t s from the very houses where, doubtless,
Davenport's father was a frequent visitor. The final sup-
pression of these pamphlets, with the execution of one of
their authors, was no doubt a determining factor in the
religious zeal with which Coventry people, as Warwickshire
folk generally, supported Cartwright, the master of the
hospital at near-by Warwick, in his attempt to introduce his
more or less Presbyterian scheme of church discipline and
organization of classes and synods as a rival system to the
established Church. Mid-England, and London as well,
John Davenport
were thus by 1600 preparing for the movement which,
as we know it in Puritanism, was shortly to rock the nation
to its very social and religious center, and bring about new
times.
So that John Davenport's religious and political sur-
roundings, as he grew up to boyhood in the ancient walled
city of Coventry, were decidedly revolutionary. The open-
ing acts of the coming Puritan period were well under way
by the time that he first appears as a scholar at the Free
Grammar School of his old city. This school building,
famous among the great English public schools that sprang
up throughout the country during the Reformation, four
centuries previously had been the home of the Coventry
Hospitallers of St. John, and had been granted, during
Henry VIII's sweeping suppression of the monasteries, to
8 The Beginnings of Yale
one John Hales, who, a New Learning follower, had given
it to the town as a Free School. One of the original aisles
of this ancient hospital, and the schoolroom of young
Davenport's boyhood, now a parish room, may still be seen
by the inquiring visitor. It was in this tiny, high-peaked,
stone-buttressed building, with its mullioned windows, that
young John Davenport went to school, there to learn his
grammar, to drone out his three music lessons a week, to
recite his Latin verses, and, no doubt, boy fashion, to hack
his initials in the old oak prior's stalls as did the famous
antiquarian, Dugdale, before him. The father of John
Milton's Cambridge tutor was later in charge of this school,
and Dr. Holland, a renowned classical translator and drill-
master of the day, was a youthful usher there when John
Davenport began his schooling. John Davenport's lifelong
fluency in classical study, and his various attempts to build
his New Haven Colony education on it, very likely began in
the many long boyhood hours that he 'spent in this quaint
old Coventry Free School under the encouraging eye and
rod of the scholarly Holland.
It was during these school years of Davenport, and just
before he went up to Oxford, that Coventry had that first
serious clash with King James over religious matters which
was to become in time an important factor in the establish-
ment of his Puritan commonwealth. Throughout Eliza-
beth's reign, and up to this time in King James', the popular
feeling of the growing Puritan element in the Church had
steadily been gaining ground for a repression of the many
English-Church ceremonies which the liberated English
mind connected with the Church of Rome. In addition to
the giving of a ring in marriage, for instance, the Puritan
element objected to the traditional custom of kneeling to
receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Coventry
people, following the rebellious Cartwright, had come to
John Davenport
relinquish a number of these ceremonies. But noncon-
formity in anything was to James I not only an evidence of
disloyalty to the established Church, but to the Crown itself,
and Coventry, in 1611, received a letter from the King's
own hand soundly rating the Mayor and Corporation for
permitting such revolutionary acts. John Davenport was
fourteen years old when the uproar broke out upon the
receipt of the King's summary commands, and it could
hardly have escaped affecting him, as it no doubt had its
part in unconsciously determining him in his own course
some few years afterwards. The townspeople doubtless
gave in, as the old records of Coventry show that King
James made a formal visit there five years later, with a
great train of nobility, to be received in humble loyalty.
The houses and town gates were painted black and white in
his honor on this occasion, there was a great procession of
the Mayor and Corporation, and a massive cup of pure gold
was presented as a peace offering to his Majesty and put
among the royal plate. Two years later young Davenport
went up to Oxford, to fit himself for the Church.
Davenport's Oxford days are obscure and bear little on
what was to follow. Whether he went to Merton College
and thence to Magdalen (as Wood, the Oxford chronicler,
says) or matriculated at Brasenose (as says Mather, who
had Davenport's private papers before him when he wrote
his biography in the "Magnalia" many years later) we do
not now know. At any rate, he entered Oxford as a
"battler," or beneficiary for his tuition and board, at the
expense doubtless of his relatives in Coventry. It was prob-
ably two years later that he was forced to leave Oxford, his
degrees ungained for want of means to continue his study
for them. Yet he had made a small mark there, even in that
short time, if we may accept the word of a later enemy, one
io The Beginnings of Yale
Stephen Goffe, a most disreputable individual, by the way,
and brother, as it happened, of that regicide whom Daven-
port was to befriend many years later in New Haven.
Goffe says that Davenport had made a name for himself as
a speaker and writer at Oxford, natural gifts which were
to make him one of the foremost preachers of his time.
Oxford at that day was far from its earlier character
as a "nest of Papists." It had passed through a tremendous
religious excitement due to the incoming of the New Learn-
ing. Yet, when Davenport was there, it was probably less
intellectually rebellious than its sister university and in a
few years was passively to accept King James' authority,
as Coventry had done. This very passiveness may have
had its usual effect in Davenport's mental training, and have
driven in still deeper the sense of personal freedom in reli-
gious matters with which he had come up to the University
from Coventry. Yet I imagine that those two early years
of Davenport's at Oxford were years of acquisition rather
than of religious rebellion, as would be apt to be the case
in a sixteen-year-old youth who had his chosen career before
him. The opportunities in this way were unusual, even for
Oxford. Sir Henry Saville, the renowned classical scholar,
was Master of Merton then; John Hales, a descendant of
the Coventry Hales, was Royal Professor of Greek; Dr.
Thomas Holland, "an Apollos mighty at the Scriptures,"
had been Regius Professor of Divinity at Balliol, was now
Rector of the Puritan school at Exeter, and later was to be
one of the six Oxford scholars who were to translate the
prophets for the King James Bible. Christopher Angelus,
a Christian Greek who had been forced to leave his own
country, had just arrived from Cambridge to teach elemen-
tary Greek and vaingloriously to impress his scholars, so
the story goes, with the marks that he carried of Turkish
persecution.
m/< ; ff \ f g
12 The Beginnings of Yale
Yet Oxford in John Davenport's day was partially rebel-
lious. Balliol College was a Puritan center then, Robert
Abbott leading in the new movement, to the mounting anger
of William Laud, then President of St. John's. This latter
brilliant Churchman, later to be the sincere if cruel tool of
the Stuarts in suppressing Puritanism and to have a deter-
mining effect on John Davenport's career in the Church,
was even then attracting incipient Puritan fire and brim-
stone. The Oxford students of that day Davenport
among them could hardly have escaped excitement over
the situation in the University which resulted from such
fierce public attacks upon him as when Abbott, thundering
in Balliol pulpit, cried: "What art thou? Romish or
English, Papist or Protestant? a mongrel compound of
both." So that, if Oxford in 1616, when Davenport left it,
was officially passive in the King's hands, there were pro-
fessors and preachers in it who must have opened the eyes
of the students to the coming struggle between the Church
of James and the people of England.
John Davenport's Oxford knew probably little of that
other intellectual world, literary London. Shakespeare,
having written "The Tempest" and "A 'Winter's Tale"
during these formative years of young Davenport's life, had
died comparatively unknown on the Avon in the year that
the latter had left Oxford to begin his career in the English
Church. Spenser had finished "The Faery Queen" when
Davenport was two years old; Thomas Dekker and Ben
Jonson were coming on for the last stage of the declining
Elizabethan drama. But all of this magnificent crest of the
first great English literature had passed by such earnestly
religious youths as John Davenport, and was doubtless little
noticed by them. It is worth recalling something of this, as
the cultural lack which we cannot fail to sense in the com-
munity that John Davenport later led to the New World,
John Davenport 13
and its absence in the intellectual life of the early days of
the college his successors were to found, goes back, in very
large measure, I doubt not, to this separation.
I do not need to do more than pass rapidly over the well-
known facts of Davenport's career in the next few years.
We trace him through a minor chaplaincy near the historic
church of Durham to a small position in St. Lawrence Jewry
in London, and then suddenly to the vicarage of one of
London's most influential churches, St. Stephen's in Coleman
Street, a position which in itself is the best evidence that
we can have of his inherent powers and capacity. Here
John Davenport found himself suddenly in the midst of the
fullest public life of his time, and in touch with the leaders
on all sides of the great public questions. He went up to
Oxford now, to pass his examinations for his degrees, and,
returning to London, seems to have launched himself full
upon the troublous waters of the day.
These, we hardly need again to recall, were troublous
enough. It had now been some sixty years since the first
small voluntary congregation of Separatists from the
Church of England had been broken up in London and most
of the members unceremoniously marched off to jail. It
had been some fifty years since Robert Browne's pioneer
Congregational church had been formed and, in its extreme
revolt from traditions, had angered the Puritan element in
the established Church as much as the Church dignitaries
themselves. It had been but a generation since, to the
hilarious amusement of the Court and of the university
men in London, that one of their members, John Barrowe,
the Cambridge graduate, turned Puritan. The Separatist
movement, fanned by the extremists who had fled to Holland
and Geneva and returned, was now rapidly gaining. James,
shivering and gibbering over the fear that the Scottish pres-
bytery would follow him into England, had, immediately
14 The Beginnings of Yale
upon his accession, demanded conformity of the English
Puritan clergy and laymen, and begun that tense religious
struggle which was at once to become a political one, with
the results we now know. William Brewster, at Scrooby,
had organized his Separatist congregation, and had at-
tracted to it the William Bradford who later, as the first
Governor of Plymouth, was to become a leader in the New
World settlement. The Scrooby Separatists' church had
been stopped by the public prosecutors, and the members
had fled to Leyden in Holland. But the Puritan movement
was under way.
II
All of which was the beginning of a new era in English
history. And other factors were coming in as well. During
the latter years of this period, English trade had established
itself across the Atlantic in successful dispute of Spanish
appropriations, and joint-stock companies of English capi-
talists had been formed to colonize the New World's eastern
coast and benefit from the great trading possibilities that
were imagined to lie in that direction. The story is well
known: how, in 1607, one of these companies settled
Jamestown, Virginia; how in this way the attention of the
London Puritan refugees was directed to the possibility of
emigrating under one of them; how these so-called Pilgrims,
under Brewster and Bradford, sailed across the ocean and,
by a fortunate miscalculation, landed in what is now Massa-
chusetts and settled Plymouth. And familiar is the story
of how John White, the Puritan rector of Dorchester, saw
in this pioneer emigration the chance to "raise a bulwark
against the kingdom of Anti-christ," and thus to establish
a Puritan refuge in a new England. This scheme, once
broached, appears to have met with immediate favor among
the leading Puritans. Salem was settled with Endicott as
John Davenport
Governor. The enterprise of "The Governor and Com-
pany of Massachusetts Bay" was then begun, the charter
for which Charles had unsuspiciously granted in the same
week that had seen his dramatic ending, for eleven years, of
popular Parliament in England and his clapping of the
democratic Eliot into the Tower of London, there to end
his noble days. In 1629 John Winthrop had ridden to
Boston in Lincolnshire to consult with Thomas Dudley re-
garding this Massachusetts scheme. A month later the
famous Cambridge "Agreement" had been drawn up, and
then Winthrop had sailed to become Governor of Massa-
chusetts, where, in the next few years, over a thousand
Puritans settled about the new Boston in New England.
John Davenport was in his second year in his first London
parish when the Brewster party had founded Plymouth, and
he contributed 50 to this new Winthrop emigration. This
gift, however, had been anonymous. He did not wish to
come too prominently, at this time, to the notice of William
Laud, now Bishop of London and rapidly becoming a power
in the Church. The curious interest of that implacable
enemy of nonconformity had for some time been turned
in the direction of the young and brilliant preacher in Cole-
man Street; envious tongues had been wagging; no doubt,
like other Puritan leaders, he was discussed gaily at Ben
Jonson's "Devil's Tavern" in Temple Bar; his popularity
in London, which had come to fill St. Stephen's Church each
Sunday, considering the unsettled state of the public reli-
gious sentiment, was a suspicious matter. Meeting charges
of nonconformity he seemed to have proved to Laud that
he had conducted himself with at least full outward sem-
blance of the strictest conformity to the Church ritual, even
insisting on that kneeling upon which Laud set such im-
portance. He did not escape so easily, however, in another
matter. He had joined with a number of serious Puritan
16 The Beginnings of Yale
churchmen in a sort of home-missionary society, formed for
the purpose of supporting, with purchased parish impro-
priations, a better grade of ministers for the country towns
than Laud's party in the Church had been willing to have.
This philanthropic effort had been stamped out by Laud as
soon as he discovered it, and the culprits including Daven-
port had all but been haled into the courts on criminal
charges. The moment, therefore, was not propitious for
a public avowal by him of his interest in the Massachusetts
Bay Puritan emigration. To be seriously suspected of
private inclinations toward "Doctrinal Puritanism" was to
invite exclusion from the Church, suppression, and even
imprisonment. And so, during this period, John Davenport
found himself one of a very large number of earnest folk,
both clerical and lay, who were tending toward Puritanism,
yet attempting what finally became to them an impossible
reconciliation between their outward acts and their private
opinions.
It was at this time, when he was under suspended indict-
ment for his share in the "Feoffees" incident, that John
Davenport seems to have proceeded methodically to investi-
gate his own mind on the subject. In a voluminous personal
notebook that has come down to us, is contained the ex-
haustively argued account of his own intellectual change at
this time from conformity to nonconformity. That this was
brought about by outside influences, also, we now can have
no doubt. In London were then in concealment two famous
nonconforming ministers, whose cases were the subject of
considerable public excitement. These two men, the later
careers of whom were to be closely intertwined with John
Davenport's, were John Cotton and Thomas Hooker.
Both were university men and famous preachers, and both
were friends of Davenport. Cotton had just been driven
out of St. Botolph's in Boston by Bishop Laud, and Hooker
John Davenport
had been silenced for nonconformity in his preaching in the
little country village of Chelmsford in Essex. Cotton had
come to London in disguise, and was now in hiding under
Davenport's protection. The latter seems to have set out
to change Cotton's mind, and reclaim him for the Church,
as he had his uncle in Coventry. But the long argument
that ensued appears, instead, to have unsettled John Daven-
port's own mind. Cotton escaped to New England, to join
the Boston settlement. Davenport remained away from
the communion services of St. Stephen's for the next few
months and, when his old friend and protector against Laud
suddenly died on August 4, 1633, and it became known that
Laud was to be elevated to Canterbury, left London for the
country, remained in seclusion there for three months, and
then, "in a gray suit and an overgrown beard," took passage
to Holland, a refugee from that Church in which he had
planned to spend his life.
CHAPTER II
THE NEW HAVEN COLONISTS
I
OHN COTTON and Thomas Hooker
had emigrated to the Massachusetts
Bay Colony with large parties of their
followers during this crisis in John
Davenport's life, and the final few
groups of the great Puritan emigration,
which were to follow them, were now
being formed.
The last of these was now coming together in London,
led by one Theophilus Eaton, an established London mer-
chant of wealth and reputation. Eaton was a parishioner
of Davenport's in the Coleman Street Church, and had been
a boyhood friend in old Coventry. He was a good repre-
sentative of the well-to-do middle class of the day who had
become Puritan in their Church connections. Though not
a university graduate, he was a man of parts, traveled,
versed in Roman law and the classics, and of an attractive
personality which had permitted him to cut a good figure in
the small London society of his day. He had at one time
been employed, while abroad on his own affairs, as an agent
of King James in Denmark. As subsequent events were to
prove, Eaton was a man of unusual solidity and ability.
Like Davenport, he had had a hand in the formation of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony and had subscribed to it, though
his purpose in this was probably more commercial than
religious. He had married, as his second wife, the widow
The New Haven Colonists 19
of David Yale, a provincial gentleman of Denbighshire,
North Wales, whose estate was but a few miles away from
his father's church in Great Budworth, whither the Eaton
family had removed in the early days from Coventry. This
David Yale was the son of a distinguished Churchman, the
vicar-general of Chester, and had settled in London, where
he had recently died. His widow brought to Theophilus
Eaton a "fair and large house" in the Coleman Street
parish, and two grown sons, Thomas and David Yale, both
of whom joined the Eaton party. David Yale, at this time
well established in London business on an extensive patri-
mony, was in time to become the father of Elihu Yale.
Edward Hopkins, who had married Theophilus Eaton's
step-daughter by the latter's marriage to the widow Yale,
also a merchant in the city, likewise joined the London
party.
That the exile in Holland of John Davenport must have
had a good deal to do with this decision of Theophilus
Eaton to emigrate to New England, and that, during the
two or three years that now elapsed while the many details
involved in preparing for the change were being worked
out, Eaton must have corresponded with Davenport from
London about it, is highly probable. The religious impulse
toward such a change was in itself a determining one to most
of the London folk w r ho now gathered about Theophilus
Eaton to embark upon it. The latter's brother, Samuel, a
silenced nonconforming minister, was at this time in hiding
and prepared to follow a colleague who had already left
for New England. But Theophilus Eaton was a business
man as well as a Churchman, and, from what later was to
happen, I imagine that we may couple commercial ambition
with religious fervor as the factors that made him the leader
of the party, and that attracted to him that considerable
group of other well-to-do London Puritan tradesmen who
2O The Beginnings of Yale
joined him. Under his leadership several other groups,
made up from the countryside about London, were now
added to the new emigration. The Reverend Whitfield of
Ashford had been leading a Separatist church movement in
the diocese of Canterbury over which William Laud now
presided as head of the English Church, and had been facing
arrest and silencing; hearing of the new emigration he seems
to have thrown in his fortunes and those of his Kentish
parishioners, who followed him, with it. The Rev. Peter
Prudden of distant Herefordshire, near Wales, added his
little group, though they were not to sail with the original
party. A third section, from Yorkshire, were under the
leadership of their own nonconforming minister, the Rev.
Ezekiel Rogers.
II
John Davenport had now spent three miserable years in
Holland, where, in spite of the fact that he seems fully to
have expected at first to return to good standing in the
established Church, he had engaged in strenuous contro-
versies with other English refugees, and had tried, with
unhappy results, to conduct Separatist services on his own
account. Letters from John Cotton in Boston, and doubt-
less from Eaton in London, apprising him of the proposed
emigration, would appear to have finally settled his mind.
He slipped back again across the channel early in 1637 and,
when the Eaton party sailed from London late in April of
that year, had been accepted as the joint leader of it with
Eaton, and as its spiritual pastor. A "covenant" was drawn
up between the various groups of the Eaton party before
the ship "Hector" weighed anchor off English shores,
an agreement of some sort defining the purposes of the emi-
gration and the rights of the shareholders in it, much the
The New Haven Colonists
21
same in purpose as the Cambridge agreement of Mr. Win-
throp's party. Considerable obscurity surrounds this epi-
sode in the coming New Haven history. But I fancy that
we may rather clearly see in it, viewing it from the advan-
tage of later events, the informal preliminary foundation on
English soil of that Separatist Church-State which eventu-
ally was to be built on the Quinnipiac.
Much more importance surrounds this new emigration
than usually has been accorded it, for it was to be a unique
enterprise. The original Plymouth congregation had had
no intention of separating themselves politically from the
old country; nor had the Massachusetts Bay settlers such a
purpose. Both were English colonies of Puritan church
folk in New England, remaining, in the New World, in
touch with English affairs and contentedly, for a time at
22 The Beginnings of Yale
least, amenable to the Court of High Commission.
Whether Theophilus Eaton at first had intended to go
further than that we do not know. But that John Daven-
port, thinking out the situation for himself in Holland, had
come to an extreme position in his own mind concerning the
possibilities involved in the new emigration, there can be no
doubt. We have many indications of this, in Davenport's
own thoroughgoing contemporaneous study of what such a
commonwealth should be, as well as in the original papers
of the New Haven Colony itself. And we may well imagine
that the personal relations of Davenport to the English
Church, and especially to its primate Laud, had much to do
with this decision for an independent church congregation
in the New World. For such it was to be. William Laud
had had, to be sure, his share in forcing the previous Puritan
parties out of England. But, when Davenport's party was
forming, he had come into autocratic power as the head of
the Church. As such, this great tool of Charles I was now
expending all of his force and power to demand conformity
among the Puritan clergy, with the end in view of eventually
reuniting the Church of Rome with the English Church, for
The New Haven Colonists 23
his own and Charles' purposes. As a result, a new period
of severe repression of nonconformity had come in. More-
over, the English Church was forcibly being swung by Laud
toward Catholicism in both doctrine and ceremonies. So
that John Davenport, but a few years previously one of the
most promising clergymen of London, now that he had
taken the irrevocable step of fleeing from Laud's domina-
tion, was his implacable enemy. "My hand will reach him
there," Laud had angrily said when he heard of Daven-
port's escape from England. Under such circumstances,
Davenport not only had every reason to attempt to find a
place for his settlement in the New World where Laud
could not reach him, but to find a place where he could build
his own church-state, independent even of the Puritan con-
gregations in Massachusetts that had preceded him. It
was with this unique Separatist purpose in mind that the
leaders of the Eaton-Davenport party landed in Boston
harbor on June 26, 1637.
Ill
The primitive Massachusetts Bay Colony, to which John
Davenport was now welcomed by his old friend John Cotton
and by John Wilson, received the newcomers including
as they did so considerable a number of wealthy Puritan
laymen with every desire to have them settle there. And
a number did so.
But, even if the Boston of 1637 had not been under the
distant eye of Laud, other circumstances would have kept
Davenport from remaining there. The famous Antinomian
controversy was just then at its height, and the ravages
which the valiant Mrs. Anne Hutchinson and her brother-
in-law, John Wheelwright, were making in the Boston
24 The Beginnings of Yale
church, as well as the trouble that had just been settled by
the exile of Roger Williams, showed clearly that Massa-
chusetts was no permanent home for a new group that had
its own independent religious purposes to work out. Yet
we may imagine that it was not entirely easy to carry out
the plan of settling elsewhere. Several towns offered free
land to the Davenport settlers if they would join the Bay
Colony. Theophilus Eaton was made a Massachusetts
magistrate in the expectation that he would remain there.
A college had just been founded by an act of the Colony
legislature with a public endowment of 400, and, just
after John Davenport landed, the General Court had ap-
pointed twelve of the leading men of the Colony to establish
it. Davenport, as the most distinguished new addition to
the university-bred leaders of the Colony, was appointed to
be one of these, serving with John Cotton and John Wilson,
Governor Winthrop, Stoughton, and Thomas Dudley. I
imagine that that famous journey of the Bay Colony leaders
across the marshes and river to Newtowne, to choose a site
for the school that the next year was to be named "Harvard
College" in the new "Cambridge," may well have had its
important part in giving to John Davenport that idea of a
similar academy in his own
c l n y which he was later
t o urge throughout his life
and which finally was to be
instituted by his successors. Not only in these ways did the
Boston folk draw the newcomers into their most important
affairs, but they named Theophilus Eaton's younger and
scapegrace brother, Nathaniel, to be the first superintendent
of the infant Harvard College, and its first instructor, with
what amusing results Harvard's early history tells.
But, in spite of these agreeable amenities, the Davenport
party persisted in proceeding with that first determination
The New Haven Colonists 25
to establish a new colony of their own. We do not need to
do more than outline the familiar events which thereupon
occurred. The redoubtable Captain Stoughton, returning
in 1637 from his chase of the remaining Pequot Indians
over the southern Connecticut marshes, had brought glow-
ing tales of the excellent harbors to be found in that new
country and of its climate and other possibilities. To in-
vestigate these stories, and the particularly rosy account of
the harbor of the Quinnipiac Indians, Theophilus Eaton
sailed in August with a few of his hardiest followers around
into Long Island Sound, past Roger Williams' forest home
at Providence, the newly fortified English post of the
younger John Winthrop at Saybrook, and into the broad,
low mouth of the Quinnipiac. Adopting the wooded and
fertile plain between the two cliffs that the Dutch had called
the "Red Rocks" as a most desirable location for John
Davenport's enterprise, Eaton left a few men for the winter
and returned to Boston to recruit his colony. On the
assumption that Quinnipiac was included in the land rights
of the little Puritan colony of Connecticut that Thomas
Hooker had but two years previously settled at Windsor
and Hartford, Eaton sent his son-in-law, Edward Hopkins,
to Hooker to secure a title for the new site. So far as we
know, nothing came of this except the decision of Hopkins
to cast in his lot with Hooker rather than with Davenport
a decision which, as time was to show, was to prove of con-
siderable importance in our narrative. Not hearing from
Hopkins, the Eaton party, leaving behind at Boston such
members as elected to stay there, and adding others who
wished to leave Salem and Plymouth and Boston under the
new leadership, set out for Quinnipiac in March, 1638.
On April 10 they had rejoined the pioneers, whom they
found living in mere earth cellars and half starved, and
John Davenport preached his first sermon on his own soil,
26
The Beginnings of Yale
finally safe from the persecutions of a Laud, and free to
build his own church-state, unattached to the English
Church and Crown and unentangled with any of the Puritan
congregations then on New World soil. 1
IV
It is a point worth noting that the Calvinistic society that
John Davenport now founded on New Haven soil differed
much more from the neighboring democratic commonwealth
that Thomas Hooker had begun in the Connecticut Colony
than it did from Massachusetts. The Massachusetts state
and church were all but identical. The leaders there had
clung to the old English idea of a government of a Christian
church by Christians. And they had the old English social
1 The traditional site of this landing of John Davenport at New Haven
is the northeast corner of College and George Streets. The creek to this
spot, up which the New Haven settlers sailed from the harbor, was a navi-
gable stream far into the 18th Century. Fairly recent excavations have
unearthed ancient boats and crude docks used by Davenport's successors.
The New Haven Colonists 27
feeling for an aristocracy. In that Colony the tendency was
toward strong governmental centralization in the Governor
and Council the counterpart, to them, of the King and
Commission at home. None but church members had the
franchise, though there was taxation for everybody, whether
communicant or not. As a result, there had grown up, in
the brief decade since its settlement, a somewhat undemo-
cratic condition in Massachusetts. Influential non-church
members who had joined the Colony and yet retained their
allegiance to the established English Church, had a social
dominance and standing quite out of proportion to their
legal status in the community. Out of this, much trouble
was later on to come. In the original settlement of Ply-
mouth, however, non-church members were given the fran-
chise. This was in full sympathy with the far-sighted views
of that most distinguished of New England settlers, Thomas
Hooker, who, therefore, in founding his Connecticut Colony
at Windsor and Hartford and Wethersfield, broke away
from the Massachusetts theory and, following the Plymouth
idea, made no distinction, so far as the suffrage went, be-
tween church and non-church members.
This fundamental question was not decided by the New
Haven colonists for a full year. When it was determined to
adhere to the Massachusetts plan, it was the decision of the
entire body of colonists, and therefore of those who had
separated from the Church of England and those who had
not. This was decided at the famous meeting in Mr. New-
man's barn 1 in June, 1639, where the whole plan for the
government of New Haven was adopted in public meeting.
At this meeting (a full report of which has been preserved)
John Davenport spared no pains to have it known how he
felt about the matter, and how he emphatically stood with
1 This was on Grove Street, at about the foot of Hillhouse Avenue.
28 The Beginnings of Yale
John Cotton and John Winthrop on it. Indeed, he had set
this forth in an essay, which he had written during that
first year of general discussion of the policy to be pursued,
and which, as a treatise on "Civil Government in a New
Plantation whose Design is Religion," he afterwards pub-
lished. The opposition
to his P lan from
among the consider-
able number of New
Haven planters who had not yet left the English Church,
was led by Theophilus Eaton's brother, the Rev. Samuel
Eaton, who, while a nonconformist in England, had not
left the Church and in fact was to end his life years later
still a clergyman in it. There was a prolonged debate. The
"rules held forth in the Scripture" being first unanimously
adopted as the only laws of the new colony, the franchise
problem was finally decided (Samuel Eaton alone dissent-
ing) by agreeing "that church members only shall be free
burgesses, and that they only shall choose magistrates and
officers among themselves."
This was a momentous decision for the Colony of which
Theophilus Eaton now became the Governor and John
Davenport the pastor, and for the generations of their suc-
cessors. It differentiated, at the start, the purposes of New
Haven from those of the Connecticut Colony. It set John
Davenport's New Haven Colony in fundamental harmony,
so far as its religious framework went, with Massachusetts.
It went even further than that. It produced a unique inde-
pendence, religious and political, for its citizens. Creating
a church-state as it did, wherein there was little or no dis-
tinction between the two, and where the Mosaic Law was
the only legal court, it led, as we shall see, to a society that
was under obligations to perpetuate itself and that, to meet
those obligations, had to adopt methods, particularly in
The New Haven Colonists
29
education, which are to be of much significance in our
chronicles. It was to lead to a situation where the conserva-
tives of another Connecticut generation were to find them-
selves on the side of a similar party in Massachusetts and to
hark back to the fundamental principles of this religious
organization of John Davenport's New Haven in their
renewed efforts for orthodoxy.
CHAPTER III
THE NEW HAVEN CHURCH-STATE
F the ambition of John Davenport
had thus been satisfied to found a
church-state of his own, the ambition
of his fellow colonists to establish a
New World trading metropolis was
now to be met. It had been for this
purpose that Eaton's London col-
leagues had decided with him upon
Quinnipiac, with its wide harbor spreading southward into
the Sound. John Brockett, a young London surveyor who
had followed Eaton in the hope of making the fair daughter
of one of the settlers his wife, now staked out the town with
Eaton's large plan in view.
West of the modern Meadow Street and east of State,
when the settlers arrived, were two broad, navigable creeks,
the one running to beyond where College Street now inter-
The New Haven Church-State 31
sects George, and the other paralleling the present State to
Elm. The lovelorn Brockett based his boundaries on these
creeks, laying out the town in a half-mile square subdivided
into nine equal squares or "quarters," the innermost of
which, now the Green, was to become the "Market-place"
of the future metropolis. Cellars dug on the western
creek's inner banks and covered by rough-hewn planks and
leaky sod, with a few log cabins and barns, did for houses
for the first few months. It was doubtless in one of these
that the infant Michael Wigglesworth (that "Little Feeble
Shadow of a Man," as Cotton Mather called him, and later
lurid poet of "The Day of Doom") nearly caught an early
death from exposure. Very likely that "easiest room in
Hell," which later he was sympathetically to set aside for
unbaptized infants in his verses on the Hereafter, may have
had its origin in a remembrance of this early New Haven
home of his father. But this was in 1638. Within a few
years the settlement had come to be a village of perhaps a
hundred comfortable houses, sprinkled over the eight out-
side squares, about which were the burned and cleared
meadows or uplands, protection alike against prowling
Indian or Dutch and the packs of wolves that infested the
neighborhood. The central square, or "Market-place," a
sloping tract of woodland at first, was early cleared of most
of its wood for the Meeting-house, the schoolhouse, and the
public fences, and remained a sandy waste, dotted with
stumps and a few remaining ancient trees, except at what
is now the Church Street side, where there was a swamp out
of which trickled a brook to the State Street creek. Across
this bog, at the present corner of Chapel and Church
Streets, then "Mr. Thomas Gregson's corner," was
built a footbridge, and two log causeways led over it to the
Meeting-house and schoolhouse from the "Mill Highway,"
now Church Street. This Meeting-house, a rude, square
32 The Beginnings of Yale
structure, with a hipped roof on the apex of which was a
square watchman's turret, stood in probably the precise
center of the Market-place. On this turret the broad-
brimmed town drummer lustily beat the community to
church on Sabbath days, and on occasions of Dutch or
Indian alarms sentries stood there all day and all night,
ready to fire the signal for the town watch. North of the
Meeting-house was the schoolhouse. On the modern Col-
lege Street side, about opposite the present Phelps Gateway
to the University, were the town stocks and pillory. Here
also were the town gaol and the watch-house, the latter a
great-chimnied, one-story building, wherein the watch not
infrequently fell asleep and were haled ingloriously before
the Colony Governor and magistrates therefor. About the
primitive Meeting-house, by 1650, a few graves had been
dug for the early victims of the rigorous change from the
mild English winters.
Little as we perhaps are apt to realize it, this ancient New
Haven was a fortified town, as well protected against its
enemies as was John Davenport's Coventry from Charles
I's tyrannical soldiery. About the entire plantation was
probably a stockade 1 of sharpened palings, or "palisadoes,"
set close together and perhaps seven feet high, through
1 1 am adopting Levermore's statement on this open question. It is not
precisely known whether New Haven had such a stockade or not. Branford
had a five-mile outer fence, and Milford was stockaded. As to New Haven,
the Colony Records of 1639 have a vote: "Ordered that gates shalbe made
att the end of every streete att the outside of the Towne, wth all ye outside
fences." This outer fence, or "Town pale," appears to have been kept up
at public or common expense, whereas the "Quarters' " fences were privately
maintained. Barber, in his "Antiquities of New Haven," recalls an ancient
gate across West Chapel Street six rods west of York, which may have
been a last survivor of this pioneer palisade. The question is an open one,
but the small evidence available points perhaps to the fact of such a
stockade. A second stockade was erected in 1676, when the Indian wars
became serious.
The New Haven Church-State 33
which great chained gates led into the open farmlands and
woods without. Each of the eight "quarters" was fenced
off from the streets by a paling, doubtless of rough-split logs
five or so feet high, while, in a year or two, the house-lots
themselves were separated by high "rail" fences, built of
three or five broad planks laid against heavy posts. The
passer-by on the cleared sandy lanes of this primitive New
Haven may well have thought himself in a fortified maze,
able, as he must have been, hardly to look over the house-
lot stockades into the gardens, within which, among their
fruit trees and under their virgin-forest oaks and button-
woods and elms, nestled the weather-beaten clapboarded
houses of the planters.
William Hubbard, New England's quaint contemporary
chronicler, was a youth when Davenport's Puritan Separa-
tists settled New Haven. Passing through the village a
little later, he was astonished at the size and architectural
excellence of some of the houses. "Fair and stately," he
reported these to be, "wherein they at first outdid the rest
of the country." Hubbard thought that the London immi-
grants at Quinnipiac had spent too much on these houses.
But the New Haven settlers had been London tradesmen
or farmers in comfortable English villages, some of them
well-to-do men, and they built their new homes as closely
as possible after the English town and village style to which
they had been accustomed. Among these were a few log
cabins, no doubt, and numerous small, one-room houses,
steep-roofed for sleeping lofts above. But there were a
number of larger houses, two stories high, with second floors
projecting a little over the first as was the fashion in
English towns. And, as in the old country, so in Daven-
port's New Haven, the windows of these houses were gen-
erally diamond-paned, while the doors were in two parts,
opening outward from the narrow front stair entry. Huge
The New Haven Church-State 35
stone chimneys stood in the middle of these larger houses,
on either side of which were the "hall" and kitchen, and the
"parlor." In all of the gardens were well sweeps, and
nearly every householder had his small thatched barn.
There were, however, several very large houses in this
early New Haven. Four of these, Governor Eaton's,
Mr. Davenport's, Thomas Gregson's, and Isaac Aller-
ton's, were probably unequaled in any of the other three
New England Colonies. Mr. Davenport's, which faced
north on the present Elm Street, below Orange, was built
in the form of a cross, and had, so tradition later said, thir-
teen fireplaces. Mr. Allerton's, which was built later and
just below State Street, was similar in shape, with "four
porches" or doorways in the four ells. 1 Governor Eaton's,
which faced Mr. Davenport's nearly across Elm Street,
had at least ten fireplaces, not counting more in the attic
rooms. This was a famous house for those days. It was
in the not uncommon English country style of a capital E,
its two ells forming a small court facing the street. The
front door opened directly into a great "hall," furnished
with an immense "drawing" table and forms, at which the
family probably met for meals, and about which the Colony
General Court no doubt sat, in front of a yawning stone
fireplace, for its frequent sessions. In the west ell was a
"parlor" or state guest-chamber for distinguished travelers,
and, in the rear, a library or "office." Here the Governor
of the little republic held his daily prayers with his numerous
family and relations (Elihu Yale's father, David Yale, lived
with Eaton until he removed to Boston in 1649), an d here
1 There is a good account of these early New Haven houses in Lambert's
history of the Colony, and an exhaustive study of the Eaton house in the
"Early Connecticut Houses" by Isham and Brown. The drawings in this
book of Davenport's period have been modeled on Isham's studies of con-
temporary Connecticut Colony houses, which were not essentially different,
he thinks, from New Haven's.
36 The Beginnings of Yale
he received his callers on public business and for the numer-
ous demands that were made on him to settle private
quarrels and correct the wayward of the village. In the east
ell were the kitchen and buttery or milkroom, back of which
were his gardens and fruit orchards and hedged flower
beds.
The inventories of this early day show that many of the
people lived in a very fair degree of comfort. Probably
few were as impoverished as one planter who, in selling his
house, could trump up only a bedstead and trundlebed, "a
pair of vallance, a piece of blue charnix, a malt-mill, a well
bucket and chayne, two loads of clay," and his fences to sell
with it. Governor Eaton's belongings were of a high order.
He had "round" and "short" tables, "green cushions,"
"sideboards," a "great chair with needlework," low and
"high wyne" stools, books, a globe and map, tapestries on
his walls, and "Turkey carpets," which had just come into
fashion in England, and which were used either for floor
coverings or on the tables. His "great hall" was filled with
heavy pieces of old English-made furniture, and was orna-
mented with much silver plate, a wall-clock, and with the
silver basin and ewer which Mrs. Eaton had years before
been given by her husband's colleagues in his Baltic Sea
adventures. In this great house, in which, it was said,
there were thirty people altogether, Governor Theophilus
Eaton was accustomed to spend most of his day, reading
and at his private devotions, or receiving the people of his
Colony and dealing out, as English squires did in their own
halls, the magisterial justice that devolved upon him, which
in his case meant settling matters by the Mosaic law.
II
We may get a very good notion of how John Davenport's
colonists lived, by poring over the wills and inventories of
The New Haven Church-State 37
the time, and the musty pages of the Colony Court records,
open to us in the cramped but still legible handwriting of
Secretary Thomas Fugill. The life within the town stock-
ade was a drowsy one, enlivened only by the military train-
ing-days and elections, visits of trading vessels or travelers
from the Bay, frequent searches for lost cattle, Sabbath-day
meetings, and the numerous public punishments of male-
factors at the town pillory and stocks. Inside the great
paling the village was compact and fortified; outside, there
were the commons and allotted farms and fenced-in pasture
lands for oxen and cows, the town pound (which was at
State and Chapel Streets), the fenced-in lot for "straingers'
horses" (which was about where Hillhouse Avenue joins
Grove Street), and the distant wigwams of the Indians in
East Haven. The streets were not named, except that north
Church Street was known as the "Mill Highway," leading
as it did to the flour mill near East Rock, and north State
Street the "Clay Pitts Way," leading to the Quinnipiac
meadows where the settlers very early had discovered clay
deposits for their brick. The block on Elm from Church to
State was known as "Mr. Eaton's Street"; that on Chapel
opposite the Market-place as "Mr. Goodyear's"; the mod-
ern prosperous Chapel Street, near State, began as a
neglected ditch road, known merely as "the lane that leadeth
to Zuriel Kimberley's house"; the street intersections were
known as "Mr. Perry's corner," or "Mr. Evance's," or
"Mr. Tench's." There was a landing place far up George
Street near High, just a step beyond where the settlers
had first set foot on Quinnipiac soil, and another on State
at the foot of Chapel, opposite the pound. The main
landing for larger vessels, however, was outside of the
village itself, on the present Water Street bank of the
harbor, and at the old Indian "Oyster-shell Fields," where
the water was rather higher than it is today. Here the
38 The Beginnings of Yale
Bay ships unloaded their supplies of cattle and meat and the
latest English fashions, and here the great people of the
Colonies stepped upon John Davenport's New Haven soil
from the shallops or lighters that at long intervals carried
passengers back and forth from Hartford and Saybrook,
Milford and Stamford, and across the Sound to Southold.
Visitors on horseback came into the town from the east
over the "Neck" bridge at State Street, and from Milford
way over the West River bridge. There appear to have
been few horses in the early days, but later these were
numerous and occasioned many squabbles between rival
claimants. The Colony eventually ordered each town to
maintain two or more horses, with saddles and pistols, for
travelers on public business.
The New Haven people of these early times were not
so solemn a folk in their everyday life as we sometimes
imagine them, or as the renegade Peters described them to
ready-eared English readers after the Revolutionary War.
Despite the rigid laws and religious regulations and beliefs
under which they lived, the citizens of Davenport's small
republic were not entirely depressed by them. Now and
then there were gay times after the good-night drum, and
late tipplers would feel their way home in the dense black-
ness by the "quarters' palings" to escape the watch; there
were "watermillion" moonlight escapades by the young
people in this or that Goodman's garden, and youthful
"dalliances" and what not. But the routine life of the plan-
tation was not very exciting. Out from the ancient records
step the vigorous-bodied and dignified planters in their
square-cut doublets and "mandillions" and their broad-
brimmed sugar-loaf Puritan hats, in their shapely half-hose
and laced shoes, their waist girdles, and their cloaks of
white, red, or black stuffs. Quaint replicas of their fathers
are the youngsters of the village, in their stiff little knee-
tyfewfflaven
in 164O
k\ **?** j/~-*S'f*~* "~ <-*_i- x" ^ -^ ^5= **"_"*. -t*" . _. s
4O The Beginnings of Yale
breeches, double jackets, broad hats and laced shoes. Not
too garish in dress were the matrons and maids of Daven-
port's colony, in their high hats and broad white collars and
quiet-colored gowns, over which they wore their many-
pocketed aprons, though now and then one of these good
wives would wear green stockings or a scarlet cloak, or
would trade her beeswax or "pease" for the latest fashions
in embroidered colored petticoats that the traders brought
from the Bay.
But it is at their work and public duties that we may best
recall these sturdy pioneers. Houses and fences were to be
built, and so there was at first great felling of trees on the
Market-place and streets and in the house-lots, and then in
the forests outside the town, where farmlands had to be
cleared for corn plantations and for cattle pastures. Boats
and canoes were needed, and small sailing vessels; chimneys
of stone, now and then brick-topped as the workmen began
to use the Quinnipiac clay pits, were necessary; hay and
straw, grain, pork and beef had to be stored against the
long and famined winters. And so, as the years slip by, we
see the men and grown boys in Thomas Fugill's ancient
pages at work building and repairing the bridges and palings
and houses, planting that corn which Winthrop wrote to his
wife made a Paradise of New England, working in their
fruit tree orchards (the New Haveners were great fruit
growers) or gardens or in the fields outside, harvesting,
tending the cattle and "haunting" the hogs, and cutting
wood in the surrounding forests where today a broad,
modern city crowds the whole plain between the two great
Rocks. Planters, joiners, plasterers, bricklayers, ships-
carpenters, tanners, coopers, mowers, cattle-herds, thatch-
ers, were these first settlers. Twelve hours was a man's
day's work in summer and eight in winter, while the women
and girls managed the households, taught the little chaps
The New Haven Church-State 41
their letters, spun wool and flax in the special rooms set
apart for these gossipy occasions, tended the geese and
chickens and bees, and made the woolen and leathern
clothes for themselves and husbands.
And now comes the watch, that had to keep a martial eye
open for invaders of the calm of the little stockaded repub-
lic, to look out for chimney fires at night, to see that each
householder kept his ladder against his thatched or shingled
roof day and night and a "fire hook" handy, to corral late
wayfarers along the high-walled lanes, and to apprehend
cheerful sailors or servants who might have had too many
"strong watters" at Mr. Andrews' or Mr. Harriman's
ordinary. The drummer beats at sundown for the watch to
prepare; the master of the watch goes to the watch-house,
and an hour after sundown the six watchmen have to follow,
arms complete with pike and sword and musket. In pairs
these watchmen then patrol the village all night, up and
down the lanes and inside and outside of the town paling,
so go the orders. They are to shout "Fire!" or "Arms,
Arms, all the Town out!" as necessity dictates, and lug to
the watch-house any suspicious persons for appearance be-
fore Governor Eaton the next Colony Court day. The
great public business of the colonists, however, is the train-
ing-day on the Market-place. This comes on "Quarter-
days." Two hundred men formed this military company,
each settler over sixteen years of age having his obligatory
share in the maneuvers. A martial sight it is, no doubt, as
we visualize it from the old Court Records. First come the
town drummers and the company secretary, to take their
places near the Meeting-house, where the roll of the
assembly drum brings the soldiers from all quarters. And
now out troop the companies, "squadrons," as they are
called, headed by the sturdy Captain Turner, veteran of
the Pequot wars, sword in hand, his cloak, lined with scarlet,
The Beginnings of Yale
Training-Day on tf?eMarKet-Place,New Haven U
thrown martially over one shoulder, his eye fired perhaps
by remembrances of the recent Indian battles over Pequot
way. Then comes Lieutenant Seely with his "partison," and
the Ensign with the Colony colors. The "squadrons," with
their sergeants and corporals, round the sandy public square
to the beat of the two company drummers. Terrifying they
may look to the wide-eyed Quinnipiac Indians who have
slipped quietly through the great clanking gates of the
stockade to witness these astonishing maneuvers of their
white-faced invaders. Boldly the "squadrons" troop about
the square, each private in his best yellow buckskin breeches,
high hat, iron breastplate and flowing cloak, armed with
musket or pike, with dangling sword, his "bandaleer" carry-
ing his powder and bullets and round of "swan-shot," and
on special occasions wearing the thick "cotton-wool" coats
The New Haven Church-State 43
that the town has ordered the women to quilt for their
husbands' and sons' protection against Indian arrows.
Grouped about the open Market-place, under the few old
trees that have been left standing, these proud dames and
damsels are no doubt as frightened as are the scampering
Indians when the "Quarter-day" parade ends with the
explosive firing of the three "great guns," the volleys from
which shake the wooden houses and echo over the sur-
rounding woods to the distant hills. Then come feats of
agility and strength among the younger soldiers (for the
village bucks were mighty proud of their muscles and the
turn of their calves), when they play at cudgels or "back-
sword," and leap and "wrastle" as the Colony orders have
it, and the great day ends. A few years later a horse troop
(when the Dutch became bothersome) was formed, there
was an artillery company, and, still later, a Colony dog pack
to hunt wolves and track Indians.
But it is in the Sabbath-day ceremonies at the Meeting-
house that we seem best to visualize the people of these
early Puritan times, long sleeping under the modern Green
or in the Grove Street burying ground, in devout belief of
their rise to join Christ's second coming. The roll of the
second drum is reverberating through the quiet gardens and
up and down the sandy lanes, vigorously pounded in the
Meeting-house turret by that jovial Robert Bassett who
later was to entertain some itinerant sailors at his home
with so hospitable a decanter that he was fined five pounds
and later left for Stamford, there to lead in mutinous out-
breaks against the Jurisdiction. Walking sedately across
the Market-place from their homes and those "Sabbath-day
houses" that the country people built for their Sabbath
noons in New Haven, come these pioneer Puritans of New
Haven. Captain Turner, sword in hand, waits at one of
the low, square doors of the first Meeting-house, to place
44 The Beginnings of Yale
the guard for the day within and the sentry without. And
now come the shadowy forms of the planters. Ezekiel
Cheever, in broad flowing cloak and high hat and starched
neckband, comes up Church Street with his wife and boy
from his cabin at Church and Grove Streets. Governor
Eaton, supporting his now aged mother, moves majestically,
as becomes the first magistrate of this New World republic,
up Elm Street and over the made causeway from "Mr.
Perry's corner," his numerous family and servants, and the
future father of Elihu Yale behind him. Then come the
other settlers: from the Clay Pitts Way Magistrate Malbon,
once a prosperous London merchant and now expecting
great things from New Haven trading enterprises he is
financing, from his large house on State Street fronting the
not far-distant harbor; old Thomas Nash, once a Puritan
refugee in Leyden, and now the official Colony gunsmith;
Anthony Thompson, Lenham village merchant; John Ben-
ham, brickmaker and town-crier; Goodman Kimberley,
poundkeeper; Deacon Gilbert, from his spacious house at
Church and Chapel Streets; Nicholas Augur, the town dis-
penser of physic; the impecunious William Preston, whose
large family of children are mostly kept alive by his wife's
earnings in "dressing" the Meeting-house. Then come
Deputy Governor Goodyear, former London trader, and
Thomas Gregson, now one of the Colony's most energetic
business men, from their adjoining houses on Chapel Street
opposite the Market-place; young Joshua Atwater, late of
Kent, and now treasurer of the Colony, from his great
mansion where Osborn Hall now stands; tottering old
Edward Wigglesworth, with his small son Michael the
coming poet, from Chapel Street near the present High;
Thomas Fugill and Corporal Bell, Ensign Newman and
William Andrews the tavern keeper, and Goodman this
and Goodwife that, until all of the small community are
The New Haven Church-State 45
grouped about the Meeting-house door, on the broad nailed
panels of which the latest bans of marriage and notices of
estates that are before the Colony Court have been put up
by the Secretary. And now the Rev. William Hooke, the
Teacher of the church, in his flowing ministerial gown,
comes alone down through the footpath under the trees from
the College and Chapel Streets corner of the Market-place,
his thoughts, perhaps, as much on his great cousin Crom-
well's possible patronage if he should return to England,
as on the two-hour prayer he is to make that morning. And
then the people turn their faces across the open square to
"Mr. Davenport's Walk," that has been fenced off for his
use between two Church Street open lots where the present
City Hall stands. The once famous preacher of the London
church in Coleman Street comes slowly out from his
"Walk," across the log causeway that has been laid over the
bog for his comfort, and to his waiting flock, unspoken to by
anyone on this great day of the Colony week. Slowly he
walks, in gown and small black skullcap, Bible in hand.
Through the silent ranks of his congregation he passes in
through the rough-hewn door and up the broad center aisle
of his crude new church, to the raised pulpit under the
sounding-board of the day. Mrs. Eaton and the Governor
follow, the congregation troops in, each man wearing his
hat except when the opening prayer is pronounced, the im-
portant families take their benches in order of Colony rank,
men on one side and women on the other, and the children
scatter to the pulpit stairs or sides of the bare room (where
they make so much trouble that officers have to be appointed
to keep them in order) and the Sabbath-day services begin.
Mr. Hooke expounds a chapter from the Scriptures. The
hourglass on the high pulpit may be turned once or even
twice before the central event of the Colonists' week, the
sermon by John Davenport, is over. Mr. Hooke then
*-M*\v
The New Haven Church-State 47
prays (and the prayers of those days were nearly as long as
the sermons), "bills" are put up for the sick and the absent,
and a long psalm follows, the pastor reading each line
before it is droned out by the congregation. The short
noon hour over, the Meeting-house is filled again for the
afternoon service. Mr. Hooke now preaches, and Mr.
Davenport prays, there is one more long psalm, and the
wearied and not infrequently half-frozen people return to
their candle-lit homes and firesides to meditate on the great
words they have heard during the day, and the children to
repeat the heads of the preacher's discourse from memory.
Ill
An earnestly pious people were these New Haven settlers,
believers in the all-sufficiency of the Scriptures for human
needs, individual and political, building their church-state
on the Mosaic law as it was interpreted by the Colony magis-
trates and deputies. The "Moses" of New Haven, Cotton
Mather called Governor Eaton. But it needed another
Solomon to manage the affairs of this new republic, and
Theophilus Eaton was one. Before his Colony court came
an extraordinary number of matters to settle, for the Colony
officers did not hesitate to manage even the smallest details
of the planters' lives. A settler could not leave the Juris-
diction without written permission; if a shoemaker was not
giving good leather he was haled before the court to answer
for it; if the town storekeeper (a Mrs. Stolions) over-
charged, she had to explain and cut her prices; if a man's
fence was down, he had to stand trial for damages his
cattle and hogs did to his neighbors' gardens in consequence;
if a settler "took tobacco" in the streets or outside of his
house, he was brought before the court to pay a fine; if a
soldier came to training without his full equipment, if a
The Beginnings of Yale
watchman slept on his rounds, if a laborer broke the Sab-
bath, if a good wife slandered another woman, if a ladder
was not in its place against a house, Governor Eaton's
court decided the penalty. And these penalties were severe
ones. Hubbard wrote that the New Haveners were very
"vigorous in the execution of justice, and especially in the
punishment of offenders." The town stocks and pillory
were a busy place for a few days after each court meeting,
and many a careless planter and servant and visiting sailor
cooled his legs and neck on the board platform next to the
watch-house on College Street to the gaping entertainment
of the villagers. For more serious offenses there were
public whippings of both men and women, and these were
so severe that one unlucky malefactor vowed he would
rather "fall into the hands of the Turks" than be whipped
again. And they had other agreeable little methods of
making an incorrigible reform. Halters were hung about
these fellows' necks, and locks put on their legs; the tongues
of slanderers or profane persons were bored with hot irons
or put into cloven sticks; not a few offenders against the
comparatively few capital laws of the Colony were publicly
hung. The laws were the laws of the Hebrew God, and
alack for him who transgressed them. Even the Deputy
Governor was fined on one occasion for having permitted
the sale of liquors by an elected tavern keeper who had not
yet taken office.
To us of today, the church discipline of these pioneer
times undoubtedly seems the most exacting. Yet there was
good reason for this, considering the peculiar religious re-
public that John Davenport had founded. The New Haven
Jurisdiction churches, separate as they were from all other
New England churches, were the New Haven state. The
towns and Colony political organizations were but the
machine by which this church-state was supported. None
The New Haven Church-State
49
but the regenerate could vote in town meetings, or for the
Governor and magistrates and deputies to the Colony Court.
Church members ruled the New Haven state, and noncon-
formity to the churches was treason to the state itself.
And so we find John Davenport extremely alert for any
infringements of his religious authority and for any back-
sliding from the obligations of church membership. He
and his New Haven flock were believers in witchcraft, and
in the second coming of Christ. It is said that they expected
Christ to make New Haven the seat of his second em-
pire, so the Colony's theological lamp must be kept
trimmed. So serious was this motive in the New Haven life
that as important a member of the community as Governor
Eaton's good lady fell into difficulties with Davenport and
was publicly punished therefor. So earnest was John Dav-
50 The Beginnings of Yale
enport in this conception of his duty toward a pure church
membership that he became, in time, renowned through
New England for his severity in church discipline, and was
said by Cotton Mather to "use the golden snuffers of the
sanctuary overmuch." The more lively of his parishioners
in this orthodox New Haven, thus ecclesiastically snuffed
out as occasions arose, doubtless endorsed this sentence.
For they were brought up sharply for very small misdoings.
The Colony Court would settle a case of profanity with dis-
patch and unction. Some unlucky visiting sailor, for
instance, had admitted saying a round "by God." The
New Haven church and state were shocked. Governor
Eaton, facing the astonished culprit across his great table,
vowed that it was a manifest "piercing of the name of
God in passion," whereas the rule of God was "let your
words be yea yea and nay nay." The unlucky sailor's
tongue was bored for his crime, and he was sent out of
the Colony to warn others not to be profane in it.
From time to time, in the old Colony papers, we find the
citizens of this too ideal republic breaking forth into exas-
perate opposition to this kind of discipline. It is an enlight-
ening scene that the old Court Records describe, when a
Mrs. Moore is apprehended for a theological eccentricity.
She had, it appears, "pished" at the statement that there
were "2 sorts of angells, some sperits, some in flesh." Mrs.
Moore thought "angells" were the only "sperits" and had
privately given it forth as her opinion that the officers of
the New Haven church were going beyond their rights in
claiming to be "angells" of God "in the flesh." Governor
Eaton rebuked her severely. "Christ," he said, "was indeed
with his apostles in their worke through all their travells, &
they travelled farr, yet could not goe into every part or
country of the world. Probably [he said] they were never
in this lardge tract & part of the World, called America."
The New Haven Church-State
Therefore Christ had to be represented in New Haven by
"angells in the flesh," which office Mr. Davenport and the
church elders had humbly succeeded to. Mrs. Moore was
not, however, satisfied, and went out of the Governor's
house "in a great rage," announcing, with a fling of her
independent head, as she passed through his great gate to
the street, that "she would goe to none of the church officers
for any truth of her salvation." The case made a mighty
noise in the Colony. Others had from time to time burst
their church bonds, and some had "pished" at Mr.
Cheever's teaching, and even at Mr. Davenport's business
ability, and not a few had been "sermon sick." But no one
until Mrs. Moore had openly flaunted the right of the
church elders to call themselves "angells." A growing num-
ber came to do so as time passed, however, and that final
day was to come when the whole question of the divine
authority of the inner church membership in the Colony was
to become a serious one, and with it the question of the fun-
damental soundness of John Davenport's great church-state
scheme itself.
&L 9w[forot~ fflouse in 1660
CHAPTER IV
THE DAVENPORT EDUCATION
I
N leaving Boston for the Quinnipiac
in 1638, John Davenport had brought
with him a young professional school-
master in the quaint and energetic
person of that Ezekiel Cheever whom
we have mentioned, and who, in later
years, was to become one of the most
famous of colonial pedagogues.
This able gentleman was at this time twenty-three years
of age. He was a Londoner by birth, and for several years
had been a private tutor among the Rev. John Wilson's
flock in Boston. Tradition pictures him vividly as a tall,
thin young fellow, whose pointed beard became a sort of
animated barometer to his wary scholars; when he stroked
this beard to its point, the story goes, his pupils cocked an
eye for trouble. And this frequently came (as Cheever
The Davenport Education 53
was of an irascible temperament) from unexpected causes;
for not only did the first New Haven schoolmaster use the
alder and birch rods that he ominously cut as he crossed the
swamp to the schoolhouse of mornings, but he also had the
salutary habit of licking the good boys for not exerting their
influence over the obstreperous ones. Cheever was an
excellent Latin scholar, a bit of a pedant, perhaps, if the
truth were known, and during his eleven years in the rude
New Haven settlement wrote his famous "Short Introduc-
tion to the Latin Tongue." This, as the famous Cheever
"Accidence," ran through twenty editions before 1785 and
emerged, for the last time, to the astonished chagrin of still
another generation of American youngsters, as late as 1838,
when it was succeeded by others, Bullions, etc., no less
formidable. Through this Latin grammar ploughed very
nearly all of the college-bound youths of Massachusetts and
Connecticut during the first century of Harvard and the first
half-century of Yale.
Ezekiel Cheever had arrived in Quinnipiac with 20 and
two dependents, and one of the earliest businesses of his
fellow townsmen, after the raising of the square Meeting-
house on the Market-place and of the great mansions of
Davenport and Eaton, appears to have been to build a small
cabin for him. This was set up at what is now the south-
east corner of Grove and Church Streets, and here Cheever
seems to have begun to teach New Haven's first school. In
that quaint account of his own life that Michael Wiggles-
worth left to a laxer and more critical posterity, he says
that, having escaped death in his father's dug-out cellar on
the banks of the creek in New Haven, he was sent to school
in 1639 to Ezekiel Cheever, "and under him," says he,
"profited so much through the blessing of God, that I began
to make Latin & to get forward apace." This was probably
in Cheever's own cabin on Grove Street.
54 The Beginnings of Yale
It was on Christmas Day, 1641, that John Davenport
secured a town vote to establish the Colony's first public
school.
I fancy that we may set this date among the large events
in New Haven history. Such a public school had been set
up in Boston, hardly had the Winthrop party arrived there.
The year following, 1636, one had been established in the
primitive settlement at Charlestown. The Rev. John
Fiske had become the first teacher of a similar Salem school
in 1637, and in 1639, when Cheever had begun to teach in
his own house in New Haven, a public school had been
begun at Dorchester. The Cambridge public school was
to be established a year later. In several of these cases, the
school had even preceded the church organization itself, so
anxious were the Puritan colonists that there should be no
interruption in the upbringing of the next generation in their
church.
And we may now see the necessity for this immediate
beginning of youthful education in the colonies. The public
school and the grammar school were no novelty to the New
England settlers. The Londoners in the New Haven Col-
ony had long been accustomed to it; their forefathers had
known it ever since Dean Colet had opened his grammar
school beneath St. Paul's in 1510. Even the immigrants
from such English rural villages as Ashford or Lenham, a
number of whom, as we have seen, were in the New Haven
party, had had their free schools at home. Among the
settlers of Massachusetts were some sixty Cambridge Uni-
versity graduates and about a third as many Oxford men,
and these men, now the leaders in their new communi-
ties, naturally looked upon the immediate beginnings of
a New England school system as an imperative matter,
nearly if not as important as the institution of the churches
themselves.
The Davenport Education 55
But the movement in this direction had an even deeper
significance. The great guide to conduct of the Puritan
element in the English Church for a hundred years had been
the Bible; and, as the Puritan interpretation of religion was
individualistic, so the reading of the Bible was a matter of
individual duty. It was to bring about this general ability
to read the Bible that those numerous Puritan foundations
had been established throughout old England from which
the public-school system, leading in many cases to the ad-
vanced grammar school with its study of the Latin commen-
taries and of the Greek originals of the New Testament,
had grown. Yet the English school system was sporadic
and privately endowed, as in the famous Hales Free School
of Coventry, which we have seen John Davenport attending
when a boy.
The Dutch church-school system, on the other hand,
which the Plymouth colonists and John Davenport had
become acquainted with when in exile in Holland, was of a
different nature. There a state educational system had for
some time been established. This was a compulsory public-
school system, supported by municipal or parish taxes in-
stead of by private donations as in England. This novel
and democratic notion of public education could not but
have made a strong impression upon John Davenport when
he was in Rotterdam. And, during his short stay in Boston,
he had seen the new plan being attempted, though perhaps
in no very definite way at that time, in the first of the Massa-
chusetts public schools. The general principles of the Dutch
idea were now incorporated in Davenport's scheme for his
New Haven commonwealth, superimposed upon which was
his own notion of a graded system from the common school
up through the grammar or Latin school to a sort of Puritan
"college" similar to the Harvard which he had had a hand
in planting.
56 The Beginnings of Yale
II
Fully to realize the departure which John Davenport thus
made in beginning, in 1641, the New Haven Colony public
school, and agitating almost as immediately his plan for a
"college," we may recall what had been done in schooling
matters in this country before his arrival. The Virginia
Cavaliers, for example, living a patriarchal existence on
their great tobacco plantations, had no such community life
as had the New England townsfolk. They had brought
over with them the customary English idea of secondary and
higher learning for the youth of the upper classes only.
They had founded no common schools, as, indeed, their
manner of life called for none. They had contented them-
selves with importing private tutors from Cambridge or
Oxford for the favored sons of the ruling classes; for the
poorer children they had begun industrial schooling on the
plantations. The Virginia public sentiment, in fact, was
against a free public education. The colonists there were
good Church of England communicants, and, even at the
comparatively late date of 1692, when William and Mary
College was chartered, their purpose in it was to afford a
colony higher education for the sons of the upper classes
alone. In Dutch New Amsterdam, on the contrary, the
parochial school system of the old country had early been
established, though probably of the elementary type in
Holland. In Puritan New England, both the stern necessity
of the churches for raising the new generation strictly after
the religious principles of the settlers, and the community
life which was at once begun, centering about the church, led
to a third type of school, the purpose of which was, at least
at some public expense, to bring the Bible into the lives of
the second generation and thus to continue the Puritan
commonwealth in all of its original purity of character.
The Davenport Education
57
ffirsf
<Scnoomouse
It was with one of the earliest examples of this last type
of colonial schools that John Davenport now began that
New Haven educational history, which, for generations to
come, was to be built up about a central religious interest
and in support of the orthodoxy of Calvinistic church and
state.
It was in accordance with this fundamental purpose of the
New Haven education that, in 1641, there was now laid
down, in John Davenport's language, that phrase which did
duty for the New Haven Colony schools for the next half-
century and which, in its statement of the intention of the
school "for the better trayning upp of youth in this towne,
that, through God's blessing they may be fitted for publique
service hereafter, either in church or commonweale," was
to find its refrain in the intentions of Yale's founders some
six decades afterwards.
58 The Beginnings of Yale
By 1644 the schoolhouse itself had been erected, and
Ezekiel Cheever moved his Latin books and his birch rods
into it. It was a one-story slab cabin, this first New Haven
school, with a rough stone chimney, and was likely enough
furnished (as were others of its day) with the same kind of
backless plank seats that helped to rivet the older genera-
tion's attention on the weekly worship at the Meeting-house,
a few rods further south on the Market-place. This school-
house probably stood just northeast of the present United
Church. A rough cart road, which has since become
Temple Street, traversed the public square from school-
house to Meeting-house, but on the north side, where now is
Elm Street, there was a better road, flanked by the high
palings of the first Elm Street gardens. Here, until 1649,
Ezekiel Cheever propelled the first New Haven Colony
youngsters through his Latin grammar, and, in good old
English schoolmaster style (which held that every cerebral
impression had to be pounded in through the epidermis),
held the noses of unwilling smaller chaps to their elementary
English composition and Catechism by rod and cuffings.
Ill
As events were to show, this was the single prosperous
period in John Davenport's large plans for his New Haven
school. Cheever prepared at least a half dozen New Haven
youths for Harvard during these years, giving them a
The Davenport Education 59
fitting that was unexcelled throughout the colonies. The
oldest son of Governor Eaton was one of them; the son
of Isaac Allerton, that wealthy Mayflower Pilgrim who had
difficulties at Plymouth and who had settled in New Haven
and was later to lose his whole estate there, was another;
Michael Wigglesworth received his first lessons under
Cheever, as we have seen, and went up to Harvard, there
to go through a fervid religious awakening and, dropping
his "selfish" desire (as he writes) "for honor & Prefermt
& such Poor Beggarly ends, learnt to study with God & for
God," and change his ambition to become a chirurgeon to
study for the ministry. Nathaniel Brewster, the son of the
Francis Brewster who was to be lost on the famous Lamber-
ton ship from New Haven, prepared for Harvard at this
little log-cabin school of Ezekiel Cheever's, and grew up to
take a degree at the University of Dublin and to accompany
Oliver Cromwell's son to Ireland in 1655 as a Puritan
minister in the fateful colonization of Ulster. A John
Davis also went up, whose Harvard College accounts in
1650 show that he paid for his board and tuition in wheat,
and once with "3 pecks of pease," no doubt shipped by
sailing vessel from his father's farm lot in New Haven.
Sadly enough, however, Ezekiel Cheever was scholar
first and theologian afterwards. The flowing-robed Aris-
tides and his Athenian democracy may very likely have
seemed to him a better human society than that of the black-
gowned John Davenport and his New Haven theocracy.
The details of the trouble are lost to us, but by 1647 Chee-
ver had come into open and violent collision with the New
Haven church (having apparently criticised some instances
of public church discipline) and was called before it for
"his contradictory, stiff and proud frame of spirit," an
eccentricity that John Davenport vigorously chastised in
everyone who showed it. As a result, the ecclesiastical head
60 The Beginnings of Yale
of Ezekiel Cheever was unceremoniously snipped off by the
golden snuffers of the sanctuary, as that of Governor
Eaton's good wife had been three years before. Two years
later Cheever departed in high dudgeon for Massachusetts,
to become the schoolmaster at Ipswich, and then at Cam-
bridge and Boston, there to train probably the largest num-
ber of boys for Harvard of any pedagogue in that colony.
He died at an advanced age, the scourge and yet the single
largest factor, perhaps, in the lives of many of Massachu-
setts' earliest church and state leaders. Though the records
are scant as to his work in New Haven, we know what
results he got elsewhere with such precocious students as
John Leverett, the later president of Harvard, and with
Cotton Mather. Cheever had brought Cotton Mather, by
twelve years of age,
to excellent work in
Latin composition,
and to the point
where he "conversed with Tully, Terence, Ovid, and Vergil,
and had gone through his Greek Testament, and entered
upon Isocrates, Homer, and his Hebrew Grammar." If
he did not do as much for any of John Davenport's New
Haven youths, it was doubtless their fault and not his.
It was a serious blow to Davenport's educational plan for
New Haven, that so remarkable a man as Ezekiel Cheever
was forced to leave the infant Colony. A very different
story might have been told, I imagine, of the after develop-
ments of the New Haven school had Cheever remained at
its desk. Higher education in New Haven now had a long
hiatus; it was thirteen years before another New Haven
youth was prepared for Harvard. Founded as an ideal
human society in 1639, and to be conducted as such by the
combined theological and worldly wisdom of Davenport and
Eaton, the rift in the lute that the coming New Haven
The Davenport Education 61
metropolis was to play among God's orchestra on earth, was
shown thus early in Ezekiel Cheever's case, as it had been,
a few years previously, in Edward Hopkins'. However
much we may see in this Puritan leader that is remarkable,
the fact remains that, in leading his flock out of England,
Davenport, as others of his generation in New England, set
up quite as intolerant a persecution in the New World of
those who would not agree to his religious despotism as he
had himself escaped from at home. I imagine that John
Davenport's plans to control and develop his peculiar
church-state permitted no further usefulness, as a factor in
it, to anyone, regardless of position, who differed from him.
But if Ezekiel Cheever's withdrawal interfered with the
school, other and still larger matters had an even more
lasting effect. Circumstances, both within and without the
Colony, were by 1649 rather suddenly to precipitate a
situation out of which the Colony itself was barely to escape
with its life.
IV
We have seen how a portion of the London group in the
Eaton party had joined it for business reasons quite apart
from the religious purposes of the others. To the soaring
plans for a pure and undefiled Puritan Utopia which John
Davenport had in mind for New Haven (and good old
Thomas More's book came over with him, properly
enough) these Roundhead London tradesmen had added
the supposedly very practical scheme of a New World com-
mercial center. Built up about the religious-political struc-
ture of Davenport, there was thus to be founded a Puritan
trading metropolis, protecting the former from financial dis-
aster and incidentally bringing in quite an earthly revenue of
its own to the elect.
62 The Beginnings of Yale
The New Haveners, hardly had they arrived at Quinnip-
iac, and hardly had either church or school been estab-
lished, made their first efforts in this alluring scheme. The
historian Hutchinson says that vessels were early built here
for foreign voyages, and the town records show the crazy
commercial schemes which were now to be attempted.
The end of the Puritan immigration to New England, with
the New Haven parties, had resulted in few, if any, large
ships sailing into Quinnipiac harbor from London. What
indirect trade Eaton's mariners therefore had with England
was through the port at Boston, whither the small home-
built New Haven shallops, pinnaces, and ketches now began
a precarious trade, carrying to Boston the beaver skins and
other furs of the Quinnipiac woods, and bringing back
Ma-ssachusetts cattle and merchandise and English stuffs
landed at Boston. Some small business was also begun with
the Virginia farmers, and, for a while at least, the New
Haven traders seem to have stopped at New Amsterdam on
their way home, and sold Virginia tobacco to the Dutchmen
there. A few even more adventurous voyages are recorded
in the early colonial papers. Several New Haven ships went
to the Bermudas and the Barbados in these first few years,
and even to the Azores. Captain Lamberton had a trim
little vessel called the "Cock," the first seagoing vessel
owned, if not built, in New Haven; the town records tell
how, in 1640, an attempt was made by three miscreants to
steal it, and how they got a sound public whipping and
leisure to repent in the town stocks.
So I suppose that for the first two or three years, this
trading, while not as promising in large returns to the
Colony as had been expected, was fairly prosperous.
But in 1640 the first serious mistake was made. An agent
was in that year sent to the Delaware River to find a suitable
site for a trading post, and most of the leading and wealthy
The Davenport Education 63
New Haven men formed "The Delaware Company" and
took shares in it. All might have gone well, had it not been
that, in the year following, the New Haven Colony voted
its political jurisdiction over the new settlement, and sent a
considerable body of people, in Lamberton's "Cock," to it.
Anchoring off New Amsterdam, the Dutch Governor held
up the enterprise until the promise was made of allegiance
to him in the new territory, which was on Dutch soil.
Matters naturally not turning out as William the Testy had
desired, two Dutch ships sailed from New Amsterdam in
1642, successfully attacked the New Haven traders, burned
down their log cabins, arrested the settlers, and confiscated
the land.
The result of this sudden disaster was the loss of some
1,000 to "The Delaware Company," as well as the emer-
gence of a new danger in the now aroused Dutchmen.
I take it that this fiasco, and the threatening troubles from
New Amsterdam resulting from it, had a good deal to do
with what otherwise would appear to have been a curious
political move that the New Haven folk now took, a
move which, unless it partly arose from these circumstances,
would appear to have been a reversal of the original plan
for complete disentanglement from the other New England
colonies. Until the year 1643, the several New England
colonies had existed as independent commonwealths. The
first alarms of coming Indian wars, however, were now
sounding throughout Massachusetts; the Frenchmen at the
north, with their war-painted Indian allies, were a possible
menace, if a remote one at that time; and now New Haven
had got into trouble with the Dutch on the western frontier.
The proposal resulted, in Massachusetts, of a protective
confederacy of the English Puritan Colonies against these
dangers.
64 The Beginnings of Yale
Facing the unexpected end of all of their commercial
plans (as the Dutch, at New Amsterdam, could easily close
up that end of Long Island Sound to New Haven vessels
sailing to Virginia) the New Haven folk seem to have been
keenly interested in this proposal. To join such a con-
federacy, however, the New Haven Colony and its loosely
connected outside plantations at Milford, Guilford, and
Stamford, had first to settle their own political organization.
From this necessity the so-called "New Haven Jurisdiction"
arose. This was begun in April, 1643, a month before the
United Colonies of New England was formed at Boston, to
consist of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New
Haven. It was completed the following October, when
Milford, which, under the Rev. Peter Prudden, had not
conformed to the church-membership franchise restriction
of John Davenport's New Haven, compromised on that
issue, and was admitted. To this "Jurisdiction," with legis-
lative headquarters at New Haven, the towns of Southold,
L. I., and Branford were later added. From then on these
six towns formed a republic, and, as such, a component part
of the first union of American commonwealths.
And now, in 1646, the newly formed New Haven Juris-
diction took another step in its relations to the outside
world, which again, unless we understand its relation to the
necessities of the case, would appear to have been a step
backward from the original independent conception of its
founders.
The trading purposes of the voyage to England of Cap-
tain Lamberton's "Great Shippe," under the auspices of a
new commercial company, "The Ship Fellowship," were
important enough. It was the first attempt at a large trad-
ing undertaking of the New Haveners. It was said that
nearly all of the remaining free capital of Davenport's
people, some five thousand pounds, had been invested in
66 The Beginnings of Yale
it as a final effort to recoup the Colony fortunes lost on the
Delaware. Governor Eaton, Captain Malbon, Lieutenant
Governor Goodyear, and Thomas Gregson, the impor-
tant men of the community, were back of it. In it sailed,
to conduct the sale of the hides and planks, the beaver furs
and the "corn and pease" consigned by the planters, seventy
of the best blood of the Colony, Goodman Gregson and
Captain Turner among them. But "The Great Shippe"
foundered at sea.
This sufficiently completed the financial ruin of the once
promising and ambitious colony to make it the most serious
event in the first decade of New Haven's history. But, I
take it, the errand upon which Gregson went in it is even
more important. This was no less than that of securing
some form of recognition of the New Haven Colony from
the English government, very likely charter rights to the
land and legalization of the political organization which
was now a part of the New England Union, and the only
part not so equipped, in one form or another, with colony
powers from England.
This was a far cry from the political high horse that
Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport had ridden so gal-
lantly when they formed their independent church-state at
Quinnipiac only nine years before. Not only had that inde-
pendence been given up in New Haven's joining the New
England confederacy; the Colony was now compelled to
seek further outside aid against impending trouble with the
Dutch and Indians by turning to England for a charter.
But allegiance to the English Crown had become a dif-
ferent matter in the thirteen years since John Davenport
had escaped from the Archbishop Laud of the early days of
Charles I. The Puritan movement in the meanwhile had
rolled up in a mighty wave over Strafford and Laud and
the King himself; the Long Parliament of 1640, with the
The Davenport Education 67
great Puritan, Pym, as leader of the House of Commons,
had swept from Charles' court all of the enemies of the
rights of the people; Laud had been sent to prison; the
Army Plot had failed in its plan to restore the royal power;
Strafford had been beheaded; the old Cartwright principles
of Davenport's early Coventry days had come into wide
popularity; the Bishops had been excluded from the House
of Lords, and King Charles had left London for Oxford
(where his artillery trained in Davenport's old college
park), to muster a royal army to quell the Roundhead up-
rising, and to enter upon that civil war which, with the rise
of Cromwell as the champion of the new popular movement,
had ended in 1645 at Naseby with the wreck of the Stuart
reign and the beginning of the Roundhead Parliament. In
far-off New Haven, it was now possible, in 1647, f r Gov-
ernor Eaton to announce that "The Kinge's Armes are cutt
by Mr. Mullyner for the towne and set upon a post in the
highway by the seaside." With the King absent, and the
appeal for such a charter as was now asked by New Haven
(and doubtless backed by the other members of the Con-
federacy) coming before more friendly officers, the reason
for this otherwise peculiar act of John Davenport's people
may easily be seen. Cromwell, a relative through his wife's
family of William Hooke, John Davenport's assistant min-
ister, might be expected to see that the appeal should come
before the right officers and be granted. The foundering of
the Lamberton ship, with the New Haven messenger in this
effort aboard, ended that possibility at the same moment
that it plunged the townspeople into the lowest depths of
their rapidly ebbing commercial fortunes. No further effort
to secure a legal title for John Davenport's colony was
ever made, with what results we shall later see.
68 The Beginnings of Yale
From this date onward, until the first Puritan generation
had passed off the stage and new times came, John Daven-
port's colony seems to have had a very hard time of it.
By 1650, it might well have seemed that the end had come.
It was now but a decade since they had escaped from the
mounting persecutions of a Laud to settle a new Puritan
commonwealth on the Quinnipiac. Yet the whole scheme
for their great Roundhead trading emporium in the New
World had fallen with a crash, at the very moment when
their old friends and neighbors in England had fought
through their struggle with the Crown and English Church
and were coming out of it victors. The despair of the New
Haven folk was complete. They seem to have looked about
elsewhere for a new settlement, even considering the possi-
bility of recrossing the ocean and beginning a new Puritan
home in Ireland. Davenport had been vigorously urged by
his old friends at home to abandon his dream-city and return
to England and take part in the popular uprising, but had
not gone. He had been invited, in 1643, to become one of
the clergymen of the Westminster Assembly, and had re-
fused. The Protectorate now began, and Cromwell, no
doubt interested in the New Haven Jurisdiction through
Hooke, offered the people a new site in Jamaica, which he
was intent upon building up as an English bulwark in the
West Indies. For some reason or other, John Davenport
and his New Haven congregation did not accept this offer.
Possibly they were too impoverished to consider any large
and new undertaking; possibly the chief leaders were now
passing the age when such a thing was easy. They remained
to make the best of a bad bargain on the Quinnipiac. Only
Reverend Hooke left the ruined Colony and went back to
England, where he became Cromwell's private chaplain.
The Davenport Education
It was at this low juncture that Ezekiel Cheever had left
the settlement, and that, with no schoolmaster in charge and
no financial support likely from his ruined flock, John
Davenport, turning his back on the alluring offers from the
new English government, began over again to build his
shattered educational edifice and his church-state.
CHAPTER V
DAVENPORT'S NEW HAVEN COLLEGE
P to this time the New Haven people
had been forced to turn to Harvard
for the only higher education open to
their sons. It had been in a very
neighborly spirit that they had done
this, and that they had gone even
further, in contributing to the general
support of Harvard. A town order
of 1644, passed but five years after New Haven had been
settled, had established annual voluntary gifts in the country
pay of the times for this purpose. These gifts, called
"the College corn," had been asked of everyone "whose
heart is willing thereunto, a peck of wheat or the value of
it" to be used "for the relief of poor scholars at the college
at Cambridge." Collectors were appointed to receive these
gifts, which amounted to forty bushels of wheat in the first
year after the order had been passed. Three years later,
however, the New Haven public interest fell off in the
Davenport's New Haven College 71
matter. The purpose of the Harvard support had been "that
children being fit for learning, but their parents not able to
beare the whole charge, might the better be trayned upp for
publique service." In 1647, however, Governor Eaton had
to urge this collection upon his people, "considering the
worke is a service to Christ, to bring up yonge plants for his
service, and besides, it wilbe a reproach that it shalbe said
Newhaven is falne off from this service." Three such ad-
monitions had to be given by the Governor. But public
interest had subsided. With Ezekiel Cheever's departure
this finally died out altogether. 1
In the meanwhile John Davenport had begun a public
movement for a college of his own.
It is worth retelling this well-known story of John Daven-
port's efforts thus to found a second Harvard in New
Haven, inasmuch as, had they succeeded, Yale College,
under quite a different name, would have been established
before 1650 in New Haven, instead of under very different
conditions some fifty odd years later, and elsewhere.
A start had been made toward this end as early as 1641,
when the town school had been set up. In the original lay-
out of the village, John Brockett had marked off some forty
or more acres between the modern Olive Street and the
harbor shore, which was called, from the Indian midden-
heaps found there, "the Oystershell-fields." The rent of
these fields to various townspeople for farming purposes
1 The purpose of this was "for the reliefe of poore schollars att the
colledge att Cambridge." A Reverend Shepherd of the Cambridge church
was a Bay delegate to the meeting of the United Colonies at Hartford in
1644, and appears to have suggested this assistance. Both Connecticut and
New Haven undertook to give it. The New Haven boys at Harvard were
from the wealthier families and received no public help to go there. The
"College corn" was a general contribution to help support poor boys from
other colonies. The scheme did not succeed, largely because of the poverty
of the western colonies. Joshua Atwater, Anthony Thompson, Corporal
Bell, Roger Ailing and others were among the New Haven collectors.
72 The Beginnings of Yale
was ordered to be used, later on and when the occasion
arose, to support a "college." So that this "college" ap-
pears to have been one of the original projects of John
Davenport. 1 It was now proposed, in 1647, to proceed with
the plan.
It had been in January, 1646, that the New Haven folk
had followed their ill-fated vessel out on the harbor ice,
through which they had sawed a channel for it to the open
Sound, and had there prayed a fervent God-speed for it
with their minister. Returning within the year, as they
anticipated, with a Colony charter and increased fortunes
for the townsfolk, the Lamberton venture was to bring
about the long-delayed prosperity of which they had
dreamed in their London counting-rooms. Awaiting that
day in high hopes, John Davenport now proposed to start
the "college," the second step which was to give New
Haven the educational advantages of the older Boston.
And so, the old town records tell us, the town-lot com-
mittee was requested to "consider and reserve what lot they
shall see neat and commodious for a college, which they
desire may be set up as soon as their ability will reach unto."
Three acres on what is now Elm Street, facing the Market-
place, was chosen for this purpose by the town-lot commit-
tee. This was land that had been originally allotted to a
Mrs. Eldred, who for some reason or other had not joined
the Eaton party as she had planned, and whose allotment
1 Hutchinson says of New Haven's early college ambitions: "They made
many attempts all along, from the first to the last of their being a distinct
colony, even such as were above their strength to promote learning by
public schools. Yea, it was in their hearts to set up a college and there
were sundry provisions made and some land laid up in order thereto, in
which desires, though they in issue failed, yet there is an honorable testi-
mony of their good will to learning and liberal education of youth and
may have its acceptance, in proportion with David desiring to build a
temple, though it was effected by his son."
Davenport's New Haven College
73
was therefore now at public disposal. It was about where
Elm Street now crosses Temple, and thus opposite Ezekiel
Cheever's schoolhouse, and practically in the center of the
village.
But nothing came of this public action. It was early in
1647 that this step had been taken. By the end of that
year the New Haven people had given up all hope of the
return of the Lamberton expedition, and had sorrowfully
settled the estates of the settlers who had been lost in it.
The financial loss thus sustained seems to have settled the
"college" project for the time being. It was to recoup this
loss by a third commercial venture, that another expedition
was now sent to the Delaware. This was even less suc-
74 The Beginnings of Yale
cessful than the first. The waiting Dutchmen peremptorily
arrested all the party and sent them ignominiously packing
back to New Haven, followed down the Sound by explosive
threats of what would happen if a New England Puritan
party ever tried again to settle on Dutch soil. This was the
end of New Haven's repeated efforts to establish itself as
a commercial metropolis. Three years later, to be sure,
there was a sudden renewal of the Delaware enthusiasm, and
New Haven even sent messengers to Massachusetts to
recruit settlers for a final attempt to force the Dutch. But
the scheme did not materialize.
II
But five years later John Davenport again boldly brought
forward his college project. This renewed agitation ap-
pears to have been of a most determined character, sur-
prisingly so when we consider the low ebb of the Colony's
finances at this period. It may well have been that this very
poverty operated to make the cost prohibitive to individuals
who wished to send their sons to Harvard. But another
reason had an even larger share in the matter. In a town
vote shortly to be passed, the New Haven magistrates set
down that "in some respects this seemes to be a season of
some disturbances being at present at the colledg in ye Bay
concerning the dismission of President Dunster." It is
interesting to find this reason given in connection with
Davenport's efforts to found a New Haven college. A
Harvard situation, as we shall see, was again to have its
large part in Yale's beginnings. President Dunster had
been having a hard time of it at the infant Harvard, of
which he had been the first president. He had just peti-
tioned the Commissioners to the seminary that the original
building was in poor condition, that the library was defective
in law, philosophy, and some other things, and that his
Davenport's New Haven College 75
own salary was paid out of "stipends from the scholars" and
not too punctually paid at that. But President Dunster had
himself fallen from grace; good Puritan that he was, he
had come to disbelieve in infant baptism, and had neglected
to present one of his own children for the traditional rite.
The Massachusetts Puritan doctrines rested so firmly on
the universal acceptance of infant baptism as the only means
to salvation and upbringing in the orthodox path of the
fathers, that Dunster's action, however valuable he himself
had been to Harvard, could have had but the one result of
his dismissal.
I imagine that the rising disturbance at Harvard over this
event (which took place in 1654) had its considerable effect
on the minds of the New Haven leaders in the three or four
years just before it. Davenport, some fourteen years Dun-
ster's senior at Magdalen College, Oxford, had little liking
for the theological training that his New Haven boys might
receive under so prominent an opponent of one of his
fundamental church rules. However that may be, the open-
ing act of 1647 ' m Davenport's efforts to found a New
Haven college was followed, five years later, by a general
agitation of it throughout the plantations of the New Haven
Jurisdiction. In the town records of Guilford, in this later
year, we find an entry concerning the matter. 1 The Guil-
ford people were ready to do their share toward establish-
ing such a "New Haven Colledge," providing so powerful
a neighbor as the Connecticut Colony "do joyne," a propo-
sition of which we hear nothing, so far as I can discover,
1 "The matter about a Colledge at New Haven was thought to be too
great a charge for us of this jurisdiction to undergoe alone; especially
considering the unsettled state of New Haven Towne, being publiquely
declared from the deliberate judgment of the most understanding men to
be a place of no comfortable subsistence for ye present inhabitants there."
The Guilford people, however, "desire thanks to Mr. Goodyear for his
proffer to the setting forward of such a work."
76 The Beginnings of Yale
from any other source. But the New Haven people were
pressing, and several of their leaders enlisted themselves in
the plan. Stephen Goodyear, second to Theophilus Eaton
in public standing among the laymen of the little stockaded
village, was one of these. While the town records of the
next year are lost, we find in a later remark of John Daven-
port's that Stephen Goodyear, then Deputy Governor, had
offered his house and lot on Chapel Street (about where the
Taft Hotel now stands) for the president's house. Nothing
appears to have come either from the Goodyear offer, or of
Guilford's proposal that Connecticut join in the college plan.
Two years later, however, the college scheme was again
advanced by the energetic Davenport. 1 The New Haven
planters were agreed in favor of the project of educating
their sons at home, but, their commercial dreams finally
stripped of all fancies, now wanted to be assured of the
financial side of it. 2 They very practically wanted to know
how much would be subscribed. In 1655, therefore, the
General Court cast up accounts and discovered that New
Haven was prepared to give some 300 in cash in addition
to its two lots of land already appropriated, that Milford
1 In May, 1654, the town "was informed that there is some motion again
on foote concerning the setting up of a Colledg here at Newhaven, wch, if
attayned, will in all likelyhood prove verey benificiall to this place, but
now it is onely ppounded to knowe the townes minde and whether they are
willing to further the worke by bearing a meet pportion of charge if the
jurisdiction, upon the pposall thereof, shall see cause to cary it on. No
man objected, but all seemed willing, pvided that the paye wch they can
raise here will doe it."
2 May, 1655, the town records have it that "it is now intended to be
ppounded to the gen: court; therefore this towne may declare what they
will doe by way of incouragmt for ye same, and it would be well if they
herein giue a good example to ye other townes in ye jurisdiction, being free
in so good a worke. Mr. Davenport and Mr. Hooke were both present
upon this occasion, and spake much to incourag the worke." A committee
was thereupon appointed "to goe to the seuerall planters in this towne and
take from them what they will freely giue to this worke."
Davenport's New Haven College 77
was ready to advance 100, but that the other towns wanted
more time to look into the matter. New Haven now asked
the General Court to bring the affair to a conclusion, and
so collectors were sent around among the smaller towns of
the Colony to raise the local contributions to the amount
desired. It is probable that they had little success in this
effort, if indeed they made it with very great enterprise.
But 240 more was raised in this canvass. But the 640
thus promised seems to have been sufficient to make a begin-
ning at the long-talked-of project, and a request was made
for but 60 a year more, to be used to pay the "president."
This whole proceeding, in the light of local conditions in
New Haven in 1655, was a bold one. The "college" ap-
peared to be now a certainty, in spite of the financial depres-
sion that still hung over the Colony. The New Haven
General Court would seem to have understood the matter
as concluded. So far as it was concerned, a "New Haven
College" had been established "for the education of youth
in good literature" and "to fit them for public service in
church and commonwealth," quite as surely as the Massa-
chusetts General Court, in 1636, the much bewigged Sir
Harry Vane presiding in his courtly robes, had established
what had since become Harvard College. John Davenport
so looked upon it, and, awaiting its successful beginning,
renewed his efforts to maintain the grammar school which
was to prepare his town youths for it. But nothing appears
to have happened, the outside towns being but little inter-
ested and New Haven being financially unable to carry out
the project alone.
Ill
In spite of all the great plans for it, during these few
years the town school had practically dropped out of sight.
The small children, both boys and girls, were still required
The Beginnings of Yale
SJnomas ffreqson's Corner of me
~ *
to learn their letters and to write, at home, and impov-
erished females were encouraged to set up "Dame schools"
for this purpose. The few boys whose fathers could afford
it continued to go to the town school, and there to proceed
into Latin. But the first flush of enthusiasm for this
important part of John Davenport's church-state scheme
now appears to have faded away. After one unsuccessful
attempt to fill Ezekiel Cheever's place in the little log-
cabin schoolhouse on the Market-place, the Rev. John
Bowers had become the schoolmaster. This Bowers was a
young Harvard graduate, a native of Cambridge, and the
classmate of two later Presidents of Harvard John Rogers
and that Urian Oakes whose philanthropic later life, to
quote Cotton Mather, " 'twas like a Silkworm, he spent his
own Bowels or Spirits, to procure the Garments of Right-
Davenport's New Haven College 79
eousness for his Hearers." But the youthful Bowers had
at once found himself in difficulties, both educational and
financial. His boys were sent to him as unprepared as ever
in their English reading and grammar, and unable "to
understand the main grounds and principles of Christian
Religion necessary to Salvation," an interesting suggestion
of the troubles that John Davenport was having in his own
pulpit. Nor could Bowers collect tuition. The famous
New Haven School code of 1656 was very likely drawn up
by Davenport and Bowers to meet these difficulties. Six
years previously, a compulsory school law had been framed
to meet a similar situation in Thomas Hooker's Connecticut
Colony, no doubt as a result of the educational interest
begun there by young John Alcock. This young Harvard
graduate, three years Bowers' senior and the nephew of
Thomas Hooker, had been so successful in his efforts in
the Hartford school that, in 1649, supported by this law,
he had sent four Connecticut Colony boys to Harvard, the
first thus to go in the thirteen years of that Colony's history.
New Haven was now forced to enact a similar law.
Curious it is to realize that, before 1650, so soon after
the promising founding of these two idealistic Puritan
commonwealths and in spite of their basic differences in
political and church organization, both Connecticut and
New Haven were facing disaster in their educational
schemes. Yet a similar difficulty had been the experience of
the Massachusetts towns. Doubtless it had been expected
that the religious zeal of the settlers would insure the volun-
tary education of the rising generation. But, sad to relate,
this had not been the case. Quite the opposite is true of the
commonly accepted tradition that these first Puritan New
England schools were successes. The "one chief project of
that old deluder, Sathan," had always been to keep men
from the knowledge of the Scriptures. The old deluder had
8o The Beginnings of Yale
been working in Massachusetts, as well as in Hooker's and
Davenport's Utopias, with a vengeance. Compulsory edu-
cational laws were everywhere required. The acts that the
Connecticut and New Haven ministers and their magistrates
now found necessary were passed by their respective General
Courts, "that Learning may not be buried in the Grave of
our Forefathers in Church and Commonwealth, the Lord
assisting our endeavors." The Connecticut Colony school
law commanded that each town should see that there was
no "Barbarism" allowed any longer "in any of their fam-
ilies, at a penalty of twenty shillings for neglect." The
New Haven code, now following, was quite as strict. All
the "Children and Apprentices" were to be taught "to read
the Scriptures, and other good and profitable printed books
in the English tongue, and in some competent measure to
understand the main grounds and principles of Christian
Religion." The New Haven Court followed this with a
general order that every plantation in the Jurisdiction
should "set up and maintayne" a school and pay a third of
the schoolmaster's salary. To help matters along, the New
Haven General Court three years later freed from payment
of personal taxes all those who studied diligently; if they
ceased doing this, the rates were imposed again.
But, so low were New Haven's financial affairs, even
these paternal legislative acts had little influence upon the
rebirth of the town Free School. Master Bowers, in 1660,
finally had to appear before the Court about it. If the town
wanted a school, said he, and him for the schoolmaster, the
proper thing was to show that they did, and do something
beyond passing laws which evidently were given small atten-
tion by the townspeople.
We may imagine the perplexities of the town fathers as
they received this upstanding communication from their
young Harvard schoolmaster. Doubtless there were many
Davenport's New Haven College 81
waggings of heads under the broad-brimmed hats of the day
and pullings of noses and dubious suggestions of the state of
the Colony and the disproportionate cost of the higher
education for so poor and long-suffering a settlement of dis-
appointed tradesmen. But the other plantations of the
Jurisdiction were having similar difficulties in supporting
their enforced Free Schools. The question had become a
broader one than New Haven's school troubles alone.
Whoever made the suggestion, we do not know (very likely
it was Davenport), but the Court decided to meet the situa-
tion by turning the New Haven Free School into a Colony
Grammar School and to admit boys who wished to "make
Latin" from all of the six towns in the Jurisdiction to it.
The businesslike John Bowers resigned at this point, going
first to Guilford and then to Branford, where he was later
to succeed the elder Abraham Pierson 1 in the village church.
The Colony School, successor to that pioneer town school
on the public Market-place, now promised, as did the sleep-
ing college project, the first fruits of John Davenport's two
long decades of struggle to found a well-rounded educa-
tional plan for his New Haven church.
IV
And we may suppose that the old Puritan leader (for
John Davenport was now sixty-one years old) now felt that
there was but one more stumbling-block in the path of his
cherished plans. This, as was the case generally throughout
New England in educational matters, was financial. The
New Haven college needed money from without the Colony
if it were to succeed. And so we find John Davenport
1 Abraham Pierson the younger, now just graduating from Harvard
College and later to appear at the forefront of the personages in these
pages, had come to New Haven from his father's Branford home during
these years of John Bowers' teaching, and had been prepared by him for
Harvard.
82 The Beginnings of Yale
writing a letter in the book-lined study of his spacious house
overlooking the harbor, to his old friend Edward Hopkins,
and enclosing with it, no doubt, a supporting word from
Governor Eaton over the way, step-father to Edward Hop-
kins' wife, who had been a Yale, and his chief on the
original emigration.
Edward Hopkins, whom we left at the settlement of New
Haven removing to Thomas Hooker's Connecticut Colony,
had led an eventful life there until 1653, when he had re-
turned to England upon the death of his brother, warden
of the fleet under Oliver Cromwell. In Connecticut, Hop-
kins had been a useful planter, occupying the Governor's
chair for seven annual terms and acting in large Colony
matters as one of its first citizens. He had been the chair-
man of the Connecticut Commission that had treated with
George Fenwick, in 1644, for the absorption of Saybrook,
its fort and its "two demiculvering cast pieces, with all the
shot thereunto appertaining, one murderer with two cham-
bers, two barrels of gunpowder, bandoleers and rests," etc.,
"and all the housing within the pallisado." Three years
later he had headed a second commission, with Captain
John Culick and others, to rearrange the money terms of
this transfer. He had several times represented Connecti-
cut in the meetings of the New England Union. During the
Dutch and Indian troubles he had been an energetic leader
in the Colony's defense, and, when he had returned to
England, was the spokesman for the Connecticut agent who
had been sent to Lord Cromwell, Parliament, and General
Monk, to secure English military aid against the New York
Dutch. He had, it was said of him, "conducted the affairs
of government with great wisdom and integrity, and was
universally beloved." He seems to have been looked upon
by his contemporaries as the Theophilus Eaton of Connecti-
cut. His chanties were "great and extensive; besides the
Davenport's New Haven College 83
relief he dispensed to the poor [I am quoting from Ben-
jamin Trumbull] he gave considerable sums of money to
others, to be disposed of to charitable purposes." Unlike
his former colleagues in the New Haven Colony, Edward
Hopkins had added to rather than lost his original fortune,
and had gone back to England a comfortably-wealthy
American colonist. Though he had expected to return, and,
in 1654 had been reflected Governor of Connecticut in that
expectation, his reception by Cromwell had been so hearty
that he had remained there, at first succeeding his brother as
First Warden of the English Fleet, then as Commissioner
of the Admiralty and Navy, and finally becoming a member
of the Second Protectorate Parliament.
It had been in either 1656 or 1657 that John Davenport
had written to Hopkins outlining the facts regarding the
New Haven college project. Afterward restating these in
a public statement he said "that, sundry years past, it was
concluded by the said General Court, that a small college,
such as the day of small things will permit, should be settled
in New Haven, for the education of youth in good litera-
ture, to fit them for public service, in church and common-
wealth, as it will appear from the public records." He
asked Hopkins for a money contribution to it. 1 The latter's
reply was as follows: "Most Dear Sir, The long continued
respects I have received from you, but especially, the speak-
ings of the Lord to my heart, by you, have put me under
deep obligations to love and a return to thanks beyond what
I have or can express." He then added what Davenport
wanted: "That which the Lord hath given me in those parts,
I ever designed, the greatest part of it for the furtherance of
1 In the light of the gift by Elihu Yale, some fifty-six years later, it is
worth noting how in 1657 his aunt's wealthy husband was at the point of
forestalling him in a first considerable endowment to the New Haven
"college" which might have resulted in a Hopkins College instead of Yale.
The Beginnings of Yale
the work of Christ in those ends of the earth, and if I under-
stand that a college is begun and like to be carried on, at
New Haven, for the good of posterity, I shall give some
encouragement thereunto."
But Fate would have it otherwise. And it was in such
an incident as this that we may read clearly the natural
penalties that were inherent from the beginning in the great
Davenport social scheme. For had Edward Hopkins
chosen to remain with the New Haven colonists in 1638 he
would at this moment have made his gift to the Davenport
Colony college. That he had chosen, instead, to join the
more liberal Connecticut people could hardly have been for
other cause than that he preferred their religious and politi-
cal system to the narrow theocracy of New Haven. And
so, where we cannot but believe that John Davenport's
political ideas had driven Edward Hopkins to Connecticut
in the first place, we now may see where, from that incident,
and others like it, was to result that chain of events which
in the end was to be the undoing of the Davenport scheme
of things.
For Hopkins, when his sudden death occurred a year
after he had thus agreed to give substantially to the New
Haven college, did not do it, but, instead, left a will dividing
the money that Davenport had asked for, between New
Haven and his own old Colony of Connecticut.
From this act a long train of results was to follow. The
estate, which consisted of Connecticut property in large
measure, both real and personal, came to 1,324 "and a
negar," and Hopkins named as cotrustees for its collection
and distribution his two old New Haven friends of the
early London days, Davenport and Eaton, and two
Connecticut men, that Captain Culick who had served with
him on various Connecticut commissions, and William
Goodwin. Had this large estate been left to John Daven-
Daverfport's New Haven College 85
port's Colony alone, the proposed New Haven college
would have been established by 1660 at New Haven.
Not only, moreover, was the Hopkins bequest made to
the two colonies, but under the terms of the will it was to
be used for "both grammar school and college." So that,
even if the New Haven share of the estate had come at
once, it would not all have been at the disposition of the
projected higher institution. But even that was not to be.
Governor Eaton had died before he could act under the
will, and John Davenport met the Connecticut trustees and
agreed (as we may read in his elaborate statement of the
case to the New Haven General Court in 1660) to divide
the legacy equally between the two colonies, after 100 had
been given to Harvard. 1
Yet, in spite of these unexpected reverses, John Daven-
port might well have anticipated, in 1660, that half of the
Hopkins gift was now to come, and that, even if part of it
would have to go to the grammar school, the remainder,
with what had been promised in the Jurisdiction, would be
sufficient to begin his long-cherished college plan. This
would very likely have been the fact, had not circumstances
now come about which were to throw the whole college
project to the four winds and end in an entirely unexpected
way for John Davenport's church-state itself.
1 In 1659 the Hartford church was split into two warring factions over
matters of church organization, and the dissatisfied faction, led by Mr.
Goodwin, the Hopkins trustee, had moved to Hadley. When the final
settlement of the Hopkins estate was made, therefore, one half of the
Connecticut share went with Mr. Goodwin to Hadley, where a Hopkins
Grammar School has continued to this day on the foundation.
THE DOWNFALL OF THE NEW HAVEN
REPUBLIC
I
T had been in 1660 that John Daven-
port, acting as the surviving New
Haven trustee of the Hopkins bequest,
had turned over to the General Court
of the New Haven Jurisdiction all the
papers concerning the trust, and his
own proposals concerning its use.
The success of the New Haven Col-
lege plan was now assured, in popular fame. Davenport
ordered that the town should accumulate from then on the
rents of the old "Oystershell-fields" that had been set aside
for the purpose in 1641, till they should be needed when
"the college" should be set up. "Mrs. Eldred's lot" on Elm
Street was ordered to be used for the site both of the coming
college and the grammar school which the Hopkins money
was to bolster up. And the townspeople were again com-
Downfall of the New Haven Republic 87
manded to keep their sons "constantly to learning" against
the time when the new college should "train up" the youth
for "public serviceableness." According to these instruc-
tions the Colony itself was to settle 40 annually for "a
common school," and add 100 for a schoolhouse and a
"library"; the original 40 a year to be paid by the other
towns for a Colony grammar school was now to be settled
upon some town, presumably New Haven, and a school-
master engaged to teach the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew
tongues. In relinquishing this trust Davenport ordered that
a committee of church members should be chosen to consult
"in emergent difficult cases that may concern the school or
college," over the acts of which he desired a veto power for
himself. To keep the trust papers, a "convenient chest with
two locks and keys" was to be kept in the house of the
Governor of the Colony (at that time William Leete of
Guilford) "till a more public place (as a library or the like)
may be prepared."
These various orders of John Davenport undoubtedly
were intended to establish at once a grammar school, the
"College," though still in view, to be postponed until the
time was ripe for it, which of course was to be at once.
The famous New Haven Hopkins Grammar School dates
from this public action by John Davenport. For we find
the Governor, Deputy Governor, one freeman, and the two
ministers of the New Haven church, meeting on June 28,
1660, and deciding to engage the Rev. Jeremiah Peck, then
the schoolmaster at Guilford, to come to New Haven with
his wife and take charge of the new school which we now
know by that name.
This new schoolmaster was a Londoner by birth, and was
now twenty-seven years old. He was to receive the 40
salary appropriated by the General Court and "to keep
school" and "fit the scholars for the College" shortly to be
The Beginnings of Yale
established. His first act was to secure 10 more salary,
and a house, besides the board and fees from the scholars
who came into New Haven from the neighboring towns to
the new school. While this young man remained but a year,
and then left to be the minister at Saybrook, 1 under him John
Davenport's educational machinery seemed finally to be in
motion. All that remained for its permanent success was
the receipt of the Hopkins money.
This, however, was not forthcoming. Connecticut inter-
posed unexpected obstacles to the division of the estate as
planned, the General Court appointed an administrator, this
officer stopped all collections and managed to lose track of
some of them, and for the next five years the whole affair
was held up, for reasons which we shall shortly describe.
All of which was undoubtedly enough to dishearten the
most vigorous of Puritan fighters in Christ's service. And
John Davenport was disheartened enough. To add to his
troubles, his New Haven people again held back from sup-
porting the new school. The Colony Grammar School had
been established, the town had the Hopkins trust papers,
a schoolmaster had been found, "oratory" had been added
as a curriculum attraction and the opening hours accommo-
datingly moved forward a full hour until eight o'clock of
winter mornings. But nobody seemed to want it. In 1661
only five or six boys were again coming for instruction, and
the disheartened new schoolmaster unceremoniously de-
parted. A year later, the General Court, concluding that,
"considering the distraction of the time" and probable
further costs, "the end is not attained for which it was
1 Jeremiah Peck was probably the second instructor of Abraham Pierson,
the Collegiate School's first Rector, who was then fifteen years of age and
preparing for Harvard College. Peck later returned to Guilford, emigrated
with his father-in-law, Robert Kitchell, with the Branford party of the
elder Pierson to Newark, and later preached at Waterbury, where he died
in 1699.
Downfall of the New Haven Republic 89
settled no way proportionable to the charges expended,"
voted point-blank to give up the whole enterprise. For a
year or two, one George Pardee of the town, an old pupil
of Ezekiel Cheever's, was engaged to teach English and
writing to the handful of boys who still attended the town
school, and "carry them on in Latin so far as he could."
But this was apparently a very little way. The great school
project of Davenport, and with it the immediate prospect of
his "college," had again, and, as it was to turn out,
finally, collapsed.
II
The withholding of New Haven's share in the Hopkins
bequest by the Connecticut General Assembly was not, as
we may now look at it through the perspective of two
centuries and a half, as badly advised as John Davenport
and his New Haven supporters naturally considered it. For
events were shaping themselves on a new and broader scale
throughout New England, and in these Connecticut and
New Haven had their share.
The Restoration of Charles is a landmark in the history
of the relations between New England and old England, as
it is in the history of Puritanism as a political factor in
England itself. Charles II ascended his father's throne
on May 25, 1660. Ending, as this did in one swinging blow,
the ascendancy of the Roundhead party at home, the most
eminent of that party's leaders were at once blacklisted
(among them that early friend of Harvard, Sir Harry
Vane, whose head was enthusiastically chopped off by the
new government at the first opportunity) . The effect of the
change was immediately felt in the New England colonies,
where the news of it was received with dismay by the domi-
nating orthodox Puritan leaders. If Massachusetts was at
once to find herself in serious political complications with
90 The Beginnings of Yale
the new Royal government, New Haven, one of the four
confederated New England colonies, was in an even worse
plight. Unlike Massachusetts, New Haven had no charter
from the King, or any patent to its land titles from any-
one, in fact had deliberately settled in the New World
without it, and, as we have seen, had never acquired one
afterwards. Its leader, Davenport, had been a particularly
strong anti-Royalist, and was considered to be among the
chief, though distant, surviving supporters of the Cromwell
regime. And New Haven, as Massachusetts, was in espe-
cially bad odor with the King because of its strict measures
against the Quakers, whose persecutions the politic Charles
II, intent upon theological toleration for quite untheological
purposes of his own, at once undertook to stop.
To add to their long list of mistakes, the New Haven
people now took a step of hardly concealed hostility against
the new English ruler. This, as matters turned out, was a
decidedly serious one. The young Governor John Win-
throp of Connecticut had secured, on March 14, 1660, the
passage by his legislature of a fulsome proclamation of the
new King. As the immediate future was to disclose, this
was a highly politic act, as it brought the little Connecticut
Colony to the gratified attention of the King hardly had he
ascended his throne, and, very possibly, gave him his first
knowledge that there was such a place. New Haven did
not do this. In fact, John Davenport's people proceeded in
quite the contrary direction, ostentatiously hiding William
Goffe and Edward Whalley, the Regicides of the King's
father, while perspiring and exasperated Royal officers were
hunting for them. It is said that old John Davenport even
secreted the two Cromwellian soldiers and judges in his own
house on lower Elm Street, and that he preached a highly
independent sermon to the English posse on the unequivocal
text, "Hide the outcasts."
Downfall of the New Haven Republic 91
It was at this juncture that Connecticut sent young Gov-
ernor Winthrop to England, with 500 for "expenses," to
see what he could do for his Colony with the new King.
Evidently fearing that New Haven's interests might not
receive equal attention with
Connecticut's, the New
Haven General Court now
rather tardily drew up a
document for Winthrop to take with him, which docu-
ment, while it finally proclaimed the restoration of Charles,
did so in such a grudging manner that it had better not have
been done at all. The New Haven Colony, said this paper,
had not received any formal notification of the accession of
Charles II, yet had "thought fit" to acknowledge him to be
"their sovereign." This diplomatic effort was little calculated
to excite King Charles' enthusiasm for the weak and inde-
pendent Cromwellian settlement on the Quinnipiac, lorded
over, as it was, by so well known a Roundhead as the
fanatical John Davenport. Moreover, New Haven sent
no "expense" account with it, as had Connecticut, to see
that it reached the King. 1 What happened might have been
expected. Though Winthrop, for many years a close friend
of Davenport, had verbally agreed to the contrary, he sent
back in 1662 a new Connecticut charter, under which his
legislature immediately claimed New Haven's inclusion.
1 Whether John Winthrop had to bribe his way to the King is not fully
established. It was a pleasant little habit of the times. Winthrop had a
good friend at Court in old Lord Say and Sele, a member of the august
Privy Council and of the Council for Plantations. Saybrook was named
partly for him under the patent that included it, and Winthrop had been
Saybrook's first Governor. But Winthrop was a polished man of the world,
and had, so Professor C. M. Andrews writes, "great tact and an attractive
personality." Cotton Mather relates that at the right moment in these
negotiations over this charter, Winthrop gave to Charles II a ring that
the King's father had given his own father when the latter was Governor
of Massachusetts.
92 The Beginnings of Yale
A great deal has been said on this matter of Connecticut's
arbitrary grabbing of the New Haven Colony, and the Con-
necticut leaders have more than once been pilloried by his-
torians for their action. And one may hardly deny that the
act, in itself, was decidedly aggressive and, in many respects,
unfair. A restudy of the contemporaneous documents
would seem to bear out this interpretation, particularly
the very feelingly-written letter which New Haven's General
Court asked John Davenport and his assistant minister,
Mr. Street, to draw up and which was not finished in time
to avert the absorption. This letter, entitled "New Haven's
case stated," now in the archives at Hartford, states plainly
the New Haven leaders' claim of complete legal title to
their land and of independence. Against the "unjust pre-
tences and encroachments upon our just and proper rights,"
it sets forth that the original New Haven settlers had chosen
Quinnipiac, proposed to buy land there from the "natural
proprietors," the Indians, and so "signified to their friends
in Hartford in Connecticut Colony." They had received
"a satisfactory answer," had so informed the Massa-
chusetts Colony, "and with their consent began a plan-
tation" on land "which they did purchase of the
Indians." This land they had "quietly possessed about
six and twenty years, and have buried great estates in build-
ings, fencings, clearing the ground, and in all sorts of hus-
bandry, without any help from Connecticut or dependence
upon them." They had done all this "upon such funda-
mentals as were established in Massachusetts," a copy of
which the Connecticut Winthrop's father (then the Massa-
chusetts Governor) had sent to them. Connecticut had
never questioned all this, nor had made any difficulty over
the erection of the "New Haven Colony." Nor had the
up-river Colony "objected against our being a distinct
colony." The New Haven letter also set forth that when
Downfall of the New Haven Republic 93
Thomas &oo/{ers tffarmrcf h
the Dutch (in 1648) had "claimed a right to New Haven,"
New Haven had "caused the King's arms to be fairly cut in
wood, and set upon a post in the highway by the sea-side,"
without asking Connecticut's permission; that in 1643 tne
New England Confederation had been established, in which
New Haven had been accepted as one of the four distinct
members, on an equal basis with Massachusetts, Plymouth,
and Connecticut; that, in 1644, being without a legal patent
to their land from the King, New Haven had, with Con-
necticut's approval, dispatched one of their magistrates in
the Lamberton ship to solicit a charter from the first
Charles [then, however, not in power], but that the ship
had been lost at sea, and the attempt had not been repeated
owing to "the troubles in England." And that the New
Haven Colony bounds had been established on the Dutch
frontier in 1650 with full consent of Connecticut.
94 The Beginnings of Yale
All of which rather went to prove that, until this occa-
sion, the Connecticut leaders had considered New Haven to
be a separate and independent commonwealth, though
without charter right to that independence from the King.
"Whereby," says the Davenport letter of 1664 to the new
generation of Connecticut leaders at Hartford, "the differ-
ence of times, and of men's spirits in them, may be dis-
covered. For then the magistrates of Connecticut with
consent of their General Court, knowing our purposes, de-
sired to join with New Haven in procuring the patent. But
now they seek to procure a patent without the concurrence
of New Haven, and contrary to our minds expressed before
the patent was sent for, and to their own promise, and to the
terms of the confederation, and without sufficient warrant
from their patent, they have invaded our right, and seek to
involve New Haven under Connecticut jurisdiction."
Which, we may believe, was quite true. And the uncom-
fortable fact was that Governor Winthrop had been asked
by letter "not to have his hand in so unrighteous an act"
and "was pleased to certify, in two letters, that no such
thing was intended, but rather the contrary," and that New
Haven was to be left free to join with Connecticut or not
as it saw fit. That Winthrop so intended matters to turn
out, was, I fancy, quite the fact. For, before he had re-
turned to Connecticut, Winthrop had written to his leaders
at home to let New Haven alone ; that they did not follow
his advice was very likely not his fault. By the time he did
return, matters had gone so far that there was no further
chance of stopping them, and the arbitrary inclusion of New
Haven had become a fact.
Ill
Yet I imagine that we may not lay all of this sudden and,
on the face of it, bad turn of events to Connecticut alone,
Downfall of the New Haven Republic 95
or lay too much stress on the unfairness of that Colony's
acts. Matters in both the New Haven church and state had
not been progressing smoothly throughout all these years,
the ship of state had been bumping along on as rocky a
bottom as had the educational system that I have been telling
about. The fact was that John Davenport's idealistic com-
munity had not been proving the success that he had planned
it to be. From internal uprisings against the system laid
down in that famous meeting in Mr. Newman's barn, it
was nearing its wreck regardless of interferences from
without. The fundamental policy of the Colony, that
church members alone should have the franchise, had been
largely responsible for this. We have seen how Connecticut
Governor
ffuiffor
g6 The Beginnings of Yale
had been settled on the Plymouth plan and had worked out
that plan into the first broad modern democracy of New
England history. New Haven was now reaping the harvest
of a narrower plan, quite as Massachusetts herself, after a
prolonged argument with the new King and his successor,
was to reap her harvest. Leading this new generation was
a new group of men, to whom the church-state scheme of
the original settlers (among whom John Davenport and
old Abraham Pierson of Branford now stood as the nearly
sole survivors) was no longer the desirable political organi-
zation that Davenport had dreamed it was to be. These
new leaders in the outlying settlements of the Judisdiction,
such as Guilford, Stamford, and Southold, L. I., had come
to be in the majority against the autocratic church-rule
emanating from New Haven. Without regard to what
Connecticut had in mind in her new charter, these towns
were now almost unanimously in favor of leaving New
Haven and joining the older colony. This spirit had come
to a head in Guilford in 1663. When the controversy be-
tween New Haven and Connecticut over the absorption was
at its height, a Guilford man had put himself under Con-
necticut's legal protection. This enterprising person had
induced two Connecticut constables to come down to Guil-
ford "with sundry others" to show their authority, which
they did by galloping into the sleepy little village in the dead
of night and "shooting off sundry guns," thereby throwing
the quiet community into great excitement. Governor Leete,
of Guilford, though a Connecticut-party man, had no liking
for this sort of thing and sent friends to Branford and New
Haven for help. A disorganized rabble of New Haven-
party settlers responding, the Hartford gentry discreetly
withdrew and Governor Leete requested the Connecticut
Colony to suspend further show of authority until the ques-
tion had been threshed out between the two Colonies.
Downfall of the New Haven Republic 97
Yet at its best, the New Haven plan had never been a
complete political success. When the town had been origi-
nally laid out, "quarters," or sections had been occupied
by the various original parties. The idea seems to have
been for the Kent, Yorkshire, Herefordshire, and London
groups to maintain separate, almost "township" characters.
Davenport's views, however, could not have been wholly
acceptable to them. The Herefordshire people, under
Prudden, removed to Milford almost immediately, and
were never in entire sympathy with the Davenport church-
state thereafter, though a part of it. The Yorkshire con-
tingent, arriving later than the first planters, remained only
after their minister found it impossible to join Davenport's
fantastic schemes. The Kent party, under Whitfield, soon
settled at Guilford, and were never in close touch. All
through the eighteen years of the New Haven Jurisdiction,
the evidence is cumulative that John Davenport was having
no easy time of it in his effort to create his own kind of a
theocracy. This trouble had been increasing as the older
leaders fell away and a new and younger group came on.
Branford and Milford, however, had stood with the con-
servative majority of New Haven during these years. In
the former town Abraham Pierson had supported John
Davenport with all the energy of one of the most sturdy
Puritan pioneers of the four colonies. But this support was
not sufficient to ward off the coming end. The New Haven
Jurisdiction sent an appeal to the old Confederation, but
nothing came of it. They rained appeals and protests upon
the Connecticut General Assembly and nothing came of
them. They stood their ground manfully in their own
General Court. But to no effect. The younger element in
the Jurisdiction was going over to Winthrop's Connecticut,
Governor Leete had become an advocate of the absorption
under the new charter, the long-suffering non-church mem-
The Beginnings of Yale
bers of the Colony broke out into a most hostile attitude on
the ground that the New Haven Court had no independent
legal status under the new English King, as indeed it hadn't.
The long-coming tidal wave of discontent over John
Davenport's famous theocracy was now thundering in.
Several elected magistrates in New Haven refused to serve
their terms. There was no money to pay the civil magis-
trates. The new party was strengthening itself with the
passage of each new week. The other towns of the Colony
were divided and were slowly turning toward the Con-
necticut plan. The Court itself was challenged (that court
which was to dispense the laws of Moses to the new
metropolis of Governor Eaton). There were not enough
supporters of the Davenport theocracy left to fill the magis-
trates' chairs. The end was now in sight of that Utopia
that John Davenport had so ardently planned but a little
over a quarter-century before. Matters had become
desperate indeed.
But John Davenport still held out, sturdy old fighting
Calvinist that he was. For three years more, until March,
1665, he continued his fight to keep New Haven out of the
new Connecticut, refusing all sops and compromises, even
the offer to make New Haven a joint Assembly town with
Hartford. Then he had to give in. New Haven voted to
send her belated delegates to the Connecticut Assembly,
and, with this act, the old New Haven Colony, the Utopian
city of the idealistic John Davenport, became by its own
acquiescence an integral part of that Connecticut which we
have since then known.
But even this was not done without protest. In 1666,
twenty-three irreconcilable settlers from Branford, under
the unchangeable and adamantine Abraham Pierson, and
forty-one from New Haven, Milford, and Guilford, re-
moved to Newark, New Jersey, there to carry on the origi-
Downfall of the New Haven Republic 99
nal New Haven plan of a Puritan church-state for a few
remaining years, when, as we shall see, it disappears from
American colonial history.
IV
We may picture the venerable founder of this now
crumbled church-state, in these last days of his stay at New
Haven. A tall and now emaciated figure, he sits, maybe, at
his high writing-desk in the old study of his great Elm
Street house. From his window he may look down across
tilled fields and orchards to the harbor shore, where the
three or four trading sloops of his parishioners are now
awaiting their first sailings of the new Spring commerce.
Through the bare tree-tops he may look at the thatched-roof
lines of the scattered homes of his people, whom he had
essayed so confidently, twenty odd years before, to lead, as
Moses led his people, into the Promised Land. About him
are the shelves of his library, loaded with the old uncompro-
mising Calvinistic books that formed one of the great libra-
ries of his day. I think that, feel as we may about the
impossibility of the great life plan that he had tried to carry
out, it is a pathetic scene that we may now look in upon,
and a pathetic figure in the center of it, if still a vigorous
one. From under the small black skullcap of the old man's
sacred calling, escape the short rolls of his curly and now
snow-white hair. Under the high-arched eyebrows that we
may see in the portrait left to us of him, the prominent black
eyes still hold the holy fire of that youth and young manhood
which he had devoted to God's service, as he saw it, on
earth. He wears a small level white moustache and a white
tuft under his lower lip. His broad, square, white Geneva
band fits closely under his chin and flares down on his black
silk gown, over his erect if narrow shoulders. He may well
feel himself the last of that first great company of devout
ioo The Beginnings of Yale
English Puritans who had begun life anew, with their
devoted congregations, in the free New World. Theophilus
Eaton, friend of his boyhood in the old walled city of
Coventry, has gone; Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, and
John Cotton, of Boston, have passed on to the immortal
Utopia of their Puritan faith. Winthrop, Bradford,
Brewster, all had left their earthly stage. A new generation
was taking that stage, and were reshaping the old theocracy
of the first generation to meet conditions of the second.
New Haven, which he had built to become an independent
community governed by its own religious voters, was now
a part of that Connecticut, whose more liberal theory of
government he had from the first looked upon as dangerous
and degenerating to the purity of the church. A new King
had come to England, who was stamping out the Puritanism
of the older days with an iron heel. "Christ's interest" in
New Haven, John Davenport may well have said, "was
miserably lost." Even now his people would be able to send
to the new Connecticut Assembly, under the Half-way Cove-
nant which he had so devoutly fought, public representatives
who knew not the pioneer church and over whom, as their
souls' pastor, he would have no control. His life work
seemed over.
And yet, I take it, the fighting spirit of this old Puritan
pioneer was still far from being downed. If he had lost
everything in New Haven, there were other worlds to con-
quer, or at least to help preserve against the encroachments
of the new spirit of the times. Before him, as he sits at
that old study desk from which so many chastenings had
gone forth these many years to his flock, is the letter that
he has received from the old First Church of Boston, whose
aged pastor, Rev. John Wilson, has just died. In it is a
call to him to their pulpit as the single remaining great
champion, with Harvard's president, Charles Chauncey, of
Downfall of the New Haven Republic 101
the original church purity of New England. Should he
leave New Haven and go? We may imagine the old New
Haven leader weighing the matter as he looks out upon the
village which no longer is his own, as it has been these
twenty-five full years. In Massachusetts one last stand
against the rising tide of liberalism and secularism may at
least be attempted, side by side with that young Increase
Mather who was now coming to the front as the champion
of the old ways. He decides to go.
In April, 1668, all but thirty years to perhaps a day from
that first promising arrival on the virgin Quinnipiac soil,
John Davenport delivers his farewell sermon in the rough
Meeting-house on the New Haven Market-place, and with
his books and belongings, his "clock and his seven high
chairs," his plate and china, leaves for Boston where, two
years later, he is to die. That great rainstorm which over-
took him as he and his family entered Boston, driving them
to friendly refuge, may well have seemed to him the all but
final extinction of God's friendly protection to one of his
most loyal yet hard-used sons.
PART II
THE FOUNDING OF THE COLLEGIATE
SCHOOL
rms .
CHAPTER I
CONNECTICUT AFTER 1664
I
HE independent New Haven church-
state being thus extinguished in its ab-
sorption by Connecticut, there now
ensued a period of two decades during
which the New Haven college project
slumbered, and events of a still larger
nature were occurring in New Eng-
land. Such a broad review of those
events as will be necessary to our purpose of recalling the
background of Yale's beginnings need be but a brief one.
Two years after Charles II, Romanist-Protestant, had
succeeded to the Stuart throne, the first result of the over-
throw of Puritanism as a political power in England had
shown itself on St. Bartholomew's Day, 1662, when one
out of five of all the English rectors and vicars were driven
out of their parishes for nonconformity to the established
Church. A correlative of this sweeping action was the
commencement of Royal toleration for the Catholic and
Quaker. And it was in connection with the latter incident
that New England came into its first important collision with
the new King. Exponents of eccentric theological theories
had from the earliest days been treated with severity in
Massachusetts. Mrs. Anne Hutchinson's Antinomian here-
sies had been stamped out, as we have seen, when John
Davenport was spending his first year in New England.
Roger Williams had been banished for his views. A law
106 The Beginnings of Yale
"against strangers" had been voted. The quaint and
crotchety Gorton, once a London tailor and then "professor
of the mysteries of Christ" in Massachusetts, had defended
his wife's servant at her trial for smiling in church and been
banished from Plymouth, later to be shuffled from Mas-
sachusetts to Rhode Island, in which latter colony he died
at a great age (his last surviving neighbor informing the
inquiring-minded Ezra Stiles in 1771 that he was still
writing his books in Heaven). There had been a Presby-
terian conspiracy that had gone as far as the preparation of
papers asking that Presbyterianism be established by Parlia-
ment as the institutional New England Church; this had
been squelched by heavy fines and imprisonments of the con-
spirators. The Baptist persecutions of 1651 had followed,
ending in the Colony vote to banish all persons who were
disbelievers in infant baptism, and in the final theocratic
organization of New England Puritanism under the Cam-
bridge Platform.
But these cases, thus disposed of in turn for the preserva-
tion of the purity of the original churches, were unimportant
compared with the great struggle against the Quakers which
came to its height just before Charles II was restored. The
arrival of advance agents of George Fox's teachings had
been looked upon by the Boston orthodox Congregational-
ists as a direct attack upon their most fundamental concep-
tion of the Massachusetts church-state. The extraordinary
persecutions of these people that at once began (and which
were not in the least degree allayed by the somewhat brag-
gart acts of the Quakers themselves) were a forerunner
of the later Massachusetts acts against "witches." Not
only Massachusetts, but the other three Colonies in the New
England Union of the day passed "banishing laws" against
the Quakers, New Haven (dubbing them "a cursed sect
lately risen up in the world") among them. Governor Endi-
Connecticut after 1664 107
cott of Massachusetts went further, and, with the Rev. John
Norton (Cotton's successor in the Boston church), secured
the passage of a Colony law inflicting the death penalty on
the sect, a law which was literally put into effect on Boston
Commons in 1659, the wife of Rhode Island's Secretary,
one of the prisoners, being reprieved by her son only at the
last moment.
The first public act of Charles II concerning New Eng-
land was his order of 1661 suspending any more of these
Quaker trials by Endicott. But this act of the new King
had a more significant side to it than the mere holding back
of New England's hands on its own church enemies. The
Act of Uniformity, indeed, had not crossed the ocean, but
Charles II, now that he had sensed the New England situa-
tion in the Quaker incidents, appears to have cast a slant
eye toward the whole political and religious organization
of his far-off subjects. Not only did it appear to him (no
doubt as suggested by the various discontented settlers who
had returned to England to state their grievances) that the
New England people, living the last of that independent
Puritan-church life that he had just ended for their Puritan
contemporaries in England, were much too independent in
that life. He was now assured that the New England Con-
federacy itself was rather more than a loose protective
organization, and had in it the threatening germs of a mili-
tary union, the ultimate intention of which was to throw
off, by force, the Royal sovereignty. We have seen how
John Winthrop had easily secured the new Connecticut
charter and included New Haven in it. That Charles per-
mitted this may have been because he looked upon it as an
indirect way of breaking up this confederacy and at the same
time punishing New Haven both for its Quaker laws, its
protection of the two Regicides, and its belated proclama-
tion of his own ascension to the English throne. How
io8 The Beginnings of Yale
Charles now proceeded to undermine the independence of
the other New England Colonies, to reorganize them on his
own Royal foundation, and to produce religious and politi-
cal results of much importance to our chronicles, may now
be recalled.
II
The nearly complete independence to this time of primi-
tive Massachusetts from England had very largely been due
to its remoteness and to the little communication between the
two by sea. This had in part operated to keep Charles I
from interfering with its development as an independent
commonwealth. But this no longer was to be the case
under his son. The Dutch War and home politics had, to
be sure, allowed New England affairs to drop from the
new King's immediate attention in his first few years on
the throne. Besides the matters just mentioned, the Navi-
gation Acts of 1660 and 1663 had been the only large
Royal business with New England until 1672. Charles II
had been content, until that time, to assure the Massa-
chusetts agents that their charter would not be interfered
with, providing the colonists swore allegiance to him, quit
persecuting his Quaker proteges, changed their suffrage
laws so as to permit non-church members to vote, and per-
mitted Church of England Episcopalians to worship unmo-
lested. But he now went a step farther. The Act of Trade
of 1672 required a duty to be paid at the New England ports
on goods which were not to be shipped to England. The
English view of the New England colonies seems to have
been that they were "plantations," like Virginia, and, as
such, should properly contribute to the financial good of the
mother country rather than to their own. Throughout New
England quite the reverse had been true of the colonists'
own views on the matter, and we may well imagine that the
Connecticut after 1664 109
New Englanders had. paid but little attention to the Acts.
By 1675 Charles had found the time to turn again to New
England affairs, the "Lords of the Committee of Trade and
Plantations" had been formed to overlook them, and the
brusque and tactless Edward Randolph sent to Boston to
see how the Massachusetts people were obeying the Royal
orders.
The arrival at Boston of this notoriously high-and-mighty
emissary marks the beginning of a new era for the inde-
pendent old Puritan church-state of the Bay, as indeed, in
its far-reaching results, it was to change the whole com-
plexion of New England social and religious life and to
have its marked effect upon Connecticut. It was no wonder
that the doughty Governor Leverett kept his hat on while
he read the King's mes-
sage, handed to him with
much show of pomp and
ceremony by Randolph,
and that he deliberately
inquired as he returned it who the devil the "Henry
Coventry" was who, as the King's chief secretary of state,
had signed it. The indignant Randolph reported matters
to Charles as being in a bad way in Massachusetts, the
result of which was for the King to send a peremptory
letter to that Colony, commanding, this time, all of the
things which in 1664 he had graciously hoped that the
colonists would do.
And thus was fired that famous train of circumstances
which was to end, in 1684, in the annulling of the Massa-
chusetts Colony charter, as the town charters of England
had been annulled at almost the same time, and in the in-
coming of a broad stream of English authority in Massa-
chusetts affairs. The succession of James II, a year later,
did not better matters; they at once became worse with the
no The Beginnings of Yale
arrival of Sir Edmund Andros as the officially appointed
overlord, or Governor-General of all New York and New
England, Connecticut included. His brief but haughty
career ended in 1689. The reassertion by Massachusetts of
its rights to a Colony charter from the new King, the Dutch
Calvinist, William III, resulted in the new and different
charter of 1692, which was secured largely through the
good offices of Increase Mather, now minister at Boston and
president of Harvard College, and at the time in London.
By the terms of this charter an entirely new principle had to
be admitted by Massachusetts, if it was to have a charter
at all that of Royal appointment of the Colony officers
instead of the previous home elections. Freehold property
became, through it, the basis of political rights; appeals
from court judgments to England were permitted, and
Royal power was admitted to veto Colony bills. Increase
Mather, champion of the older and independent order that
he was, returning from England as the chief supporter of
the new charter, found himself widely spoken of as having
"betrayed his country." The troubles of his next ten years,
bringing about, as they did, a situation at Harvard which
was to have its important effect on public sentiment in Con-
necticut toward that College, were nearly all traceable to
the unlucky day when he accepted the new charter on behalf
of his Massachusetts fellow citizens.
Ill
While these large matters concerning New England's
relations with the changing English kings were proceeding
abroad, a second and hardly less important complication
had been arising at home.
The primitive Puritan conception of a church-state in the
New World had been founded on a lofty ideal. In Massa-
Connecticut after 1664
in
3farfror(f Mouse in 1660 J,
chusetts, and as we have seen in New Haven, this had taken
the form of such a close relation between church and state
that, to all practical purposes, the two had been indistin-
guishable. This ideal theory, in these two colonies, had
gone so far as to establish the government of the state upon
the bed rock of church membership. 1 During the first years
of the Bay Colony this had worked out fairly well. Reli-
gion, and by that they meant the orthodox Calvinistic
theology of the original settlers, was the chief passion of
these early founders, and the maintenance of it, in all its
1 The first John Winthrop was no such democrat as was Thomas Hooker.
He was definitely opposed to universal suffrage. "The best part of a com-
munity," he wrote, "is always the least, and of that best part the wiser is
always the lesser." The church-membership franchise of early Massa-
chusetts and New Haven was built on this oligarchical theory, Connecticut
on the universal-suffrage principle.
ii2 The Beginnings of Yale
original purity, their chief political purpose. To maintain
this the orthodox leaders had seen to it that the church
membership was kept within the circle of the orthodox, and
this had very naturally resulted in the ministers, whose
authority in that matter was all but supreme, becoming very
important factors in the civil government itself. But as the
years had passed, and the original stout-hearted pioneers
in this ideal church-state society had been succeeded by a
second and less-rigidly orthodox generation, public senti-
ment in Massachusetts regarding the church-membership
franchise had changed. By the year 1684 it was said that
but one in five of the citizens of that colony were church
members and thus voters on public affairs. The "Half-way
Covenant" of 1657, though the result of quite different
causes, had operated to ameliorate this condition, and
Charles II had insisted upon the entire abolition of the old
suffrage laws just before he died. While the extension of
the suffrage to non-church members was slow, it was fought
with tremendous energy by the older party, which recog-
nized in its approaching success the end of the old regime.
It had been to wage a final fight against it, as we have seen,
that John Davenport had left New Haven, where the battle
had been lost, for Boston, where it was still proceeding under
President Chauncey of Harvard. Under Andros the new
party had had for the moment an ascendancy, but the mo-
ment that he had been expelled, the orthodox theocrats, led
by Increase Mather, the new Harvard leader, had regained
their ground.
But now, in the charter of 1692, the last vestige of the
old religious order, in so far as its political side was con-
cerned, had passed away in the Royal command that a
property qualification should replace membership in the
traditional Massachusetts churches as the basis for the
franchise. The disintegration of the New England
Connecticut after 1664 113
churches, which had been coming on ever since the days of
the struggle over the "Half-way Covenant," now proceeded
by rapid strides. Bereft of political power, the churches
now found themselves losing ground as a spiritual power.
Five years had not passed after the new charter had been
secured, before the freethinking element among the Boston
folk, led by Thomas Brattle and John Coleman and John
Leverett, established in the town that new and liberal
church which led Cotton Mather to exclaim in his diary: "I
see Satan beginning a terrible shake in the churches of New
England. Wherefore I set apart this day again for prayers
in my study, to cry mightily unto God." The breakup of
the old Massachusetts Puritan theocracy, all but complete
with the introduction of the new political conditions of the
charter of 1692, was now about to come in earnest. The
witchcraft explosion of 1692, in Salem and Boston, was
the dying convulsion of the old theocracy. Under such
fanatical leaders as Cotton Mather and Stoughton and such
temporarily misguided men as Samuel Sewall, the older
party's intellectual balance seems to have been lost. The
progressive leaders of the new party would have none of
the Salem delusion.
What had been going on in Connecticut during this period
now calls for attention.
IV
Whatever one may have to say of the comparative con-
ditions in the two commonwealths in later years, it is cer-
tainly true that in this first half-century of their history,
Connecticut, excluding primitive New Haven, had had a
broader and more liberal community and religious life than
had Massachusetts. Thomas Hooker built a strong social
structure in that crude Connecticut Colony of his at Hart-
ford and Windsor, Wethersfield and Farmington, a struc-
H4 The Beginnings of Yale
ture which rested on the broadest and soundest principles
(viewed from our modern conception of a democratic gov-
ernment) of any of the New England Colonies. "In
matters of greater consequence," he had written to Gov-
ernor Winthrop on his removal to Connecticut, "which
concern the common good, a general council, chosen by all,
to transact business which concern all, I conceive, under
favor, most suitable to rule and most safe for relief of the
whole." In his sermons Hooker went even further, and
laid down, in his "assertion of the right of the people not
only to choose but to limit the power of their rulers [as
Johnston, Connecticut's historian, says], an assertion which
lies at the foundation of the American system. . . . The
birthplace of American democracy is Hartford."
It was because of this difference between the two Colonies
that Massachusetts, during these years after 1660, had had
an experience more akin to New Haven's early history
than to Connecticut's. When the Connecticut absorption
of New Haven had come, the dissatisfied old Davenport
party, as we have seen in the elder Pierson's case, and again
in Davenport's, left to carry on the original theocratic
principles in other places. As a result, Connecticut had
amalgamated all of its
PW|c clement,,
had round itself practi-
cally rid of dissenters
from its church-and-state policy for the next twenty years,
and thus had suffered little of the theological and political
internal turmoil that was the lot of Massachusetts, still bent
on carrying out the original theocratic theory. So that the
suffrage question had never been a serious one either in the
old or in the new Connecticut.
Nor had the political complications of the older colony
with England had their counterpart in Connecticut. The
Connecticut after 1664 115
annulment of the Connecticut charter had not been officially
enrolled, as it had happened, when Charles II had sum-
marily canceled the New England charters in 1684. The
Colony had adroitly avoided giving up that charter to
Andros in the following year at Hartford, and had merely
renewed its former home rule under the original charter
when William III succeeded his uncle. Connecticut hav-
ing had no occasion to seek a new charter, as Massachusetts
had been obliged to do in 1692, thus escaped the complica-
tions that we have recalled in the older colony. With the
Winthrop charter of 1662, Connecticut entered upon a long
and quiet provincial life, without internal difficulties of any
serious sort, enjoying a peacefulness that compares strik-
ingly, as we turn the yellowed pages of the ancient histories,
with the uproars and confusions, political and theological,
of the contemporary Massachusetts. So careful had the
Connecticut people been to avoid notice by and entangle-
ments with the Crown, that they had managed to reinstate
their own elected magistrates without attracting attention
from London, and even succeeded in securing a legal con-
firmation from the Royal Secretaries in England of their
original charter, with its right to elect their own Colony
officers.
While, on the religious side that was so prominent a part
of this second period in New England history, Connecticut
had seen after 1660 no such irruptions as had exploded in
Boston, a very considerable change had taken place in the
attitude of the people toward the churches and the place
of the churches in the state. The "Half-way Covenant"
permitting the children of non-church members to be bap-
tized had had small results in Connecticut, so far as any
fundamental change in the suffrage was concerned. Thomas
Hooker had founded his Colony on that very freedom of
the vote which it took the "Half-way Covenant" and
n6 The Beginnings of Yale
Charles II combined to force upon the older element in
Massachusetts. And for the first decade that change had
had little or no effect on the broadening of church member-
ship. The real difficulty in Connecticut during this period
seems to have lain in the continued feeling of independence
of the separate church congregations from legislative, town,
or synod control, and the consequent difficulties of settlement
of such internal troubles as they had over the choice of min-
isters and the demand of outsiders to be given the right to
vote on church questions in return for their duty of paying
taxes in support of the church and minister.
Yet there had been one very great public change. The
gradual adoption, after 1664, under legislative urging, of
the "Half-way Covenant" had resulted (in the large) in a
gradual decline of the church, both as a public institution
and as the upholder of the individual religious sentiment
with which the founders of the colonies had been so ardently
endowed. So that, some twenty years after the reorganiza-
tion of Connecticut, matters religious had reached the
lowest point in the history of the Colony. Divisions in the
churches had sprung up broadcast, and the widespread reli-
gious declension had resulted in a number of originally
strong churches (among them those at New Haven, Bran-
ford, and Milford) being without settled ministers for pro-
tracted periods. If the educational and commercial and
political ambitions of early New Haven and of Connecticut
had by 1660 come to the low pass described in previous
pages, two decades later the religious plans of the settlers
had fallen into as sad repute. It was when a remedy for
this situation was looked for as described in the following
chapter that these seacoast towns of Connecticut entered
upon a renewed agitation of the project for John Daven-
port's Colony college.
Barnes =.
5-
om I
r\
CHAPTER II
NEW HAVEN AND JAMES PIERPONT
I
E left the Hopkins Grammar School
starting out in 1668 as a small en-
dowed Latin school on the New Haven
Market-place, under the management
of a board of trustees chosen from
the New Haven church and town
and from Connecticut Colony official-
dom. For the seventeen years now to
elapse, this new Hopkins school led much the same che-
quered existence as its unlucky predecessors. For the first
nine years of this period, Samuel Street, the minister's son
and a Harvard graduate, was in charge. Upon his resigna-
tion in 1673 the school was practically closed, not having
sufficient public support again to afford a teacher. The impe-
cunious George Pardee now reascended the rostrum and
for several years, to the few boys who appeared before him,
n8 The Beginnings of Yale
taught English grammar and as much of Cheever's Latin
"Accidence" as he himself could comprehend. But this was
again but little. The "college" project having long since
entirely dropped out of sight, the New Haven grammar
school, which John Davenport had propped up so many
times without result, again seemed tottering on its last legs.
This New Haven condition, however, had its counterpart
throughout the new Connecticut. There had been a general
educational decline during this period, in the entire Colony.
So serious was this, in its important relations to the con-
tinuing of an orthodox ministry for the churches, that, in
1672, the legislature acted on the matter, granting each
of the four counties public lands for the upkeep of their
grammar schools, and requiring every town of more
than one hundred families to maintain one. But New
Haven still lagged behind and was publicly complained of
for not keeping a grammar school under the Colony law.
The upshot was a "loving debate" in a New Haven town
meeting, ending in an appropriation of town money and the
hiring of another schoolmaster. By 1684 the results of this
final action seem to have been fairly successful. The new
Hopkins Grammar School on the Market-place was estab-
lished, and was now admitting the New Haven boys
free, and charging outsiders ten shillings, dividing its
scholars into "English" and "Latin" groups, teaching the
latter what was required by Harvard College at that time,
and excluding "all Girls, as Improper & inconsistent with
such a Grammar Schoole, as ye law injoines & is ye Designe
of this Settlement." The Latin required at this period was
sufficient to understand Cicero and to recite Latin prose and
verse from memory; in Greek the boys were put through
the elements of the grammar only.
I have told of the group of boys who went up to Harvard
during Ezekiel Cheever's New Haven days, and of the
New Haven and James Pierpont 119
hiatus that then ensued, owing to the financial disasters
of the people. A perusal of the antiquarian records of Har-
vard College shows how few were the Connecticut matricu-
lations up to 1690. During this period only some thirty
New Haven and Connecticut boys were graduated among
the nearly three hundred Harvard graduates. Roughly
speaking, New Haven had sent up eleven of these, Hart-
ford eight, Milford and the present Clinton (then Killing-
worth) two each, and Guilford, Branford, Stratford,
Middletown, Windsor, and Wethersfield, one each. No
New Haven boy went up, after Cheever had left, until
Samuel Street, the son of John Davenport's second assistant
minister, who received his degree in 1664. John Harriman,
to be graduated two years later, was the son of the New
Haven innkeeper (a highly honorable calling in those
hospitable days), and he, with Abraham Pierson of Bran-
ford, was the sole New Haven college product of the canny
Jeremiah Peck. Twelve years later two more New Haven
youths went to Harvard, one of them that little Noadiah
Russell who was to be one of the founders of the Collegiate
School. John Davenport's grandson, later to return to Con-
necticut and to take a forempst place in these pages, was
graduated in 1687, but can hardly be called a New Haven
school product, as he matriculated from Boston.
The older Connecticut Colony's slower rise in educational
ambitions has been noted in the fact that no Connecticut
boys went to Harvard until New Haven's first flush of
energy was dying out. The four remaining Hartford
youths went up at various intervals later on. Of the men
later to be identified with the Collegiate School, but two went
to Harvard from their Connecticut homes after 1662:
Nathaniel Higginson, the son of the colleague of Rev. Mr.
Whitfield, of Guilford, who was graduated in 1670, and
Timothy Woodbridge, of Killingworth, graduated in 1675.
I2O The Beginnings of Yale
Of these thirty or so Connecticut graduates of Harvard
before 1690, twenty-three became ministers. Nine of
these latter settled about Hartford, and one went to Strat-
ford, tme to Stamford, and one to Killingworth. Three
taught in the New Haven school for brief periods, and one
became a magistrate in New Haven. Taken as a whole,
with the purpose in mind of the New Haven and Connecti-
cut Colony founders to provide a second generation of edu-
cated public leaders for "church and commonwealth," this
short list of Harvard graduates from the two Colonies was
but another phase of the general failure of the original
plans. Not only had church and school development been
checked at home, but there had been a signal decline in the
colonists' interest in sending to the only higher educational
institution of New England a succession of youths who
could be relied upon to return to their communities and carry
forward the primitive faith of their fathers. 1 This fact
had its distinct bearing upon the situation which was shortly
to force upon the Connecticut leaders, particularly those
near New Haven, a realization of their need of a home
institution.
We have recalled the lapse in the ministry in three of the
original New Haven Jurisdiction churches, New Haven,
Branford, and Milford. In New Haven, the gentle-
mannered and mild Rev. Nicholas Street, Oxford gradu-
ate and assistant to John Davenport after Hooke had de-
parted to Cromwell's unstable protection, had been min-
1 It was merely another indication of the partial failure of New Eng-
land's idealistic church and educational theory, that measures had to be
taken early to keep in New England the young fellows educated at
Harvard. When the "College-corn" contributions were falling off, the New
Haven people were told that it would not be used for any Harvard scholars
who were not to remain in the country. Harvard itself had to take action
on the matter later, as the number of young graduates removing to England
had become a serious question.
New Haven and James Pierpont 121
ister for many years. But the Reverend Street was pos-
sessed of no special qualifications for public leadership in
the declining times of his ministry, his church had slowly
disintegrated, and he had been succeeded by a series of
temporary preachers. Matters had gone from bad to
worse, and the church people, owing to their division over
the acceptance of the "Half-way Covenant" in their mem-
bership, were divided over the call to a new minister. So
low had Davenport's great scheme fallen that the town now
took over the unsteady support of the church to save it from
entire failure. Its independent identity gone in the changed
conditions under Connecticut, its school and church nearly
extinct, its business in a state of general collapse, with no
leaders like the old ones, with such as there were now
resident in adjacent towns, and with the Royal Governor
Andros parading the countryside and ordering the unseating
of the Colony's magistrates in the name of a Romanist
King, New Haven's original dream of a permanent Puritan
commonwealth in the New World had now fallen away
like a house of cards.
It was at this low tide in New Haven's higher fortunes
that a new personality was to come to the disheartened com-
munity, and, exercising that spirit of leadership during
new and better times which John Davenport himself showed
in the primitive days, bring in a new era, in which we shall
find ourselves much interested.
The three churches at Branford, Milford, and New
Haven, now called to their pulpits three young Harvard
graduates. Branford called the Rev. Samuel Russel; Mil-
ford, the Rev. Samuel Andrew; and New Haven, the Rev.
James Pierpont.
II
These three young men were of about the same age and
all were Massachusetts-born. Samuel Andrew, the eldest
122 The Beginnings of Yale
of them, had been graduated from Harvard in 1675, and
had been a Fellow there under President Urian Oakes, and
a tutor. At Harvard he had been a classmate of the Rev.
Timothy Woodbridge, who, oddly enough, was ordained to
preach at Hartford on the same day in 1685 that Andrew
began his career at the old Prudden church in Milford.
Samuel Russel was graduated in 1681. He was the son of
that minister at Hadley, Massachusetts, who had had a
large share in diverting to Hadley that part of the original
Hopkins gift which had been given to Connecticut under
the Hopkins will, and who had sheltered the Regicides in
his parsonage. The younger Russel must have known of
the secreting of Colonel Goffe in his father's house at
Hadley, and imbibed strong anti-Royalist sympathies
thereby. He had been teaching in the Hopkins Grammar
School in Hadley when he was called to the elder Pierson's
vacant pulpit in Branford. James Pierpont, the third of
this group, was a classmate of Russel's. 1 He was a Rox-
bury boy, and, since leaving Harvard in 1681, had been
awaiting a call to the ministry.
James Pierpont arrived in New Haven over the old
Post-road from Boston in August, 1684. Heralded by the
church committee who had been sent to look him over, as
"a godly man, a good scholar, a man of good parts," and
"likely to make a good instrument," he had been recom-
mended by the deacon who had chosen him as one who
would "desire peace in the church and town and rejoice to
hear of it, and that there may be no after-troubles." To
this end the New Haven people had assembled in their
homes and Meeting-house for a day of fasting and prayer,
1 The Harvard Class of 1681 contained four men who were to have
important places in Yale's early history. Besides Samuel Russel and James
Pierpont, a third member of this Harvard Class, Noadiah Russell, was to
be one of the founders of the Collegiate School. The fourth was John
Davie, whose financial aid to the enterprise will later be told.
New Haven and James Pierpont 123
"wherein to confess their sins before God," and "beg
pardon." So that young James Pierpont, now twenty-nine
years old, began his life work in John Davenport's historic
church with good hopes of a reawakened town giving him
more support than it had given his itinerant predecessors in
its long-vacant pulpit.
I suppose that this young newcomer to the New Haven
Meeting-house was probably not the equal of John Daven-
port in purely intellectual endowments. He does not rank
with his New England contemporaries in this respect, as
Davenport did with his. But one sermon of Pierpont's has
come down to us, his "Sundry False Hopes of Heaven, dis-
covered and decried," preached at Cotton Mather's North
Church in Boston in 1711 and published with a character-
istically laudatory preface by Mather. Though this sermon
falls short of the originality and intellectual vigor that
mark the performances of Davenport, "it proves," if
we may rely upon Dr. Leonard Bacon's dictum, "that its
author's eminence was not accidental." Yet he was
unusually endowed in other ways. He was the possessor of
social graces and a force of character that were to make
him one of the leaders of his times and to gain him a success
in life that had been denied Davenport. Contemporary
references sufficiently bear this out. The sprightly diarist,
Madam Knight, for instance, journeying through New
Haven in 1704, wrote him down as "the holy Mr. Pier-
pont." He was "greatly distinguished," says Dr. Bacon,
"and highly honored in his day." In that preface to his
Boston sermon which Cotton Mather wrote, he said that
Pierpont "has been a rich blessing to the Church of God,"
and added: "New Haven values him; all Connecticut honors
him. They have cause to do it."
There exists a contemporary painting of James Pierpont,
done at Boston in 1711 "by a superior English artist,"
124 The Beginnings of Yale
doubtless when Pierpont was preaching of a week-end to
Cotton Mather's conservative Boston folk. It shows a
face of more than usual sweetness and charm. In it is a
certain gentleness, far different from the bold austerity
which we associate with the long-faded lineaments of his
predecessor. It shows James Pierpont with his long curly
hair falling over his shoulders, instead of the usual wig of
his day, and his white square ministerial band on his chest.
His forehead is high and broad, his mouth sensitive, his
large, dark eyes contemplative and even beautiful. This
old painting well conveys the feeling of a spiritual leader
and a well-born gentleman.
And well-born James Pierpont was. His grandfather,
James Pierrepont, was a Puritan refugee, and a nephew
through a younger line of the Sir Henry Pierrepont from
whom sprang the Dukes of Kingston, and of Sir Henry's
sister who married Francis Beaumont the playwright. And
he was interested in this connection. An odd story might be
told 1 of the long effort of the New Haven Pierponts, living
in the crude little Connecticut village, to establish a right
to the succession to the Kingston dukedom in the event of
a lapse in male heirs of the elder branch. This effort was
mildly begun by James Pierpont when writing to Jeremiah
Dummer, the London agent, in 1711, and was energetically
continued by his son. The story tells how that son urged
matters with much enthusiasm, and how he was finally fore-
stalled by a cousin who, not content with merely introduc-
ing himself by letter, went over to England in person and,
calmly assuming the New Haven Pierponts' claim, was
received with amusement by His Grace and had a more
fortunate experience with him than Thackeray's Harry
Warrington had with his relatives. At the time that the
1 Mr. Henry T. Blake has an entertaining account of this in volume VII
of the New Haven Colony Historical Society Papers.
New Haven and James Pierpont 125
Rev. James Pierpont was making his mild beginnings in
this sequence of events, the Earl of Kingston was that
Evelyn Pierrepont who had married a cousin of Henry
Fielding and whose daughter, Lady Mary Wortley Mon-
tagu, was to become famous as the author of one of the most
agreeable volumes of tittle-tattle of the times. Lady Mary
tells of the scandalous costume of the fair Elizabeth Chud-
leigh at the King's fancy ball. She is said to have been
the prototype of Thackeray's "Beatrice Esmond." When
the kindly New Haven minister was unsuccessfully trying
to find some way in which his branch of the Pierrepont
family might be brought to the attention of Evelyn Pierre-
pont, Duke of Kingston, that gracious noble, in peruke and
sword, was dangling at the embroidered petticoats of Miss
Chudleigh, and giving no small amount of piquancy to the
gossip of London and the Court thereby.
Ill
But all of this fashionable world of over the seas was
far removed from the provincial life of such a New Eng-
land minister as James Pierpont. A far more serious
business lay before him than this Vanity Fair of William
and Mary's Court, as he found himself commencing his
career in John Davenport's old pulpit in New Haven. He
had work to do.
We may please ourselves with the picture of this young
Harvard graduate, as he enters on that long life in New
Haven during which he was to prove of such usefulness to
his people and to the generations which followed him.
He comes by horseback over the King's Highway, this
energetic young Congregational clergyman, accompanied
by a man sent over New London way to meet him on his
journey. He is doubtless met at the Neck by the sedately-
garbed deacons of the church, and brought to town over the
1
New Haven and James Pierpont 127
old College Oystershell-fields, to enter the outskirts of the
New Haven village of 1684 about where Olive Street now
is. The widow of John Davenport's only son was now
living in the ancestral Davenport homestead on lower Elm
Street, with her daughter Abigail, then twelve years old,
her son John then being in his Sophomore year at Harvard.
To this house, so full of memories of the first John Daven-
port, the youthful James Pierpont is doubtless escorted
through the shady lanes of the village, bowed to reverently
by the men (and observed as cannily) , and peeked at through
the casement windows of the village houses by maids and
maidens to whom the coming of so noble a bachelor divine
was an event of no little romance and importance. Here,
in the library looking down over the fields and orchards to
the harbor, where old John Davenport had ruled his theoc-
racy for twenty-odd years, the young Pierpont settles down
to take his place in a new generation and carry forward the
church.
And I fancy that we may properly enough find in this
accidental circumstance a double inspiration for the young
Harvard minister. Coming from the increasingly liberal
Massachusetts of his recent years at Harvard, young Pier-
pont agreeably found himself in the midst of a New Eng-
land church life of the primitive type. To many of his
congregation, this life was still of the old Davenport
pattern, in spite of the Connecticut absorption, and, for his
first year, he was to be the guest of a daughter of the elder
Pierson and daughter-in-law of old John Davenport. It
was this early sympathetic touch with the older New Haven
that was largely responsible, I fancy, for the immediate
success which James Pierpont had in bridging over the gap
to the new generation of which he was now the leader.
During this first year of James Pierpont's life in New
Haven, the church people were building a new parsonage
128 The Beginnings of Yale
for him, on the Eldred lot on Elm Street. The new minis-
ter had come with few personal belongings, so the villagers
furnished the parsonage for him, one man bringing, as his
best gift, two elm saplings which he planted before the
house door. These elms became in time an historic land-
mark in New Haven. Under their broad canopy, forty-odd
years later, Jonathan Edwards was to woo James Pierpont's
daughter. Under them, in twenty years more, Whitefield
was to stir up the religious emotions of the townspeople in
the Great Awakening. They were to see the little troop of
New Haven militiamen march off with Benedict Arnold
to fight the British at Cambridge, and, come the turn of
life's wheel, see the effigy of that debonair militia captain
hooted through the village streets after his apostasy to the
British. They were to see the British troops in 1779
parade noisily into the quiet town and bivouac on the Green.
One of these trees was said to be standing as late as 1840,
"the tallest and most venerable of all the trees in this city
of elms and ever the first to be tinged with green at the
return of spring."
IV
The Puritan village in which James Pierpont thus began
his career of thirty full years was still more or less in its
original condition. It had been repalisaded against the
threatening troubles of King Philip's War but a decade
before, and a few of the great gates that had then been
erected at the street ends of the outer square were no doubt
still in use, if only to keep in the cattle. The Market-place
was still much as it had been in John Davenport's day,
though there were fewer trees and more tree-stumps. The
causeway that Davenport and Governor Eaton had used to
cross the alder swamp was now gone, and a new and larger
wooden Meeting-house had been built in the middle of the
New Haven and James Pierpont 129
Market-place, a little southwest of the first one. The
watch-house and the stocks still stood on the College Street
side, though perhaps less used than formerly. The original
log schoolhouse of Ezekiel Cheever and John Bowers was
still in use, though now, somewhat enlarged, the Hopkins
Colony Grammar School. A few improvements had come
in with the absorption with Connecticut, and the town was
not, in many ways, as provincial as it had been a few decades
before. Yet the people lived under very much the same
social conditions as in 1650. The ancient town watch had
passed out as a standing police force, as had the town
drummer, whose merry business it had been for twoscore
years to beat the town drum at sunset and for half an hour
before sunrise, and twice on Sabbath days. The long roll
of the too-lively Bassett's drum had been superseded in
1 68 1 by the jingling echoes of a church bell that had been
purchased after much wagging of heads from a tramp
skipper anchored in the harbor. One Joseph Pardee, son
of the impecunious schoolmaster, was the bell ringer when
Pierpont arrived, and, except for one short period when the
bell was sent to England for repairs, was to make its music
float out over the village tree-tops on Sabbath days and for
curfew at nine o'clock each night while Pierpont was the
minister. With all these changes, the Town Crier had be-
come an institution, and, as occasion called, paraded the
sandy footpaths along the village streets, calling out lost
cattle and strayed children, notices of sales and public meet-
ings, and such great news as might come in by travelers or
in letters from abroad.
Nor had the character of the New Haven people, or their
manners and affairs, changed much since John Davenport
had left them. All of the original commercial promise of
the settlement had long since disappeared, and, while there
was a little trading by the Sound, especially to Boston, the
130 The Beginnings of Yale
people had but little to do except to plant the fields, trap for
furs, and attend to the manifold handicraft occupations of
every small community. Except in their dress, the people
of James Pierpont's New Haven had not progressed very
far beyond John Davenport's. The great change in this
respect that the arrival of the retinues and hangers-on of
the Royal Governors had made in New York and Boston,
had not at this date permeated to New Haven. So that the
magnificent wardrobes of some of the Boston English-i-fied
dandies of the day were hardly paralleled here. No such
ornamental persons paraded the village streets of New
Haven in 1685 as were not infrequent sights in the Boston
lanes of the day. These gentry, so the old inventories and
diaries tell us, wore such splendid garments as "satin
coates" embroidered with gold flowers, and blue breeches,
or scarlet coats and breeches, and "damask small clothes."
Yet the New Haveners of that day were not too provincially
attired. Wigs, of course (those "horrid bushes of
vanity"), were now common elsewhere in New England,
even servants and soldiers, and sometimes children, wearing
them. Doubtless many New Haven burghers wore them
under their now lower if still broad-brimmed black beaver
and castor hats. Perhaps some of the better class of men
in Pierpont's congregation (like the New London gentry
of their acquaintance) wore broadcloth coats with red
linings, and white serge coats, cut square after Charles II's
Royal dictum. They all still wore the great capes of the
early days, though the old Elizabethan doublets had long
disappeared for jerkins and coats. Here and there some
wealthy citizen might have a bit of lace at his shirt front
or wristband. Everybody, however, wore gloves from
England, men and women alike wore muffs and rings and
riding masks, and the women sun-masks of divers colors.
The Town Crier no doubt frequently called articles of this
132 The Beginnings of Yale
sort up and down the village streets, when some messenger
arrived from Boston with the latest fashions in that dress
which, in spite of all Puritan qualms and regulations, per-
sisted in being of the keenest interest to all New England
provincials.
It may well have been the Town Crier who, two years
after James Pierpont had settled in his new house facing the
Market-place, gave first notice of the approaching visit of
the Royalist Governor, Sir Edmund Andros. This Colonial
officer, tradition has it, had arrived in New Haven fresh
from his unlucky rebuff before the General Assembly at
Hartford, where the Colony charter had been hidden in
reply to his Excellency's demand for it. His visit, there-
fore, was something of a test of the stuff of which the young
New Haven clergyman was made, as it also furnished a
proof of how far he had come, in his few years out of
Harvard, into the independent political attitude of his New
Haven congregation. Under the circumstances, it is a fair
guess that the Royal officer stopped at John Harriman's
tavern instead of at the minister's house. It was of a Sun-
day, and the spirit of John Davenport that was in James
Pierpont rose to the occasion (if the story of that day can
be believed, as I hope it may) . Andros and his retinue
walked across the Market-place to the Meeting-house,
where all of the townspeople who could manage it were
on hand. But though in Royalist New Jersey or New York
the occasion might well have been one of special services,
young Pierpont, facing the Royal officer's party over the
heads of his stalwart deacons, conducted the services with as
little consideration of the rank of his new auditors or to
their feelings as John Davenport himself had tendered to
that visiting Royalist predecessor who had listened to his
belligerent sermon on hiding the Regicides. The young
Harvard minister selected for the hymn, so the story
New Haven and James Pierpont
goes, reading from his high pulpit each line before it was
sung, as was the custom in those days, that vigorous hymn
of independence of the old Puritan churches, which began
Why dost thou tyrant boast abroad
Thy wicked words to praise,
and which ended, undoubtedly to the keen relish of Pier-
pont's black-cloaked congregation, if to the astonished anger
of the scarlet-resplendent Andros in the chief pew below,
Thou dost delight in fraud and guile
In mischief, blood and wrong.
Thy lips have learned the flatt'ring style
O, false deceitful tongue!
Under a young minister who could be as bold as this in
those trying times, the New Haven church again prospered.
A dozen years slipped by, quiet years for the minister and
his provincial little flock. During them Pierpont wooed and
won the fair daughter of the widow Davenport and busily
attended to his congregation's souls, until a question arose
which was, in the outcome, to be a most important one for
the Colony.
ffames SSiernonft
CHAPTER III
THE NEED OF A COLONY COLLEGE
I
HIS question was the old one of a
college for New Haven. As to just
when the renewal of this old ambition
of John Davenport's was made, or
who made it, the old-time records are
silent. It is not until about the years
1700-1701 that we find any documents
relating to the plan, and it is not until
that time that we find any of the Colony leaders becoming
publicly active in its behalf. Yet, without doubt, the
reemergence of the old New Haven college project during
or just before 1700 was not as sudden as it may seem. It
was the logical conclusion of a general situation, largely
theological, that had been forming during the years just
after 1692.
The Need of a Colony College 135
It would take a theologian to understand all of the com-
plications of that period of Puritan religious decline; yet
the general outlines of things are clear enough. I have
referred to the efforts to work out a new state-and-church
system in the face of a growing town independence in Con-
necticut in the first few years after the new charter. If we
add to this difficulty the further complication that the
churches themselves rather generally seem to have held to
the original ideal of subservience to no earthly master, and
yet were declining in power and being taken over by the
towns, we may understand a little of the situation. The
Hartford church split, ending in the settlement of Hadley,
had been one result of this. There were other similar divi-
sions elsewhere, as at Wethersfield and Windsor, and in
1650 the Assembly had to forbid the formation of new
churches without the consent of the Court and of neighbor-
ing churches.
And another factor was entering into this church situa-
tion. About 1680 it was reported to England, in reply to
an official query, that the "people, in this colony, are some
of them strict congregational men, others more large con-
gregational men, and some moderate presbyterians. The
congregational men of both sorts are the greatest part of
the people in the colony." The entrance of this "moderate
presbyterian" idea had become a considerable factor in
Connecticut ecclesiastical matters by the time James Pier-
pont arrived in New Haven, as it had in Massachusetts.
While the time was not then ripe for the advanced step to
be taken at the Saybrook Synod in 1708, and the formation
of the modified Presbyterian form of church organization
which was then adopted, the period of fifteen years before
the year 1700 saw this question widely agitated, and the
controversy over it becoming one of the principal public
matters of the day. I do not think that we can pore over
136 The Beginnings of Yale
the old records of church and Colony affairs during this
period without coming to the conclusion that this growing
demand for some sort of church union to take the place of
the complete independence of the early churches, was one of
the principal factors in that demand which, in 1700, was to
come for a Colony college. The commonwealth had found
itself possessed in the Winthrop charter of centralized
authority over its independent towns ; the churches were now
groping toward a "consociation" which would bring about a
somewhat similar, though much looser, central or at least
common authority over church affairs; as a bulwark of this
latter development, there were to be those who favored a
college, under the associated-church control, which should
furnish the churches with their ministers.
The need of these orthodox religious leaders, as we have
seen, had from the first been a serious problem. After the
year 1692, when the inhabitants of the Colony had increased
very considerably, and when many new towns and churches
had been established, this need became acute. As the ven-
erable historian, Trumbull, says: "the calls for a learned
ministry, to supply the churches, became more and more
urgent," and, in consequence, "a number of the ministers
conceived the purpose of founding a college in Connecticut.
By this means, they might educate young men, from among
themselves, for the sacred ministry, and for various depart-
ments in civil life, and diffuse literature and piety more
generally among the people."
But another, and, broadly speaking, even more important,
situation had been developing. This was Connecticut's rela-
tion to Harvard Itself, and to Massachusetts. We have
seen how President Dunster's Harvard troubles had started
a New Haven college agitation in Davenport's day. Presi-
dent Mather's difficulties were now leading to a renewed
interest in that situation. This, taken together with the
The Need of a Colony College 137
growing demand for a church organization at home, fur-
nishes us with the main background for the talk that now
began again among the Connecticut ministers for a college
of their own.
A letter written in 1723 by the Rev. Moses Noyes, of
Lyme, one of the founders of the Collegiate School, is to
the effect that "The first movers for a college in Connecticut
alleged this as a reason, because the college at Cambridge
was under the tutorage of latitudinarians." Another letter
of that later time, from two other trustees, has it that "our
fountain" was "hoped to have been and continued the
repository of truth and the reserve of pure and sound prin-
ciples, doctrine, and education, in case of a change in our
mother Harvard." It is doubtless true that, in a surface
analysis, local conditions, and the demand therefrom result-
ing for a Connecticut college to uphold the Connecticut
churches, were to be the chief reasons for the founding of
the Collegiate School. There can be no serious question,
however, that these references to the Harvard of the last
years of the I7th Century point to a second and perhaps
even more important factor in that demand. Just what that
situation was, it is therefore necessary to outline.
II
The breakdown of the original Puritan theocracy in
Massachusetts with the charter of 1692, and the rise of a
new political and religious faction under it, as evidenced in
such a case as the formation of the new Brattle church, had
placed the supporters of the old regime in that Colony in
a precarious position. After that year, old Increase
Mather, the spiritual head of the conservative party (which
contained such men as Stoughton, and Judge Sewall, and
Secretary Addington), had found himself rapidly losing his
The Need of a Colony College 139
former hold on public affairs and on the theological opinions
of his people. Shut out from his erstwhile public influence
and facing a new church movement, it was therefore with
very good reason that Increase Mather began to look, after
1692, upon Harvard College as the last remaining sphere
in which he and his fellow conservatives could maintain their
former grip on political affairs and preserve the threatened
purity of the Calvinistic theology which they and their
forefathers had preached.
Yet even here, the new Massachusetts political situation
was having its serious results. The annulment of the Massa-
chusetts charter by Charles II had carried with it the loss
of the Harvard charter, originally given to it by the Colony
Court. So it had to have a new one, and that new one had
to be brought into line with the new public conditions in
Massachusetts and accepted by the English Crown. The
new relation to England had brought about the first steps
in what was to prove a radical change in the character and
manners and church interests of the Boston people. A
miniature Royal court had been set up in Puritan Boston
by the English Governors, the imported riffraff of which
brought over English ideas and customs and extravagance
of dress. Massachusetts was becoming Londonized in its
scale of living, and losing its old austerity and religious
seriousness. Nor was this all. New theological views came
over with the Royal Governors and Church of England
communicants. A new Congregationalism, much more
liberal and far less open to hypocrisies for political ends
than the old, was developing in Boston as an offshoot of
the Latitudinarian movement in London. Its adherents
both in and out of the College circles desired a share in the
government of Harvard and proposed to get it. To Presi-
dent Mather and his son Cotton, this situation was the signal
for a determined effort to preserve this last stronghold of
140 The Beginnings of Yale
the old faith and manners, if not their last chance to regain
something of their own fast-dwindling prestige.
And so we see a battle royal, the last stand of the old
Puritan guard against the incoming new times, beginning
by 1692 in that Harvard from which the Connecticut minis-
ters were still hoping to receive their new generations of
preachers of the older church. The chronicles of this seven-
year war are lighted up by highly entertaining episodes for
us of today, serious enough as they were to the participants
in them. Old Increase Mather, intent on fortifying this last
refuge for himself and the traditional church, made five
separate onslaughts on the General Court to secure a new
Harvard charter which should give him what he wanted.
His complete failure spelled the last stand of the old party.
For, from his first effort for such a charter to his last, the
old Puritan fighter was meeting increasingly heavy odds.
And he must have seen the handwriting on the wall from
the first Harvard charter which he drew up and somehow
or other passed through the General Court and put into
effect before it had been received for acceptance by the
English Crown. In that charter he had named a perpetual
body of Harvard trustees from among his friends, including
his son, and this corporation had immediately given him
the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, the first to be
granted in this country. President Mather, however, had
proceeded without waiting for the signing of this new
charter by the King, so that the sudden arrival of William's
veto of it must have been extremely embarrassing to him, as
well as a source of keen amusement to that large body of
Boston citizens who, under the new charter, were against
him. Other attempts at a new charter failing, President
Mather, in 1697, rose to his last effort. In this he inserted
a religious-qualification clause, which harked back, of course,
to the Mather Congregationalism and the Cambridge Plat-
The Need of a Colony College 141
form for its theology. Passed by the General Court, it was
as promptly vetoed by the newly-arrived English Gov-
ernor, Bellamont, and the end was in sight of the Mather
effort to keep the broadening Harvard in the traditional
Puritan church fold.
Ill
By the year 1699, therefore, we can see that Harvard
College was fast slipping into the control of the reform
party in the church and Colony, a party that proposed to
have the suffrage broadened so as to include all members
of the churches, and to admit Church of England members
to it as well, and that, theologically, proposed to reform
New England religious thinking along new and, for the
time, advanced and even heretical lines. The Mathers,
and such members of their circle as were still in public life,
were now all but defeated. A new generation was coming
upon the scene in Massachusetts that was more inclined to be
at peace with the Crown than the sturdy old original
settlers ever had been willing to be. And, so far as Presi-
dent Mather's relations to Harvard were concerned, there,
also, he was losing ground. An important factor, personal
with President Mather, had contributed to this later situa-
tion. In spite of repeated urgings and indeed several orders
by the General Court, the elder Mather had peremptorily
declined to resign his Boston church and remove to Cam-
bridge and there be in residence as the College head. In his
long absences across the river in Boston, the College affairs
had been in the hands of two young tutors, John Leverett,
later to become President of Harvard, and William Brattle,
classmates at Harvard in 1680, and one year senior there to
James Pierpont and Samuel Russel. Both, as it happened,
were recruits to the new church that was starting in Boston,
and both were hostile to all of the ceremonials of the
142 The Beginnings of Yale
traditional theology and church government. Brattle had
become the local minister in Cambridge during this period,
and was there introducing the new Congregationalism.
Both he and Leverett were excluded from the College in
the proposed charter of 1697, and both left it at that time,
to throw themselves into the new theological movement and
to help start Coleman's new Boston church.
We may well surmise, therefore, that by the year 1699,
not only were political conditions in the old Massachusetts
Colony such as to cause fear that, unless the tide were
stemmed, the days of the traditional Puritan church in New
England were numbered, but the religious-reform movement
threatened to sap the traditional orthodoxy of Harvard
itself and result in sending a new sort of minister into the
churches, tinctured with the Latitudinarianism of the new
religious faction. There can hardly be doubt that this con-
dition, coming to a serious climax in President Mather's
final failure to force Harvard into his own mould, was a
cause for very great interest and solicitude in far-away Con-
necticut, and that some of the Connecticut leaders were now
giving it prolonged and prayerful thought. Increase
Mather's resignation in October, 1700, and his enforced
withdrawal about a year later, were but the after-events of
a situation that, by 1698 or 1699, must have brought the
proposed Connecticut college project to the forefront of
public discussion in the younger colony.
So, while we now have no means of knowing the precise
time when this project actively came up, I imagine that
we shall be well within the truth if we consider it to have
been somewhere between the years 1697 and 1700. Kings-
ley, in his "Yale College," suggests that it could not have
been long after James Pierpont arrived in New Haven in
1685, and that its postponement at that time may have re-
sulted from the upset public conditions that followed, in New
The Need of a Colony College 143
England, upon the long war between England and France
which closed with the Peace of Ryswick in 1697. However
that may be (and it is interesting to recall it) there could
hardly have been much public support for such a new and,
at the least, expensive enterprise as the establishment of a
Connecticut college during these ruinous years. Connecti-
cut, to be sure, was protected from -French and Indian
attacks from the north by her situation below Massachu-
setts; but her military and financial help was possible and
was called upon. Captain Bull had been sent from Hart-
ford with soldiers into New York. Throughout the French
and Indian War, Connecticut contributed troops and money
to the English Colonies' joint cause, spending upwards of
12,000 to this purpose, and even then got into such diffi-
culties with a scheming New York Royal Governor that an
agent had to be sent to England, at still further expense, to
secure protection. But with the end of the war between
William III and Louis XIV of France, there was a short
lull until Queen Anne's War broke out in 1702, and the
same struggle of Connecticut to keep from being annexed to
New York began over again. It was no doubt during this
brief respite from public relations with the neighboring
Colony, and when Connecticut's church-organization ques-
tion and Harvard's internal affairs were reaching the points
described above, that the Connecticut college scheme was
again seriously broached.
IV
The exact sequence in the events that now occurred, as
well as the precise nature of some of those events, we do
not now know. Contemporaneous records of the founding
of Yale are extremely meager; nor was much added later,
by actors in this first scene in Yale history, or by historians
144 The Beginnings of Yale
of the next generation, which can be said to make every
feature of the episode wholly understandable. The ques-
tion is still an open one, when and where the Collegiate
School was actually "founded"; it is not precisely known
what the relation to the project was, at its start, of a number
of Colony leaders who afterwards became closely identified
with it. I have attempted, in the following pages, however,
to piece together what we do know about these rather inter-
esting matters, and to present the facts so that we may at
least have a realization of such of them as we may accept.
We have President Thomas Clap's authority 1 for the
statement that "The Design of founding a College in the
Colony of Connecticut was first concerted by the Ministers;
among which the Rev. Mr. Pierpont of New Haven, Mr.
Andrew of Milford, and Mr. Russel of Branford, were the
most forward and active."
Of these three young men, James Pierpont has been given
the leadership by all the chroniclers of Yale's beginnings,
and with good reason. We have seen the kind of a man
he was, and the influence that he wielded among his fellow
ministers. He had become the owner of the books that
John Davenport had been accumulating for a New Haven
"college" library, and had thus become heir, in a sense, to
the long-forgotten educational enterprise. And Pierpont
had formed, early in his life at New Haven, still another
connection with Davenport. During those first years, as we
have seen, he had been a sentimental traveler down the
shaded Elm Street footpath to the widow Davenport's
house, where his famous predecessor had lived his long New
Haven life, and there had been married to the youthful
Abigail (granddaughter of John Davenport and the elder
Abraham Pierson), whose death came three months later
1 "The Annals or History of Yale-College," published at New Haven
in 1766.
The Need of a Colony College
from exposure during a storm. 1 So that John Daven-
port entered into James Pierpont's life in more ways than
one, and the connection bridges for us the gap between the
first efforts for a Colony college and its later establishment.
Under the frowning Calvinistic labels of the old Daven-
port books in Pierpont's parsonage library in New Haven,
and over the barrels of green wine, and the tobacco and
pipes, and rum, which he laid in from the thrifty Captain
Browne's voyages to Boston, there now must have begun
that long series of talks between him and his neighboring
ministers, Andrew, Russel, and Abraham Pierson, which
1 James Pierpont married Sarah Haynes, granddaughter of Governor
Haynes of Connecticut, in 1694, and, on her early death, married Mary
Hooker, granddaughter of Thomas Hooker, in 1698. Sarah, daughter of
this third marriage, became the wife of Jonathan Edwards.
146 The Beginnings of Yale
were to do with the condition of the Colony, the serious
affairs at Harvard, and the need of a college of their own.
In Connecticut, as we may well imagine Pierpont out-
lining the conditions that faced these ambitious young
ministers, matters church-wise were going from bad to
worse. But a few years before, the half-dozen New Haven
County ministers had joined in instituting "lecture-days" to
stem the rising tide of general indifference to spiritual
matters. Even that effort had had to be supported by town-
meeting vote, so that the town constables should be urged
to "prevent all disorders" on lecture-days, "and particularly
that there be no horse-racings, it being a great disorder."
And it had been found necessary to have the town officers
instruct the heads of families that on such days "none of
their children or servants be allowed to frequent the ordi-
naries, or any private houses for tippling, neither with
strangers or others," the "strangers" undoubtedly being
such boozing sailors as had from the early times led New
Haven youth into bibulous temptations.
To such a pass had come that Puritan religious fervor
which the New Haven church had been established to make
endure. Nor were the churches themselves much better off.
The traditional independence of the several congregations
had led to intolerable conditions, in that many young men
mostly Harvard graduates who were hardly known to the
settled ministers of other churches, and whose theological
tendencies were, to say the least, under suspicion, were being
informally introduced to vacant pulpits and settled there
without the sanction of the older ministers. Matters were
in such a state, Pierpont would have said, that, unless some-
thing definite were done, it would be but a short time before
uninvited teachers of the new theology of the Brattles and
John Leverett would be spreading from Boston through the
Connecticut pulpits.
The Need of a Colony College 147
And even Harvard itself was in a dangerously unstable
state, in relati-on to this impending trouble in the Connecticut
churches. "Degrees at college" (Pierpont might, in 1699,
have said, as wrote Trumbull a century later) "were es-
teemed no sufficient evidence of men's piety, knowledge of
theology, or ministerial gifts and qualifications." So that
the Harvard situation under Increase Mather, which we
have noticed in previous pages, was likewise undoubtedly
taking its place in these serious New Haven conferences.
We have no absolute knowledge of James Pierpont's atti-
tude toward the Harvard troubles of these few years before
1700. But, if we group together his later correspondence
with both the Mathers; his friendly relations to the younger
one, and his own position of compromise on the Con-
necticut Presbyterian movement in the days of the Saybrook
Synod, we are probably safe in assuming that, between
1697 an d 1700? James Pierpont was in active sympathy
with the elder Mather's Harvard troubles and that these
very largely came to form a part of his own thinking on
the need of a college at home.
Quarterly ministers' meetings now began to be held in
New Haven County, and to these meetings came the other
ministers of the county. If we may rely upon tradition, the
college project was undoubtedly now laid before these
ministers, and, after it had been canvassed and the situation
set forth pretty much as described above, before a still
wider circle of Connecticut leaders, including "the principal
gentlemen and ministers" of all four counties.
CHAPTER IV
THE "FOUNDING" BY THE MINISTERS
I
HILE the original leaders of the
Colony had now passed off the stage,
this wider circle of Connecticut "minis-
ters and gentlemen" contained some of
the strongest men in Connecticut colo-
nial history. Robert Treat, of Mil-
ford, had just declined the Governor-
ship after serving fifteen years, and,
now an old man and famous for his military campaigns
against the Indians at Springfield and Hadley and for his
loyalty to the charter when Andros arrived at Hartford to
take it away, was now Deputy Governor. He had been suc-
ceeded as Governor by Fitz-John Winthrop of New Lon-
The "Founding" by the Ministers 149
don, son of that John Winthrop who had secured the Colony
charter. It is among the ministers of the four counties,
however, that we still find, by 1700, the leaders in public
affairs. Their acquaintance, inasmuch as they will come to
the front in the ensuing chapters, will be worth making.
In Hartford County the aged Gershom Bulkeley of
Wethersfield, for many years unable to attend to church
affairs, was one of the best known of these ministers. Three
young Harvard men were in pulpits at Windsor, Glaston-
bury, and Simsbury. The county had, however, three
Harvard graduates not far past forty years of age, who
were among the active leaders in the Colony. These were
Timothy Woodbridge of Hartford, Samuel Mather of the
first church in Windsor, and Noadiah Russell of Middle-
town.
Of these, Samuel Mather was "little & feeble," as he said
of himself, and was not in good health at this time; yet he
had had "judgment, and consummate tact," as had been
shown in his settlement of the long-standing Windsor
church difficulties. "A solid & Orthodox Divine is also got
to Heaven," wrote his classmate Sewall at his death many
years later. He was a son-in-law of Deputy Governor
Robert Treat. Noadiah Russell of Middletown, "little of
stature, pious and holy" and a classmate of Pierpont and
Samuel Russel, was in excellent standing among the Hart-
ford ministers. He had been born in New Haven and gone
to Harvard from the Hopkins Grammar School. He had
made a catalogue of "ye double books" in the Harvard
Library, had become the Ipswich schoolmaster, and there
had compiled his famous almanacs which we shall refer to
later on, and had then come to Middletown. He had early
grown up under John Davenport's keen eye, and, as Middle-
town's minister, "well performed his work, and effectually
150 The Beginnings of Yale
molded the character and formed the habits of the people"
there. There is an extant memorial of him where we read :
His head with learning, prudence, holy art;
Firm faith and love, humility his heart,
Peaceful and meek, but yet with courage stout,
Engaged the fiend and did him sorely rout.
Timothy Woodbridge, of Hartford, however, was the
leading Hartford County minister. A distinguished Colony
leader and a considerable figure in the early annals of Yale,
this Harvard graduate of 1675 was an able successor to
the responsibilities of Hooker and Haynes. He had been
born in the parish of Barford St. Martin's, Wiltshire,
England, the son of a clergyman and the grandson of
Governor Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts, and was at
this time forty-four years old. He appears to have been of
much importance in the Colony affairs of the day. He had
drafted the Colony Address to King William, and he was
a writer of more than the usual number of works, all
sermons, that came out of a Connecticut parsonage study
in his lifetime. In the fulsome obituary notices of the day
he was given a more than customary list of accomplish-
ments. He was, it was said, "a star of the first Magnitude.
He had also an happy Evenness of Temper, and was
adorned with all social Virtues, whereby his Conversation
became sweet and amiable." Jonathan Edwards was to
say of him at his death that he had a "Comley Majestic
Aspect (being much Taller than the common Size)," and
that he had "Great Courtesy & Affability." As we shall see,
he was the leader of the opposition to James Pierpont in
the coming organization of the Collegiate School, though in
later years to become one of its strongest friends and sup-
porters. Woodbridge seems to have been one of the leaders
in the Connecticut church-synod party.
The "Founding" by the Ministers 151
In Fairfield County there were at that time four minis-
ters: Israel Chauncy, then fifty-six years old, of Stratford;
Joseph Webb of Fairfield, and John Davenport of Stam-
ford, both just past thirty; and the young Stephen Buck-
ingham of Norwalk. They were an interesting and very
active group of public men. Israel Chauncy had been
graduated from Harvard in 1661, the third son of Presi-
dent Chauncey of Harvard to be in that class. Beginning
his career as the Stratford schoolmaster, he had been chosen
by the people there for their minister five years later, and
was the hero of the contemporaneously famous story which
had it that at his ordination by the laymen of his church the
good elder had forgotten to remove his gloves (it being a
cold December day) and, in the imposition of hands on
the new minister's head, had done his part in a leather
mitten. This affair of the "leather mitten" was made much
of by ridiculing Episcopalians of the time, and, later on, by
Presbyterians. Chauncy got into several heated theological
controversies at Stratford, and seems to have been a staunch
independent of the old school. He was chaplain of Colonel
Robert Treat's Indian expedition, and "chirugian," in which
latter post he used the considerable, though crude, medical
knowledge that he had picked up when at Harvard. Israel
Chauncy had in his day "a high reputation for scholarship."
He was, an old lady long afterwards said, "one of the
most benevolent, hospitable gentlemen" she ever knew.
He wrote the parts of the "New England Almanac" for
1663 dealing with the "Theory of Planetary Orbs" and
eclipses. Joseph Webb was prepared for Harvard under
our old acquaintance, Ezekiel Cheever, at Boston, was
"thence translated to the College at Cambridge and de-
servedly wore the Honours of it," was graduated in the
Class of 1684, and was now thirty-four years of age and
minister at Fairfield. While a Sophomore at Harvard
152 The Beginnings of Yale
young Webb had come under the Corporation's discipline
for hazing Freshman, refusing to obey College rules, and
staying away when President Rogers sent for him. He
was expelled, and, having asked for his Bible with his name
on the fly leaf, was given it by Increase Mather, then a
Fellow, who handed it to him after tearing out the leaf.
But the young culprit, even after this harsh treatment,
publicly apologized and was reinstated. He had now been
at Fairfield for six years, and, with his neighbor Chauncy,
was one of the staunchest of "the Congregational men"
whom we have heard about. A picture of him by a con-
temporary is an attractive one: "He was hospitable in his
House (says this acquaintance), free and facetious in
common Conversation, and most tenderly affected towards
his relatives." He was a firm Calvinist in principles.
Three years his junior, John Davenport, grandson of New
Haven's founder, was the Stamford minister at this time.
He had for a short period after 1687 been the Hopkins
Grammar schoolmaster at New Haven, and had now been
in Stamford six years. While I am not sure that we can
think of him as quite so attractive a man as was Joseph
Webb ("he was not over-careful of pleasing Men, but ever
fearful of displeasing God"), we have many evidences that
he had inherited with that characteristic the mental vigor of
his famous grandfather. "Eagle-eyed to discern the
Approaches of Sin," and a great temperance preacher, he
was said to have been as familiar with Hebrew, Greek, and
Latin "as with his Mother Tongue." With Increase
Mather holding the fort against the encroachments of the
new doctrines in Massachusetts, young John Davenport,
Calvinist and orthodox Puritan theologian, may well have
been looked upon, "seated" as he was "so near the Western
Limits of New England, as a Bulwark against any Irrup-
tions of corrupt Doctrines and manners" from that godless
The "Founding" by the Ministers 153
quarter. Stephen Buckingham, of Norwalk, then but
twenty-seven years old, with Davenport, does not appear
in Yale chronicles until some years later.
In the New London corner of the Colony there were nine
settled ministers at this time, all but one of them Harvard
graduates, and nearly all of them to become closely identi-
fied with Yale's beginnings. In 1700 the two oldest of
these were the brothers James and Moses Noyes, both
now around sixty years of age, and settled over the churches
at Stonington and Lyme, respectively. They had been
graduated together from Harvard in the Class of 1659,
with Samuel Willard (later to be Vice-President of Har-
vard) , and Samuel, son of Ezekiel Cheever. James Noyes,
the elder of these "Noyces Ambo" (as the Harvard
Steward's books of their college days dub them), was, like
Israel Chauncy of Stratford, a doctor as well as a minister.
He "gave away [so it was said] more in Medicines, than
his Annual Salary as Minister amounted to." Very likely
he was a good upholder of the traditional independence of
the various Connecticut churches, it being said of him that
he "was a great friend to Liberties both Civil & religious,
and no man more Vigorous to stand up when any unjust
Encroachments were made upon Either." As a man "he
was extraordinarily Hospitable to all Strangers," and "like
a Father" to his flock. In his church relations he was
"mighty in Prayer" and "knew the art of Wrestling with
God." When he was attempting to reclaim some back-
sliding member of his congregation he had the generous
habit of "laying himself under Voluntary bonds of Self-
denial" to encourage his parishioner in his. Among people,
it was said, "his Presence was grave and Venerable, such
as struck an awe into the boldest Offenders, they being
afraid or ashamed to Discover their follies in his sight."
As he came into old age, he was widely accepted as a leader
The Beginnings of Yale
in church affairs and as a presiding officer at conventions.
One of his chief contributions on such occasions, it was said
of him, was his "true spirit of the Peacemaker." His
slightly younger brother, Moses Noyes, now minister at
Lyme, was one of the last of the Connecticut ministers to
go over to the principles of the "Half-way Covenant." So
set in his ways was he, and so "truly Calvinistic," that he
was one of the most energetic critics of the declining minis-
try of the times. So stoutly opposed was he to the "Errors
which he feared were creeping in among us, particularly in
the Schools and young Candidates for the Ministry," that
it was not until the Collegiate School had been going for
seventeen years and he had become assured of its orthodoxy,
that he would accept a graduate of it as an assistant in his
pulpit. Thomas Buckingham, minister of the Saybrook
church, and Abraham Pierson of Killingworth were next
oldest of these New London ministers, both being fifty-
five at this time. Of Abraham Pierson, his particular place
in Yale history calls for the more extended account of him
and his life which I give later on in these pages. Concern-
ing Thomas Buckingham, taking hardly a less important
place, we know but little. He was the only New London
County minister not a college graduate. He was of a
pioneer Milford family and received what education he had
at the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven. 1 As events
will show, he was not only an able man, but a stout believer
in his own views. At this time he was looked upon as one
of the most capable men in the southern part of the Colony.
1 1 am indebted to Miss M. C. Holman of Saybrook for the further in-
formation about Buckingham that he was the son of Thomas and Hannah
Buckingham, who came over in the "Hector" with Eaton and Davenport.
He studied for the ministry with the Rev. John Whiting of Hartford and
preached for a short time in Wethersfield before taking the Saybrook
Meeting-house. His parish included the present towns of Essex, Chester,
Westbrook, and a part of Lyme.
The "Founding" by the Ministers 155
Gurdon Saltonstall, minister at New London (and at
this time just coming into public notice), was the fourth of
the important New London County ministers. Time was to
bring this really remarkable man into the forefront of the
builders of Yale. He was the pastor of Governor Fitz-
John Winthrop, and was to become his successor as the
Colony's chief magistrate, leaving the ministry for that
public service. But Gurdon Saltonstall, seven years before
that time, in 1700, and when he was but thirty-four years of
age, was beginning to show his exceptional talents for public
duties. I presume that, of all the Colony ministers of his
day, Saltonstall was, by natural endowments, the most con-
spicuous and capable. He was the son of the Nathaniel
Saltonstall who was the classmate of his neighboring minis-
ters, the now elderly Noyces Ambo. At the early age of
eighteen, when he himself received his Harvard degree, he
had been renowned for his "vast proficiency in all the parts
of Useful Learning & giving Early Hopes of that future
great man which he afterwards proved." He had been
ordained at New London when he was twenty-one years of
age, and immediately came to the front as a young man of
exceptional knowledge of affairs and promise. Before he
was out of college six years, he was being consulted at his
New London parsonage by magistrates and clergymen from
all parts of the Colony. Three years later he was chosen
for an important public commission. Though home rule
under the Colony charter had not been taken away, it had
been suspended under Andros from 1687 to 1689, and now
had been resumed under Governor Treat. The appoint-
ment of the Governor of New York to command the Con-
necticut militia, however, had renewed the charter question,
and Fitz-John Winthrop of New London was sent to
England to look into it. Winthrop asked his young minister,
Saltonstall, to accompany him. The upshot of their visit
156 The Beginnings of Yale
in London was emphatically for the continued legality of the
original Winthrop charter, the Royal Attorney General
deciding the case as presented by Winthrop and Saltonstall.
When Fitz-John Winthrop became Governor under this
confirmed charter in 1698, his pastor, Gurdon Saltonstall,
naturally came into still broader relations to Colony affairs,
and was appointed chief judge of the county court.
We have already made the acquaintance of James Pier-
pont, and of his two neighbors, Samuel Russel and Samuel
Andrew. The Guilford minister at this time was young
Thomas Ruggles, ten years out of Harvard. In Walling-
ford Samuel Street was still the minister, and in Derby
was the youthful Joseph Moss, just graduated from
Harvard.
All but two or three of these thirty-odd Connecticut
ministers of 1700 were Harvard graduates. They were all
settled over Congregational churches, and, in their
quarterly meetings and in occasional chance conversations,
as the college leaders went about their counties on horse-
back, attending to the sick and backsliding, were being con-
sulted as to the proposed school.
II
Placed before at least a number of these ministers who
lived along the Long Island coast, the first stumbling-block
which appears to have been encountered was the turn the
project took, among a number of prominent "ministers and
Gentlemen," in connection with the increasing demand for
some better form of church government. Both in Massa-
chusetts and in Connecticut a movement was now under
way so to organize the traditional New England churches
that they could meet the oncoming change in theology and
morals with a common front. This was meeting with dif-
ficulties in the changing Massachusetts of that day. In
The "Founding" by the Ministers 157
Connecticut it was taking the form of a demand for a church
synod which should organize the various independent con-
gregations in a Colony church of a loose presbyterian mould.
Just how the Connecticut ministers divided on this ques-
tion we do not know. There were, doubtless, the usual two
extremes; the strong Presbyterians and the rigid adherents
of the traditional independence. And there were the
middle-way men, who were prepared for some church
organization and yet unwilling to see an ecclesiastical central
government fastened upon the churches. This latter party
was undoubtedly led by the New Haven promoters of the
college. For, if any one fact stands out from the hazy
outlines of the years 1700-1701, it is that this group,
consisting of such seacoast-town ministers as Pierpont,
Andrew, Buckingham, Chauncy, James Noyes, and Pierson,
declined to have their college come under church control,
however much they were in favor of such an ecclesiastical
organization for the Colony. Rev. Gurdon Saltonstall and
Rev. Timothy Woodbridge appear to have been of the
church-synod party.
That this was a crisis in these preliminary negotiations
between the Connecticut ministers, needs no argument.
The character of the coming Yale College was in the
balance. Had the synod party won their point, the Colle-
giate School would not have been established for several
years, if at all, and when established would have been
the victim of the long-drawn-out controversies and troubles
that came to the Colony churches when the Saybrook Plat-
form was finally adopted. Looked at from this point of
view, we may well accept James Pierpont's services at this
time, as of the utmost importance to the future Yale.
And so, if, as the historian Trumbull tells us, the college
scheme was publicly broached by Pierpont some time after
1698, it is probable that the next two years saw its general
158 The Beginnings of Yale
discussion along the lines just mentioned, and, for the
reasons stated, nothing done about it. But in 1700-1701
the project rather suddenly came to be a public question.
There are two accounts of the progress of the college
affair during these two years.
Both of these come down to us from President Clap.
His "Annals of Yale-College," printed in 1766 at New
Haven, gives the date 1700 for "the first Founding
thereof." In this narrative President Clap proceeds to
tell how in that year "ten of the principal Ministers in the
Colony were nominated and agreed upon by a general
Consent both of the Ministers and people, to stand as
Trustees or Undertakers to found, erect, and govern a
College," adding the ministers named in the legislative
document of 1701 as these trustees. He proceeds to say
that these ministers "met at New Haven and formed them-
selves into a Body or Society, to consist of eleven Ministers,
including a Rector, and agreed to Found a College in the
Colony of Connecticut; which they did at their next Meeting
at Branford." He then gives the story which has become
traditional, that "Each Member brought [to Branford in
1700] a Number of Books and presented them to the Body;
and laying them on a Table, said these words, or to this
effect; 'I give these books for the founding a College in this
Colony.' ' President Clap then says that these Founders
"afterwards began to doubt whether they were fully vested
with a legal Capacity to hold Lands, and whether private
Donations and contributions would yield a Sufficiency to
carry on so great a Design; it was therefore proposed to
make Application to the Hon. the General Assembly of the
Colony for some Assistance, and to ask for a charter."
Meetings were held on this question, says Clap, and the
advice asked of "some of the ablest lawyers both in, and
out of the Government." It being decided to do this, goes
The "Founding" by the Ministers 159
this tradition of Yale's beginnings, the trustees of the
already-founded school wrote to Judge Sewall and Secretary
Addington of Boston for the draft of a charter. This was
presented to the Assembly in 1701, with a public petition,
and the charter was granted.
This understanding of the facts of the "founding" passed
current for generations after President Clap's "Annals"
were published in 1766. The first President Dwight
accepted the date 1700. The one hundred and fiftieth anni-
versary was celebrated in 1850. It was so accepted by
every authority on Yale's founding until a reexamination
of the contemporary documents in Yale's possession, and of
President Clap's own manuscripts, threw doubt upon its
accuracy. 1 That the year 1700 was commonly accepted
during the early i8th Century might appear from the fact
that, at the College Commencement in 1750, there were
suddenly given a much larger number of honorary degrees
than had been given before that date, eight as against not
over two previously, and to distinguished non-graduates
rather than to young Harvard men and occasional donors.
Another date, 1701, however, is likewise given by
President Clap. Written in 1747, one manuscript of the
"Annals" gives this second year as that of Yale's founding.
President Clap likewise gives this year in a pamphlet pub-
lished in 1754. In this second though earlier published
account, Clap narrates a much simpler story of the charter
granting than in his account published in 1766, and, the
facts appear to warrant the assertion, a much more likely
one. So far as the date goes, it is quite probable, as Pro-
fessor Dexter believes, that there was a reason for this
1 The reader is referred to Professor Dexter's study of this question in
the published papers of the New Haven Historical Society, and to Professor
Charles H. Smith's exhaustive restudy of it, also published in that series
some years later.
i6o
The Beginnings of Yale
change by Clap. In the year 1766 Clap was engaged in the
most important struggle of his administration. He was
then defending the College's priority of right to manage its
own affairs against the right to interfere that the Assembly
was demanding. Priority of the actual "founding" thus was
necessary, and so, say the students of this question, the year
1700 was belatedly and inaccurately advanced instead of
1701.
However that may be, and I do not need to go into
the pros and cons of what is perhaps a purely academic
question at the most, the whole matter has been one of
much confusion and, even today, acknowledged uncertainty. 1
There is much to be said for both narratives. The point
1 The Bicentennial Celebration of the University was held in October,
1901, the University thus accepting the second date as a result of Professor
Dexter's researches. In the historical table in the University Catalogue,
however, both 1700 and 1701 are given as the dates of the "Meeting of the
Ministers at Branford, for founding a College."
The "Founding" by the Ministers 161
turns, I take it, upon the use of the term "founding." There
can hardly be any question that meetings, perhaps frequent,
were held in the year 1700 and possibly before that time
(as Clap's "Annals" asserts in its marginal dates), at which
the college project was discussed. Branford being midway
between the extreme towns of the seacoast ministers, it is
quite possible that several meetings were held there, and
that the traditional "founding" meeting of 1700 did occur
in Samuel Russel's parsonage parlor, as the story has it.
But, judging from the evidence of dated letters in the early
fall of 1701, it may be said that, if these meetings were
held, they could not have been as formal, or have come to
such precise ends as tradition has held that they did. If
it was generally considered that there were to be eight
trustees, as appears from at least one letter of September,
1701, Clap's story that the final ten had been chosen in
1699 and had "founded" the School in 1700 hardly holds
water. I imagine that we need not entirely discredit the
engaging Branford "founding" story of 1700, if we at the
same time believe that nothing so formal as that procedure
occurred until a year later.
Ill
Which brings us to the year 1701, famous in Yale annals.
In the summer and early fall of this year the long-dis-
cussed and postponed matter of establishing a Connecticut
college was rather suddenly brought to a climax by the
leaders in it.
That this was the result of the unexpected decision of the
General Assembly to meet in New Haven in October of that
year, for the first time since the absorption of the old New
Haven Colony by Connecticut, would seem to be the fact.
When the hard struggle of Davenport's people against
absorption by Winthrop's Connecticut had been at its
162 The Beginnings of Yale
hottest, the latter Colony had proposed, as a sop to the
dissatisfied New Haveners, that New Haven should be
made a coordinate capital of the new commonwealth with
Hartford. Davenport had abruptly refused this offer (as
he had refused all compromises on the question of New
Haven's independence), and it had not been renewed after
the consolidation. The annual meetings of the General
Assembly, therefore, had been held at Hartford ever since
1664, to the increasing discontent of the second generation
of New Haven voters. But in 1698 an important reorgani-
zation had been enacted of the Colony legislature. Fitz-
John Winthrop, of New London, had been elected Gover-
nor as a reward for his successful securing of a confirmation
of the charter. The Assembly, which previously had con-
sisted of but one house (the magistrates sitting as an inde-
pendent court) was now reformed with two houses, the
Governor and Magistrates to form the Upper, and the
Deputies from the various towns the Lower with power to
choose their own speaker. The consent of both Houses
was ordered for the passage of any act.
What was the particular cause of the vote to hold the
October meeting of that year and thereafter, in New Haven,
and thus bring the two old sections of the Colony into
harmony, does not appear. But the knowledge of this deci-
sion was public property early in May, 1701, and, if the
personal relations of the college promoters to the leaders of
the coming October session were of any promise, it may be
considered that Pierpont and his friends saw their oppor-
tunity to proceed at once upon their plans. We have seen
that Governor Winthrop was the close friend and parish-
ioner of Gurdon Saltonstall of New London. Deputy
Governor Treat, of Milford, was the father-in-law of
Samuel Andrew. Speaker Peter Burr was in Andrew's
church. Many of the best men in the two Houses were
The "Founding" by the Ministers 163
parishioners of the ministers interested in the scheme. In
the light of these fortunate circumstances, the occasion that
thus presented itself was the first that promised results
since the college project had been broached.
I suppose that further and energetic meetings now began
among the small group of ministers along the Long Island
shore who had fathered the college plan, and that the
situation created by this sudden meeting of the Assembly
in New Haven was thoroughly discussed by them. The
General Assembly was to be asked for a charter. As Presi-
dent Clap says, no doubt this decision had been the occasion
of some debate and misgivings. It had been held in Har-
vard's case that her charter had expired with the annulment
of Massachusett's, and that a new one must have the agree-
ment of the Crown. Connecticut had not lost her charter,
and had had it confirmed. Yet the relations between that
Colony and England were still on such a slender thread
that there might be serious danger were the Connecticut
Assembly to proceed, in the light of the Massachusetts
experience over Harvard's charter, to grant to the proposed
founders of a Connecticut college one of their own. There
were other questions also involved, regarding rights of the
Colony over the proposed school and the legality of gifts
received if a possibly illegal charter were granted and the
Royal officers in England annulled it.
Matters being in this hazy state, and the sessions of the
General Assembly for the first time in New Haven but three
months away, the more energetic of the college promoters
seem to have now taken their first definite public step. They
now sent out, either together or singly, a number of letters,
asking for advice, not only on the educational side, but on
the highly important matter of the legality of a Connecticut-
Colony-granted charter, and, if that were to be legal, what
it should contain. Letters were sent, therefore, to Cotton
164 The Beginnings of Yale
Mather and to Increase Mather, representing Harvard;
to Judge Sewall and Secretary Addington of the Massa-
chusetts Province, representing the Royal government in
New England; and to at
least three Connecticut
gentlemen, old Gershom
Bulkeley of Wethers-
field; the Colony Secretary, Eleazar Kimberly, and John
Eliot, a young Windsor lawyer who was to be a member of
the coming Assembly.
The four Massachusetts men thus resorted to were recog-
nized leaders of the conservative party there. All four were
out of sympathy with the new times and hostile to the new
Harvard regime. That they were asked for their opinions,
amply appears from their replies. 1 These came very much
to the same conclusions, and are so worded that it is obvious
that they were in response to requests for them and probably
written at about the same time. Cotton Mather's letter was
probably the first to be received. 2 This was a very carefully-
drawn up "Scheme for a College" (or "Instructions for a
Collegiate School," as James Pierpont endorsed it). But
it was not at all what Pierpont and his friends had wanted.
It was a modified Presbyterian proposal, calling for a synod
of the Connecticut churches which should establish "an Uni-
versity, that shall be the school of the churches." The
Synod should choose the first President (wrote Mather)
and his successor should be appointed by the "Inspectors
(or Pastors of such twelve churches as the Synod shall pitch
1 President Quincy, in his massive "History of Harvard," turns this about
and makes it appear that the impetus in the founding of Yale came from
these dissatisfied and defeated Massachusetts conservative leaders, among
whom these four were the most prominent. But his view of the case is not
supported by the facts. The invitation to help the Connecticut project came
from the Connecticut Colony.
2 President Clap dates this 1700, but it was more probably a year later.
The "Founding" by the Ministers 165
upon)" whose choice should be laid before the churches by
letter for acceptance. A number of rules were suggested,
leading to the maintenance of the traditional New England
theology. There should be no attempt made to build a
"college house," though one room would be needed for
meetings. The churches should, at least at first, guarantee
the salary 'of the President and "two tutors." And there
should be a confession of Faith, "relating to the purity of
religion," which the college officers should subscribe to.
The "Inspectors" should visit the school at least twice a
year.
In general, this "scheme" by Cotton Mather incorporated
most of the important things that his father had been unable
to secure for Harvard. The reply of old Increase Mather,
dated September 15, 1701, a week after he had been re-
moved from Harvard's presidency, was also received by Mr.
Pierpont. In briefer form it was a repetition of the main
points in his son's letter. He touched, however, upon the
charter question, as Cotton Mather had not. "If the Con-
necticut government [he wrote], before their charter is
taken from them [in this he chose the prevalent public worry
of the times], shall settle a revenue for the maintenance of
such a school, 'tis probable that property will not be taken
from you, though government should."
The letter to Judge Sewall had been sent on August 7,
1701. It had been a round-robin letter, signed by five of
the seacoast-town ministers, Israel Chauncy of Stratford,
Thomas Buckingham of Saybrook, Abraham Pierson of
Killingworth, James Pierpont of New Haven, and Gurdon
Saltonstall of New London. This was an important letter,
perhaps the most important that the trustees sent, and
we should not overlook the significance of these signatures
or the obvious contents of the letter itself, as reflected in
Judge Sewall's answer of September 17. The ministers of
1 66 The Beginnings of Yale
the upper-Colony towns had not come into the affair when
this letter was written. The college project, up to the first
week in August, 1701, had remained in the hands of the
original leaders, to whom had been added several others
of the Long Island Sound villages, who were of their way
of thinking.
And the reply of these two Crown officers fits in, also,
with the situation as I have presented it. Said Sewall : "I
have been thinking that considering the present distress [no
doubt referring to political difficulties with England], it
may be best to do as little by the government as is possible
with attaining the end. And therefore should not be eager
in building a college [by which he meant a house] or
settling revenues by a law." The letter proceeds to suggest
that "the act only contain authority for such a person [the
President] by himself and Tutors under him to instruct
youth in academical learning, and give them degrees. And
let the act oblige the president to pray and expound the
Scriptures in the hall," and so on. The significance of this
reply is clearly twofold: that there had been no formal
"founding" of the college up to that time, August, 1701,
but that the project was still in a hazy state; and that the
signers of the letter were proposing to go before the coming
Assembly for some "action" regarding the scheme. Sewall
adds the interesting remark, regarding this latter plan, that
he hopes "within these few days to send something more
mature and in form either by the post or some other good
hand." And he drops the matter there with the voluntary
promise to send them his "small essay towards opening the
eighteenth century; and a sheet to discourage our trading to
Africa for men." 1
1 This was the first anti-slavery document to be published in New
England, though its point must have been considerably dulled by Captain
Sewall's public purchase of a Negro slave a short time afterwards.
The "Founding" by the Ministers 167
We may take it, therefore, in concluding our chronicles
of this admittedly hazy year, that in August, 1701, the
college plan had not proceeded beyond the point where the
original promoters of it, and a few of their friends and
neighbors along the shore of their own way of thinking, had,
with the approach of the Assembly, written to Judge Sewall
asking for an outline of a college charter which they could
lay before the friendly Colony legislature which was in
October to meet for the first time in New Haven.
IV
The summer of 1701 now passed while the reply of
Secretary Addington was awaited. "Instructions" for a
charter, probably by Pierpont, had been enclosed for
Secretary Addington in the letter to Sewall, and had been
handed to him by the latter. Until these arrived, and with
the near approach of the Assembly which was set for the
first week in October, I think we may safely say that the con-
sultations of James Pierpont's friends must have been as
frequent as the means of travel allowed, and were rapidly
coming to a climax. The synod proposal for the college
control was doubtless still in the air by September, 1701,
and the two Mather letters had been on that side. These
had been side-tracked by the Pierpont party, now in active
charge of the undertaking. But the large question still
remained, whether the Colony legislature had the legal right
under the Colony charter to "give a liberty" to such a
college, and whether they would do so.
V
Lacking the precise facts, we have to depend upon con-
jecture only when we say that Pierpont and Andrew and
Pierson, and the others of their party, now proposed to take
168 The Beginnings of Yale
time by the forelock and, by "founding" the college them-
selves, forestall the very probable opposition that might
crop out in the coming Assembly against the legality of the
proposed charter. This is probably a safe conjecture.
Adopting it, we shall at least be sure that there was some
gathering at Samuel Russel's house in Branford imme-
diately after the first of October, 1701. This is proved by
the superscription on the letter of John Eliot, a Windsor
lawyer, who, replying under that date to questions asked
him, sends his letter to Abraham Pierson "at Branford."
For it may be said that the contents of all of the extant
letters of the Fall of 1701 to the college promoters certainly
go to show that, up to October, 1701, there had been no
"founding" by anyone. President Clap's single authority
to the contrary is met by the significant fact that, where he
says from hearsay long afterwards that ten ministers had
been chosen previous to this time, Eliot's letter of October i,
1701, refers to the "said eight Elders and said Master,"
(as if each county were to have two) and that the final
number, eleven, was not arrived at until after the Assembly
had met, and Pierpont had inserted it himself in the draft
of a charter.
The Branford of the elder Pierson's day had expanded
by 1700 into a scattering hamlet running north from Bran-
ford Point to the present village Green, the latter a rough
open space of hollows and hills, studded with huge boulders.
"Sabbath-day" houses stood about this Green, the square
wooden Meeting-house in its center. "Whipping-post Hill,"
so named from its use for the town stocks of previous days,
sloped away from this central square. Just south of the
present burying ground was the parsonage of the Rev.
Samuel Russel. > This was a large and even handsome house
in its day, of the gaunt and quite unlovely "lean-to" variety
that had come into style a little earlier throughout the
The "Founding" by the Ministers 169
Colony. 1 One of the four large first-floor rooms of this
house, the "south parlor" as it was called, was traditionally
the place for the first formal gathering of the sponsors for
the proposed Colony school that we know anything definite
about.
All of the evidence in the matter goes to show that the
single purpose of this meeting in Branford about the first
of October, 1701, was, by "founding" the college, there to
establish a priority if the Assembly declined to accept the
responsibility. 2 This was probably done, as tradition says,
by promising to give to the School a number of books. In
all probability no actual books were there given, President
Clap to the contrary. A letter from Rev. James Noyes,
expressing his regrets that he could not attend the Saybrook
organization meeting in the following month, seems to settle
this point. He speaks of some very recent journey, likely
enough to this Branford meeting, and says that he had
authorized his brother to "give out of my books at his
house my full proportion, and in nothing would I be behind-
hand in so public a good." If any books were actually given
at Branford, they were too few in number to be of any
consequence.
Abraham Pierson brought two letters to this Branford
meeting bearing on this all-important necessity for a prior
"founding."
Old Gershom Bulkeley, under date of September 27, had
sent to Mr. Pierson his reply to the request for his opinion
on the legality of a Colony charter. The old gentleman
1 The old Samuel Russel house was pulled down about 1836, but the
doors were saved and today may be seen set into the walls of the Librarian's
office in the University Library. (See page 148.)
2 Professor Dexter guardedly suggests this in his paper referred to, and
Professor Smith, in his study, remarks that "This view has the merit of
making the donation [of books at Branford] intelligible." Against it is
President Clap's statement that it occurred a year previous.
170 The Beginnings of Yale
thought that the Assembly would not enact one, and that it
would prove a boomerang to both the college and the
Colony if it did. He strongly advised that the agitators
drop the plan for Colony assistance and humbly ask the
King and Parliament for a charter. Pierson's second
letter, which he laid before his friends at Branford, was
from Eleazar Kimberly, the Secretary of State of the
Colony. The Secretary believed that such a charter as was
proposed by them would be legal. Awaiting Mr. Pierson
at Branford was the third letter, that of young John Eliot,
which has been mentioned. It had just arrived by messenger
over the rough back-country bridle-path from Windsor.
It was a comprehensive and scholarly lawyer's document
for that day, replying to several questions asked him by Mr.
Pierson, and concluding that the Colony government had
every right to grant the proposed charter. On less vital
matters he averred that the school property "for the
present" should be in the hands of a third party, to be dis-
tributed by the trustees, and that, to avoid notice abroad
and jealousies at home, the school should not attempt to
give degrees.
In the face of these conflicting opinions, the weight of
which, however, was on the side of proceeding with the
plan, I take it that the college party saw every reason for
immediate passage of the charter by the Assembly. The
indications are all to the effect that this Branford meeting
of October 2 or 3, 1701, was a hurried final meeting of
the promoters, and that there, by a common agreement to
give books, the coast-town ministers hoped to establish an
organization and property rights that would give the coming
Assembly some precedent to confirm, rather than a new
enterprise to establish on its own responsibility. If we are
going too far to assert such astuteness on the part of the
college party, the event undoubtedly showed that this action
The "Founding" by the Ministers 171
had been well taken. While the actual founding of the
Collegiate School, under the permission given by the charter
to do so, came a month later, this Branford meeting unques-
tionably established a prior act of some kind that was neces-
sary. The whole question of the independence of Yale
College from the State, that came up for settlement a
generation later, depended upon the historic certainty of
this previous action by the ministers.
CHAPTER V
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY CHARTER
I
OUBTLESS it was a red-letter day
for James Pierpont's good people
when the General Assembly gathered
for its first session in New Haven on
October 9, 1701.
For the arrival of the honorable
members of the two Houses, the Gov-
ernor and Deputy Governor, and the
usual number of curious and interested outsiders, brought
a novel and exciting week and taxed the town's accommoda-
tions to the utmost. Probably the hospitable New Haven
folk opened their houses for the official visitors and guests
and entertained them in the generously hospitable manner
of the day. Scattered farmhouses at that time dotted the
The General Assembly Charter 173
broad village lanes on all of the eight outer squares, the
greater number being on the southern side, where there was
easy access to the harbor and that "little wharf" that jutted
out southeast of the present State Street. The town gaol
and courthouse of John Davenport's Mosaic common-
wealth were still standing on the upper Market-place, and
on that open public square were the Meeting-house, the
Hopkins Grammar School, and the village cemetery. The
original creek up which John Davenport's colonists had
sailed to the old corner of College and George Streets was
still in use. Much of the traveling then was done by small
sloops and a convenient way to come to New Haven was
up this narrow creek to the town landing-place at College
Street. But a short distance north of this dock, up College
Street, about where the present Taft Hotel stands at the
Chapel Street corner, was Captain Miles' Tavern. This
was the famous old "mansion" of Deputy Governor
Goodyear of Davenport's days, which had been offered to
the "college" in 1658 as the "president's house." 1 It still
1 1 am indebted to General George H. Ford of New Haven both for
the loan of a painting in his possession of Miles' Tavern (upon which Mr.
Diedricksen has based his drawing on page 175), and for some interesting
historical notes concerning it. This land originally had been allotted to
one William Hawkins of London; he did not emigrate and the lot was
bought by Deputy Governor Goodyear, whose first New Haven house was
next east on Chapel Street. Goodyear built this house, known as "the
Mansion house," on the Hawkins lot, and offered it, as we have seen, to
the New Haven Colony for a "president's house" for its college. After his
death John Harriman, innkeeper, bought the place, and managed it as an
"ordinary," his son succeeding him. John Miles, Dragoon Captain and a
New Haven Deputy to the Assembly, probably kept the tavern shortly after
1690, and bought it in 1703. It became the "Beers' Tavern" around 1750,
and, with an added low covered porch on both street sides, was the town's
chief hostelry until the year 1850, when it was torn down for the first
"New Haven House." John Adams was a guest here in 1774 on his way
to the first Continental Congress; General Washington and staff stopped
here overnight on his way to take command of the Continental Army at
Cambridge in 1775; Mrs. Washington and Mrs. General Gates were
174 The Beginnings of Yale
stood in its six acres of pleasant meadow and orchard that
ran south along College Street perhaps to Crown, and
easterly down Chapel nearly to Temple. Joseph Brown's
quaint old map of 1724 shows this house, and none other,
on the present Chapel Street side of the modern Green
down to the corner of Chapel and Church Streets, where
the now abandoned Gregson homestead stood. Miles'
Tavern must have been the chief rendezvous of the As-
sembly during this first session at New Haven. During the
next Assembly he was voted 5 "to pay for the Colony ex-
penses in his house." The townspeople, however, had pre-
pared for the week's stay of the honorable body by extending
permission to five other residents to "Sell Rum only while
the Court sits." As there was then no other large public
building than the Meeting-house, the Deputies seem to have
met there, the Council no doubt sitting in one of Captain
Miles' upper rooms, where they could discuss the public
business in retirement with the Governor, and whence they
would proceed down across the public square to join the
Deputies in the Meeting-house when occasion demanded.
II
Since the final Branford meeting, the week previous, the
Pierpont group of coast-town ministers had been anxiously
awaiting the arrival of that draft of a charter which they
had asked of Judge Sewall and Secretary Addington of
entertained here that same year, and Mrs. Washington again on her return
journey from Boston; Baron Von Steuben was here in 1779, and the
British officers had a look in on its pantry and wine cellar in their invasion
of the town that year. In 1783 Mr. Beers opened a bookshop in one of the
first-floor rooms, and rented rooms to Yale students in the upper part. It
later became a private residence. The first "New Haven House" was built
there by Mr. Augustus R. Street, of the Class of 1812, and, on his death, the
property was left by him for the support of the Yale Art School. The
College sold the land in 1867, applying the proceeds to the Art School cost
and other endowments given by Mr. Street.
176 The Beginnings of Yale
Boston. This had not come when the Assembly had begun
its sessions on October 9, and we may imagine the college
promoters, who would naturally have come to New Haven
to see their charter passed, in a great to-do over the delay,
until it arrived by post from New London the next day. The
Boston packet was addressed to the Reverend Buckingham,
and it was now gone over by the ministers at Mr. Pierpont's
house and the petition which was to accompany it written.
This final discussion of the charter seems to have taken
four or five days. For the form in which it had come from
the Massachusetts framers was not, in some essential
points, to the New Haven ministers' liking. The "Instruc-
tions" that had been sent to the Boston lawyers had been
a layman's general ideas of what was wanted. The Boston
reply was not only a lawyer's codification of these ideas,
but, in a few main matters, to quite a different purpose than
the original New Haven design. While perhaps a small
matter in itself, this difference has more significance than
has usually been assigned to it. For the two points of view
which had been at loggerheads over the college appear to
be rather clearly shown thereby. The New Haven minis-
ters' preliminary draft (no copy of which is now in exist-
ence) had undoubtedly been quite in line with the tradi-
tional and independent Congregationalism of Pierpont's
circle. The Boston reply very emphatically hints of the
increasing sentiment in the Massachusetts of that period for
a stronger church association. The Pierpont scheme had
been less, probably, for a Congregational-church school
than for a public academy that would bolster up the Con-
gregational churches and yet not be controlled by them.
It was possibly because he did not have these original
papers before him, that President Clap did not make this
clear in his "Annals." From that circumstance arose the
flat statements by President Quincy of Harvard that the
The General Assembly Charter 177
Massachusetts church leaders not only began the Colle-
giate School project, but furnished its charter for it, and,
therefore, should be considered its founders. The result
of this has been some misapprehension of the facts involved,
in spite of exhaustive proofs of the real situation by such
critics of President Quincy's "History of Harvard" as the
late Professor Kingsley 1 of Yale and Professor Dexter.
Not only was the Massachusetts church-control theory
shown in this charter of Addington's; I surmise that the
hand of an influential Connecticut faction may likewise be
discerned in it. Judge Sewall's diary records the fact that
the Rev. Timothy Woodbridge, the Hartford minister, was
at this time in Boston; says Sewall: "Mr. Timothy Wood-
bridge remains here lame by reason of a humor fallen into
his right leg." This was written under date of October
29, 1701. Now the records of the First Church of Hart-
ford show 2 that Woodbridge was absent from Hartford
for most of the year 1701 and for all of the year 1702,
"apparently ill, in Boston." Repeated efforts were made
to secure his return to his Hartford congregation, which did
not succeed until February, 1703. During most if not all
of this long absence, Woodbridge appears to have been ill,
suffering from some "sorrowful circumstances which the
providence of God hath laid him under" (say the Hartford
records). Captain Sewall writes in his diary of dining
with him and Increase Mather in October, 1702. In
January, 1703, Woodbridge "Prayed at the opening of the
1 Professor Kingsley's criticism of Quincy will be found in The Ameri-
can Biblical Repository for 1841. While successfully demolishing the
Massachusetts faction's establishment of Yale, Professor Kingsley un-
doubtedly went too far to the other extreme, and denies the very evident
influence of the Massachusetts theological uproar of 1698-1701 on the
Connecticut establishment.
2 This is stated by the historian of the Hartford church, George L.
Walker.
178 The Beginnings of Yale
Court at Charlestown," etc. Inasmuch as he was a resident
of Boston during 1701-1703, and hence at hand during the
period when Sewall and Addington were drawing up their
draft of the Collegiate
(** /(**// School charter, it is entirely
Qj OJWU&l <UWAUL . probable that he was con-
sulted in it, and thereby
added his own theories as to the course Connecticut should
take to those of the Massachusetts lawyers, with whom, as
with Mather, he appears to have been in very friendly rela-
tions. If we could be certain of this (and the fact has not
been suggested before, to my knowledge), we have the
interesting situation that, where James Pierpont had been
careful to "found" the Collegiate School before the Assem-
bly convened, Timothy Woodbridge was party to the Boston
legal suggestion that the Assembly "found" it, instead, and
to the theory of governmental visitation and church-synod
control advised by the Mathers.
The letter from the two Boston lawyers, accompanying
their charter draft, is still extant. In it they "crave pardon"
for the long delay, but excuse themselves, both on the
ground of many other duties, and because of "not knowing
what to do for fear of overdoing." And they had stumbled
over one thing especially. This was that "there is no
mention made [in the 'Instructions'] of any visitation, which
is exceedingly proper and beneficial; all humane societies
standing in need of a check upon them." This was exactly
what Pierpont and his friends had not wanted. The Boston
men proceeded: "We know not how to call or qualify it,
but that in a little time it might probably prove subversive
of your design." Regarding the School they said: "We on
purpose gave your academy as low a name as we could, that
it might the better stand in wind and weather, not daring to
incorporate it, lest it should be liable to be served with a
The General Assembly Charter 179
writ of quo warranto." They "should have traveled further
in it [they added], if your instructions or our invention had
dictated to us, not knowing well what scheme to project,
because we could not tell how far your government will
encourage the design." Sewall and Addington, good legal
conservatives that they were, hoped that matters, however,
would turn out well, as "We should be very glad to hear
of flourishing schools and a College at Connecticut, and it
would be some relief to us against the sorrow we have con-
ceived for the decay of them in this province." And they
added, as a special urging for the theological provision in
their charter, that "as the end of all learning is to fit men
to search the Scriptures," the "Rector should expound the
Scriptures diligently morning and evening."
The New Haven group of ministers, however, were far
from being as fearful of the illegality of the act they were
to ask for, and of its consequences, as were the Boston
lawyers. They knew their Connecticut better than that.
They had taken the bull by the horns, if the Branford
"founding" tradition may be believed, so far as any danger
of asking the Assembly to
act on its own responsi-
bility was concerned. Nor
were they in sympathy with
the idea of making their school as much of a theological
seminary as the two elderly Boston Puritan leaders pro-
posed. Their plans for their Connecticut college were much
broader than to make it a "school of the churches" or a
theological seminary.
I need not go into the very many changes which Pierpont
now made in the Sewall and Addington draft. 1 But the main
1 Judge Sewall was informed of the passage of the Collegiate School
Act in letters from the Trustees which he refers to as dated the "15th and
16th" of October, 1701, references which give us the latest dates for the
180 The Beginnings of Yale
alterations and additions need to be noted, as they clearly
show what was in James Pierpont's mind. The Boston
draft was "An Act for Founding a Collegiate School."
Pierpont's significant alteration is to "An Act for Liberty
to erect a Collegiate School" (already, we may thus sur-
mise, "founded"). The term "Collegiate School" had
occurred in several letters of the earlier fall, and doubtless
had been accepted, partly because the enterprise had not
yet risen to the dignity of a "university," or even to that of
a "college" in the contemporary use of the term, and partly
because it seemed that caution should be used in not making
too noticeable a beginning. A further important element in
the Boston draft was omitted, wherein the Westminster Con-
fession, as expounded in Dr. Ames' "Medulla Theologiae"
(the famous Calvinistic doctrinal book of the earlier Puri-
tan days), was ordered "diligently read in the Latin tongue,
and well studied by all scholars educated in the said school."
While Dr. Ames' book became one of the text-books of the
Collegiate School in good season, the Pierpont founders
evidently did not think it best to so order it in the charter.
In the concluding paragraph, the Boston draft empowered
passage of that act. On October 29 he writes that he would like to see the
charter, "as an ample Reward for any thing we have done for you." He
also wants to know "the Place where the College is to be, as soon as you
have Appointed it." This was very likely a matter for curiosity to Timothy
Woodbridge, near Sewall, if not in his house, at the time, and the question
may have been suggested by him. The Boston judge remained a good friend
of the Connecticut academy in later years. He sent "five Volumes of Pole's
Synopsis Criticorum," to the School in 1707, though he seems to have had
difficulty in getting the books delivered. "They have been Transported
from Boston to Woodbury; and back again," he writes to the Trustees. "If
it please God they get well to Saybrook, I would have them rest there, and
move no more." The last word that we hear from him about the School
which he helped establish is in this friendly letter. He wishes to be remem-
bered as "a Wellwisher to the Prosperity of your College; tho possibly, it
may import the less increase of our own, I hope the Interests of Christ's
Kingdom in general, will be promoted; wch is that we should aim at."
The General Assembly Charter 181
the trustees to receive gifts "as from time to time shall be
freely given," for "the founding, erecting and endowing of
the same." In the amended draft, Pierpont inserted after
the reference to the gifts the phrase "as have heretofore
already been granted," for the "founding," and so on.
Here again is a change which very logically points toward
some preliminary organization and the giving of property
to it.
One other important alteration in the Boston draft re-
mains to be noted. Sewall and Addington had left the site
for the school blank, and had arranged for certain "Minis-
ters and Gentlemen," unnamed and their number left blank,
to become the "trustees." At the meetings at Pierpont's
house, the references to a site were struck out, the word
"Gentlemen" was omitted, and the blank left for the num-
ber of trustees filled by inserting the names of ten ministers :
"The Rev. Mr. James Noyes, of Stonington, Mr. Israel
Chauncy, of Stratford, Mr. Thomas Buckingham, of Say-
brook, Mr. Abraham Pierson, of Killingworth, Mr.
Samuel Mather, of Windsor, Mr. Samuel Andrew, of
Milford, Mr. Timothy Woodbridge, of Hartford, Mr.
James Pierpont, of New Haven, Mr. Noadiah Russell, of
Middletown, and Mr. Joseph Webb, of Fairfield."
Just what had happened to produce this particular list of
trustees we do not know. Evidently the "Instructions" of
August 7 had contained no specific number of founders.
We have seen how the enterprise up to that time (and, so
far as contemporary documents go to show, up to October
9) had been entirely in the hands of the group of ministers
along the Sound. To John Eliot on September 17 it had
been written that "eight elders" and a Master were to be
the number, evidently two for each of the four counties. It
had now been decided to increase the number of trustees to
ten. Gurdon Saltonstall, of the original movers, and
1 82 The Beginnings of Yale
Samuel Russel, were not included among those selected, and
three new names Timothy Woodbridge, old Samuel
Mather, and Noadiah Russell had been added.
I fancy that one conjecture as to this selection is as good
as another. Yet we are probably somewhere within the
facts if (with our recent acquaintance with the bigwigs of
the Colony in mind) we consider that as matters concerning
the founding of the Collegiate School had approached this
critical pass, and as the news of the proposed founding was
noised abroad, the traditional jealousy between the old Con-
necticut and New Haven Colonies had again broken out,
and that the Hartford ministers had come into the situation,
if belatedly, with some precipitation and for purposes of
their own. Events were to show an underlying hostility to
the Pierpont party, on the part of Timothy Woodbridge,
whose residence in Boston at that moment, close to Sewall
and Addington, must have been well known. That Hart-
ford County received three trustees at this time, was likely
enough for "reasons of state." In that event, both Wood-
bridge and Russell were natural choices. But Samuel
Mather was an invalid, and never attended a Collegiate
School trustee meeting. His choice, in the face of this well-
known expectation, could hardly have been but for his
prominence in his county, his relation as son-in-law to the
Deputy Governor and brother-in-law to the Rev. Samuel
Andrew of Milford, and because, by adding him, such oppo-
sition as was forming around Hartford to the Pierpont
leadership might be curbed by taking in all of the chief
objectors. That New London County should have three
was probably because the Pierpont party had it in mind to
choose Abraham Pierson for the first Rector, and that his
place on the board of ten would then be taken by another
from another county, as was the case.
The General Assembly Charter 183
But why the important selection of a site, which naturally
would have been incorporated in the charter under ordinary
conditions, was left out, is not so clear. Undoubtedly,
however, the omission points to this same collision between
Hartford and New Haven interests. It can hardly be
believed that James Pierpont, following out in his mind, as
he must have done, the earlier efforts of his famous prede-
cessor for a New Haven college, did not hope, if not
expect, to settle the Collegiate School at New Haven. And
it is just as well established that the Hartford party wanted
it there. So there appears to have been a deadlock on this
question from the start. As the charter was drawn up, it
would appear that this trouble caused both the omission of
a site for the school, and the concession to the Hartford
party of an extra trustee.
In the meantime, the Council and the Lower House had
been going about the regular Colony's business. The pres-
entation of the tax list had been attended to, Hartford and
New Haven leading and Waterbury, Derby, and Killing-
worth ending the list. The annual rates are imposed, two
and a half penny a pound, to be paid in wheat, pork, etc.
The salaries for the year are fixed, the Governor being
voted 120, though he has to pay for his own "waiting men
and horses." Each of the four counties is ordered to
maintain "a sufficient gaol or prison house." It is decided to
print fifteen hundred copies of the Colony laws. A com-
mittee, of which the Rev. James Noyes of the College
founders and young John Eliot of the house are members, is
named to treat again with Rhode Island about the long-
disputed boundary line. The Colony College project then
comes up. The charter, accepted by the Governor and his
Council in agreeable conference at Captain Miles' Tavern,
is now to go to the Lower House. Here its reception may
have been considered problematical.
184 The Beginnings of Yale
III
We may fancy ourselves present at the scene in the rough
wooden Meeting-house on the New Haven Market-place
on that Friday morning, October 16, 1701, when we may
take it that the final act in the long succession of efforts
which we have been reviewing, for a Connecticut Colony
college, was played by the Deputies. John Davenport's
persevering spirit, in its glistening robes of that realistic
Heaven to which he had devoutly believed that he would go,
may well have hovered over that audience of the sons of
his troubled earthly generation. The Meeting-house bell
reverberates through the fresh autumn morning air.
Toward the four-square clapboarded building, with its squat
belfry and weather vane surmounting its four-sloped shin-
gled roof, proceed the actors in this final drama of New
Haven's long College dream. From Captain Miles' Tavern,
under the great oaks and buttonwoods of the public square,
comes old Governor Fitz-John Winthrop, a famous dandy
of his day, in periwig and gold-laced cocked hat, scarlet-
lined coat, lavishly-embroidered waistcoat, blue silk stockings
and silver-buckled shoes. With him walks the aged Robert
Treat, now Deputy Governor, in the sedate white band and
somber garb of the older days. The ten Assistants come
out over the ancient sandy square from the several streets,
in their white or scarlet square-cut coats, broad skirted
with large cuffs, gold and silver buttoned, in ruffles, no
doubt discussing with the ministers, who have come to town
to see the college charter passed, the possibility of the
Lower House concurring in their own favorable action.
The Deputies from the towns of the Colony saunter over,
doubtless with their New Haven hosts, the country dele-
gates in their crude imitations of the now somewhat gaudy
attire of the bigwigs. James Pierpont, in his black-crepe
ministerial robes that he has recently ordered from Boston,
1 86 The Beginnings of Yale
and the charter under his arm, comes out of his parsonage
with Gurdon Saltonstall and Abraham Pierson and Thomas
Buckingham, and crosses the Market-place to mingle with
the audience of the day's discussion. The magnificently-
garbed Governor goes up into the high pulpit which had
been moved back into the addition built the year before to
the Meeting-house. The Deputies take their places; the
Council scatter about, dignified spectators of the day's
affairs; the townsfolk and visitors, with here and there
a bevy of great ladies of the Colony, in those wigs and
hooped petticoats that had just become the rage, overflow
into the rear and side benches, while the less-important
populace climbs up into the two narrow galleries. A minis-
ter, possibly James Pierpont by right of his local authority,
opens the session with prayer and the business of the day
begins. 1
The records of the Assembly's discussions on this occasion
are lost, and we shall have to depend upon conjecture for
our view of what occurred. But I think that we know
enough about the situation to venture it. The clerk calls
for the Act concerning the proposed Collegiate School, as
1 Attending this first New Haven session of the General Assembly were
the following: Governor Fitz-John Winthrop and Deputy Governor Treat
of Milford; Magistrates Leet, Fitch, Mason, Wetherell, Stanley, Mansfield,
Pitkin, Curtis, Chester, and Rossiter; and the following Deputies: Hart-
ford Hooker and Cook; New Haven Osborn and Ailing; Windsor
Wolcott and Eliot; Fairfield Wakeman and Speaker Burr; New Lon-
don Smith and Hough; Stratford Judson and Coe; Wethersfield Treat
and Wells; Guilford Bradley and Fowler; Milford Clark and Peck;
Windham Ripley and Crane; Branford Malbie and Clerk Stent; Wal-
lingford Hall and Merriman; Woodbury Sherman; Derby Johnson and
Riggs; Stamford Waterbury and Holly; Haddam Chapman and Brain-
erd; Middletown White and Sumner; Waterbury Judd and Bronson;
Glastonbury Smith and Hale; Saybrook Nathaniel Lynde and Chapman;
Norwich Tracy ; Lyme Ely and Peck ; Stonington Mason and Saxton ;
Simsbury Higlee and Wilcockson; Killingworth Crane and Lane; Farm-
ington Hooker and Bull; Norwalk Messenger and Keeler.
The General Assembly Charter 187
passed by the Assistants. And he reads the vigorous pre-
amble, or petition, 1 introducing it, which Pierpont and his
friends had during the past week been busy upon and secur-
ing signatures to. Then the Act itself "for Liberty to erect
a Collegiate School" is droningly read. The famous
meeting is open.
Judging from all the attending circumstances, I do not
suppose that a very serious effort is made to side-track the
charter. The Pierpont party has had full opportunity from
Tuesday until Friday to acquaint the leaders in the House
with the latest developments in the plan of which they must
already have had full knowledge, and the phrasing of the
charter no doubt has been submitted to them. Yet there
is opposition. Gershom Bulkeley's timorous idea that the
Assembly would only get itself into trouble with the Royal
authority by granting a Connecticut college charter un-
doubtedly has its adherents, and we may believe that this
is the first point raised and argued. It has, however, been
thoroughly canvassed before this, and the Assistants have
expressed their minds on it, in passing the Act. It may well
have been left to Deputy John Eliot to explain this common
sentiment, as he had done in his letter to the Branford
meeting. The Colony had every right (says Eliot, standing
!This preamble, based on the petition already in circulation, was as
follows:
"Whereas several well disposed, and Publick spirited Persons of their
sincere regard to & Zeal for upholding & Propagating of the Christian
Protestant Religion by a succession of Learned & Orthodox men have ex-
pressed by Petition their earnest desires that full Liberty and Priveledge
be granted unto certain Undertakers for the founding, suitably endowing
& ordering a Collegiate School within his Maj Ues Colony of Connecticot
wherin Youth may be instructed in the Arts & Sciences who thorough the
blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Publick employment both in
Church & Civil State. To the intent therefore that all due incouragement
be Given to such Pious Resolutions and that so necessary & Religious an
undertakeing may be sett forward, supported and well managed: BE IT
ENACTED by the Govern r & Company," etc. etc.
1 88 The Beginnings of Yale
up in his flowing cloak) to charter such a school, and such a
charter could not be "overthrown by law regularly exe-
cuted," though, of course, it could be by force from Eng-
land, a contingency that Connecticut wit will continue to
avoid. He cites a number of cases where the various
Colonial General Courts have created and incorporated
societies. He would admit the possibility of trouble, both
for the school and Colony, as had been advanced by pre-
vious fearful speakers, if the projected academy was, in the
first place, to be incorporated outright at this session, or, in
the second place, if it were planned on any grand lines that
might attract undue attention abroad. As to the first diffi-
culty, we may fancy the young Windsor lawyer saying, it
had been very properly avoided by the fact that the school
was already "founded" and already held property, at least
in the promises of books from its promoters. Concerning
the latter, it was doubtless observed by the honorable gentle-
men of the Assembly that the ministers who had brought
this matter up had been most careful not to overstep the
bounds of caution. They had asked merely for a charter
for a school which should have no high-sounding name, and
which should be presided over by a Rector or Master and
Tutors and Ushers instead of by officers going under the
more magnificent titles at Harvard and abroad. And the
petition for it was signed by many of the great men of
the Colony.
No doubt some arguments are made against proceeding
even under these promising conditions, on the ground that
it were a rash act that gave complete control over so impor-
tant an enterprise as a Colony college to any self-perpetuat-
ing body of men, even if they were such men as the dis-
tinguished ministers named. Where was its visitorial power
to be located? And what influence would the churches have
over it? Mr. Woodbridge's party may have raised this
The General Assembly Charter
question. I fancy that, if they did, they were as easily met.
The Act deliberately forsook the traditional form of uni-
versity government, to be sure. It differed from Harvard
in that no resident body of Fellows or Overseers was named,
and in that it gave the Assembly no right of visitation. But
conditions were different in Connecticut from what they
were in Massachusetts. The educated men of this Colony
were scattered about among the towns, where in Massa-
chusetts they were to a very considerable degree gathered
in Boston. And the intention was to have the master of the
school not necessarily a trustee, and certainly under the
control of the remaining ten ministers, who therefore
assumed, for the public at large, the right of visitation. 1
And if the church-synod organization question comes up, I
imagine that it is as easily overthrown, if it needs any argu-
ments before an Assembly the leaders of which are largely
in sympathy with the desire of Pierpont and his friends to
rid the enterprise of such an entanglement and who were
not yet prepared for the Saybrook Platform. The plan of
the founders had been a refrain of Davenport's ill-fated
earlier college plan, to establish a
Colony school for the education
of the youth in "the arts and
sciences," and for "public service to both church and com-
monwealth." It was not alone, or, perhaps especially, to be
a theological seminary for the churches.
So, when the question is finally put to the Assembly,
maybe John Eliot arises again to draw together the threads
of the statement for the college promoters, or Speaker Burr
of Samuel Andrew's church speaking from the chair
clearly assures the Deputies that they are within their rights
1 The Rector did not become necessarily a trustee until the charter of
1723 was passed.
The Beginnings of Yale
to act, and are establishing a promising educational institu-
tion for their descendants.
The Act is passed, just before the Assembly rises,
promptly to be signed by the much belaced Governor at
Captain Miles' hospitable tavern across the Market-place
later in the day. However
x-y 3 important the passage of
o jntcn this Act was to the future
Yale College, I suppose that
it did not make much stir
at the time. A group of the leading ministers of the Colony
had established a school. This was a desirable business, and
it was to be hoped that there would come some good from it.
But the train-band captains and lieutenants and village gentry
who made up the Lower House, were probably much more
interested in other and more practical things. George Pardee
of New Haven had complained that he wasn't paid suffi-
ciently for his services as ferryman across the Quinnipiac at
New Haven, and the House takes up the question and fixes
the rates he may charge. A little squabble between two of the
towns over a division line comes up, and the Assembly settles
it. A number of people are voted the right to take up
former grants of town lands, others are given patents for
purchases of land, the trouble between two men over the
distribution of an estate is laid over to the next Assembly,
Israel Chauncy and others are voted the authority to sell
some land as executors "for the procuring of money to
defray the charge of curing Thomas Sherwood who is
lame," a widow is permitted to sell some land, a committee
report comes in on the division and boundaries of land left
to two brothers between Killingworth and Saybrook. I
suppose that there was more interest in the Assembly in
these small matters than there was in giving the ministers
the right to start a school. It was only when the Assembly
The General Assembly Charter
191
later awoke to the possibilities of the Collegiate School that
it began to take a paternal interest in it.
During the morning, and to encourage the new School
at its start, Major John Fitch, of Plainfield, one of the
Upper House, gave to the Trustees created that day,
October 16, 1701, 637 acres of land in the remote town of
Killingly (where Timothy Woodbridge had his farm), and
a promise of glass and nails to build a college house.
Secretary
CHAPTER VI
THE SAYBROOK ORGANIZATION
BOUT three weeks later, the organi-
zation meeting of the Trustees named
in this charter of the Collegiate School
was held at Saybrook.
This old Connecticut town is today
a very different place from what it
was in 1701. There were but few
houses in the wooded tract which is
now Saybrook to the hurried traveler along the shore, the
village then being far down on what is now Old Saybrook
Point. One walks today through the broad, elm-lined main
street of the newer and upper part of the town, between
rows of substantial old mansions built during or just after
Revolutionary times, and then crosses a long, sandy stretch
that dips down to tide-level marshes, to rise gradually again
to the Old Saybrook of Thomas Buckingham's time. This
old part of the town is historic soil, where much had hap-
pened previous to 1701. Six years before Plymouth was
settled, tradition has it that Dutch skippers discovered the
strategic advantages of this neck of land commanding the
approach to the broad Connecticut River and the fertile
The Saybrook Organization 193
farming lands far up its banks where Hartford now is.
It was a Dutch Amsterdam trading post with the Indians
until 1632, and was claimed a purchase by them. Just
before that year, Viscount Say and Seal, and Lord Brook,
dissatisfied with the Puritan party prospects under Charles
I, had secured the transfer from Warwick of the Plymouth
claim to the Connecticut River, and had offered to young
John Winthrop, son of the Massachusetts Governor (and
later to be Connecticut's most famous Governor), the Gov-
ernorship of a new English Puritan colony to be settled
there. Winthrop took charge of affairs with his customary
energy. He built a fort and manned it with twenty fighting
men and guns, just in time to head off a Dutch invasion
belligerently intent upon the same business. A surveyor
arrived in 1636, and the town (named "Say-Brook" after
its two noble patentees) was laid out, much on the lines on
which John Brockett three years later was to survey New
Haven. And the Winthrop ambition was very much like
Theophilus Eaton's. Say-Brook was to be a great com-
mercial center. And it was to be more than that, if all
traditions are not astray. It was to be a New England
Puritan colony transcending in political importance any of
its neighbors. For tradition (possibly apocryphal) has it
that there was good expectation that a group of the great
English Puritans of that day, led by Pym and Hampden,
and including Cromwell and Milton, was to leave old Eng-
land and establish a second commonwealth there.
It was in view of these possibilities, so it is said, that sur-
veyor John Gardiner laid out Old Saybrook with two great
central squares, on which the Meeting-house and public
buildings were to be built in good time, and about which
were to rise the great houses of these important settlers.
A wooden fort was built on the riverside, later to be
replaced by stone battlements facing the Sound itself,
194 The Beginnings of Yale
and a strong palisade was erected across the low neck of
land connecting the Point with the mainland to the north.
Here, no doubt, Eaton dropped anchor on his way to look
for a site for his New Haven Colony in 1637. Here, two
years later, Colonel George Fenwick, one of the lesser
patentees, with his charming lady, arrived overland from
New Haven, driving before him that herd of Devonshire
cattle the descendants of which do the major service on
southern Connecticut farms today.
The Winthrop scheme failed completely, however. The
great Puritan statesmen never arrived. The great market-
place dwindled to a village green. Saybrook was sold to
the Connecticut Colony some five years later, to begin that
quiet and uneventful farming life which lasted without
anything of interest happening, except a very independent
reception of Andros in 1675 when Thomas Buckingham
galloped forth for aid, until this meeting of the Collegiate
School Trustees in 1701. The great houses of the English
Puritan leaders had never been built. The shallow har-
bor had never received any great laden English ships.
By 1701 the village was barely one of the first dozen towns
of the twenty-two in the Colony in tax-paying ranking, and,
in spite of its contemporary importance as the strategic
defense of the Connecticut River towns, gained perhaps all
of its standing in the Colony because of the character and
energy of Thomas Buckingham, its Congregational minister.
His parsonage faced the village green of Gardiner's origi-
nal layout, and was not far from the fort and training-
grounds which were still in order against a foreign invader.
Perhaps not over thirty farmhouses were scattered about
the Meeting-house, among their elms and gardens and
orchards, when the Trustees of the new Collegiate School
rode into town on that November morning in 1701 to
organize the Colony Collegiate School.
} l!i^
..Ji** 1 . 522*1. mm . s&R 5 ^
196 The Beginnings of Yale
II
This meeting was held beginning Tuesday, November 1 1,
a little under a month after the successful passage of the
charter.
Six of the ten Trustees named in that Act joined Thomas
Buckingham at his Saybrook parsonage at this time. Israel
Chauncy of Stratford, with young Joseph Webb of Fair-
field, riding over on horseback, doubtless pick up Samuel
Andrew at Milford and James Pierpont at New Haven, and
the elderly Abraham Pierson when they canter, followed
on horseback by their men-servants or slaves, into old Kill-
ingworth Street. Little Noadiah Russell rides briskly
down the picturesque Connecticut Valley bridle-path from
Middletown. Timothy Woodbridge did not come to this
meeting (as he had not to the previous two sessions), being
still detained by the "humor in his right leg" at Boston.
The third Hartford County Trustee, old Samuel Mather
of Windsor, sent his regrets (the first of a long series, by
the way), as did James Noyes of Stonington. The latter
wrote that he was not able to do much for the School, and
plaintively suggested that Gurdon Saltonstall undertake for
him the necessary drumming up of scholars in New London
County that might fall to his lot to secure. His brother,
Moses, of Old Lyme across the river, might be with the
Trustees in his place, writes James Noyes, but we do not
know that he was. This meeting, at which the legal "found-
ing" of the Collegiate School was to be the business in hand,
thus appears again to have been attended (with the excep-
tion of one newcomer, Noadiah Russell) by none except
the original leaders of the Long Island coast villages, though
Samuel Russel of Branford apparently did not appear.
Three days were given by the Trustees present at this
meeting to a thorough effort to establish their School, the
The Saybrook Organization 197
three important actions in which were to be the choice of a
site and of a Rector and the setting up of rules of govern-
ment for the scholars.
We may permit ourselves a glimpse at the little group of
periwigged and black-gowned ministers who now gathered
about the great table before Mr. Buckingham's hearth-fire,
which no doubt was blazing to keep out the penetrating cold
of the first of the wintry gales from the Sound. At the head
of the table no doubt sits Buckingham himself, his white
hair framing a strong face under his ministerial black cap.
About the table are the other founders : Israel Chauncy,
now close to sixty, pleasant-faced and kindly; Joseph Webb,
with ever-ready pleasantries if the need comes, but strong
for authority to be vested in the board; Samuel Andrew,
cultivated gentleman, perhaps not too energetic, yet keen of
eye and full of enthusiasm for the college project; the little
Middletown minister, peering up from his great chair and
very much alive to any action which might not meet with
the approval of the absent Woodbridge and Mather;
James Plerpont, the scribe of the meeting, handsome and
charming-mannered, his brown curly hair falling over his
shoulders, the papers having to do with the business in hand
before him; and the broad-shouldered Abraham Pierson
(they commonly called it "Person" in those days), probably
the largest man, physically, of the group, slow of manner
and quiet, but keenly interested, owing to the developments
which he anticipated, in every act of the meeting.
The first business is to hear James Pierpont read the
charter which the General Assembly had passed, granting
in the language of the founders themselves "a Liberty, and
privilege, for the founding, suitably endowing and ordering
a Collegiate School, within his Majesty's Colony of Con-
necticut, wherein youth may be instructed in the arts and
sciences, who through the blessing of Almighty God may be
198 The Beginnings of Yale
fitted for public employment both in church and civil state."
The seven ministers, most of whom had informally
"founded" the school at Branford before the Assembly
convened, now formally made themselves legal Trustees
under the Colony's charter by accepting the service and
giving books to a library, which books no doubt were now
laid actually upon the table. 1 Thus organized, the board
proceeded to the three main problems before it.
1 The resolutions adopted by the Trustees at this opening meeting
referred to their project of establishing a Connecticut Colony school, as
follows: "Whereas it was the glorious publick Design of our now blessed
Fathers, in their Remove from Europe into these Parts of America, both to
plant, and (under the Divine Blessing) to propagate in this Wilderness
the blessed reformed Protestant Religion, in the Purity of its Order and
Worship; not only to their Posterity, but also to the barbarous Natives: In
which great Enterprize they wanted not the Royal Commands and Favour
of his Majesty King Charles the Second, to authorize and invigorate them.
"We their unworthy Posterity, lamenting our past Neglects of this
grand Errand, and sensible of the equal Obligations, better to prosecute the
same End, are desirous in our Generation to be serviceable thereunto.
"Whereunto the religious and liberal Education of suitable Youth is,
under the Blessing of God, a chief and most probable Expedient. Therefore,
that we might not be wanting in cherishing the present observable and pious
Disposition of many well-minded People, to dedicate their Children and
Substance unto God in such a good Service: And being ourselves, with
sundry other Reverend Elders, not only desired by our Godly People,
to undertake as Trustees, for erecting, forming, ordering and regu-
lating a Collegiate School, for the Advancement of such an Education: But
having also obtained of our present religious Government, both full Liberty
and Assistance, by their Donations to such an Use: Tokens likewise that
particular Persons will not be wanting in their Beneficence: Do, in Duty
to God, and the Weal of our Country, undertake in the aforesaid Design.
And now being met, according to the Liberties and Aids granted to us for
the Use aforesaid; do order and appoint, that there shall be, and hereby is
erected and formed a Collegiate School, wherein shall be taught the liberal
Arts and Languages, in such Place or Places in Connecticut, as the said
Trustees with their Associates and Successors, do or shall, from Time to
Time, see Cause to order."
After which salutation, the "Rules" of the School are decided upon,
"according to the laudable Order and Usage of Harvard College," etc.
The Saybrook Organization 199
The question of a site and the choice of the Rector were
of such closely connected significance that I presume they
were discussed together and agreed upon perhaps only at
the end of the session. During this three-days discussion
other and comparatively minor matters were doubtless
passed upon first. It was decided, for one thing, that the
Rector (who was not necessarily to be one of the Board)
and Tutors should remain in office only under good be-
havior. No scholar was to be expelled except by a quorum
of the Trustees acting with the Rector (we may suppose
that Joseph Webb, still smarting a bit under his Sophomore
Harvard experience, had a good deal to say about this) . In
the matter of admission requirements, the Trustees imme-
diately decided that they themselves should not be bothered
with such matters. Entrance to the Collegiate School
was to depend wholly upon a reading knowledge of the
classics. The Rector, with the help of any conveniently-
reached neighboring minister, was therefore empowered to
examine candidates as they offered themselves at odd times
during the year, "and, finding them duly prepared and expert
in Latin and Greek authors, both poetic and oratorical, as
also making good Latin," should let them in. As to the
regular educational business of the school, the Rector was
now instructed to teach theological divinity, but in no other
system than the Trustees permitted; the Assembly's Latin
Catechism was to be recited weekly and expounded by the
Rector as was Dr. Ames' "Theological Theses," the
Trustees thereby following the Boston suggestion which
they had not cared to incorporate in the charter itself; the
Scriptures were ordered read daily, both at morning and
evening prayers, and by the scholars "as at Harvard," and
on Sabbath days the Rector was to expound practical
divinity or have the students repeat sermons. The con-
temporary Harvard curriculum was ordered followed, so
2OO
The Beginnings of Yale
acK ffiorse ^Tavern > <Sayroofc\ t Jjf L
far as the needs of the infant school permitted; the first, or
Arts degree, was set at the end of four years' resident study,
and the second, or Master's, three years afterwards; the
tuition charge was made thirty shillings a year for under-
graduates and ten shillings for graduate students. For the
time being, and until the Trustees could be assured of no
interference with the School from England, there were to be
no public "Commencements," and during that time the
School term might be shortened to three years.
Ill
The all-important matter of a site and choice of Rector
now came to a decision.
It would appear that these two matters had been
thoroughly canvassed before this organization meeting, as
The Saybrook Organization 201
they naturally would have been almost from the very
beginning of the College discussion. And from what
happened at this meeting, I should think that the result
had been pretty thoroughly understood in advance. There
were, as I have shown, two factions among the Trustees
who had been named in the charter. The Hartford mem-
bers, taken into the scheme as it came to a conclusion,
with the possible addition of Moses Noyes and Thomas
Buckingham, were probably opposed to the very natural
desire of Pierpont's New Haven group that the college
should be begun in the latter village. 1 Nor would the sea-
coast-town ministers agree on Hartford. The agitation for
a permanent settlement at Hartford, which began almost
immediately after this meeting, would go to show that
little Noadiah Russell, the only representative of that
county at the Saybrook meeting, undoubtedly pressed it as
his county's claim (which was based on Hartford's known
preeminence in population and wealth over the remaining
towns). Against New Haven, and doubtless for Saybrook
as a compromise, were Noyes and Buckingham, at this time
probably supported from the outside by Saltonstall and
Governor Winthrop. I judge that the Trustees from the
western seacoast towns were for New Haven, as they
certainly were steadily opposed throughout the later agita-
tion to Hartford.
As the settlement of this question was bound up in the
selection of a Rector, we may take it that the decision was
again postponed until that choice was made.
1 Samuel Mather had written to his fellow Trustees, on October 27, 1701,
that he had been ill, but that he was much interested in the School. As to
the site, he was then for New Haven, as he says: "My mind is fully fixt in
that New-haven Town Plat is ye best place for such a Schole. I have not
been able as yet to discourse ye neighbouring ministers concerning yt matter."
This was the last we hear of the Windsor Trustee's preference for New
Haven. After Timothy Woodbridge had "discoursed" him, we find him
enrolled by Woodbridge on the Hartford side.
2O2 The Beginnings of Yale
As this question came to the front, James Pierpont's
leadership now again asserted itself. In a memorandum in
his handwriting concerning this meeting, we have not only
a list of things to be done (all of which were carried out and
to the effect above narrated) but we have the significant
entry, "to provide if Mr. Pierson refuse." This memoran-
dum clearly shows that James Pierpont had had Abraham
Pierson in mind for the Rectorship, and likewise suggests
that Mr. Pierson had been approached on the matter and
had not fully decided about it.
The election of Yale's first Rector began, however, with
a complimentary vote for Israel Chauncy, the son of Presi-
dent Chauncey of Harvard and a well-known scholar him-
self. This was as gracefully declined by that now aged
minister, and Pierson's name seems to have at once been
introduced.
In the succeeding chapter I shall gather together what we
know of this Killingworth minister. As we have seen, he
had been among the earliest promoters of the College plan
and had taken the lead in securing Connecticut opinions on
the validity of the charter for the Branford meeting earlier
in the fall. While others of the Trustees, especially those
from Hartford County, had been chosen for their town and
sectional representation as much as for anything else, Mr.
Pierson's little farming community (it was far down on the
Colony tax-list, and a mere village) brought him. no such
distinction, and he had been made a Trustee wholly on his
own account. Yet he undoubtedly had demurred when the
proposition had been made to him by Pierpont, because he
did not wish to leave his people. Reserving his full accept-
ance of the first Rectorship of the Collegiate School until a
second meeting of the Trustees, to be held at New Haven
the following April, Abraham Pierson settled the question
temporarily by at least not refusing it. The Saybrook
The Saybrook Organization 203
meeting now adjourned to April in New Haven, and, when
that meeting was held, very likely at James Pierpont's
house, Pierson formally accepted, saying that he "durst not
refuse such a service for God and his generation, but sub-
mitted himself to take the charge and work of Rector upon
him."
The expectation that he would do this, and that he would
agree to remove to Saybrook, had led the Trustees to vote
to settle the Collegiate School at that town, and to name as
Treasurer one of its leading citizens, Nathaniel Lynde.
But he had either declined or had immediately resigned, and
Richard Rosewell, a newly-settled West India merchant in
Ja"mes Pierpont's distant New Haven congregation, had
taken his place. Upon Rosewell's death shortly afterwards,
Judge John Ailing, another New Haven merchant, was
elected. Judge Ailing, whose blacksmith shop probably
stood on the west side of the present Church Street, just
south of Crown, had been Town Recorder for twenty years,
a Deputy in the Assembly from New Haven, a Councilor,
Judge of Probate and of the County Court, and was for the
next fifteen years to be the Collegiate School's financial
manager. One further election ended the legal proceedings
of the Saybrook meeting. Upon the election of Abraham
Pierson as Rector, the Trustees chose Samuel Russel as a
trustee, and thus all three of the original movers for the
Collegiate School began service together as its trustees.
After the Saybrook meeting Thomas Buckingham sent a
letter to Governor Fitz-John Winthrop at New London,
whose interest in the enterprise had been a prime factor in
its success up to this time. The Saybrook minister is evi-
dently elated. Says he, "A very comfortable, unanimous
meeting was had, very well agreeing upon the person, who
under the name of Rector might preside in and take charge
of sd school (viz. the Rev rnd Mr. Pierson). We e also had
204
The Beginnings of Yale
no great difficultie about the place (viz.) Say-Brook (in
case no considerations come in to alter our thoughts), that
appearing to be the place for the best accommodation of the
Colonies in generall, and adjacent places." And he then
reports the final action of the Trustees, in having left a
letter "with mee to the people of Killing-worth," which he
has delivered, and the reply to which he has had, "the
summ e of which is that they do not see it their duty to
consent to the parting with Mr. Pierson." In that ambigu-
ous state the question of Abraham Pierson's residence at
the headquarters of the Collegiate School was to be left,
until, as we shall see, unexpected circumstances were to
solve it, as the Trustees themselves and Rector Pierson
never were.
What kind of a man this first Rector of Yale was, and
what his life-surroundings had been until this time, I may
now digress a bit to chronicle.
nam frier son's
&
frea .
CHAPTER VII
ABRAHAM PIERSON
I
HE Pierson, or Pearson, family, of
which the Collegiate School's first
Rector was a member, was of an
ancient yeomanry stock in Yorkshire,
England. The father, Abraham Pier-
son, Senior, was an early iyth Century
Cambridge University man, and had
il taken Church of England orders at
about the time that John Davenport had fled to Holland.
By 1639, he, with other advanced Puritans, had found Arch-
bishop Laud hostile to his continuance in the Church. An
intensely religious man, he had at that time been forced into
that extreme group of Separatists which Davenport had
joined. He had emigrated to Boston, where for a time he
was an assistant in the primitive Meeting-house of John
206 The Beginnings of Yale
Wilson, and supplied the pulpits of neighboring churches, in-
cluding Lynn. The exiled John Wheelwright, brother-in-
law of the famous Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, was then minister
at Exeter; the Massachusetts Puritan church was at this
time, as we have seen, beginning its long effort to stamp
out heresies, both political and religious. As a result,
several groups of people were leaving its jurisdiction,
Thomas Hooker among them, to found more attractive
Puritan colonies elsewhere. Pierson, finding his own ideas
as to church government much more rigid than those of the
Boston leaders, left Lynn with his bride in 1641 for South-
ampton, L. I., taking sixteen people with him as a congre-
gation of his own, and there establishing a primitive settle-
ment about his own Meeting-house. Three years later this
district was annexed to Thomas Hooker's new Connecticut
Colony, and Pierson, unable to agree with Hooker's broad
political ideas, again moved, this time to Branford, where,
several years later, he brought his congregation into John
Davenport's newly organized New Haven Jurisdiction and
thus found himself finally in a Puritan colony with the theo-
logical views and civil government of which he was in full
and even violent sympathy. To these views the elder Pier-
son was to give a lifelong attachment and to be the last to
uphold them on New World soil.
II
It was either in the last year at Southampton, or in the
first at Branford, that Abraham Pierson the younger was
born. 1 It was a crude enough wilderness in which to bring
1 Abraham Pierson's birthplace is unknown. The antiquarian Savage
fixes it in 1641 at Lynn. His gravestone in the modern Clinton, then Killing-
worth, would indicate that he was born in 1646, at which time his father
had moved to Branford.
Abraham Pierson 207
up a family of children. 1 Fertile meadows swept down from
the village center to the narrow harbor, but on all other
sides the settlement was hedged in by forests and low hills,
in which were the poverty-stricken villages of the Indians.
A five-mile fence, or palisade, had originally enclosed the
settlement, for the usual Colonial purpose of keeping out
wolves and Indians, and young Abraham Pierson must have
grown up as a youngster under its great posts and high
palings. Tradition has it that the first Meeting-house was
built of logs and surrounded by high cedar stakes. This and
the planters' homes were built nearer the waterside than the
present Branford center, and on what is now known as
Branford Point. If so, the rugged shores of the present
Indian Neck and the sand beaches at the Point must have
been the playground of the Pierson children. Much of this
territory was bought directly by the church from the Indians;
Indian Neck, so called, and other shore land to the east, is
still owned by the Branford Congregational Church, and
rented under century-long leases to the large summer colony
that now occupies this most picturesque part of the Con-
necticut coast line.
The London corporate society for the conversion of these
unfortunate "Amerinds" was then becoming active, and the
elder Pierson, working under this society and the New
Haven confederation, undertook to bring the Branford
Indians into the Calvinistic fold. No doubt the young
Abraham Pierson sat behind his father's chair many times
when the natives trooped speechlessly in, as they had a
habit of doing throughout New England, to squat on the
1 Two younger brothers, Thomas and John, and a sister, Abigail, were
brought over from Southampton with the family. Abigail, "my choice and
precious daughter," wrote the old father later in his life, was to marry
John Davenport's son and become the mother of the Rev. James Pierpont's
first wife.
208 The Beginnings of Yale
minister's oak-slab floor or stone hearth, and listen to his
unintelligible exhortations. The elder Pierson drew up a
catechism for these natives, which came to the attention of
the London Commissioners in 1656 and which was printed.
Young Abraham Pierson probably received his early
education in English and Latin from his father in the family
circle 1 and then, so tradition has it, at John Davenport's
stern hands, in New Haven, where he may very well have
been one of the few outside scholars in John Bowers' log
schoolhouse on the public square, as he was finally prepared
for Harvard by Jeremiah Peck. When he was about four-
teen, young Pierson, with his Latin books and broad-
brimmed rabbit's-fur cap, homespun clothes and leather
breeches, went to Harvard, where he became one of a
class of five boys under the mild yet rigidly-conservative
President Chauncey. There he spent four years imbibing
the traditional Calvinistic theology of the Harvard of that
time and a crude scientific education. 2 Among his class-
mates in 1668 at Harvard was young John Prudden, the son
of that Rev. Peter Prudden who had been the first minister
at Milford, and very likely a boyhood friend of Pierson's
at the New Haven School. Upon their graduation from
Harvard, the two chums returned to Milford together,
the Pierson home in Branford having been moved to
1 Another son, Theophilus, and four daughters were born into the
Pierson family during the Branford days. Rebecca, the youngest of these
girls, was later to marry Joseph Johnson, son of the tavern keeper at
Newark, from whose uncle was to descend the famous Doctor Samuel
Johnson, tutor in Yale College at New Haven and later Episcopalian minis-
ter and first president of King's College, New York, which was afterwards
to become Columbia University.
2 Physics seems to have been a favorite study of the younger Abraham
Pierson. A Latin notebook, taken down in his classes at Harvard, in his
handwriting, is now in the Yale Library, and he composed a crude text-book
on the subject which, the story is, was used in manuscript for many years
in early Yale.
Abraham Pierson 209
Newark, and here for about a year they studied theology
together under the tutorship of the village minister, Rev.
Roger Newton, as was the custom of the day. Young Pier-
son, however serious-minded he must have been, imme-
diately tumbled head over heels in love with one of the
village girls 1 and was married to her in 1673.
It had been, curiously enough, in the same year that old
John Davenport, a disappointed man, was leaving his
shattered New Haven theocracy for Boston, defeated in his
untiring efforts to found a theocratic republic and a Puritan
college in the New Haven Colony, that young Abraham
Pierson, fresh from the old man's teaching and from Har-
vard, was coming back to the same scene where, three
decades later, he was to be one of the founders and the first
Rector of that college which Davenport had done so much
to pave the way for, and which he was never to see. But in
1668 this may well have seemed an improbable enough
outcome. Independent New Haven had been coerced into
joining the more liberal Connecticut Colony at Hartford,
the old New Haven Jurisdiction had been swept away, and
the supporters of the defeated Davenport scheme in Bran-
ford and Milford and New Haven were moving their homes
to Newark, where the elder Pierson was to rebuild the
pillars of the fallen church and establish another theocracy
on the old New Haven lines. Young Pierson for the moment
fell in with this new Puritan enterprise, as the year 1670 sees
him the assistant to his father in the Newark church, and
1 This was the vivacious Abigail Clark, daughter of George Clark, one
of Milford's first settlers. Her sister, Sarah, became the mother of that
future Governor Law of the Connecticut Colony who in 1745 came to
President Clap's support and secured the passage of the first great charter
of Yale College. The two Clark girls were leaders in Milford youthful
society, and, so the story goes, used to sing a topical song of the day while
spinning in a room in the Treat house in Milford that hugely amused the
Regicides, Whalley and Goffe, who were hidden underneath in the cellar.
2io The Beginnings of Yale
three years later bringing Abigail Clark of Milford there as
his bride.
For the next twenty-two years, Abraham Pierson the
younger was to be occupied in carrying on the primitive
church work of this second Davenport theocracy until the
time came when he, too, found himself less and less in sym-
pathy with the New Haven scheme and in turn abandoned
it. The Newark life of those days, and a little of Abraham
Pierson's part in it, emerge from the records that have
come down to us. 1 It is a primitive enough life, as we may
trace it through these early documents. On his settling
there, young Pierson takes a small cabin in the northwest
section of the village, fronting a little stream that runs
parallel to the Passaic and a few rods from it through the
rough-built settlement. His salary, as his father's assistant,
is at first 30, to be increased to 40 two years later, with
lands given him on condition that he remain there "a con-
siderable time." He now moves into more commodious
quarters, taking the widow Ward's "dwelling-house, well,
yard, barn, garden, and orchard, with one acre and three
rods of land." By this transaction he also becomes the
possessor of some of the furniture of the widow Ward's
house, "one great wainscot chair, one chest, two hogsheads,
one kneading and two joint stools, formerly belonging to
Lawrence Ward (of New Haven) deceased." 2 For seven
1 A good deal of light is thrown upon these years of Rector Pierson's
life by the Newark Town Records, published by the New Jersey Historical
Society. There is more or less about him in the Rev. Mr. Stearns' very
lucid lectures on the history of the First Church of Newark, a book that
visualizes early Newark days in quite the same way that the Rev. Dr.
Leonard Bacon's "Historical Discourses" illustrates the early New Haven
church times.
2 Deacon Lawrence Ward, whose effects thus came into Rector Pierson's
hands, was an old man when he followed the elder Pierson from Branford,
where he had been an officer of the church. His name appears among the
Abraham Pierson 211
years father and son were minister and teacher of the
Newark congregation, at an annual cost to the town of
120, except for one year, when hard times resulted in their
accepting twenty pounds less. The elder Pierson, as part
of his share of 80, received annually one pound of butter
"for every milch cow in the town."
In 1678, ten years after his old colleague, Davenport,
had gone to Boston, Abraham Pierson, Senior, died in
Newark, leaving behind him a pious memory, the consider-
able estate for the times of 822, that included a large col-
lection of books, and a reputation that has come down to us
of one of the sturdiest and strongest-minded leaders of that
first independent Puritan pilgrimage to the New World.
He belonged to the most extreme wing of the English reli-
gious immigration; his career, from Lynn, through the
Southampton experiment, to Branford, and thence to
Newark is the story of a second John Davenport, who was
unable to fit himself into the more liberal political conditions
that were growing up in Massachusetts and the Connecticut
Colony. He was a learned man, though he -left nothing
beyond his Indian Catechism in print. His library, con-
sisting of four hundred and forty volumes, largely theologi-
cal, was one of the most extensive in the colonies, and was
original settlers of the New Haven Colony. Among the possessions of Rector
Pierson at his death in 1707 was a great paneled chair, which later came
into the University's hands, and which was used as late as 1870 as "the
President's Chair" at Yale Commencements. It is now in the President's
office, among other ancient Yale relics. It is within the possibilities, though
nothing certain may be said regarding it, that this old Jacobite chair now
owned by Yale is the Deacon Ward "wainscot" chair that Abraham Pierson
purchased in 1672 in Newark and later took to Killingworth. If so, this
famous chair no doubt stood in Deacon Ward's first New Haven house,
which faced the harbor about where Olive Street meets Water Street today,
and may more than once have framed the slight form of John Davenport
in it.
212
The Beginnings of Yale
bequeathed to his eldest son, 1 except for one or two English
books which in his will he directed his widow to train up
his younger sons in.
Abraham Pierson, the younger, was now elected minister
of the Newark church, with a salary of 80, his annual
supply of firewood piled in his kitchen yard by town decree,
and exemption from town taxes, or rates, granted to him.
A strapping young fellow, with a great aptitude for the
pulpit, where he probably gave extemporaneous sermons as
was the custom until a little later date, and endowed with a
warm heart toward the needy of his congregation, the
future Rector of the Collegiate School may well have
thought himself settled for life over a Puritan church to his
1 Abraham Pierson the younger brought these books with him to Killing-
worth in 1694. As he was one of the founders of the Collegiate School at
the Saybrook meeting in 1701, and there doubtless gave books to the new
school, there is some possibility that his gift to Yale was from among these
ancient theological tomes. Nineteen of these volumes were presented to
the College Library in 1707 by Pierson's sons.
Abraham Pierson 213
liking. That he was popular with his people appears from
the contemporaneous statement that "great harmony and
affection" existed between him and them. One Obediah
Bruen, magistrate, writing to his children at the elder Pier-
son's death, no doubt voiced the town's views when he said
that God "hath not left us destitute of spiritual enjoyments,
but hath given us a faithful dispenser of the Word of God
a young Timothy a man after God's own heart, well
rooted and grounded in the faith, one with whom we can
comfortably walk in the doctrines of the faith." The
Newark period in Abraham Pierson's life began with every
indication of agreement on these highly important matters
of the faith between minister and congregation.
Ill
And these days must have been busy ones for the future
Rector Pierson, marked as they are in the town records by
the usual business and political disturbances of the times.
It is a transplanted Connecticut village, walking "in the
Congregational way," that we now see Pierson preaching
to in English-governed New Jersey. Indian scares are, of
course, not infrequent, for these were the terrible days of
King Philip's War, and Massachusetts and Connecticut
were in a state of terror. Pierson's people protected them-
selves, as many other villages were doing. "Flankers" or
palisade screens, are set by town orders at two corners
of the Meeting-house, behind which armed sentries watch
for Indian movements in the woods while the minister
preaches within the square cabin of a church. "It is
agreed," go the records, "that the Drum being begun to be
beaten at Joseph Rigg's Gate, and so all the Way up the
Street as far as Sam'l Harrison's Gate, and at the Ceasing
of the beating of the Drum three Guns being distinctly fired
214 The Beginnings of Yale
off it shall be sufficient Warning for all as are in the
Military List, forthwith to meet at the Meeting-House in
their Arms." The woodland about the village clearing is
regularly burned, partly for safety against Indian attack,
no doubt, and partly for pasturing. Burning these woods is
a serious matter to the village safety, also, while it is going
on; there is an annual committee in charge, and every man
over sixteen has to do his share, both to burn the bushes and
to keep the sparks from setting the thatch-roofed houses
afire. No doubt this annual business is also a protection
against prowling wild animals, as during Pierson's early
days in Newark the records show that generous bounties are
voted for the heads of wolves and for bear pelts. Against
these several enemies, "a Watch" is ordered to be "kept
in the Town, Three in a Night, at some House appointed by
the Sarjeants," who are to call the Town Drummer from
his bed as need arises.
The minister's share in this daily round is very likely
limited to his two long services of Sabbath days, his weekly
"lectures," and his attendance upon the sick and dying,
wherein he is assisted by the elder of the church, and, we
may believe, by his helpful wife. Two settlers of each of
the town-quarters are appointed "to look after the carrying
in Mr. Pierson's Wood for the year." This becoming
difficult to manage, a certain day is set upon which the min-
ister's wood supply is to be cut and dragged in by ox-teams,
and the business of seeing that this is done is divided among
the quarters of the settlement in annual rotation. The
Meeting-house needs repairs "to keep out the Wett and
Cold for the present," the seats are rebuilt, and a new
shingle roof put on. The youth of the village, and I take
it that the Puritan youngsters were no different in natural
spirits from their descendants, call forth numerous rulings
of the nonplussed town meetings. The boys are misbehaving
Abraham Pierson 215
"both in the Meeting House and without by the House
Sides" on Sabbath days, and Mr. Pierson's younger brother
or nephew, Thomas, is ordered to look after them. He has
not succeeded in doing this, come a few years, and the town
meeting names another man, in fact, a long succession of
citizens is called upon to keep an eye on the disorderly
youth and snap their ears with the pole kept for the purpose
in the Meeting-house. Nor do the youths of the village
limit their pranks to the long, dull Sabbaths. Safety valves
seem to burst out of their restricted lives in various direc-
tions. It has to be voted by town meeting assembled that
all entertainments in the village houses shall end at nine
o'clock of the evening, a to prevent disorderly Meeting of
Young People at unseasonable Times," indignantly scratches
the dignified town clerk on the record book.
But the town life of the little Puritan settlement goes on,
quietly, throughout all of these difficulties with human
nature. The town gravedigger is voted "35. for a Man's
Grave, 2s. for a Middle Person, and is. 6d. for a Child."
The seating order in the Meeting-house is not satisfactory,
"and it is agreed that Persons should be placed according to
Office, Age, Estate, Infirmity and Desent or Parentage"
(so oligarchical has the second Davenport theocratic de-
mocracy become in its transplanting) . A shoemaker, one
Whitehead, is invited to settle by a special town vote,
"provided he will supply the Town with Shoes." An ex-
perienced boatman is likewise honored, on the understand-
ing that he will ferry citizens back and forth across the
narrow river from Boatman's Neck. The fences about the
private house-lots make continual trouble, and many town
votes are recorded about them. The matter is decided by
ordering each householder to set up stakes, inscribed with
his initials, at either end of his fence and to make that fence
four feet four inches high, very like the palisades that
216 The Beginnings of Yale
shut out the New Haven settlers from the roadway before
their home-lots.
Throughout this quarter of a century, Abraham Pierson
was no doubt contented with his lot. But, by 1692, a change
came. Some misunderstanding or other arose, what we
do not know. But it is reflected in his church relations. In
1687 an original levy on the rate-payers for the minister's
salary had been changed by town vote "to pay the Minister
by Contributions." There being some difficulty even about
this, it had been decided to have fifty of the villagers guaran-
tee the original 80 by voluntary taxation, with firewood
extra. But this plan lapsed, and the result was that Pierson
went without salary for two years.
The long-continued harmony between Pierson and his
Newark church was now breaking up. Several things had
their part in this change of relations. The money trouble
seems not to have been a chief cause (Pierson's old college
chum, John Prudden, who succeeded him in the Newark
church, had the same trouble over collecting his salary),
but rather a symptom of a more fundamental difficulty. The
whole period of Pierson's last ten years in Newark, we may
recall, was one of wide political and financial disturbance
throughout the province. The Dutch had been driven from
New Amsterdam and Sir Edmund Andros had become
Governor of New Jersey, New York, and New England.
A new King had come to England and Andros had been
seized and removed from office at Boston. As a result, all
public and private affairs were in a serious state. In Newark
the town meeting had to take steps to protect its citizens'
property rights. So the Newark financial support to the
church languished. Yet the trouble between Pierson and
his congregation lay elsewhere, in a gradually widening
difference of opinion between them over matters concerning
the church itself. Jonathan Dickinson, later president of
Abraham Pierson 217
Princeton College, was to be one of Pierson's scholars at
the Killingworth School and must have known what there
was to know about this difficulty. Writing about it many
years later, he criticises the Newark people as being "cul-
pable for managing a controversy with their worthy minister
upon these points" (Presbyterianism and Congregational-
ism). Pierson, says Dickinson, "removed from their abuses
to New England, where he was received with great kindness,
and died in the highest honor and esteem among them, not-
withstanding his Presbyterian principles." The affair is
quite unimportant except as it throws light on the little-
known character of Abraham Pierson, and on his theological
views. A long-current interpretation of it, out of which
Pierson comes in rather sad disrepute, has been to the effect
that he "had imbibed moderate Presbyterianism from his
father, and when at Cambridge College, he had received
strong prejudices against Plymouthean independency; and
after his father's death he was for introducing more rigid
Presbyterianism into Newark." His church matters had
been peaceable during his father's time, goes this legend,
but the congregation did not take kindly to his "pride of
directing . . . far beyond anything that the congregation
had been accustomed to witness." He had "distinguished
talents and accomplishments, but had neither the meekness,
patience, nor prudence of his father." As this tradition
started a century after the episode itself, I imagine that we
may rely more precisely upon the contemporaneous Dickin-
son story of it. This puts Pierson in rather a more favor-
able light, to be sure, but which would seem to be more likely
than the later and doubtless warped story.
The question of Presbyterianism, however, was shortly
to become a large matter in Newark, as throughout New
Jersey, and in fact New England. Originally founded as a
New Haven Congregational church, the Newark settlement
2i 8 The Beginnings of Yale
had come into touch with the Scotch Presbyterians who had
begun, by 1682, to settle throughout the province. Pierson
could hardly have remained unacquainted with the more
aggressive leaders among these newcomers, neighbors as
they became, and from their arrival no doubt found him-
self more and more inclined toward his early leanings to
their form of church organization. He was a "Scotch
Presbyterian," his grandson many years later told President
Stiles. There was, of course, practically no difference be-
tween the theology of the New England Puritan-Congre-
gationalists, and the various Presbyterian elements that
from the earliest days came into New England church life,
and which now, in some numbers, had come directly from
Scotland into New Jersey. Many of the foremost Massa-
chusetts Congregational church founders were "Presby-
terians." The only serious difference between the two
groups had to do with matters of church organization, with
the duties and powers given the elders and the synods,
that "consociational government" which the historian Trum-
bull speaks of.
Abraham Pierson's Newark people, by 1690-1692, were
not as ready as was Pierson himself to join this new move-
ment, and his dismissal resulted.
It is curious to see how matters turned out as the years
came around, both for the Presbyterian Pierson and for the
Congregational Newark church that dismissed him. The
next three ministers of that church were undoubtedly Con-
gregationalists of the New England order: Pierson's col-
lege chum, John Prudden; Jabez Wakeman, Harvard 1697;
and Samuel Whittlesey, who later studied with Pierson
at Killingworth and who was graduated from the Collegiate
School in 1705. Then the Scotch Presbyterian movement
seems to have gained headway. Joseph Webb, a Yale
graduate of 1715, the son of the Rev. Joseph Webb of
Abraham Pierson
219
Fairfield who had been one of the Collegiate School founders
with Pierson, was introduced to the Newark people by
Rector Samuel Andrew of Yale College as their pastor.
Presbyterianism had now absorbed Congregationalism gen-
erally throughout New Jersey, and Joseph Webb easily
carried his Newark people into that church organization
with him. Abraham Pierson's son, John, a Collegiate
School graduate of 1711, became the minister of a
neighboring town and associated himself with this move-
ment over his long career of fifty-three years. Pierson,
however, returning to Congregational Connecticut as a
moderate Scotch Presbyterian, passed the remainder of his
life in the older church, the dominant independent-church
sentiment of Connecticut having absorbed the Presbyterian
movement, compromising with it only halfway in the famous
Saybrook Platform of 1708.
Abraham Pierson left Newark in 1692, made a brief stay
in Greenwich, Connecticut, and in 1694 was called to Kill-
ingworth, where he took the long-vacant pulpit of John
Woodbridge. Welcoming him to the Colony, the General
Assembly in 1695 grant him "two hundred acres of land
for a farme," and exempt him from "paiment of rates for
his stock and land." Six years later he becomes the first
Rector of the Collegiate School.
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Signatures of the Original Trustees of the Collegiate School
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CHAPTER I
THE KILLINGWORTH BEGINNINGS
OUR modern traveler, gliding on his
comfortable way along the Connecti-
cut shore of Long Island Sound, finds
himself in a pleasant land, the open
country and thriving towns of which
reveal to him, with each passing mile,
a smiling corner of a prosperous
modern New England.
Yet such a traveler, in his fleeting glimpses of ancient
white churches and weather-beaten houses, prim old-fash-
ioned gardens and broad New England village streets
under their elms, might well fancy himself, here and there,
two centuries back of his own generation, and journeying
in Colonial times. For he is on historic ground. From
Stamford on the west, through Milford and New Haven
224 The Beginnings of Yale
and Branford, to New London on the east, this was the
ancient highway that bound together the first Puritan settle-
ments of the Connecticut coast. Over it, when it was no
more than the Pequot Trail, had passed the Puritan soldiers
in the Pequot wars; over it, when it had become the King's
Highway, had gone the good folk of the old New Haven
Jurisdiction, steeple-hatted ministers in their cloaks and
black doublets, scarlet-coated emissaries of the English
Kings, country folk and the great men of the four colonies.
Within sight of it Theophilus Eaton had sailed to Quinnip-
iac. Upon it the gracious Lady Fenwick and her lord had
journeyed from New Haven to Saybrook Fort. A rough
bridle-path by 1650, it had seen the New Haven Colony
ministers travel to Boston for the Bay synods of their times,
and, a few years later, John Davenport ride over it in his
exile to Boston from his foundered New Haven ship of
state. The Boston Post-road by 1673, mail carriers had
then begun those irregular monthly journeys on horseback
over it that had first brought provincial Connecticut into
touch with cosmopolitan Boston. As such, the young Har-
vard graduate, James Pierpont, had ridden over it on his
entrance upon that New Haven career one result of which
had been the Collegiate School. This ancient path, a beaten
if rough roadway by 1700, had given Madam Knight, the
sprightly Boston school-ma'am, plenty of peril and amuse-
ment on that famous horseback ride of hers from Boston to
New York, all of which she has set down in her diary.
Ebenezer Hurd, most renowned of the postboys who gal-
loped on the public's business over this ancient highway in
still later Colonial times, was to journey upon it for forty-
eight years until 1775, when he was to make his last and
most famous ride, bringing the news of the Battle of
Lexington to Connecticut colonists already prepared for
independence by the sturdy Puritanism of those pioneer
The Killingworth Beginnings 225
days. And Benjamin Franklin, Postmaster General, was
to drive over this highway in more settled times, in his
cushioned chaise, with gangs of men behind him in carts
filled with stones, which they dropped as each mile was
registered on the quaint cyclometer that their inventive chief
had attached to his chaise wheels.
One of these stones, marked "25 N. H.," may still be
seen on the south side of the Clinton main street, just east
of the village Green.
II
It is directly across the main street in Clinton from
Benjamin Franklin's ancient marker that one may step out
of the bustle of the modern highway onto ground historic in
Yale annals. For it was here that Yale began its existence.
A monument, properly inscribed in Latin and English and
surmounted by sculptured books, stands on the old Meeting-
house Hill, and informs the wayfarer that a few rods east
is the site of Rector Abraham Pierson's Killingworth par-
sonage, in which the Collegiate School of Connecticut was
first kept. 1 Traces of the Killingworth of those early days
are not hard to find, and a drowsy summer afternoon's
search for them will be found worth making.
1 The Stanton House, built in 1789, when Rector Pierson's house was
torn down, stands at the street end of the lot on which the Collegiate School
stood. Parts of the old Pierson homestead were built into this successor
to it. The sills of Yale's first home, for instance, may now be seen in
the Stanton House cellar, laid across great stone piers and thus supporting
the two immense stone chimneys. There is good reason to think that some
of the odd-shaped attic windows of the Stanton House may have been
in Rector Pierson's. In the Stanton garden the old Pierson well was
recently uncovered and marked, the well at which the first Yale students
drew their water supply. An ancient iron key was dug up when this
well was found in 1913; from its location it undoubtedly was a door key
to the Pierson parsonage, though whether it dates back to 1701 may not
be determinable.
The Killingworth Beginnings 227
All of this section of the Sound coast was bought in 1641
from Uncas, the Mohegan sachem, by George Fenwick of
Saybrook. Killingworth village was settled in 1663 by a
few families from East Guilford, now Madison, who
gave it their old Warwickshire town name of Kenilworth,
a name that by later usage of careless town clerks became
Killingworth, and later still was changed to the present
Clinton by the legislature. When Abraham Pierson settled
here in 1694, the village was a straggling double row of
unpainted, roomy farmhouses that stood at irregular inter-
vals facing the Boston Post-road from their roughly-cleared
and cultivated farm plots. Indian River crossed this high-
way, as now, a little east of the village center, and travelers
had to go north when they came to it, to a ford above the
present burying ground, where there was easy passage to the
opposite shore. Overlooking the river stood the Meeting-
house, on its small rise of ground, with its cemetery behind
it. A map, reconstructed from the list of original land
allotments of 1665, was recently made by the Killingworth
town clerk, and has been redrawn, with notes added of the
town as it was in 1701, to accompany this chapter. There
were then no houses on the now settled south side of the
main street west of Indian River, and there was a broad
Common at the east end of the village, where the Train-
band perhaps had its maneuvers. Traveling at this early
time was difficult. The Boston Post-road entered Killing-
worth from Guilford from the north, where the "Farm
Bridge" crossed the Hammonasset River at an old fording
place, the present main highway through the village to the
west being a later addition. Until just before 1700, when
a rough wooden bridge was built, the only way to cross the
Menunketesuc River, east of Clinton, was over a "riding-
way" at low tide near the mouth of that river. The common
route for pedestrians between Saybrook and Guilford, so
228 The Beginnings of Yale
impassable were the woods and so numerous and unford-
able the rivers, was by the beach. North of the Killing-
worth home-lots, during Abraham Pierson's period, were
thick virgin woods, stretching unbroken, except by Indian
trails which had by then become bridle-paths, from
Middletown to Wallingford. These woods came down to
the village, close to the burying ground. 1
Rector Pierson, surrounded by his family (his own tomb-
stone overshadowed by a more pretentious memorial to his
less famous son), lies on the northwest slope of this burying
ground, a few rods away from the New Haven railroad,
over which the iron successors of Ebenezer Hurd now roar
through the old Pierson farm a score of times a day.
Ill
When the first scholars rode over the old Boston Post-
road to the opening of Abraham Pierson's primitive
Collegiate School, the center of the Killingworth town life
was about the old Meeting-house Green. Here, when Pier-
son arrived to be the minister, had stood one of the typical
New England meeting-houses of the day, the usual square,
rough-clapboarded, turreted building that was the practi-
cally invariable style of the first period of New England
Congregational-church building. No representation exists
of this ancient Killingworth church, fort alike against
prowling Indians and an ever-watchful Satan, but it was
doubtless like the first New Haven Meeting-house, and
others of that early day, a very good picture of which one
may see on an early map of Newark, where Pierson
preached for years. But one of the first results of Abraham
Pierson's coming to Killingworth was the erection of a
1 1 am indebted to Mr. John A. Hull, of Clinton, for a number of these
facts regarding ancient Killingworth.
The Killingworth Beginnings
229
ee ma- ouse
in 17O1
second Meeting-house on the hill, and a picture of this has
come down to us on an ancient panel owned in the village. 1
It must have been a hopelessly inartistic edifice, if this old
panel painting tells a true story, as no doubt it does. It was
square, as had been its predecessor, thirty-five feet each
way, clapboarded, with a central door between rough
windows on the east and west sides, a small window high in
the south end, three windows on the second story on either
side, and a small square turret, surmounted by a miniature
spire, on the south. What its interior was, when Abraham
Pierson preached there, we now have no means of knowing.
It had an advantage over its predecessor, however, in that
a bell instead of a drum called the Killingworth church
1 This panel belongs to the descendants of the Rev. Jared Eliot in
Clinton. It was painted in 1710 by an itinerant "Boston artist." This
second Killingworth Meeting-house was built in 1700.
230 The Beginnings of Yale
people to the Sabbath-day meetings. 1 No doubt there was
the usual high wooden pulpit within, with the great sound-
ing-board above it, and no doubt it was furnished with the
usual heavy oak-slab seats of that early day (this was before
the later era of family pews came in). As in all other New
England colonial churches, there was no stove, a habit
which the New England Puritans brought over with them
from England, and which many English country churches
carried on for generations after. A well-sweep appears in
the panel of this ecclesiastical stronghold, and a small build-
ing just east of the church, which may be taken to be either
the end of the parsonage beyond, or the village schoolhouse
that Mr. Pierson managed to get his congregation to build
in I7O3. 2
It was ten rods east of this spot (so President Stiles has it
in his "Literary Diary," and modern investigation proves
it to be correct) that Rector Pierson lived in his parsonage,
facing the village Green. 3
President Stiles describes this building as a large, two-
story house, likely enough similar in appearance to the usual
great-roofed, two-story (or "double") homesteads of the
*A new drum was bought in 1698. In 1703 the Town accepted the gift
of a bell from some of the church people.
2 This schoolhouse was barn-like, with a stone chimney at one end,
and stood between Mr. Pierson's parsonage and the new Meeting-house.
Parts of the framework of the original Meeting-house were used in this
building. The first schoolmaster had been an old parishioner of Mr. Pierson,
an uneducated countryman named Brown, who, at Mr. Pierson's suggestion
to the town, had been hired "to keep skoul for one quarter of a year, and for
his pains" to have 9. When this new schoolhouse was built, seven years
later, Captain "Henery" Crane of the "Train-band" was "voated" the
position.
3 Rev. W. E. Brooks, in his historical address at the bicentennial of the
Clinton Congregational Church in 1867, said: "The College building was
established here in what was then Killingworth, near the edge of the Green,
and a little south and east from the barn which stands on the Stanton place."
The Killingworth Beginnings 231
day, of which several survivors have come down to us. It
faced west, looking up a slight rise under the trees, past the
newly erected schoolhouse, to the Meeting-house. On its
east side was the usual kitchen ell and its recently-unearthed
garden well under some apple trees. We may properly
imagine the Pierson lot as narrow on the south, or modern
Clinton main street end, and running deep to the north along
the village Green to the church-society farm of some ten
acres (now the newer and eastern part of the present
Clinton cemetery) . Where the Stanton house now stands
on the main street were Mr. Pierson's garden and perhaps
small tobacco field.
Pierson's parsonage had been the "town house," and in
1675 na d been fortified against the Indians. It was pre-
sented to Pierson in 1695, shortly after he had settled with
his large family in it. In the Killingworth town records is
this reference to the gift: "The town being met together to
consider of something to be done for the encouragement of
Mr. Abraham Pierson. . Do give the said Mr. Pierson the
Town House and Orchard . . upon condition that the said
Mr. Pierson shall plant an orchard of an hundred apple
trees upon the parsonage land, where the town shall judge
most convenient, and the said trees to manure and secure."
There comes out, now and then (as in this instance) in our
acquaintance with the good Rector Pierson, a very delightful
practicality of mind in the midst of his more idealistic labors.
And we may smile a bit, too, in observing the way in which
his suggestion of financial discouragement was met by an
equally canny congregation; for he was to grow the apples
for his own cider, and thus relieve the congregation of a
responsibility for the parson's table that was undertaken by
most of the colonial villages of that date. There must have
been a thriving apple orchard on the Pierson farm when
his first scholars arrived in 1702. He possessed cider
232 The Beginnings of Yale
barrels, so the inventory of his estate shows, and kept them
in his cellar. And from that same official document we learn
that he cultivated his own tobacco on the parsonage land.
Like the Rev. James Pierpont over in New Haven, Rector
Pierson enjoyed his hearth-fire pipe, and, when visitors
came, got out his "canes" of home-grown tobacco, his tongs
and tobacco box and cider mugs for an evening's sociability.
IV
Four months after the organization at Saybrook, Rector
Pierson took in his first scholar, the nineteen-year-old Jacob
Heminway of East Haven, whose pastor, James Pierpont,
likely enough, advised the step.
This was in March, 1702. There were no other boys
who were ready to come, and so, from then around to Sep-
tember of the Collegiate School's first year, this youth (as
he afterward, when an old man, stated to President Stiles)
"solus was all the College the first half-year." Rector
Pierson carried on this young man's extensive classical study
and no doubt instructed him in divinity. The young Hemin-
way finally prepared for the pulpit. Mr. Pierson rode over
to Saybrook on September 16, 1702, and there, in Rev.
Thomas Buckingham's house on the Saybrook village Green,
held the first Commencement in Yale history.
The Trustees had, as we have seen, explicitly ordered that
there be no public show at these annual graduation cere-
monies, so the affair was quiet and, very likely, attended
only by the Trustees, and with as little ceremony as possible.
The Buckinghams, so tradition has it, prepared a great
dinner for this occasion. The Trustees and scholars and
young ministers who were there for their M.A. degrees,
sat down to a table laden with oysters and other shellfish,
venison, succotash, and boiled Indian pudding. At this
The Killingworth Beginnings 233
meeting the Trustees voted to allow "the Gentlemen of our
Government," other ministers, "Benefactors to the School"
and "all other persons of Liberal Education," in addition to
the male parents and guardians of the scholars, to become
"auditors" at later Commencements.
Five young men, two of them Congregational min-
isters of the Colony and one a preacher, were given their
second degrees of Master of Arts at this first Saybrook
Commencement, all of them obviously introduced by the
Trustees or friends of the new School, so that it might give
a good account of itself to the Connecticut people at its
beginnings. Rev. Stephen Buckingham, son of the Saybrook
Trustee, and at this time minister at the small settlement of
Norwalk, was the best known of these young candidates.
He was later to become a Trustee, himself. The four others
were Rev. Samuel Treat, eight years out of Harvard and
now minister at the little hamlet of Preston on the Thames
River, near the home of old James Noyes at Stonington,
by whom he was doubtless sent over; Joseph Coit, the
preacher at Plainfield, where lived the Collegiate School's
first patron, Major James Fitch; Joseph Moss, who had
been for three years the Rector of the Hopkins Grammar
School in New Haven, and thus close to James Pierpont,
and who was later on to help teach the scholars; and
Nathaniel Chauncy, who had been privately educated in
the family of his uncle, the Rev. Israel Chauncy of Strat-
ford, one of the Trustees, in return for the life-use of the
young man's father's library. 1
1 The Chauncey family tradition has it that Nathaniel Chauncy joined
Jacob Heminway at Pierson's house for a short time before Commencement
as a candidate for a B.A., but that, when the Trustees examined him at
Saybrook, they found him so far advanced that they gave him his M.A.
instead. This may well have been, and it would not necessarily conflict with
Heminway's statement that he was the only scholar, or, as he states it,
the whole college, for the first half-year.
234 The Beginnings of Yale
Immediately after this first quiet Commencement three
boys arrived at Rector Pierson's parsonage. Young John
Hart, of whom we shall hear more directly, rode down
from Cambridge, where he had just finished his Sophomore
year at Harvard. He was the son of the Farmington train-
band captain and former Speaker of the Connecticut Lower
House, and was evidently recalled from Harvard by his
father to encourage the Connecticut experiment, if not for
other reasons. Samuel Russel of Branford and Samuel
Andrew of Milford sent two more youths, the former his
son John, and the latter one Phineas Fiske (the son of the
Milford town doctor), who was to become a tower of
strength to the School before many years had passed.
With these four boys, and Heminway, Rector Pierson
seems to have started in in earnest at his rather large
undertaking for a busy village minister, and the wheels of
Yale's educational history may be said to have begun for-
mally to revolve. During the next two years more scholars
arrived from time to time, until, by the middle of the third
year, there were probably some fifteen to twenty youths
studying at the Killingworth minister's house. A half-dozen
of these boys were sons or near relatives of the Trustees or
of influential friends of the School, or were influenced by
them to come to it. The two Hartford Trustees, Samuel
Mather and Timothy Woodbridge, sent their sons, as did
Nathaniel Lynde of Saybrook, whose interest in the School
was well known. Samuel Russel of Branford sent his
nephew. James Pierpont sent over one other New Haven
boy besides Heminway. Thomas Buckingham had his hand
in introducing two Saybrook youths, one of them Samuel
Whittlesey, who was later to be the Hopkins Grammar
School Rector. Crotchety old Gershom Bulkeley of Weth-
ersfield, now that the illegal founding had been so rashly ac-
complished, fearsomely let three of his neighbors' sons run
The Killingworth Beginnings 235
the risk of English parliamentary disapproval by going
down through the wilderness to Killingworth. Abraham
Pierson -himself brought in two boys from the neighboring
town of Guilford, Samuel Cooke and Jared Eliot, both to
become in later life Trustees of the School, and the latter
one of the most learned men of his day. And Rev. Gurdon
Saltonstall sent one youth from his New London congrega-
tion. The great expectations, however, of numerous
scholars coming to the Collegiate School from towns east
of the Connecticut border did not materialize. One came,
indeed, in these first years from as far away as Marthas
Vineyard, and two from Northampton the latter being
relations of the learned Nathaniel Chauncy and parish-
ioners of old Rev. Solomon Stoddard, whose friendly rela-
tions with the Mathers and Samuel Sewall doubtless led him
to interest himself to this extent in the orthodox experiment
at Killingworth. But the outsiders were few. The Colony
at large had not as yet come to the support of the School,
and if the Trustees had not secured students themselves, the
enterprise would very likely have died in its birth.
All of these young fellows, nearly all of them from lead-
ing Connecticut families, were, so far as we know, boarders
at one time or another in the Pierson household, and cer-
tainly they all were instructed in the Rector's house. Though
probably not more than a dozen or so were under instruction
at the same time, the good wife of Rector Pierson must have
had her hands full with this group of active and hearty
youngsters, scholars that they were. Her own family was
large (the Piersons seem to have had three sons and six
daughters then living 1 ) so that during this period the Kill-
ingworth parsonage must have been a lively household and,
1 John, the youngest son, was at this time twelve years old. In addition,
the Killingworth church records of the time show that three other members
of the family were church members, Abraham, Jr., Sarah, and Mary.
236
The Beginnings of Yale
when the Trustees' laws were not too rigidly enforced, merry
enough. How the good Mrs. Pierson managed to look out
for the moral and physical well-being of this large establish-
ment is not on record, but she managed it, and graciously
avoided the domestic pitfalls that had been the undoing of
Mrs. Nathaniel Eaton during the similarly small beginnings
of Harvard.
Making one more in the Pierson family, but doubtless
helping to manage it, the Trustees had allowed an assistant
to the Rector. Young Daniel Hooker, of the Farmington
Hookers, a youthful brother-in-law of James Pierpont and
a Harvard graduate of 1700, had come to the Killingworth
parsonage in this capacity in 1702, but had resigned at the
first Commencement. His place was then taken by John
Hart, the former Harvard Sophomore and single graduate
of the Collegiate School in 1703, who became Tutor to the
two lower classes and, by virtue of his office, "Sir Hart" to
the scholars and Killingworth townspeople. While this
young Tutor was preparing for his own degree of B.A. in
1702-1703, he received no pay for his services. He could,
however, collect fines for disobediences to the Trustees'
regulations, and I surmise that it was in some measure due
to this fact that the records for that year show that there
were "discontents in some of the students for the time being,
The Killingworth Beginnings 237
in relation to the present tutor." This uprising, the first
Yale student rebellion, was promptly squelched by the
Trustees, who upheld Sir Hart and tendered him their
thanks for his "hitherto service" and 50 in country pay
for such work in the School as he should thereafter do. 1 He
left in 1705 to enter the ministry in East Guilford, and
Phineas Fiske succeeded him. This third assistant had been
one of the three graduates of 1704 and had finished a
postgraduate course in theology with Mr. Pierson the year
after that.
V
Though we have to depend largely upon what we know
of the Saybrook days that followed, we may picture in some
degree the daily round at Rector Pierson's double establish-
ment as the future Yale College now slowly got under way.
And it is a pleasant picture that we may thus visualize for
ourselves.
As the sun rises over the level Killingworth salt meadows
from Saybrook way, Rector Pierson's household assembles
in the great living "hall" for morning prayers, when the
Scriptures are read by the minister and expounded, accord-
1 This squelching of the scholars was done at a discreet distance, at a
Trustees' meeting at Branford. Rev. Mr. Pierpont drew up a "Memorial"
to the students at this meeting. The Colony, he said, had promoted "a
Collegiate Society," and had given the ministers in charge authority to
manage it. He reminded the scholars at Killingworth of "the hitherto suc-
cess & hopeful appearance of ye enterprise," and then warned them "agst
such spirits & methods, as have a tendency to discourage so great & happy
an undertaking." The responsibility of choosing the Rector and Tutors of
the School had not been left to the scholars, hints Mr. Pierpont, but to the
Trustees, "as those accounted capable to judg who are most fitt for such
stations." It behooved the students, therefore, to "pay those regards we are
proper" to their instructors. The Memorial closed with the Trustees'
assurance of "support in his trust" to Sir Hart, and that was the last that
was heard of the uprising.
The Killingworth Beginnings 239
ing to the Trustees' laws, in the ancient tongue. Classroom
work immediately begins, perhaps as early as half-past six
o'clock, the Pierson children romping off to "Henery"
Crane's schoolhouse through the garden gate at the same
early hour. A half-hour comes for breakfast; and, this
over, the young Piersons scamper back to school. Mistress
Pierson begins her household 'rounds, jingling "equipage"
at her girdle, and the Collegiate School reassembles for its
serious work of educating Connecticut's church and public
servants.
Pleasant it would be to look on the Pierson household, as
it thus starts its day. And we may from our reading of the
old college records. Tutor Fiske takes the two lower classes
of a half-dozen boys each into one of the great rooms down-
stairs, while Rector Pierson calls the Senior classes into his
study, where are his father's four hundred-odd, old-time
theological books that he had brought from Newark. The
morning is given up to a solid drill for the Freshmen in
Greek and Latin grammar and composition, in translating
Tully and Vergil, and in elementary Hebrew, the three
studies that are to become such necessary accomplishments
in a later life of public service to an orthodox Calvinistic
commonwealth. The Sophomores proceed further in the
three languages, under Sir Fiske, using the Psalms for their
Hebrew reading and the New Testament for their Greek.
And Sir Fiske gives them a taste of logic from the Leyden
Latin manual of Burgersdicius so soon as their command
of the language makes it possible. The Seniors are at the
same time reading Latin treatises on metaphysics and study-
ing the rudiments of mathematics and physics. No doubt
Rector Pierson, seated at the end of his library table in his
wig and black crepe gown, his square-cut broadcloth waist-
coat and smallclothes, examines his own manuscript treatise
on the latter subject as he lectures. This treatise, we are
240 The Beginnings of Yale
told, remained the College text-book on "Physics" for many
years, and has since been lost, with all its copies in the note-
books of the scholars. What sort of science it taught, we
shall see in a later chapter of these rambling chronicles.
And so the Collegiate School fell into its daily routine.
Twice a week the Seniors "dispute syllogistically" in Latin,
and on Saturdays Dr. Ames' "Medulla" is recited in the
same tongue, and his "cases of Conscience sometimes."
Rector Pierson exercises all of his students in rhetoric and
lectures on theology to them. It is the rule of the School,
as it has been for decades at Harvard, that all the oral work
is to be in Latin, as well, I believe, as the conversation out
of classroom hours among the scholars and between them
and their Rector and Sir Fiske. The leather-smocked-and-
coated village bumpkins, gaping in at the open door of the
Killingworth parsonage in these days, must have conceived
a lofty opinion of the intellectual heights which were being
scaled within, as time was to show that they had little
patience with them.
This rigorous morning work, we may suppose, lets up for
the substantial boiled meat and vegetable dinner of midday,
with its cider and beer in quantity, and then comes an hour
and a half of recreation, doubtless spent under the tutor's
eye in the orchard or on the banks of the near-by Indian
River, where was good fishing in season and much dexterous
crabbing in the summer time. And then begins the after-
noon drill, ending in early evening prayers, when the Scrip-
tures again are read and expounded. Then the day's work
is over except for those who desire to study in the evening
until the good country hour of nine o'clock, when everyone
has to be in bed, with "lights out" for the night except for
Rector Pierson's own postponed sermon writing and study,
which ends at eleven. Twice each Sunday, in order to make
orthodox Connecticut church members out of the scholars
The Killingworth Beginnings
241
under Rector Pierson's charge, the Collegiate School boys
troop out through the parsonage-garden gate and up across
the village Green to the Meeting-house, there to sit for
more long hours and hear their Rector's preaching (he was
a very able preacher, it is said) and survey the assembled
village congregation. It was bitter cold for the congrega-
tion in the depth of winter on these occasions, and more
than once, no doubt, as Judge Sewall's diary reports
happening in Boston, even the broken bread froze on the
communion plates. But the villagers were all there, and
their fair daughters, and no doubt warm hearts beat under
the caped greatcoats of the Pierson scholars. Under such
circumstances, the upperclassmen frequently must have had
some difficulty in paying enough attention to the sermon to
repeat it to Rector Pierson, as they were supposed to do,
immediately afterwards.
242 The Beginnings of Yale
Outside of these weekly Meeting-house occasions, there
was doubtless little enough in the village life to distract the
attention of the Collegiate School scholars. Killingworth
had a "Train-band," to be sure, and the military exercises
of this small company on the Common were gala affairs.
The great men of the village seem to have been Deacon
John Griswold and Henry Crane, the schoolmaster. The
latter was captain of the "Train-band" in 1704, with John
Kelsey for his Lieutenant, and Jonathan Hull for Ensign.
The sergeants were John Shether, one Sam Stevens and
young John Crane. Killingworth received a patent, with
other Colony towns, in 1703, the Proprietors' Committee
being Captain Crane, Sam Buell, William Stephens, and
John Kelsey. The deputies to the Lower House of the
Colony Assembly during these years of the Collegiate
School's stay at Killingworth were Deacon Griswold (a
more or less perennial election, it would appear), Sam
Buell, Robert Lane, and Captain Crane the schoolmaster.
All of these gentry had farms along the Boston Post-road
on either side of the village Green, and possibly some of
them boarded a few of their pastor's scholars when the
number of youths at the school became too great for Mrs.
Pierson's management. The Killingworth folk, however,
were a poor community. From the settlement, they had
had all that they could do to support themselves. There
would seem to have been no storekeepers until a later
period, when a Dr. Aaron Eliot kept a store at the west
end of the village street, and Josiah Buell began his horse-
back journeys to Boston to bring back dry goods. By 1702
the villagers were still sowing their own flax and threshing,
spinning, and weaving it into shirts; keeping sheep, and
carding and weaving the wool into cloth for coats, catching
oysters and carrying them to Hartford in exchange for rye
for bread. Shellfish and shad, the latter caught in the river
The Killingworth Beginnings 243
mouths by nets, formed a large part of the Collegiate School
students' menus; very likely the scholars themselves helped
to furnish Mrs. Pierson's table by using Rector Pierson's
fish-net.
With varying annual attendances during these first six
years, eighteen youths in all were graduated with their
first degrees at the Killingworth School, matters proceeded
quietly and with no particularly important events, so far as
the School life itself was concerned, until the sudden death
of Rector Pierson, on March 5, 1707.
The Collegiate School's first Rector left no will, but the
inventory of his belongings was filed by his sons at the New
London probate office. It came to a round 1,200, a sizable
small fortune for the day. From it we may gather a little
of the personal surroundings in which Abraham Pierson
lived at Killingworth. He had woolen suits and a set of
those fashionable linen clothes for hot weather, concerning
which young John Winthrop of Boston had written in 1706
to his uncle, Governor Winthrop of Connecticut, that "it
is a great fashion here to wear West India linnens. They
make pretty light cool Wastcotes and britches." He had
the usual bedsteads and beds, woolen bedding, coverlets and
curtains, of the day. A small quantity of "armes and amu-
nition" is listed, doubtless to use against the wolves and
wildcats that still prowled in the near-by forests. He had
"cubbards, Tabels, and carpits [heavy table coverings],
chests, boxes, chaiers and formes and cushing" ; pewter and
brass household utensils; table and bed linen, fire-irons, a
razor, sickles, shears, combs and knives [no forks are
mentioned] ; shoe-buckles, buttons [great attention was paid
to buttons in these days, and much ingenuity given to their
design, even drawings were made of the required patterns
by some dandies and dispatched to London for manufac-
ture] ; tobacco-box, tongs, chains, and money; glass bottles,
244
The Beginnings of Yale
money scales, leather, "corned woosted, linen yarns, black
stuff, hollan and bags"; three barrels of cider, "tubbs, spin-
ing wheals and other lumber." And he left "neats cattle,
horses, swine, and a part mantle," farmyard tools and
tobacco-raising implements, and yarn for "blankits and fish-
net." His Killingworth house was put down at 358, and
he had 100 worth of land at Milford (probably his wife's,
who was a Milford girl), 80 worth of land at "Cauging-
chauge," wherever that was, and the Saybrook house and
barn, and lands and meadow, for which he had paid 200
and had never been permitted to occupy.
Jttrjiersoris Cider-Cup
7 s -
CHAPTER II
SAYBROOK DAYS
I
N spite of the quiet progress of events
at Rector Pierson's parsonage in Kill-
ingworth, the enterprise of the Colony
college had by no means been the suc-
cess up to this time that its founders
had expected for it. Financially, it
had been hard sledding. Harvard
during these years had graduated
eighty-three scholars, and, in the year in which Pierson's
death occurred, was to graduate as many as the Collegiate
School had received in its whole six years to that time. The
predicted enthusiastic support of the School had not mate-
rialized from without the Colony, and from Connecticut
itself very few boys had presented themselves without being
drummed up by the Trustees.
246 The Beginnings of Yale
But another and more difficult question than this had been
troubling the Trustees during Rector Pierson's administra-
tion.
We have seen how the selection of a permanent site had
carefully been side-tracked at the organization meeting in
1701. To settle this matter appears to have been the
Trustees' chief business throughout Rector Pierson's regime.
Thus far the Trustees had compromised on Saybrook, which
was therefore the official location of the School. But its
settlement there had depended upon Rector Pierson's re-
moval from Killingworth, and this his people, exercising
the congregational right of the day to dismiss, would not
permit. Moreover, the Trustees were by no means agreed
upon Saybrook as the permanent School site. Meeting
New London County opposition, they had agreed to a com-
promise vote, in 1702, that the college should not be placed
further east than Saybrook, nor west than New Haven.
During Pierson's Rectorship, the site question had been left
in this unsettled state. Yet during these four years we can
follow the course of an active agitation of the subject, and
this, no doubt, made many of the Trustees' meetings lively
affairs. The later Hartford action to secure the School for
some up-river site was not to become noticeable for a decade
and more, so that we may suppose that the Hartford
Trustees joined with those from New London during this
early period in the controversy, to remain at Saybrook.
Though James Pierpont's original college party seem to
have acquiesced in the Saybrook arrangement, signs are not
wanting during this period of preparation for a stand on
the question when it should definitely arise. We have seen
how first one and then another New Haven merchant had
been elected Treasurer after Nathaniel Lynde of Saybrook
had declined the place. Samuel Russel of Branford had
Saybrook Days 247
been elected a Trustee, and, while the next two vacancies
had been filled with New London and Fairfield ministers, for
the following two New Haven site supporters were selected.
In the meantime Pierpont acquiesced in such efforts as were
being made to settle Rector Pierson permanently at
Saybrook.
And these had been numerous, though to no purpose.
The evidence is that Rector Pierson had been ready to
remove to Saybrook, so far as his personal wishes went, but
that the leaders in his Killingworth church had succeeded in
blocking his several attempts to do so. No doubt the offers
of the Trustees had something to do with Pierson's willing-
ness to move, as, with his large and growing family, his
financial prospects as a settled Rector of the Collegiate
School at Saybrook promised better than his small pay of
60 as the Killingworth minister. Yet I imagine that his
interest in science, which was greater than usually could be
found in the Colony at the time, and his firm belief in the
possibilities of the School, were even stronger inducements.
In the hope of securing a release from his congregation, he
bought the six acres at Saybrook, named in his inventory,
and the Trustees voted him 100 to build a house thereon,
if he would remove. But the opposition of his people had
resulted in a deadlock that had lasted until his unexpected
death.
Not only did they oppose his removal, but the good Kill-
ingworth people had even raised serious objections to the
continuance of the School there, and to their minister giving
any of his time to it. All of which doubtless had kept
Rector Pierson in a sad flutter and state of indecision. He
had even found it necessary to write a letter to his congre-
gation. In this he says that he "perceives a misapprehen-
sion" among them as to "my Answer at New Haven [when
he had accepted the Rectorship] to the Rev. trustees of the
2 4 8
The Beginnings of Yale
Collegiate School." The facts were, he said, that they had
wanted him to remove to Saybrook and "take the care and
conduck of the school," and "remove to the place by them
appointed for it." As to this, he says, "I answered as
you have heard, that I Durst not Deny a Divine call to
attend to that work so far as was consistent with my minis-
terial work among you." But "Not Discarning a present
call thereunto; after much perswasion and pressing to it,
my Answer was to act therein as god should open my way."
The consent of his people was necessary to his removal to
Saybrook, he then said. He might not secure this "generall
and joynt consent," but if he did (and the good Rector's
business side here rises again) he should "expect your in-
gagement by sufficient sureties to Reimburse and according
to agreement, without which I shall not part with the house
and without this ingagement I shall not think I have a suffi-
Saybrook Days 249
cient expression of your consent to my removal." This letter
"to the inhabitants of Killingworth" was dated September
21, 1705. As might have been expected, it did not at all
meet with the "joynt consent" of the canny Killingworth
deacons. They had voted, with the rest of the townsfolk,
to give him as their minister the "town house." This Pier-
son, desiring to leave for Saybrook, now proposed to keep
permanently. So their answer had not been unexpected.
"We do declare," say they, "that it is our opinion that it is
not, or like to be consistent with your ministerial worke
amongst us to attend sd school as heirherto," and "we shall
not endeavor to act in that matter any firther than we have
allready Don."
The unfortunate Rector, thus impaled upon the two horns
of this unexpected dilemma, had found himself agreed, on
the one hand, to be the Collegiate School Rector and to settle
in Saybrook (where he had now invested in land with that
idea in mind) and, on the other, under contract to remain
as the pastor of the Killingworth people who were now pro-
ceeding to tell the Trustees to take their school out of the
village and secure another Rector.
Matters had thus remained for the first four years of
Mr. Pierson's Rectorship. In 1706 they came to a natural
crisis. In that year the Trustees (on the Rector's "re-
quest") voted to ask the town of Killingworth to allow
"the Collegiate School to be & remain hear under the care
& conduct of the Rev. Mr. Pierson." The town's reply
was an abrupt one. It was not "to allowe that the School
should be keept hear as it has been." The Killingworth
village worthies, however, seem to have been willing to
reconsider this action, doubtless on Mr. Pierson's final
urging. For, early in the winter of 1705-1706, they made
"choyce of Decon Griswold, Robert Lane, Sarjts Shether,
Stevens and John Crane," as a "Comity to consider of, and
250 The Beginnings of Yale
draw up sum terms or proposalls for the town to consider
of with Respect to the allowance of the Collegiate School
Being hear under the care and conduct of Mr. Pierson."
It was while these "proposalls" were being laid before his
flock by Rector Pierson that his death had occurred.
/
II
Conditions in the Colony found the Trustees unprepared
to elect a new resident Rector after Mr. Pierson's death,
a fact which goes to show, I think, the rather complete
dependence of the enterprise up to that time upon Abraham
Pierson. Nothing had come of the effort to secure sub-
scriptions from the Colony, and there was therefore little
or no money in Treasurer Alling's hands in New Haven
with which to settle a competent master. The problem was
temporarily solved by the acceptance by the Rev. Samuel
Andrew, now forty-six years old, of the Rectorship pro
tern, and of the charge of a part of the scholars, the
Senior classes, at his parsonage in Milford. The Killing-
worth establishment was broken up, and Phineas Fiske, of
the Class of 1704, who had the previous year succeeded
John Hart as Tutor, went over, bag and baggage and with
the remaining scholars, to Saybrook, probably at first to the
house of the now elderly Rev. Thomas Buckingham, who
must have agreed to give a general oversight to them. That
this was a highly fortunate circumstance for the Collegiate
School may be gathered from even the little we know of
this Saybrook minister. He was, apparently, energetic
when it fell upon him to take action for the good of his
community, as was shown in his galloping about to rouse
the village when Andros arrived. From an appealing letter
to Governor Saltonstall, asking him to approach in his stead
Governor Winthrop for a gift to the School ("I have neither
Saybrook Days 251
Skill nor Corage in manageing such affairs," he wrote), it
is likely that he was less energetic in business matters. But
he was "kindly in his manner, dignified and scholarly, and
his councils were received with deference both by the tutors
and the students." It is said that the Collegiate School
youths "loved him like a father." He practically filled the
place of Rector Pierson until his death two years later,
though Samuel Andrew was the nominal head of the
academy.
Samuel Andrew's acceptance of this responsibility was
no doubt encouraged by James Pierpont. Yet the Rev. Mr.
Andrew was well adapted for the position, so far as the
educational side went. He had been a Tutor and Fellow at
Harvard, and had been forced to assume the chief responsi-
bilities of that college during the unsettled administrations
of Presidents Oakes and Rogers. In that capacity he had
been Tutor to James Pierpont, Samuel Russel, and Noadiah
Russell of the Class of 1681, and to Joseph Webb of the
Class of 1684, all of whom were now fellow Trustees of
the Collegiate School with him. As matters were to turn
out, Mr. Andrew was to remain Rector pro tern for the
next twelve years; during that period, while a good
teacher, he showed no great aptitude for the administrative
side of his office.
Under these unsatisfactory conditions, the divided Col-
legiate School jogged along for the next few years, losing
ground rather steadily, until for a series of four years but
two or three scholars were graduated annually, and the
Trustees found themselves facing serious difficulties.
That Saybrook Point was not a particularly good place
for such a school was soon to become apparent. The long
sandy road that led across the marshes to Old Saybrook
Point continued to the water front, where there was safe
anchorage and a shelving beach. There were probably
252 The Beginnings of Yale
less than twenty houses, at this time, on and about the six
squares of Gardiner's early town, and about as many more
to the north and on the mainland. The Collegiate School
scholars must have become well acquainted with the land-
marks of the Point: with Lion Gardiner's old windmill,
the Black Horse Inn, the ruins of the first earth fort and
the stone and woodwork of the second fort facing the
Sound, with Lady Fenwick's tomb, and the sunny open
Green in the middle of the village, across which, from the
main village street on the west side, could be seen Mr.
Buckingham's parsonage under its elm trees.
During this time we do not even know, however, where
the declining academy was housed. The small Calvinistic
library had likely remained in Mr. Buckingham's Say-
brook parsonage study and, for a time at least, Sir Fiske
(as the Tutor's title was) probably held his classes there,
the few scholars boarding about the village as best they
could. Treasurer Nathaniel Lynde had early offered his
house and lot, facing east on the town Green and across
it from the minister's. The deed, however, had not been
passed, but now, in 1708, when the School appeared to have
definitely settled at Saybrook, it was duly executed, and the
Trustees came into possession of the Lynde property.
Tradition has it that this house of Nathaniel Lynde was
a unique structure, some "eighty feet long" (very likely
made up of a main structure and a wing, as many of the
well-to-do merchants of the day built), with sanded oak-
plank floors, oil-paper windows, and great stone fireplaces.
Saybrook stories have it that this elongated structure, or
"college house," was the dormitory of the two tutors, Sir
Fiske and James Hale, and likewise the scholars' recitation
hall. While he was tutor there, Phineas Fiske married a
Saybrook girl, the daughter of the village blacksmith of
Essex, and no doubt set up his Penates in some upper rooms
254 The Beginnings of Yale
of this Lynde establishment. 1 In 1709, however, James
Hale retired, and Azariah Mather, the son of the aged
Windsor Trustee, and four years graduated, took his place,
preaching between his college duties at the Saybrook Meet-
ing-house after the death of the Rev. Thomas Buckingham
in that year. When he resigned in the following year, to
become the regular Saybrook minister, Joseph Noyes, a
year out of the Collegiate School, became his successor.
Noyes, in the time to come, was to be one of the most im-
portant factors in early Yale history. He was the son of
old James Noyes of Stonington and nephew of Moses
Noyes of Lyme, who had also by this time become a Trustee.
He "had made himself very much master of the learning
taught at College in that day." Upon the retirement as
Tutor of Phineas Fiske, in 1713, Sir Joseph Noyes, assisted
by his classmate, William Russell (a son of Noadiah Rus-
sell), became the mainstay of the struggling School, and
continued as such until he became the successor of James
Pierpont in New Haven two years later and married his
daughter.
During these years the Treasurer of the School found it
one of his chief duties, perhaps his most onerous one,
to feed the dozen or twenty youths who came for their in-
struction to the Lynde college-house. Treasurer Ailing
commissioned Captain Browne of the "Speedwell" for a
number of these necessaries. 2 Thus fifty bushels of wheat
and as many more of rye were shipped from New Haven
to Boston to raise money for this purpose in 1707, and a
1 Apocryphal legends concerning this house are to the effect that it was
built for the Collegiate School and was one story high. But the evidence
is that it was a building that had come into Lynde's possession, and was
given by him to the School.
2 Professor Dexter has published, in the New Haven Colony Historical
Society Papers, an exhaustive account of Captain Browne's business.
Saybrook Days 255
couple of ca'sks of "green wine" went to the School, or the
"college," as Captain Browne called it. More green wine
was purchased later, and twenty yards of stuff for bed
curtains (probably for Tutor Mather and his bride), and
some brass rings, a pewter basin, a pound of alum, a pound
of nutmegs, and seventeen yards of silk crepe for gowns
for the Tutors. A year later Captain Browne sold some
goods for a hogshead of rum, costing 12 i6s., for the
scholars. John Dixwell of Boston, the silversmith, had
been acting as an agent for the School, and the proceeds of
a sale of corn and rye in the Boston market are paid over
by him. Some blue calico is ordered, the first mention of
that color in Yale annals, a hair-sieve, a brass skillet, a
steel candlestick, and some lace thread. Captain Browne's
later business for Treasurer Ailing appears largely to have
consisted in carrying grain to Boston, the value of which
was paid over by School agents there besides Dixwell.
Ill
I suppose that it was about this time that the course of
study was made four years. 1 The School year began and
ended at the Saybrook Commencements in September, and
there were no long vacations. From a letter written about
this time, we find that the Senior classes closed their studies
when the hot weather came on in mid-July, and then ap-
peared before the Tutors and such of the Trustees as could
come to Saybrook, to be "proved and approved" for pres-
1 The course had been set for four years for a first and three years for a
second degree at the Saybrook organization of the Trustees. It had, how-
ever, been voted that if any of the scholars "shall demand Their Diploma or
Licence at the Expiration of 3 years and from thence of 2 full years," they
could have it if they were duly qualified. Practically all of the first stu-
dents of the Collegiate School took their bachelor's degree under this special
arrangement.
ijjij^f
'aj!|
F)
Saybrook Days 257
entation as candidates for their degrees. Joseph Noyes
in 1714 writes to Rector Andrew to this effect, and pro-
ceeds to ask Mr. Andrew to "appoint them their commence-
ment work," that is, the Latin theses on assigned theological
and metaphysical topics which, as at Harvard, they were
publicly to pronounce upon their graduation. When the
September Commencements came, there were small gather-
ings at Mr. Buckingham's house, and, after his death, prob-
ably in the village Meeting-house, over which Rector
Andrew presided.
While these Commencements had been very quiet at first,
in order to permit the Collegiate School to get under -way
without attracting uncomfortable notice in London, the fear
of this interference had rapidly died out by 1710, and the
Trustees had voted to allow a little more publicity to them.
So that I suppose that now these annual Collegiate School
events were of some small Colony interest, attended by
perhaps a score of near-by coast and river-town ministers,
by many of the Saybrook and Essex and Lyme villagers, and
even, on occasion, by the Governor himself.
Benjamin Lord of the Class of 1714, later to be a Tutor
for a brief time in the School, years afterward described
those early Commencements. They were held in the Say-
brook Meeting-house. The Rector presided, flanked, in the
deacons' seats, no doubt, by such Trustees as could come,
in their full-bottomed wigs, white 'bands, black coats and
smallclothes, black stockings and shoes with silver buckles.
Long sessions were held, both morning and afternoon of the
great day. Prayers began and closed these ceremonies, and
between times the "disputations" were held, in Latin.
Toward evening the Commencement closed with the grant-
ing of the degrees. Says Benjamin Lord: "The Rector
gave degrees much in the present form (no pro modo
Anglice then) ; when he came to ye words hunc Librum, he
258 The Beginnings of Yale
gave ye candidates a little book into their hands, which
they returned for ye next, for they came up only two by two ;
no Diaplomas were delivered then. The Rector previous to
the giving of Degrees ask'd the consent of the Trustees,
saying, placetne vobis, etc., to which they answered, placet,
placet." 1
Of the thirteen boys who had been given their Bachelor
of Arts degrees under Abraham Pierson's direction, eleven
had either returned to him for graduate study in theology
or had immediately set about preparation for the pulpit by
placing themselves under their home-town ministers, these
being in most cases, of course, Trustees of the Collegiate
School. During the succeeding ten years the proportion of
ministers to laymen among the graduates was hardly
smaller, thirty out of the forty-two graduates of that period
going into the ministry. 2 So that the purpose of the
founders, to supply a home ministry through the Collegiate
School, was beginning to be carried out. What sort of a
place the Connecticut at this time was, into which these
Collegiate School youths went for their life work, and what
were its social and educational limitations, may now be
briefly considered.
1 The earliest Collegiate School diploma granted for a Bachelor's Degree
that has been preserved is that of John Hart of the Class of 1703. It reads:
Omnibus et Singulis Has praesentes perlecturis Salutem in Deo. Vobis
Notum sit, quod lohannem Hart Candidatum, Primum in Artibus gradum
competentem, tarn probavimus, quam approbavimus: quern Examine suffi-
ciente praevio approbatum, Nobis placet Titulo Graduq Artium Liberalium
Baccalaurei ; adornare et condecorare. Cuj 8 hoc Instrumentum in membrano
scriptum Testimonium sit. A Gymnasio Academico Connecticutensi 17
Calend. Octobr. 1703.
ABRAH. PIERSON, Rect.
MOSES NOYES THOMAS BUCKINGHAM
NOADIAH RUSSEL
Inspectores.
2 This proportion would be larger if one counts in the number who studied
theology but did not become ministers.
CHAPTER III
THE CONNECTICUT COLONY IN 1701-1714
I
ECTOR PIERSON'S cider and to-
bacco doubtless had played their part
in the hospitality which, as was the
1 case with all of the country ministers
1 of the day, he showed to passers-by on
the Boston Post-road. And no doubt
I these occasions were infrequent enough
I to the Killingworth minister, as they
were to Thomas Buckingham and the Collegiate School
Tutors at Saybrook in the years just after his death. Com-
panionship after their kind was not within easy reach for
260 The Beginnings of Yale
the educated men of Connecticut of Rector Pierson's day.
For we should remember, in calling to mind these times,
that there was then a wide gap between the intellectual
interests of the educated college man and the rest of his
community. Scholars were few and far between, and were
men of mark. Forming a small social circle about them
were the well-to-do farmers and merchants, often traveled
men and chosen to be Deputies in the General Court. But
below these came the general run of the population, small
farmers and hired men, country bumpkins, slaves, and vil-
lage riffraff of narrow mental horizons and uncouth ways.
We find this great mass of the common people of the Colony
at that date, graphically portrayed by the Boston school-
ma'am, Madam Knight. Of 'the upper class she remarks
that "many of them are good, Sociable people, and I hope
Religious too; but a little too much Independent in their
principals." She found them living "Generally very well
and comfortable in their families. But too Indulgent
(especially the farmers) to their slaves: suffering too great
familiarity from them, permitting them to sit at Table and
eat with them (as they say to save time), and into the dish
goes the black hoof as freely as the white hand." The mer-
chants, or small village storekeepers, the sprightly Boston
traveler found, had high social standing and were looked
up to with great awe by the country people who came in to
trade and run up bills. These "merchants" seem to have
carried matters with a high hand. "They rate (says
Madam Knight) their Goods according to the time and
spetia they pay in: viz. Pay, mony. Pay as mony, and trust-
ing. Pay is Grain, Pork, Beef, &c. at the prices set by the
General Court that Year: mony is pieces of Eight, Ryalls, or
Boston or Bay shillings (as they call them), or Good hard
money, as sometimes silver coin is termed by them; also
Wampum, viz. Indian beads which serves for change. Pay
The Connecticut Colony in 1701-1714 261
as mony is provisions, as aforesaid one Third cheaper than
as the Assembly or General Court sets it ; and Trust as they
and the mercht agree for time."
Hardly a better picture of Rector Pierson's times could
come down to us than such a little scene as this good lady
describes as occurring at a New Haven tradesman's shop.
"Being at a merchants house," she writes in 1704, "in comes
a tall country fellow, wth his alfogees full of Tobacco; for
they seldom Loose their Cudd, but keep Chewing and
Spitting as long as they'r eyes are open, he advanc't to
the midle of the Room, makes an Awkward Nodd, and
spitting a Large deal of Aromatick Tincture, he gave a
scrape with his shovel like shoo, leaving a small shovel full
of dirt on the floor, made a full stop, Hugging his own
pretty Body with his hands under his arms, Stood staring
rown'd him, like a Catt let out of a Baskett. At last, like
the creature Balaam Rode on, he opened his mouth and
said: have you any Ribinen for Hat-bands to sell I pray?
The Questions and Answers about the pay being past, the
Ribin is bro't and opened. Bumpkin Simpers, cryes its con-
founded Gay I vow; and beckning to the door, in comes
Jone Tawdry, dropping about 50 curtsees, and stands by
him : he shows her the Ribin. Law, You, sais shee, its right
Gent, do You take it, tis dreadfully pretty.. Then she en-
quires, have You any hood silk I pray? wch being brought
and bought, Have You any thred silk to sew it wth says
shee, wch being accomodated wth they Departed. They
Generaly stand after they come in a great while speachless,
and sometimes dont say a word till they are askt what they
want." The village storekeepers on such occasions seem to
have given the purchasers no choice, but bring out what is
ordered.
And we have still another cue from Madam Knight about
the Connecticut people of 1701. They were, she con-
262 The Beginnings of Yale
sidered, generally rather clever, though provincial. "These
people," she wrote, "have as Large a portion of mother
witt, and sometimes a Larger, than those who have bin
brought up in Citties; But for want of emprovements, Ren-
der themselves almost Ridiculos, as above. They are gen-
eraly very plain in their dress, throuout all ye Colony,
as I saw, and follow one another in their modes; that You
may know where they belong, especialy the women, meet
them where you will."
While Madam Knight, fresh from Londonized Boston,
had found Connecticut people more sedately dressed and
provincial in their fashions, a few of the leading people
were now dressing in rather more garish costumes than
their Puritan fathers. The country-folk were plain enough,
though a deserting soldier just before this time was adver-
tised as wearing a periwig. Wigs, however, were now the
universal custom throughout New England, and no doubt
were worn by the more progressive provincials in Connecti-
cut. Long, square-cut coats were in style, with great cuffs,
and, for the more elegant dandies, gold- and silver-embroi-
dered lapels. The earlier high Puritan hats had gone out
for lower crowned but still broad-brimmed cloth or fur hats.
Embroidered waistcoats were coming in. The women of
the day, in spite of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard's thunderous
denunciations from remote Northampton, were beginning to
wear hooped petticoats of "tabby" silks, charmingly colored
and embroidered, as well as the soft flowered dimities of
Pierpont's early New Haven day fashions. We have seen
how Governor Fitz-John Winthrop, of New London, had
been one of the most famous of Connecticut dandies. He
had been succeeded in 1707 as Governor by his pastor,
Gurdon Saltonstall, but Winthrop's official sanction to the
Boston styles (which he kept in touch with through a tre-
mendously serious correspondence on the modes with his
The Connecticut Colony in 1701-1714 263
nephew, a Boston macaroni of the times) must have had its
effect on the respectable and well-to-do Connecticut gentle-
men of his circles. Muffs were still the fashion for both
men and women, and in 1712 the London notion of neck-
laces and neck-scarfs was coming in. Great wearers of
fancy gloves and of innumerable rings were these good Con-
necticut folk of the Collegiate School's early years. Rings
were still not given at marriages, in conformity with Puritan
prejudices, but they were, in extraordinary profusion, at
funerals, where they were considered such perquisites that
Judge Sewall sometimes set it down in his diary as a great
disappointment if he arrived too late to receive one. I
imagine that the zest for fashionable clothes was a con-
siderable factor in the daily lives of the Connecticut folk
of these Saybrook days of the Collegiate School. Perhaps
this was one more phase of the pendulum-swing away from
the early Puritan rigidity that was showing itself now in
other things besides the importation of London fashions,
games and dances. Benjamin Tompson, the "learned
schoolmaster & physician," who preceded Ezekiel Cheever
in the Charlestown Town School, had showed some of the
current conservative feeling about this change of manners
in his "New England's Crisis":
Deep-skirted doublets, puritanick capes,
Which now would render men like upright apes,
Was comlier wear, our wiser fathers thought,
Than the cast fashions from all Europe brought.
'Twas in those dayes an honest grace would hold
Till an hot pudding grew at heart a cold.
And men had hetter stomachs at religion,
Than I to capon, turkey-cock, or pigeon ;
to which he harmoniously added, as a gentle barb against
the gossiping ladies:
264 The Beginnings of Yale
When honest sisters met to pray, not prate,
About their own and not their neighbor's state.
And Timothy Woodbridge, now one of the Collegiate
School Trustees, had had his say about the changes in
manners, also in verse. We have in a complimentary poem
to a Boston minister this poetical effort of the Hartford
minister and Collegiate School Trustee :
Here be rare lessons set for us to read,
That offsprings are of such a goodly breed,
The dead ones here so much alive are made,
We think them speaking from blest Eden's shade.
Hark how they check the madness of this age,
The growth of pride, fierce lust and worldly rage;
They tell we shall to clam-banks come again,
If heaven still doth scourge us all in vain.
II
It was among people of this provincial and yet fashion-
able sort, and for the higher education of their sons, that
the Collegiate School had been founded, and had selected its
course of studies.
And this was, naturally, as limited in its interests as was
the intellectual horizon of the Colony itself. The leaders
in the New England settlements had, indeed, been well-
educated men. Among the numerous Cambridge graduates
and the fewer Oxford men of the original settlers had been
men who, even in the old country, had high reputations for
learning and ability. Their successors, however, had not
had their advantages, but had received the education that
the limited intellectual resources, both in tutors and books,
of the pioneer life of the colonies afforded.
And this, compared either with the .contemporaneous uni-
versity education in England, or with the broader range of
studies which were later on to be adopted at home, was
The Connecticut Colony in 1701-1714 265
narrow enough. Absorbed in the political and religious
struggles of these pioneer days, harassed by the French and
Indian wars, their energies taken up by the hard life of the
plantations, the common run of this sturdy New England
people had had little time, if inclination, for keeping abreast
with the intellectual currents abroad. We have seen how, in
Connecticut, even the common schools had been neglected.
This had been true throughout New England. The most
that Harvard (supported, as it was, by the larger circle of
English-university-bred men of Massachusetts), the single
New England college up to this time, had been able to do
had been to carry its youth through pretty elementary
studies of the three ancient languages, through elementary
arithmetic and some surveying, and a course in logic and
266 The Beginnings of Yale
a metaphysics which was still cobwebbed in long outgrown
systems. Calvinistic theology and a quaintly unsophisticated
study of natural laws called "Physicks," completed the
higher education of this early day. The best-educated men
of the time were thus limited to an extremely narrow and
outgrown intellectual order. 1 The general run of the
people were not educated at all beyond a reading knowl-
edge of their own tongue and even then not in all cases.
The briefest survey of the intellectual horizon of 1701 will
show how restricted it was.
So far as an interest in literature went, there was little
enough of it in the New England of Rector Pierson and his
fellow Trustees. As had been natural, the first books that
had been written here had been reports by the best-educated
of the first settlers on conditions in New England, and
accounts of happenings, for the benefit of friends left at
home. Winthrop's engaging letters to his wife, and Brad-
ford's history, were of this period. Then had followed a
long series of theological treatises, such as John Norton's
widely-read "Orthodox Evangelist," Thomas Hooker's
"The Soul's Implantation," John Cotton's famous "The
Bloody Tenant Washed and Made White in the Blood of
the Lamb," Roger Williams' "George Fox Digged out of
his Burrowes," and Cotton Mather's enormous product of
four hundred treatises, sermons, pamphlets, witchcraft
arguments, his now quite absurd "Remarkable Providences"
and his encyclopedic "Magnalia." The great "Complete
Body of Divinity," of Vice-President Willard of Harvard,
expounding the stern Calvinism of the latter iyth Century,
was the most pretentious and important of these. In addi-
tion, countless "Election Sermons," tracts, "Execution Ser-
1 This was also largely true of the England of the early 18th Century.
Locke, for instance, was not a factor in English university education until
some time later.
The Connecticut Colony in 1701-1714 267
mons" (in which the condemned was rhetorically flayed as
he awaited the rope), and controversial pamphlets, such as
filled the air when the "Half-way Covenant" argument was
on, many of them printed in New England, formed the
staple intellectual pabulum of the educated class. The
lists of books in New England private libraries of that
day show to what an extent this sort of theological publica-
tion comprised the reading of the time. To these
were added similar works from England, till we seem to see
.nothing but theology read about the hearth-fires of these
early Colony leaders. John Dunton, in 1686, had enthusias-
tically imported a lot of English books that he expected to
turn a penny on, but says that he and his books were about
as popular in Boston as "Sour ale in Summer." There were
plenty of booksellers in Boston, and most of them became
rich, and all were dandies. But their sales were to the
ministers mostly, and of theological works.
Inventories of the time show the small range of books in
Connecticut libraries. I came across such a list in the
inventory of a Milford estate in the New Haven probate
records of 1700. The usual household belongings are
given "cubbards," state tables, a looking-glass, a "great
looking glass," "one negro girl, 30," etc. and then comes
a catalogue of "som books," mostly folios. Here were
listed "Fox acts & monuments, Perkins his works, Cooper's
Dictionary, Fox Martyrs 2 vols., Gonerall History of
Turks, Doctrine of ye Gospels, Ciceros works in Latine,
Scapula's Lexicon in Greek & Latine, Christian's Dialogue,
Wilson's Smaller Christian Dictionary, Bundani Questions,
Prim about perseverence, Baxter's Confession of his Faith,
Majors Physiologia, Coles English Dictionary, Compleat
Horsman or exact Farior, Sibbs soul Conflict, appologie of
ye Church of England, the logician's Schoolmaster, Epit-
omie of ye art of husbandry, beames of former light,
268 The Beginnings of Yale
Infant Baptisme, a Latine bible, a brief instructions ye wor-
ship of God, Calipoia, ye whole book spalms, ye portrai-
ture of Charles ist, Catalines conspiracy, Burrough of a
gracious spiritt," and an "antidote against distractions."
Richard Rosewell, the Collegiate School treasurer previous
to John Ailing, left a "Dixonary, history book," and "i
small book." One Thomas Cooke of Guilford, dying in
1700, left u a book cald ye exposition of ye 10 command-
ments, the practical Catechisme, ye 10 virgins, a Book
titled Faith & good Works all, a parchment called ye Church
history, ye Estate of Britain, an old psalm book a book of
Sam. Willards, a book titled a good conscience, an old book
called ye passion of Christ, ye assembly of divines, a book
Sion in distress a book of Sr William Phipps, a book of
Thomas Taylors a Latton Book in ox, a paper covered book
titled dead Faith, a Boza bible [John Boyse's Translation
of The Apocrypha?] and 2 old bibles."
There was, to be sure, some crudely imaginative litera-
ture written during this period, though I fancy that most
of it had scant audiences. But this was faintly poetical, at
the best, and was deeply tinctured with the prevailing fear
of God and hope of a very tangible Hereafter. And it took
the form of metrical elegies and epitaphs, of "two-penny
jeering gigges," or acrostics, as often as it did of more sus-
tained flights of poetry. Isaac Watts' lines,
Gentle Ithuriel led him round the skies;
The buildings struck him with immense surprise,
are not more ridiculous to modern readers than the amazing
mass of theological verse that came out of contemporaneous
New England. Considering that they might proceed so far
in their reforming of the Church of England ritual as to
sing psalms, the first book issued in New England had been
the "Bay Psalm Book," printed on the Harvard press by
The Connecticut Colony in 1701-1714 269
Stephen Daye, a ne'er-do-well fellow, who fell into evil ways
and was clapped in jail. This badly printed collection of
religious doggerel, with amended versions, went through
thirty editions. Containing such lines as
O Happie hee shall surely bee
that taketh up, that eke
thy little ones against the stones
doth into pieces break,
this extraordinary set of Meeting-house songs, together with
Sternhold and Hopkins rendering, furnished the New Eng-
land congregations, as, indeed, New England households,
with their religious verse far past the date of the founding
of the Collegiate School, and no doubt was used by the
scholars.
Timothy Woodbridge probably considered that he was
assisting in the moral return of Connecticut, at least to the
clam banks of the original Puritan simplicity. But his
poetry does not commend his imaginative genius very much
to us. This Collegiate School Trustee, however, never
sank to quite the abysmal depths of nonsense that Governor
Wolcott of Connecticut fell into in his fifteen hundred lines
commemorating his predecessor's securing of the Colony
charter:
Religion was the cause ; Divinity
Having declar'd the gospel shine should be
Extensive as the sun's diurnal shine;
This mov'd our Founders to this great design.
But the particular star in New England's early poetry
was Michael Wigglesworth who, as we have seen, had
escaped an early death in New Haven, to become the poeti-
cal exponent of all the gloom and despair and agonized
spiritual torments of his times.
270 The Beginnings of Yale
Wigglesworth was known, of course, to the Collegiate
School founders, as were doubtless his poems. "Homely
and coarse as his muse is," said a critic of 1829 of his verses,
"her voice probably sunk into the hearts of those who lis-
tened to her rude melody, leaving there an impression,
deeper than any which the numbers of a Byron, a Southey,
or a Moore may ever produce." And this was probably
true. The ordinary New England folk of the early i8th
Century were no nice discriminators in matters of literary
taste. They were not readers, and knew little or nothing
of the new Queen Anne fashions in books in London. They
were still engrossed by the theological disputes of the day in
their own narrow circles, and the best of them were spend-
ing most of their energy in finding ways of stemming the
ebb of the early religious tide rather than in cultivating the
graces of life. To them, Michael Wigglesworth's lumber-
ing miles of earnest but unconsciously puerile verses were
in the literary field what the sermons and tracts on their
scant bookshelves were to them in the matter of solid think-
ing. Wigglesworth's "Day of Doom" is of course his most
noted work.
Wallowing in all kinds of sin,
Vile wretches lay secure;
The best of men had scarcely then
Their lamps kept in good ure.
The final Judgment Day arrives. The Almighty appears,
With mighty voice, and hideous noise,
More terrible than thunder,
and the erstwhile inhabitants of the earth are called before
him for judgment. Violent arguments begin between lost
souls and God.
"But Lord," say they, "we went astray,
And did more wickedly,
The Connecticut Colony in 1701-1714 271
By means of those whom thou hast chose,
Salvation heirs to be."
To whom the judge, "what you allege,
Doth nothing help the case;
But makes appear how vile you were,
And rendereth you more base."
The damned are hastily packed off to their eternal torments,
argument or no argument, doubtless to the terror of fireside
families to whom the heads of households rolled forth the
awful verses.
Then to the bar, all they drew near
Who died in infancy,
And never had or good or bad
Effected personally,
But from the womb unto the tomb,
Were straightway carried, . . .
These infants propound the following extenuating circum-
stances :
"But Adam's guilt our souls hath spilt,
His fault is charged on us;
And that alone hath overthrown,
And utterly undone us ...
How could we sin that had not been
Or how is his sin our
Without consent, which to prevent,
We never had a power?"
Then answered the judge most dread,
"God doth such doom forbid,
That men should die eternally
For what they never did.
But what you call old Adam's fall,
And only his trespass,
You call amiss to call it his,
Both his and yours it was.
272 The Beginnings of Yale
He was design'd of all mankind
To be a public head,
A common root, whence all should shoot,
And stood in all their stead.
He stood and fell, did ill or well,
Not for himself alone,
But for you all, who now his fall
And trespass would disown."
Wigglesworth's God proceeds in this vein before the un-
baptized infants for numerous stanzas, and concludes :
" A crime it is, therefore in bliss
You may not hope to dwell
But unto you I shall allow
The easiest room in hell."
It must have been a heartening ending of this doleful busi-
ness, to the church members of Abraham Pierson's day, for
Wigglesworth to wind up his stupendous mass of doggerel
with a fascinating picture of the joyful reception in Heaven
of the "saints" themselves, church members in good stand-
ing in the village Meeting-house.
Perhaps we can have no worse example, however, of the
poetical genius of those days than in the verses of Nicholas
Noyes, that persistent disciple of the foppish punning style
of an earlier day in London. Noyes' poems are a very good
example of the sort of poetry that was accepted by his
New England contemporaries. In his "Consolatory Poem"
to Cotton Mather, for whom he wrote some prefatory
jingles for the latter's "Magnalia," the Reverend Noyes
wrote :
Yea, who would live among catarrhs
Contagion, pains, and strifes, an'd wars,
That might go up above the stars,
And live in health, and peace, and bliss,
Had in that world, but wish'd in this?
The Connecticut Colony in 1701-1714 273
This sort of poetry appears to have been about the best that
the New England of the Collegiate School's early days
afforded.
Ill
In science we find the contemporaries of the Collegiate
School founders steeped in the supernatural, and untouched
by the great intellectual awakening in England that had
followed Bacon and which was now being brilliantly carried
on by Sir Isaac Newton, Locke, Halley, and Cotes. It was
said that there was but one copy of Bacon's "Advancement
of Learning" in all New England a decade after the Col-
legiate School was founded. Rumors of a new field of
intellectual life had, no doubt, filtered into the colonies.
But to the orthodox leaders of the day this departure
meant only the threatening advent of a new theology, as had
so well been proven in the Latitudinarian movement in
Boston. As such, it was sternly to be avoided. So that, by
1700, as little was known of Isaac Newton and John Locke,
or even Bacon, in science, as was known of Dryden and
Steele and Addison in literature. If the metaphysics that
was taught at the Collegiate School was to be of the
traditional and long outgrown scholastic systems of the
earlier Reformation writers, and if the theology was
the strictest and most primitive Calvinism, the "Physicks"
was of equal antiquity and a half-century behind more en-
lightened England's. The New England people of the
early i8th Century were still at the intellectual stage of their
Puritan forefathers of the early iyth Century. Rector
Pierson's classes began the educational history of Yale in
a devout belief in a Calvinistic hell, in supernatural agencies,
and that the sun moved round the earth.
Rector Pierson's manuscript "Physicks" would doubtless
give us a highly entertaining view of the scientific notions of
274
The Beginnings of Yale
his times, could we discover a copy of it. But we have an
idea of what it was like, from the Harvard text-book of
the day, a manuscript copy of which, in the handwriting of
a Harvard student of 1708, was found a few years ago
under an ancient flooring in Faneuil Hall in Boston. Each
paragraph in this little Harvard text-book defined some
natural phenomenon. It concerned "falling stars" and why
they are "inflamed;" "airy meteors;" "irregular winds,"
the dew. Sleep is caused, we read, by "steames of food, and
blood ascending into ye Brain, by whose coldness they are
said to be condens'd into moisture, which obstructs ye pas-
sage of ye Spirits that they can't freely permeate to ye
Organs of Senses"; dreams are "an adjunct of Sleep,' 1
"which in ye active fancy's entertaining itself (whilst it has
nothing else to do) with ye Phantasms laid up in ye
memory." The Harvard "Physicks" of 1703-1707 (and
The Connecticut Colony in 1701-1714 275
no doubt Rector Pierson's) taught that animals were dis-
tinguishable from mankind largely through their lack of
reason, "though some learned men are enclined to think that
religion not reason is ye essential difference between man
and brute." This treatise also had to do with medicine,
astronomy, and simple measuring (such as of "ye cask both
at ye bung' head"), and "fortification."
Rector Pierson's teachings could hardly have been very
different from those in this old Harvard Latin manuscript,
as indeed both probably came from a common and earlier
Harvard source, and in turn from the English university
teaching of 1600.
It will be recalled that Noadiah Russell, of the board of
Trustees, had been making almanacs in old Ipswich but a
few years before this time. His opinions on the phenomena
of nature no doubt coincided with much that Abraham Pier-
son was now teaching. Some of them are worth quoting.
"Concerning Lightning and Thunder" this Collegiate
School Trustee had written: "Lightning is an exalation hot
and dry, as also hot and moist; which being elevated by the
sun to the middle region of the air, is there included or shut
up within a cloud and cannot ascend; but by an antiperistasis
grows hotter and is enkindled, attenuated, and so seeks for
more room, which it not finding in the cloud, violently rends
the same, breaks out of it and continues burning so long that
it comes to the very ground. By its rending the cloud there
is caused a most dreadful noise or rumbling, and this we call
thunder. So that thunder is improperly reckoned among
the kind or species of meteors." And Trustee Russell pro-
ceeds : "With this lightning" [a "second sort" which "con-
sists of a more fat and thick exalation"] "there happens to
be (yet seldom) a stone, that is called a thunderbolt, which
braketh forth with the exalation (as a bullet out of a gun)
and breaks into pieces whatever it meets. When it strikes
276 The Beginnings of Yale
the ground, it is reported to go not above five feet deep."
Noadiah Russell's published facts about lightning contain
even more curious observations. He says : "If lightning kills
one in his sleep, he dyes with his eyes opened. The reason
is because it just wakes him and kills him before he can shut
his eyes again. If it kills one waking, his eyes will be found
to be shut, because it so amaseth him, that he winketh and
dyes before he can open his eyes again. Caution [adds this
sponsor for the intellectual life of early Yale]. It is not
good to stand looking on the lightning for any time, for, if
it hurts no other way, yet it may dry up or so waste the
chrystalline humor of the eyes that it may cause the sight
to perish, or it may swell the face, making it to break out
with scabs, caused by a kind of poyson in the exalation which
the pores of the face and eyes do admit."
It was under such educational auspices, and at such a
stage in Connecticut's intellectual progress, that the Colle-
giate School of Pierpont and Pierson, of Andrew and Buck-
ingham and Woodbridge and Sir Joseph Noyes, Tutor, was
now developing. As we shall see, circumstances, a few
years later, were to bring a new mental stimulus to this pro-
vincialism, and happily introduce at least a little of the
broader intellectual life of England to the struggling
academy. But for the first decade and more of the Colle-
giate School's career, it continued to give the orthodox
education of the times, untouched by what was going on in
the outside English-speaking world, and remote from its
cultural influence.
CHAPTER IV
THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM
I
E have seen how in the last years of
the iyth Century, the majority senti-
ment among the ministers of the
Colony had slowly been forming in
favor of a stronger church consolida-
tion than had been the independent
Congregational tradition to that time,
so as to stem the rising tide of irre-
ligion. We have seen how this had led to agitation for that
proposed church control of the Collegiate School which had
been advised by the Mathers. And we have seen how the
Pierpont party had rather adroitly evaded that possibility,
how they had changed the sections of the Addington and
Sewall charter draft that tended in that direction, and how
they had secured a charter which, until 1792 (when the
State secured representation on the Board of Trustees in
278 The Beginnings of Yale
return for a grant of money), was to make the Connecticut
college independent either of the church or state.
But I do not suppose that we should conclude from this
last-mentioned fact that the Pierpont party were averse to
a better organization of the churches. Abraham Pierson
was avowedly of Presbyterian leanings, and James Noyes
(like his father) was a moderate Presbyterian. The Fair-
field County ministers likewise leaned that way. That
James Pierpont was prepared for a step forward in the
churches is likely, though he had been opposed to forming
such an organization in connection with the Collegiate
School. Saltonstall, I imagine, and Woodbridge had wished
to see that School begun under organized church auspices.
But this had not been done. Now, however, that the School
had been established as an independent institution, there
was left to be undertaken the effort to bring it and the
Colony churches into a working relation with each other.
Such a scheme had been under discussion by the Massachu-
setts conservatives, as a last despairing effort to stem the
tide of the new theology. It was now, in 1703-1705,
broached in Connecticut.
The Trustees, meeting in March of the former year at
East Guilford (now Madison), prepared a petition to their
fellow Connecticut ministers calling attention to the Con-
fession of Faith which had been adopted in 1680 by the
New England Synod meeting at Boston, and suggesting that
Connecticut concur with Massachusetts by asking their
own General Assembly officially to recommend it to the
Connecticut Colony churches. Timothy Woodbridge made
his first appearance as a Trustee at this meeting, having
finally left Boston. Whether his appearance, fresh from a
year's sojourn near the Mathers in Boston, had anything
to do with the action taken we do not know, but it certainly
was agreeable to him. The Savoy Confession approved
The Saybrook Platform 279
by the Boston Synod had not been unanimously adopted
throughout the Colony, so that the purpose of this action
was to secure an orthodox creed for the Connecticut
churches. And I suppose that it had another purpose also.
Church of England parishes had for some years been estab-
lished in Boston, where they were received with coldness by
the conservative Congregationalists and cordiality by the
new Brattle-Coleman party. An Episcopal Church had,
indeed, been sought in Stratford in 1690. But Episcopacy
had not as yet made progress in Connecticut. In 1701,
however, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts had been chartered in London, and mission-
aries of the Church of England had been sent to New Eng-
land. One of those, George Keith, had passed through
Connecticut and had been "civally entertained" by the broad-
minded Gurdon Saltonstall, who not only permitted the
missionary to preach in his Puritan pulpit but expressed to
him "his good affection to the Church of England." The
growth of Episcopacy in Connecticut now began, and I
imagine that its threat of coming inroads upon the Con-
gregational churches may have had no small part in sug-
gesting to the Collegiate School (as a similar situation had
suggested a similar effort at Harvard) that Connecticut
Congregationalism put itself in readiness to combat it, at
least so far as adopting a Colony Congregational creed
was concerned. It appears that this movement met with
good success and that "the churches and ministers of the
several counties met in a consociated council, and gave their
assent to the Westminster and Savoy Confessions of Faith.
It seems [adds Connecticut's historian Trumbull] that at
this council they also drew up certain rules of ecclesiastical
union in discipline, as preparatory to a general synod, which
they still had in contemplation."
However this may have been, nothing resulted from this
280 The Beginnings of Yale
last-mentioned proposal until five years later. The Rev.
Gurdon Saltonstall of New London then appears on that
public stage where for the next seventeen years he was to be
so important a figure.
Contemporary references go to show that Saltonstall was
probably the most celebrated preacher of his day, as he
certainly was one of the most versatile. On his death, in his
seventeenth year as Governor of Connecticut, he was re-
ferred to in the Boston paper as "a profound Divine, a
Great Judge in the Law, and a consummate statesman ; He
had made Excellent observations in Natural Philosophy,
and had a peculiar Genius and Skill in the Mathematics;
Not to mention his lighter Studies of Philology, History,
Geography, &c., in each of which he excell'd enough, to have
made an other Man, very Famous: His Person, Mien and
Aspect were equally attractive of Love, Esteem and Admira-
tion." As a public speaker, Gurdon Saltonstall received
from his contemporaries the highest praise of any of his
colleagues. He "charmed" his hearers, it was said of him,
"in such a Strange and Wonderfull manner, that when he
has sometimes spoken for Hours together, there has
appeared nothing but Satisfaction, Delight and Rapture, till
they have all complain'd, that he Left off, & Robb'd them
of their Happiness too soon." Saltonstall, with these
unusual intellectual attainments, was "very much Fixt, in
the Establish'd Religion, of New-England, after a long,
strict and critical Enquiry, into the Principles of it." Cotton
Mather's encomiums in Saltonstall's case were even more
highly colored than usual, but they give us a glimpse of the
man himself. He had, said Mather, "an Agreeable Aspect:
The Silver Basket of a comely Body, carrying in it the
Golden Apples of a well-furnished and well-disposed Soul;
And a venerable Presence charming with Familiar Con-
descensions. We will not call him a Star [concludes Cotton
The Saybrook Platform 281
Mather, soaring upwards from his customary rhetorical
heights] but even a Constellation of the most fulgid
Endowments."
During the last years of his Governorship, Fitz-John
Winthrop had been more or less incapacitated, and had
turned over to his young minister much of the Colony's busi-
ness, especially, it was said, his official correspondence,
though he doubtless continued his epistles on fashion him-
self. His death, in November, 1707, left the Colony in a
difficult situation. Serious troubles over the Rhode Island
and Massachusetts boundaries were still unsettled. Gov-
ernor Dudley of the latter Colony had for several years
been attempting to get control of Connecticut, and had re-
peatedly attacked its charter before the Attorney Generals
of both King William and Queen Anne. A suit was now
pending on the last of these charges. The French and Indian
War was rising on the horizon. In all of these matters
Saltonstall had been a close adviser of Governor Winthrop,
and, it was said, was the only man in the Colony who knew
the standing of the suit brought by Dudley, having, in fact,
written the Connecticut brief in reply to it. Under these
circumstances, he was judged to be the most capable suc-
cessor to Winthrop who could be found. A month after
Winthrop's death, therefore, the Assembly, meeting in
special session, repealed a law that the Governor must be
elected from the Magistrates, and chose the New London
minister Saltonstall, his election being ratified by the free-
men the following May.
Almost the first official act of Governor Saltonstall was
to bring before the Assembly a document calling for a synod
of the Colony churches to arrange for an ecclesiastical
establishment.
Now this action of Saltonstall's was a serious step to take.
The similar effort in Massachusetts had ignominiously
282 The Beginnings of Yale
failed, and this new suggestion was especially serious because
of the form which Saltonstall originally gave to it. In this he
had proposed by legislative enactment to command the
ministers to meet and draw up a form of church discipline,
which then might be imposed upon the Colony churches by
the Assembly. This meddling by the Assembly in church
affairs had long been a sore point in Connecticut church his-
tory. The more moderate Presbyterians of the Colony
(among whom Pierpont seems to have taken the lead),
together with the laymen in the Assembly who wished the
churches to retain their independence, were stoutly opposed
to it. There was a sharp collision between the two parties.
The Deputies succeeded in altering the first draft so that the
final Act, as passed, called for county ministers' meetings
indeed, but with "messengers" to be present chosen by the
laity, and permitted these conventions to elect delegates as
they saw fit, two or more to a county, to a Colony synod
to be held at Saybrook at the next Collegiate School
Commencement.
This action suggests a significant factor in the whole
Saybrook Platform episode. Though it did not succeed,
here again was an effort to secure governmental authority
over the churches, with its resulting threat of governmental
control over the acts of the Collegiate School. While the
episode shows Governor Saltonstall as a firm believer in a
centralized Colony authority over the religious state of the
people, it likewise shows Pierpont again as the one who
proposed to keep the two apart, and to rescue the struggling
academy of which he had been the original promoter from
state or* even church control.
II
This is not the place to give more than a brief review of
the Saybrook Synod and its famous platform, and note its
The Saybrook Platform
283
governor
Salfonsfalfs
cnair
connection with the affairs of the Collegiate School. This,
of course, was considerable. I presume that James Pier-
pont, who assumed the lead at this synod, was in sympathy
with it. But that he did not go as far as did Governor Sal-
tonstall is entirely substantiated by the traditions of the meet-
ing. Pierpont was undoubtedly looking out for his infant
Collegiate School as much as he was for the state of religion
in the Colony; he was, therefore, interested in securing a
Colony creed for both church and school rather than in a
Presbyterian organization of the churches. 1
It was on the eighth of September, 1708, that the seventh
annual Collegiate School Commencement was held at the
Saybrook Meeting-house. The Synod convened the day
following. Tradition has it that this meeting, famous in
Connecticut history, was held in the large lower room of the
Lynde house, which the day before had finally come into the
1 Standard studies of these may be found in Dr. Leonard Bacon's long
and minute account in his "Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of
Connecticut," published in 1861, and in his chapter on Pierpont in his
"Thirteen Historical Discourses." Trumbull's History also contains an
exhaustive statement, and Professor Williston Walker has treated it at
length in his "Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism."
284 The Beginnings of Yale
formal possession of the School. There was probably a
small attendance, though the interest in the proposed Plat-
form may have brought a larger assembly of ministers and
laymen than usually attended the Commencements. As it
happened, nine of the twelve Trustees of the Collegiate
School had been elected delegates to this meeting: James
Noyes of Stonington, Thomas Buckingham of Saybrook,
Moses Noyes of Lyme, Samuel Andrew of Milford (then,
of course, Rector in title of the School), Timothy Wood-
bridge of Hartford, Samuel Russel of Branford, little
Noadiah Russell of Middletown, John Davenport of Stam-
ford, and James Pierpont of New Haven. New Haven
County alone sent no laymen "messengers." The Say-
brook Synod, therefore, was practically the Board of Trus-
tees of the Collegiate School.
The business of this famous Synod was threefold: the
adoption of a Confession of Faith and of a form of church
government, and rules for the latter. The Synod seems to
have come down at once to a test of strength between two
extremes; the one, represented by Pierpont, taking it for
granted that the churches already had a Confession and
needed now only the public announcement of it by the
Assembly and some loose form of church association; the
other, representing the Saltonstall party, that the Synod
should send a Confession and organization plan to the
Assembly, which should then impose it upon the churches.
Tradition has it that the first draft was drawn up by James
Pierpont, but that it was far from the extreme views of the
agitators for a change, and a most conservative document.
The upshot of the discussion was a compromise. Pierpont's
original draft was so amended and changed that it gave
some appearance of following the more radical views. Yet,
as passed, it left the Assembly only the business of "public
testimony thereunto as the faith of the churches of this
The Saybrook Platform 285
Colony," and framed an organization which, for years
afterwards, was to be interpreted by the various church
associations as they saw fit. The several counties (which
were to have distinct "consociations," all four being repre-
sented in a "General Association" by ministerial delegates)
came to differ very greatly from each other in the practical
application of it. 1
The important result to the Collegiate School of the Say-
brook Synod of 1708 was that after the year 1722 (and the
custom extended far into the i8th Century) every officer of
the Collegiate School and of Yale College was under the
necessity of publicly accepting the Confession of Faith
adopted at it, and that that stern Calvinistic faith thus be-
came the officially adopted creed of the School and was
strictly taught to its scholars.
The Saybrook Platform of 1708 was the final act in the
long effort to establish Puritanism in Connecticut. And it
was a successful one. The Assembly, to be sure, adopted an
act of toleration in its October session at New Haven imme-
diately following, as it now could well afford to. Under
that Act dissenters from the now standardized Congrega-
tional church were permitted to enjoy a similar religious
liberty to that granted by William and Mary to dissenters
from the Church of England, though they still were taxed
to help support the Colony church. But the Saybrook
Platform squarely set Connecticut and the coming Yale Col-
lege back into the traditional mould. Changed as it was and
modified from the primitive religion of John Davenport and
Thomas Hooker, the accepted religious faith and theology
1 Hartford and New London Counties accepted the Saybrook Platform as
it was passed, Fairfield took a more extreme Presbyterian interpretation
of it, and New Haven appears to have taken a middle way. The Saybrook
Platform remained in force until 1784, and, with decreasing strictness, till
1850, or thereabouts.
286 The Beginnings of Yale
of Connecticut people was henceforth, for generations, to
remain in the traditional lines. While Massachusetts and
Harvard were tending in the opposite direction, the estab-
lishment of the Collegiate School and now the adoption of
the Saybrook Platform undoubtedly made Connecticut con-
servative and, in time, were to have a retarding effect upon
the intellectual broadening of her people. The "Great
Awakening" of Jonathan Edwards' day, and the still later
popular modification of Edwards' stern Calvinism by the
first Timothy Dwight, as well as the "New England Theol-
ogy" of the early I9th Century, all went back, for their
source, to the Congregationalism of the Saybrook Platform.
Ill
Thus much it is necessary to recall of the church history
of these early i8th Century days in order to understand
the solidly orthodox ground upon which the Collegiate
School was now founded. Protected by these theological
fortifications against the insidious attacks of the prevalent
heresies of the day, and domiciled at Saybrook, the Trustees
of that School no doubt considered that the close of the first
decade of the little academy found matters in a satisfactory
condition so far as orthodoxy went, and that it could now
develop into the institution it had been planned to be.
By 1712, however, a new combination of unexpected cir-
cumstances was to arise which was to upset these hopeful
expectations and all but wreck the infant academy. These
grew out of the traditional trouble which Connecticut had
had in educational matters, the financial difficulties of the
Connecticut people, and the poverty-stricken treasury of
the Collegiate School itself.
I have told how the Assembly had encouraged the
School by appropriating a small annual sum to it. This had
The Saybrook Platform
287
onnecficuf
^7^
Droops in
osfon in 1710
been used to pay most of the Rector's salary, leaving the
Tutors to be paid largely from the tuition of the lower
classes. As at Harvard, this tuition was payable in "country
pay," the common legal tender of the times, consisting of
farm products and firewood, occasional live stock, and
country-store merchandise. But the total income of the
School from all sources was limited enough. While
Treasurer Ailing had the deeds to the Killingly acres of
Major Fitch, and, supposedly, to some acres near Saybrook,
we do not hear anything about an income from these sources.
Established on an independent basis, it is probable that the
founders at first had expected to secure financial help from
individuals in the Colony. Two years after the founding,
in fact, this was attempted. The Trustees had asked the
Assembly for permission to circulate a "brief" throughout
the Colony for private subscriptions. But, though this per-
mission was cheerfully given, nothing appears to have come
288 The Beginnings of Yale
from it. The French and Indian War was then at its
hottest, and doubtless the Connecticut folk had all that they
could manage in meeting their share of the resulting taxes
and levies for military costs and men. Governor Salton-
stall, in 1710, had gone to Boston with three hundred Con-
necticut soldiers, whose support was a public problem. So
that by 1712 the financial condition of the School was at a
low ebb, and the Trustees were forced to appeal to the
Colony treasury for aid. The Assembly, considering this
appeal and the general educational situation, at their session
in the New Haven Meeting-house in October of that year,
rose to the occasion by passing a general Act for "the en-
couragement of learning," carrying an appropriation for
one year of 100 to the Collegiate School "for maintaining
a Rector and tutors," instead of the 120 in "country pay"
"formerly granted."
But even this Colony aid did not help matters. The
School was rapidly weakening. There were but two Seniors
in 1712, and three Juniors. The outlook was bad enough
for Rector Andrew in Milford and his sole resident Tutor
at Saybrook, Sir Noyes. An appeal was made to the
Assembly to remit taxes for the Collegiate School scholars,
and to relieve them from military duty, and this was passed.
The immediate result seems to have been a sudden increase
to nine in the Freshman Class of 1714, though the two suc-
ceeding classes fell off again to three youths each.
It was at this low pass that the leaders of the School put
their heads together and began to look about them for out-
side help.
CHAPTER V
THE GIFTS OF BOOKS
P to this time the Connecticut political
leaders, so far as England was con-
cerned, had been fully occupied in de-
fending their charter rights against
their neighbors, and had just managed
to slip by the numerous obstacles set up
by the jealous Dudley of Boston and
the New York Royal Governors.
Under these circumstances, anything like official efforts
to interest English leaders in Connecticut matters had not
been feasible. So far as the Collegiate School was con-
cerned, the long train of public events in the Colony, begin-
ning with the setting up of the original independent repub-
lics, had had its logical outcome. The Connecticut Assembly
290 The Beginnings of Yale
had hesitated about incurring Royal wrath by independently
"founding" a college, and the School itself had begun its
own existence under the most quiet public circumstances
possible. But now James Pierpont, taking upon his shoul-
ders the fast-slipping fortunes of the Collegiate School,
broke the long tradition of aloofness from England, by
writing in the Collegiate School's behalf to the Massachu-
setts Colony Agent in London, one Jeremiah Dummer.
This was in 1711. Dummer was then eleven years out
of Harvard, and a resident of London. His personal
address was so good and his manners so engaging that he
had become a man of some social prominence in the London
society of the day. As the friend and social protege of that
Lord Bolingbroke who was Secretary of State under William
and Mary, he became acquainted with all of the bigwigs of
London literary and political society, and, even after his
noble patron had been impeached and deprived of his title,
was hail-fellow-well-met with most of them, and apparently
used this connection to the advantage of his distant home
Province of Massachusetts.
It was to this fashionable young Colonial agent that, as
we have seen, James Pierpont had written regarding his
family connection with the English Pierreponts. He had,
moreover, in that letter, incidentally asked Dummer to see
what he could do for the struggling Collegiate School. The
correspondence, thus inaugurated, was to bear important
results. Dummer's reply to this first letter from the New
Haven minister is an interesting Yale document. He had
mentioned Pierpont's name in London, telling people that
he was "the head of a College," no doubt thereby causing
the momentary raising of an eyebrow or two among the
coffee-house fashionables of the town, as to what outlandish
institution had been started in that Puritan Province by the
barbarous name of "Connecticut." And he had set about
The Gifts of Books 291
with his usual energy to buttonhole his wealthy friends, and
see what he could do for it.
It had so happened that one Elihu Yale, London capitalist
and bigwig, had just come to the attention of James Pier-
pont through an unusual happening. In narrating the early
days in Davenport's New Haven, I referred to the family
connection between Theophilus Eaton and the Denbighshire
Yales. It will be recalled that Governor Eaton married the
widow Yale, who brought her two sons, David and Thomas,
and daughter Anne (who married Edward Hopkins) with
her to New Haven in the Davenport party; how David
Yale's fairly large fortune had placed him on the first tax-
list of New Haven, and how he had early left the sink-
ing New Haven Colony for Boston, where, it would appear,
Elihu Yale was born, probably in 1649. The young Elihu
had gone back to London with his father. He had there
been put to school, first to the "Merchant Tailor's" and
then to Milton's friend's, Master Dugard's in Coleman
Street (under the shadow of Davenport's old church
walls), and, on reaching his maturity, had adventurously
gone out with the East India Company to Madras, where he
had become the Company's agent, and Governor of the
English trading post, Fort St. George. Amassing, by more
or less shady means it would appear, a large fortune for
his day there, he had returned to London in 1699, and was
now living in Queen's Square, Great Ormond Street, in a
highly fashionable style, amid the magnificent Oriental
plunder of his Madras days. By 1710 Elihu Yale, then
about sixty-one years old, was looking forward to the end
of his earthly life and settling his affairs. Childless, he
desired a legal heir to his great estate, and was casting about
him for one. A promising candidate appearing in the fif-
teen-year-old David Yale, son of the great man's rural
cousin, Thomas, who had remained at North Haven, Con-
292
The Beginnings of Yale
necticut, Elihu Yale had sent for him. Pierpont could
hardly escape hearing of this. Recognizing in Elihu Yale
a logical benefactor of the struggling Collegiate School, he
mentions the possibility to Jeremiah Dummer. For
Dummer's letter of March 16, 1711 (obviously in reply to
this suggestion), is to the effect that "As to Mr. Yale, I
doubt I can do anything with him at present, he being very
much put out of humour on the account of his losing twenty
thousand pounds by Sir Stephen Evans, who lately failed,
and thereunto retiring to Sr Caesar Childs in the Country
hanged himself with a Bedcord."
Two months later, however, in spite of this untoward
occurrence, Dummer had so bestirred himself as to broach
the matter with Governor Yale. His letter to Pierpont,
May 22, 1711, is to this effect: "Here [he writes] is Mr.
Yale, formerly Governor of Fort St. George in the Indies,
The Gifts of Books 293
who has got a prodigious estate, and now by Mr. Dixwell
sends for a relation of his from Connecticut to make him his
heir, having no son. He told me lately [so the hustling
Colony agent had invaded Great Ormond Street] that
he intended to bestow a charity upon some college in Oxford,
under certain restrictions which he mentioned. But I think
he should much rather do it to your college, seeing he is a
New England and I think a Connecticut man. If therefore
when his kinsman comes over, youl write him a proper letter
on that subject, I will take care to press it home." Young
David Yale was in due season lifted bodily out of rural
North Haven and, in his best leather breeches and country
waistcoat, piloted across the sea by a "Mr. Dixwell" to
become heir to the great Governor Yale's estates. Some-
thing fell out amiss in his relations with his wealthy relative,
however, and he was packed home again by the next Boston
sailing, to live the remainder of his life on his North Haven
farm, and receive, in an honorary degree which the College
gave him in 1724, his only tangible reward in the business.
No doubt James Pierpont wrote a "proper letter" to the
crusty old Governor when the boy was sent over, but nothing
came of it for some time, the whole affair seemingly having
begun wrong with the future famous patron of the College.
Dummer, however, had become active in other quarters
than Elihu Yale's. In that first letter of 1711 he had said
that he was "doing what I can to gain Dr. Salmon's Library,
which is a fine one indeed, and worth six of that at Harvard
College. The only object he makes is, that all Universities
follow too much the Study of Heathen learning and corrupt
ye doctrine of the Gospel. I told him that your College
is a young child that he may bring up to his hand [wherein
Dummer took a rather large liberty, as far-awa'y agents
often will], & form it to his own model, upon which he has
sent you a long story of directions for the students, inclosed
294 The Beginnings of Yale
in this pacquet, & directed to you. I have not had time to
read 'em, tho' he gave me the letter open. I believe it will
be well for you to answer it."
I imagine that James Pierpont's reply to the venerable
Dr. Salmon's "long story of directions" was not entirely
businesslike, so far as Jeremiah Dummer's business-man's
view of what it should have been were concerned. For in
January, 1713, Dummer writes to the New Haven minister:
" 'Tis with regret I must now acquaint you that all my
labour and pains with Dr. Salmon are at an end. For when
I had brought him to consent to give his Library to your
Colledge, an apoplexy took him off before he had time to
make a New Will. And so an Old one took place, made
several years since, by which he gave that great valuable
Library to an Absolute stranger, that he had seen once or
twice and took a fancy to. I have endeavored to retrieve
this great loss, by begging a Library for you among my
friends, & tho' my acquaintance with men of Learning &
Estate is very generall, yet I did not expect to succeed so
well in this Charitable enterprise, as I now find I am like
to doe. For I have got together a pretty parcel of books
already, for you to begin with, & I hope in a Years time to
send you a very valuable collection with the names of the
Benefactors."
II
Under these promising circumstances, James Pierpont
bestirred himself to secure for his Collegiate School as per-
manent a hold as he could upon the apron strings of this
enterprising and valuable ally. The Collegiate School,
however, had no funds with which to pay the proper com-
missions to Dummer. So I imagine that Pierpont was one
of the first to suggest to Saltonstall that the Colony make
Dummer its accredited and salaried London agent, as
The Gifts of Books
295
Massachusetts had done. Governor Saltonstall must have
fallen in with this plan, for, at the same session of the Gen-
eral Assembly where the increased grant was made to the
Collegiate School, young Jeremiah Dummer was officially
appointed the first resident Colony Agent at London.
This was in October, 1712, and the receipt of the com-
mission reawakened the already thoroughly-fired zeal of
the young gentleman, and led directly to renewed corre-
spondence with James Pierpont and to the forwarding of
the first great modern library that had as yet crossed the
ocean to New England.
James Pierpont, the paucity of new books in the College
library in mind, seems to have been fully aware of the
importance of this promised gift, and to have spared no
pains to help Dummer collect it. He now evidently secures
the signature of others of the Trustees, and possibly of
296 The Beginnings of Yale
Governor Saltonstall, to a strong appeal for books, and
sends it to London, at about the time, probably, of the
dispatch of Dummer's Connecticut Colony commission.
Dummer's reply, in May, 1713, is as follows: "The Library
I am collecting for your Colledge comes on well, Sr Richard
Blackmoore (to whom I delivered the Committees letter)
brought me in his own Chariot all his works, in four Vol-
umes in folio, & Mr. Yale has done something, tho' very
little considering his Estate and particular relation to your
Collony. I have almost as many Benefactors as books,
which makes the collection troublesome as well as expen-
sive. Sr John Davy will give me nothing, notwithstanding
his promises but it may be he intends to send what books
he gives himself. If he does, it is the same thing to me. I
hope you have received what I sent by Capt Holland." 1
Dummer's mention of Sir John Davie in this letter no
doubt had to do with still another effort of James Pierpont
to enlist English donations, and calls to mind a pleasant
little romance that goes back to Pierpont's college days at
Harvard for its beginning. In that Harvard Class of 1681,
in which were James Pierpont, Noadiah Russell, and Samuel
Russel, now Trustees of the Collegiate School, had been
one John Davie, the impecunious younger son of Sir Hum-
phrey Davie, who had settled on Beacon Hill in Boston
and whose baronetcy and rich estate in England had de-
scended to an elder son. John Davie had taken a farm
just outside of New London in what is now Groton, and had
successively been town clerk, rate collector, constable, and
rate recorder. He had thus been a suburban member of
Gurdon Saltonstall's New London congregation, and could
1 A letter from Dummer to Timothy Woodbridge says that he had sent
over "books & globes" by a previous sailing, and that he should "be glad to
hear how your Young Academy grows, & whether you have built a con-
venient receptacle for your library, that I may send you Some proper Orna-
ments to furnish it."
The Gifts of Books 297
hardly have been unaware of the efforts of his minister and
two classmates, Pierpont and Russel, to found the Colle-
giate School. The story has it that it was on a hot summer
morning in 1707 that a messenger with a packet of imposing-
looking legal documents arrived in New London from
Boston, looking for him. Davie, so the story goes, was
hoeing corn when the messenger rode into his village street,
and was having a bout with a country neighbor named
Packer to see which could hill the most corn in the least time.
As the messenger approached Davie (says Harvard's biog-
rapher, Sibley), "who was barefoot and with his shirt-
sleeves and trousers rolled up, he inquired his name, and on
receiving the answer struck him on the shoulder, and, raising
his hat, exclaimed, 'I salute you, Sir John Davie!' ' The
newly created Baronet lost no time in accepting the docu-
ments and in leaving his astonished and impressed neighbor
with the hoeing. He married Gurdon Saltonstall's younger
sister, hastily left for Boston, dined with the Massachusetts
Governor, and sailed for England to claim his title and
lands, the income from which, it was said, came to some
four or five thousand pounds a year. Farmer Packer, visit-
ing England some years later, searched out his old Groton
neighbor, and found him living in style in Devonshire,
where he was high sheriff, and where the Connecticut visitor
was royally entertained by him. Sir John Davie, so the
story goes, told his old friend that for all his sudden wealth
and baronial estates, "he had been happier eating one dish
for dinner," and that "corn-beans." His death some years
later would perhaps not have occurred from "gout in the
head" had he remained a simple Connecticut farmer.
Doubtless Saltonstall joined James Pierpont in recalling
the Collegiate School's needs to this great man, their com-
mon former friend. For, as Dummer had expected, Sir
John Davie sent over some books on his own account. These
298 The Beginnings of Yale
arrived some time during the year 1714, and turned out to
be six boxes full, about two hundred volumes in all, but
mostly theological and therefore not a particularly valuable
addition to the already overburdened divinity files of the
scant Collegiate School library in the Saybrook parsonage.
But Jeremiah Dummer's long effort to collect a library
that would be valuable now suddenly bore fruit. At the
September Commencement, 1714, James Pierpont laid
before the Trustees a letter from Colonel Alford of Boston,
which had been sent to Tutor Noyes, informing him that
nine boxes of books had arrived from London and that these
were now on their way by freight (no doubt on some sailing
vessel) to Saybrook.
These nine boxes contained, as every reader of old Yale
history knows, the first part of a very considerable library
which, when the second installment arrived, brought the
total up to the imposing number of seven hundred volumes,
one of the largest book collections in the New England
colonies. Samuel Johnson, of Guilford, was a Senior at the
Collegiate School when these books arrived. He was after-
wards to become a Tutor and, largely through the influence
of these books, remodel his whole intellectual life and be-
come an Episcopalian and first president of King's College,
afterwards Columbia University. He says of this collec-
tion that "we had a very valuable and considerable Library
of choice Books sent to us." And valuable and choice
they were, and well chosen by the cosmopolitan Dummer.
The catalogue of them is well known. Among them were
"All the Tatlers and Spectators, being eleven volumes,
in Royal paper neatly bound and gilt," presented
by Richard Steele himself. Sir Isaac Newton had received
Dummer and handed him from his shelves the second edi-
tion of his just-published and famous "Principia," which he
had brought out in 1687 and in which he had announced
300 The Beginnings of Yale
the discovery of the law of gravitation which he had made
years previously when a professor at Cambridge. He also
gave a copy of his "Optics," the Greek "Thesaurus" of
Stephanus, and another Greek commentary. Dr. Bentley,
late the King's Librarian, graciously gave his own works.
Sir Isaac's successor in the Lucasian Professorship in Mathe-
matics at Cambridge, William Whiston, churchman and
scientist (who was later to lose his worldly standing through
his heretical theological opinions) , gave a copy of his famous
speculative study, wherein he urged that water instead of
fire, as had previously been taught, had been the agency by
which cosmical changes had been wrought. The famous
churchman, Dean Kennet, gave his own books. Halley, the
astronomer, who had at Greenwich Observatory followed
Flamsteed with remarkably progressive studies of the tides,
comets, and terrestrial magnetism, gave his own edition of
Apollonius.
The list of these Dummer books is a long one, and shows
the extraordinary work which Dummer must have done on
it. Besides these famous books there were numerous ser-
mons, several cantankerous Episcopal tracts, and a broadly-
chosen list of standard English classics, including the works
of Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Ben Jonson, Bacon's "Essays,"
Butler's "Hudibras," Temple, and Cowley, Shakespeare
not appearing. Dummer had given a large number of these
himself, and, besides securing the interest of many of the
leading literary and scientific men of the day, had looked
up everybody who might have a particular interest in Con-
necticut. He had thus visited the now elderly Sir Edmund
Andros, whose adventures at New Haven and Hartford we
have chronicled, laid the Collegiate School's needs before
him, and come away with a three-volume translation of Jose-
phus. Andros also gave Dummer a copy of Sir. Thomas
Browne's then old "Pseudodoxia Epidemica," which must
The Gifts of Books 301
have opened the eyes of the minister-chirurgeons of the
Colony by its exposure of the superstitions which the famous
author of the "Religio Medici" saw his fellow medical men
still accepting. The former Royal Governor, whose heart
must have mellowed toward his erstwhile independent Con-
necticut subjects, had also donated an Armenian Dictionary,
quite the oddest volume in the collection. Sir Francis
Nicholson, who had succeeded Andros, likewise gave some
books. And we have seen how Sir Richard Blackmore, the
Poet-Laureate, who had just disastrously concluded his
attempted continuation of Steele's "Guardian" in "The Lay
Monk," had gratified Dummer by coming to his lodgings
in his own chariot, and giving four volumes of his works.
Governor Yale put in from thirty to forty volumes, also,
but, as Dummer had said, "very little considering his
Estate."
When we recall the tiny collection of dusty theological
folios which up to this time had constituted the library of
the Collegiate School at Saybrook, we may easily imagine
how "valuable and choice" this broadly-chosen gift was.
From the first immigration, hardly any current English
books had come into the Colony. In but a few cases (as in
Chaplain Thomas Buckingham's of Hartford, who carried
Milton's "Comus" with him when he went to the French
and Indian War in 1711, with the Bible and a psalm book),
do we find contemporary English books. All of the scien-
tific and literary life of the England of the day, as we have
seen, had been a sealed book to provincial Connecticut. It
is doubtful whether Abraham Pierson had known more
about Sir Isaac Newton's work than his gravitation theory,
as it is likely that his "Physicks" had fallen somewhere be-
tween the long-discarded Ptolemaic theory and Copernicus.
And so this great modern collection of books, bringing the
last work of the foremost English thinkers and literary men
302 The Beginnings of Yale
to the little village of Saybrook, must havejDeen an epoch-
making event.
And so it was to prove, in at least two most important
ways to the little provincial academy. Dummer's library
was to produce a new intellectual start in life for at least a
small group of young Connecticut scholars and ministers,
and end in having an effect on the School's teachings, and it
was to bring about a situation, for the School itself, which
shortly calls for attention.
Ill
The death of James Pierpont, which unexpectedly oc-
curred but a month after his efforts to secure the Dummer
books had succeeded, marks the end of this second period in
the Collegiate School's history. Old Judge Sewall wrote in
his diary when the news reached Boston, that it was "a very
great Blow to that Colony and to all New England."
While we have to rely upon such references as these to
form a notion of what James Pierpont was like, they were
doubtless the popular impression. In the ancient pages of
the Boston News-Letter for 1714 we find him referred to
as "having served his Generation not only as a minister,
but [as was a common fashion of the times] also been a
great blessing as a physician; and of singular use as there
was occasion, to the government by his wise and wholesome
counsel." Cotton Mather, whose encomiums on New Eng-
land divines were more or less colored by his personal rela-
tions with them, and who was given to highly enthusiastic
portraits when he felt the inclination, refers to him as "The
most Valuable Mr. James Pierpont." Of him, writes
Mather, "I may use the Terms which Paterculiis used of
One that was in true Goodness inferior to him, Fir in
tantum Laudandus, in quantum Virtus ipsa intelligi Potesti."
And he goes on to say that Pierpont "has left us a few
The Gifts of Books 303
Weeks ago ; but left with us a fragrant and lasting Memory
of a very Meritorious Character. How memorable for his
rare Discretion; his bright Holiness; the Spirit of his Min-
istry, and Savour of :his Publick Oblations ; his Extensive
Genius which inclined him and enabled him, to Do Good
unto Many; the various Instances wherein our Glorious
Lord made him a Blessing to his Church, his Neighborhood,
his Colony! New-haven becomes a Hadadrimmon, upon
his Expiration. Every Heart there is in his Tomb, every
tongue his Epitaph!" Which was true. No other man had
done as much as he to found the School or to maintain it
during these first thirteen years of repeated discouragements
and all but obliteration. He, as no other one connected with
these beginnings of the future Yale, was its "founder" and
first pilot. He had conceived the idea, secured public sup-
port for it, steered it through its first crisis and thus forever
past possibilities of the church and state control, drawn its
charter so that it should not wholly be a theological semi-
nary, organized it, selected its first Rector, secured for it a
Colony church creed and yet succeeded in keeping that
church out of it, found Colony financial support (however
meager) for it, and now had raised a modern library for it
out of intellectual England. More fortunate, however,
than old John Davenport, he had lived to see his Colony
college an established fact, rickety as was its support from
the public and surrounded by dangers of outside interference
as it still was when he died. Had he lived another decade.
I fancy that we should have a more satisfactory story to
tell than will appear in the following chapter. Among the
names of the leaders in Yale history, that of James Pierpont
stands, with John Davenport's, at the forefront of those to
whom the institution owes its existence.
CHAPTER VI
THE STRUGGLE FOR A SITE
HE period of two or three years
which we are now to review, was to
be the most disturbing and, in many
ways, the most critical, in the whole
history of the Collegiate School. And
I suppose that, if it had not been for
the guiding hand of Governor Salton-
ill stall, matters during them would have
come to a sorry pass. For these few years were to see the
Trustees divide into three factions over the location of the
School, the leadership pass into new hands, the scholars
become dissatisfied, the Colony General Assembly under-
take to get control of the School's affairs, and a nearly
successful effort made to split the little academy into two
parts and all but wreck it. Anything like a detailed chron-
icle of these complicated factors would be a tedious business.
But we should be able to follow the general currents of
events, and thereby come to a clear understanding of the
outcome.
Most of this trouble arose, oddly enough, from the suc-
cess which James Pierpont had had in securing the Dummer
library. The arrival of these books, bringing the total
number of volumes in the School's possession up to nearly
one thousand, made it necessary to house them safely and
in a more public fashion than had been the case with the
few original books of the founders. So that some sort of
The Struggle for a Site 305
a permanent college building was necessary. Without funds
with which to build such a house, James Pierpont appears
to have led his fellow Trustees in another effort to secure
Colony aid for it. The Dummer books had been sent to
Saybrook, as we have seen, in September, 1714. In Octo-
ber, the Trustees presented the facts to the General Assem-
bly, in session again in the Meeting-house at New Haven,
and asked for money with which to erect a house for them.
With Governor Saltonstall's support, a petition was drawn
up by the Trustees, and an Act "for the building of a proper
house for the Collegiate School" presented. This Act
passed the Upper House, with Saltonstall's approval, carry-
ing an appropriation of 200 for the purpose. But the
Lower House declined to concur, and the bill was laid on
the table.
Pierpont's death came the month after this division in the
Assembly. Had this not occurred, I fancy that the train of
consequences of this appeal to the Colony treasury would
not have been just what they were. For the appeal, as
events were to show, had been a mistake. In it the start
had been made toward inviting legislative action on a very
vital matter to the School. The death of James Pierpont
removed the one man who could have restrained this action,
and left the field free to others who were ready to forward
it.
So that when the Trustees met in May, 1715, they had
a serious problem before them, and found themselves with-
out the steady hand of Pierpont to guide them in it. At this
meeting they again advanced his project of a Colony gift
of a proper house for their new books. At the Assembly
meeting in Hartford which immediately followed, the
Lower House this time received the project with more
sympathy. It now agreed willingly enough to the plan for
a College house, but voted that the money for it should be
306 The Beginnings of Yale
raised by a popular subscription among "the well-affected
to religion and learning among us." The Upper House,
and Governor Saltonstall, however, added a rider carrying
a 100 appropriation from the Colony itself, and, the
Deputies again refusing to spend the Colony money, the
project again fell through. Again brought up at the Octo-
ber session, 1715, an unexpected event resulted in an actual
money appropriation by concurrent action of the two houses.
It had so happened that the old boundary dispute between
Massachusetts and Connecticut finally had been settled, and
some 106,000 acres granted to Connecticut. The public
sale of this land was expected to provide the Colony with
a large sum. With this expectation in mind, the Assembly
saw a way to provide the needed money for the house de-
sired by the School and at the same time not dig into the
depleted Colony treasury itself. It was voted, therefore, to
give 500 to a building for the Collegiate School, as soon
as the sale was made.
With this substantial encouragement, the Trustees at
once set about determining upon their use of the money. At
a special meeting held in April, 1716, it was therefore voted
to invest the coming 500 in a "proper building" for the
scholars and books, and that a Rector's house should "with
all convenient speed be erected." 1 The site for these two
buildings was to be Saybrook. In addition it was voted to
1 This vote was as follows: "The Trustees considering the great neces-
sity yt ye Collegiate School in this place Be Put into such Circumstances as
may giue greater Encouragement to all yt are desirous of ye Improument of
their Sons in ye academical Learning have unanimously agreed and Resolved
yt ye five hundred Pounds Granted By ye Colony to this School together with
such other sums as may be gained for the Erecting of such Building as ye
occasion of the School Requires Be forthwith Improved to ye End that a
suitable house for ye Entertainment of ye Schollars with Chambers and
Studies as well as a hall and Library as also a convenient Building for ye
use of a Rector near adjoining thereunto Be with all convenient Speed
Erected and suitably finished."
The Struggle for a Site 307
find "a gentleman of suitable age and Learning" for Rector,
"who shall Live in ye house provided for that End and
shall have ye advantage of Boarding all ye Schollars vnder
graduates Belonging to sd School." A Tutor was also to
"Be constantly Maintained" and domiciled "in one of the
Chambers of ye College."
II
In order to understand the remarkable turn which events
took immediately after this decision, it will be necessary to
recall the progress of another factor in the situation which
was now forming, the attitude of the Collegiate School
scholars themselves toward the establishment.
We left the Collegiate School where the Senior classes
were being instructed at Samuel Andrew's parsonage in
Milford, and the three lower classes probably at the Lynde
house in Saybrook, under the youthful Joseph Noyes and
William Russell, classmates at the School in 1709, and sons,
respectively, of the two Trustees, James Noyes of Ston-
ington and Noadlah Russell of Middletown. With the
arrival of the great Dummer library and the promising out-
come of the Trustees' efforts to secure a house and a resident
Rector, the attendance had increased. The ten scholars in
the four classes in 1710 had jumped to twenty-five in 1716.
And, until the Trustees passed their vote in the latter year,
locating the new house at Saybrook, I suppose that there
was no inkling of the serious troubles which were at once
to arise from it. But these were brewing.
It will be recalled that, in the letters to the "founders"
from Cotton Mather and his father, in 1701, the advice
had strongly been given that the School should not be estab-
lished upon "a collegiate way of living," as the term was
then, that is, not in a college house. The Mathers advised
that the students should "board here and there in the town,
308 The Beginnings of Yale
where they can." In this way much money would be saved
in "college" buildings, etc., "only," Cotton Mather had
added, "let not the scholars board in any families but such
as the pastor and other officers of the church may under
their hands allow, as fit (in regard to their exemplary piety)
for that service of boarding young men that are to be the
hope of the flock." The School authorities were to look out
for this, and also to see that the boarding-house keepers did
not "oppress the students in the matter" of pay (as the tribe
has not infrequently done in college history) .
Both for reasons of policy and of finance, the Collegiate
School had been begun on this necessarily small basis. But
the experiment had not proved a success. The Saybrook
families who were willing to take in the energetic youngsters
in the School in 1716 were not numerous. Only one of the
scholars lived in Saybrook and one in Lyme, so that there
were twenty-three boys who had to find lodgings in the
village. Many of them had to board, therefore, in the
northern part of the town, where a few scattered farms then
stood where Saybrook proper is today. These youths had
a mile or more walk down across the wind-swept neck to
Saybrook Point for the early morning prayers that opened
the School day.
Furthermore, the teaching by the two young Tutors could
have been anything but first-class, and of course far below
what could at that time have been had at Harvard under
the progressive President Leverett and his four Tutors,
Flynt, Holyoke (afterwards to be president), Robie, and
Sever. That this was an important matter goes without
saying, when we consider the seriousness with which typical
Collegiate School students undertook their college careers.
To the ordinary run of intelligent and ambitious country
boys (and from such the Collegiate School at this period
drew most of its scholars) the education to be received at
The Struggle for a Site 309
the Colony college was the one great opportunity of their
lives. Once graduated, and in possession of that limited
general knowledge of the classics yet special fluency in Latin
composition and quotation which marked the educated man
and gave him his social standing, such a youth had his career
open to him, either in the pulpit (with the comparatively
good income of the day) or in public life and business. So
that going to college was then a great event, for which the
family of the fortunate youth would scrimp as they would
for no other good fortune. The result was that when these
scholars had arrived at Killingworth or Saybrook, they
ambitiously set about getting their full money's worth from
the Tutors, and were inclined to be unruly if they failed to
get it.
Samuel Johnson, later to be one of the leading intellectual
lights in the country, had been a typical boy of this sort.
Johnson was born in a country deacon's family in Guilford.
His father was a "cloth dresser," and "fulled" the rough
cloth sent to him, much of which was usually worn in
those days unsheared or pressed. Young Johnson had
shown "an inquisitive mind" as early as six years of age;
finding a Hebrew commentary at this time, he became filled
with a yearning to understand it, and learned it from his
grandfather. Full of ambition to know more of the scant
book-knowledge of the times, he went to the town school,
then kept by the youthful Jared Eliot, later to become one
of the most famous scientific men of his day. On Eliot's
leaving, the young scholar was sent to North Middletown,
where he found himself better educated than his teacher.
Returning to Guilford, he luckily found an English-educated
classical scholar, who prepared him to enter the Saybrook
Academy at the age of fourteen. Yet the Saybrook teach-
ing was poorer than the precocious Johnson had expected,
it was no doubt the experience of others besides young John-
310 The Beginnings of Yale
son that Tutor Noyes knew less of Hebrew than they them-
selves. This fact necessitated Samuel Johnson's hard
application to it on his own account outside of School hours
and led, in the cases of many of his fellow students, to a
growing dissatisfaction with the poor quality of the Colle-
giate School teaching. A very good sidelight on this is to
be found in the letter from Benjamin Lord. "Who were
the chief orators in my day," he writes, "I'm ye less able
to say as oratory was but little known, studied, or famed, to
what it is now [1779]. Indeed, Composition and Lan-
guage were then scarcely eno in vogue to excite ambition
where there might be a genius for it ; but if any, Dr. Johnson
was the man that look'd that way. As for the Mathe-
matics, we recited and studied but little more than the rudi-
ments of it, some of ye plainest things in it. Our advantages
in that day were too low for any man to rise high in any
branches of literature." To many of the scholars, this
intellectual poverty was a serious matter.
And another thing must have added to this discontent,
Tutor Noyes, while actively interested in the success of the
School, and for many years to be one of its staunchest friends
and supporters, was a theologian of the primitive New
England school even thus early in his career. I suppose that
he must have been a rather helpless sort of intellectual
leader for the intellectually-ravenous young men under his
care. Old parishioners of his remarked, years later, that
he was an "unanimating and unpopular" preacher. So he
no doubt was quite as uninspiring as a teacher. He cer-
tainly, all his life, showed none of that religious warmth
which was to become the great feature of the revival under
Jonathan Edwards and Whitefield. So we may presume
that he was equally cold toward such things during his days
as the Saybrook college Tutor. Samuel Johnson had be-
come mildly interested in that most heretical of religious
The Struggle for a Site 311
movements of his day, Episcopacy, when a boy at Guilford,
and, at Saybrook, was beginning to lean toward the Church
of England ritual. Two classmates, Daniel Browne and
James Wetmore, became inclined in the same direction
when they began with Johnson to read
the books in the new Dummer library.
And, as others of the scholars under
Tutor Noyes were later to become
leaders against him in the "New Light" movement in the
Congregational church itself, I imagine that in his theology,
as in his Hebrew, he did not entirely meet the situation.
Their uncomfortable boarding arrangements, the poor
teaching of Noyes, and the necessity of finishing their course
far away from the Dummer books at Milford under Rector
Andrew, had therefore been bringing the Collegiate School
youths to the point where they were becoming openly dis-
satisfied with the education which the School was giving
them. When the Trustees met in April, 1716, Sir Noyes
had, indeed, been succeeded by Samuel Russell and Benja-
min Lord, both just graduated. But both were young. The
clamor of the discontented scholars had now become more
urgent than before, and the Trustees had to act concerning
it. It was therefore voted to add a third Tutor, in Samuel
Smith of Glastonbury, three years out of the School, and to
permit the Seniors of that year to finish their course where
they pleased, at Rector Andrew's or elsewhere as was most
convenient to them. As Samuel Johnson says, "Immediately
upon this, many of the scholars repaired to their respective
homes and where they might have instruction to their minds,
a considerable number of them gathering at Wethersfield."
Just settled at this latter place was a young Harvard
graduate, one Elisha Williams. He was a well-educated
man, five years the senior of the oldest Collegiate School
student. He was related to the families of John Cotton
312 The Beginnings of Yale
and Governor Bradstreet, so that he was well born in addi-
tion, a considerable factor in Colonial society in those
days. There appears to have been no objection by the sea-
coast Trustees at this time to this young man's assuming
voluntary charge of such of the Seniors as wanted to go to
him. But the immediate results of this easy compliance by
the Trustees were to be disastrous in the extreme.
Ill
Up to this time the Collegiate School had somehow or
other managed to scrape along, in spite of financial diffi-
culties, poor teaching, and the Saybrook inconveniences.
Much of this had been due to Governor Saltonstall's con-
tinued interest and good advice. But, as we have seen, much
more had been due to James Pierpont. His death seems to
have removed the balance wheel among the Trustees. A
new element, hitherto in the background, now came to the
front. Pierpont had been the fifth of the original eleven
Trustees to pass off the stage up to this time. So that, when
the Trustees met to make a new start in expectation of the
Colony's 500, they presented a new combination of per-
sonalities. Old James Noyes and Samuel Mather were
still Trustees, though both were giving small attention to
the School's affairs. Of the other original Trustees,
Timothy Woodbridge, Samuel Andrew, Samuel Russel, and
Joseph Webb remained. Old Israel Chauncy, however, had
been succeeded by the now elderly Moses Noyes of Lyme,
Thomas Buckingham by young Thomas Ruggles of Guil-
ford, Noadiah Russell by John Davenport of Stamford, and
now James Pierpont had been followed by young Thomas
Buckingham of Hartford. Among these Trustees, Pier-
pont's leadership had fallen upon no one natural leader.
This leadership there are evidences that Timothy Wood-
The Struggle for a Site 313
bridge now attempted to assume, to be shortly opposed in
that effort, however, by the newcomer, John Davenport.
During the difficulties that at once arose in consequence of
this factional disturbance, old Samuel Andrew, Rector pro
tern, appears not to have taken a leading part or exerted
what little authority he had. The Reverend Andrew,
scholar that he was (he was given an honorary M.A. by
Harvard during his Rectorship), lacked the qualities of
public leadership which we have seen shown, in their dif-
ferent ways, by such contemporaries as James Pierpont,
Timothy Woodbridge, Gurdon Saltonstall and John Daven-
port. Describing him, years later, an old parishioner said
that he had "great powers of mind. He was, however, in-
tellectual and theological, rather than religious. He was
one of the ablest scholars in all New England." It appears
from another ancient source that Rector Andrew was not
in the least inclined to social intercourse. "He spent most
of his time in his study," it was said of him. "He never
made it a practice [as was the necessary business of parsons
in those primitive days] to visit and converse with his
people. Seldom was he known to leave his study on a week
day, even to attend a funeral." All the visiting of the Mil-
ford sick and poor had to be done by the elder and deacons.
With the future of the Collegiate School in such scholarly
yet impractical hands, little could have been expected by
his fellow Trustees except troubles of various sorts. 1
And these difficulties now came on with a rush. It will be
recalled that the Trustees had voted to build the proposed
new college house at Saybrook. When the General As-
sembly met at Hartford the next month, Timothy Wood-
bridge and young Thomas Buckingham, the two active
1 Samuel Andrew's continuance in the Rectorship appears to have been
through no choice of his own. A letter by him, a facsimile of which appears
on page 334, shows that he remained in office solely to save the School from
being abandoned as the result of the controversy among the Trustees.
314 The Beginnings of Yale
Hartford Trustees, brought in a memorial for themselves
and "in the name of many others," requesting the General
Assembly to override the Trustees' vote fixing the college
at Saybrook, and to order it permanently placed at
Hartford.
This sudden, move must have been received by the re-
maining Trustees with astonishment. There had been no
indication that such an attempt had been in mind until the
presentation of this memorial. In fact, both Timothy
Woodbridge and Thomas
Buckingham had been at the
April meeting and, so far as
we have any record, voted
with the others for the Saybrook site. When we consider all
the previous history of this site controversy, however, the
action of the two Hartford Trustees appears natural
enough, if it was unprecedented and mischief-making. As we
will recall, there had been a deadlock on this question from
the moment that the original promoters of the School had
broached the subject to the Colony at large. Hence the
Collegiate School site had not been decided when the charter
was granted. It had been because of this deadlock, with all
the possibilities of trouble that would have ensued if the
New Haven desire had been pushed at that time, that Pier-
pont had attached himself to the New London County
faction and agreed upon a compromise for Saybrook. We
will recall how Saltonstall, then the New London minister,
no doubt sided with old James Noyes and Thomas Buck-
ingham of Saybrook on this, and how Governor Fitz-John
Winthrop had thrown his influence for that village, and, in
fact, was prepared to make a will in favor of the School if
Saybrook was chosen. 1 And, in spite of Saybrook's distance
1 Rev. James Noyes was originally for Saybrook as the permanent college
site because he believed that Governor Winthrop's 100 bequest could be
The Struggle for a Site 315
from the western towns of the Colony, the Fairfield County
Trustees had followed Pierpont in voting for it. Matters
had gone along well enough while Pierson was in charge,
and until now for the nine years that had elapsed since his
death. Pierpont seems finally to have settled his mind on
the question and to have remained to his death a Saybrook-
site man, if for the one purpose of not reopening the old
question and having the college go elsewhere.
The Hartford faction had also accepted the Saybrook
site, though, I imagine, with reservations. But events had
now changed their attitude. The scholars were scattered
over the Colony. And now there was a 500 Colony grant
for a "college house." Any controversy over the site had
hitherto been useless, because there was no permanent
establishment possible anywhere. But now there was an
actual sum of money in sight, and the town where the college
house was to be erected from it would necessarily become
the permanent Collegiate School site.
But another and more personal reason existed. Of the
twenty-five boys whom we have seen becoming discontented
with the poor teaching at Saybrook, thirteen came from up
the river, or from inland towns of Hartford County, and
one had come from Springfield. Of these thirteen, four
were in families in the churches of Timothy Woodbridge
and young Thomas Buckingham, and one of these was the
son of Buckingham himself. The latter was a Harvard
graduate, and no doubt was but little impressed by the small
educational facilities at Saybrook and desired his son to
have better. The arrival of young Elisha Williams at
near-by Wethersfield for the study of divinity gave Buck-
ingham this opportunity, for no doubt Williams had become
well known to him, if indeed he had not come to Wood-
secured in no other way. After Winthrop's death Noyes no longer felt so
strongly for that location.
316 The Beginnings of Yale
bridge and Buckingham for his theological instruction.
There is evidence that Buckingham had now renewed
Timothy Woodbridge's interest in securing the Collegiate
School for Hartford, and had been the instigator, through
his son, of much of the troubles which the Saybrook scholars
had been making over their Tutors and Rector Andrew.
In his manuscript account of these years, Tutor Samuel
Johnson makes it clear that he believed this to be so. The
"Murmuring of the Unruly & Ungoverned Schollars," he
says, "advanced to a Great heigth blown up (as was on
but too good Grounds thought) by some Gentlemen up on
Connecticut River, & also by some belonging to Saybrook
Town, who wished not well either of the School's being at
Saybrook, or to the Tutors or both. As also great fault
was found with SayBrook as a place not Suitable for the
School, & thus the Tutors were disgraced & the Town
became odious throughout the Colony & this mutiny could
not be heald tho many Gentlemen took pains with the
Schollars for that End."
The bombshell which Buckingham and Woodbridge now
dropped into the Trustees' camp caused "a mighty commo-
tion," as well it may have. It was the first public breach in
the hitherto publicly friendly relations of the Trustees, and
it took the question of the Collegiate School site out of that
body's hands, and placed it, for the moment, in those of the
General Assembly. Yet there was much support from the
people of the river towns for this change. Among other
gentry, Samuel Welles, a wealthy Hartford citizen, signed
the petition. This document set forth "the present declin-
ing and unhappy circumstances in which the School lies, and
the apparent hazard of its being utterly extinguished, unless
some speedy remedy be applied." The location at Hart-
ford being such a remedy, the petition added that money
would be subscribed if such a course were taken, and that
The Struggle for a Site 317
many neighboring citizens of Massachusetts would contrib-
ute and send their sons to it. The memorial requested
Assembly action on the petition, in the form of a committee
to hear the question. The Assembly promptly acted on this
request and summoned the Trustees to appear before such
a committee on May 22.
IV
The division among the Trustees, as a result of this
"unaccountable" action of the Hartford members (as
Samuel Johnson dubs it) at once resolved itself into three
factions. Timothy Woodbridge and Thomas Buckingham
of Hartford, with old Samuel Mather of Windsor (now
entirely incapacitated for business) , composed the river-town
group. James and Moses Noyes stood solidly for Say-
brook. A third group, though siding with the latter at this
time (May, 1716), comprised the remaining five Trustees:
Samuel Andrew of Milford, Samuel Russel of Branford,
Joseph Webb of Fairfield, John Davenport of Stamford,
and Thomas Ruggles of Guilford. In answer to the
Assembly summons, six of the Trustees attended the com-
mittee hearing. Mather still remained away, and the three
senior members of the seacoast group refused to appear on
the ground that the summons was not legal; the Colony
legislature, said they, had no power to callthe Collegiate
School Trustees together. No doubt there was a lively time
at this public meeting over the School site. The seacoast-
faction, led by John Davenport, who was now rapidly
coming to the front as Pierpont's successor among them,
carried the day. The Assembly's committee agreed to give
the Trustees until the following October to get together on
the site for the new college house; "unless," says Samuel
Johnson in his account of the proceedings, "they could
universally agree on the next Commencement where the
318 The Beginnings of Yale
School should be built, then they would desire the Assembly
to nominate a place for it."
V
The summer of 1716 now intervened, bringing with it
such an agitation of the Collegiate School site question as
had never before been seen in the history of the academy.
By this time the New Haven party undoubtedly felt that
Saybrook eventually would have to be given up, a feeling
that must have been accentuated when smallpox broke out
in that village during the summer and the remnant of the
scholars left at Saybrook had to move in a hurry to East
Guilford (now Madison), where the former Tutor, now
Rev. John Hart, received some of them, the others going,
we are told, to the house of Tutor Johnson's father, the
cloth-dressing emporium of Guilford.
With a few of the Seniors at Milford under Andrew,
most of them at Wethersfield under the unofficial Williams,
and some at East Guilford under Benjamin Lord and John
Hart (Samuel Smith having declined to serve, probably
through the Hartford Trustees' influence), matters now
were certainly in a bad way for James Pierpont's Collegiate
School. I suppose that, however low the little academy had
sunk before, at no time in its history did it fall to quite the
depth that it did during this summer of 1716. Certainly
the Fates had their hands set against the Connecticut college
project. Everybody, however, was working strenuously to
appear at Commencement the next September, prepared to
force their claims. Lively canvasses for money contribu-
tions now began. The two Hart-
^ orc * Trustees, content with the
impression which they had made
on the Assembly, appear not to have succeeded, if indeed
they attempted, to raise money for the School to establish
The Struggle for a Site 319
itself there. But the Saybrook and New Haven factions
were very busy indeed. While old James Noyes could not
have been very active, I imagine that his brother Moses was,
as no doubt were several Saybrook residents. By Septem-
ber there had been raised pledges amounting to 1,200 or
more, a large sum for those days, if the School should
remain there.
And it is now that the ancient New Haven claim for the
Collegiate School took the tangible turn that it had lacked
up to this time. Treasurer Ailing no doubt took a leading
hand in this movement, as did Rev. Joseph Noyes, who had
just become the successor to James Pierpont in the square,
wooden Meeting-house on the New Haven Market-place.
Their canvass was an unexpectedly successful one. Nearly
2,000 were subscribed by some sixty-three people. And
the Town of New Haven did something as well. On July
30 it voted, probably urged by Ailing and Noyes, to give
eight acres of land "at the end of the town" if the Trustees
would settle the School there.
At Commencement that September, the Trustees came
together at Saybrook for their first meeting after the explo-
sion of the two Hartford members. Both Woodbridge
and Buckingham were there, and we may well believe that
high words resulted between them and such a fiery repre-
sentative of the others as John Davenport of Stamford.
The senior Trustees, the Noyces ambo, and probably
Andrew and Russel, seem to have made every effort to
secure an agreement on Saybrook, but without unanimous
results. The vote stood five to two for this, Woodbridge
and Buckingham firmly holding out. The matter was put
to an adjourned meeting, to be held, the Trustees still
voting five to two on even that question, in New Haven
the week before the Assembly met there a month later.
In this action we can now clearly see how matters were
320 The Beginnings of Yale
forming. Up to this time the seacoast Trustees had been
entirely willing to remain at Saybrook. As we have seen,
they had voted with the two Noyes brothers to that effect.
But this was not a popular decision for the Colony at large,
and, with Hartford as the probable alternative in case the
Assembly acted, these Trustees now appear to have swung
in a body, under Davenport, for the alternative New Haven
proposition. This suggestion was now, it would appear,
pressed on the two Saybrook adherents, the Noyes brothers,
through Joseph Noyes. This young man, whatever we may
think of him in his later attitude toward the College affairs,
at this point added himself to the succession of the first John
Davenport and of James Pierpont (to whose daughter,
Abigail, he was engaged to be married at this time), by
securing the action which was finally to bring the Colony
College of his predecessors to New Haven. It was by his
efforts with his father and uncle, as tradition has it, that,
when the Trustees met in New Haven October 17, 1716,
the vote for New Haven as the site for the College, still five
to two, became seven to two, and a de-
cision. Young Noyes had won over his
father, James Noyes, and his uncle,
Moses Noyes, who, as moderator at the meeting, stated that
New Haven was his second choice.
There is every indication in the reports in the University
archives that this Trustees' meeting was a lively one, and
that ecclesiastical fur flew throughout the evidently pro-
longed session. The first question was to confirm the pre-
vious vote to remove the School to New Haven. Trustees
Ruggles, Davenport, Webb, Russel, and Andrew voted
"Yea"; "against it Mr. Buckingham & Mr. Woodbridg."
Moses Noyes, Moderator, was for Saybrook first, but then
for New Haven. The meeting then broke up for a three-
day interim. Woodbridge promptly opened the adjourned
The Struggle for a Site
321
. 0izariafi ffliamerls douse in Sayj6roo/\
session with a proposition to leave the question to the
Assembly, where he had good reason to believe he could
carry the Deputies at least against New Haven. Ruggles,
Davenport, Webb, Russel, and Andrew, the "seaside"
Trustees, voted him down, Buckingham alone standing
with him, though old Mr. Noyes was willing. The question
was temporarily dropped for the election of Samuel Smith
of Glastonbury as Tutor. The seaside Trustees voted this,
Buckingham and Woodbridge being noncommittal. Samuel
Johnson was also proposed by the seasiders. Woodbridge
was against it "because of" his "Newark call." The site
question was then reintroduced. The majority five voted to
begin at once a "Collegiate School" and Rector's house in
New Haven. Noyes "suspended." "Mr. Buckingham
chuseth Silence. Mr. Woodbridg saith nay." Voted. It
is proposed to ask the Governor to help in the "architech-
tonick part of the buildings." The five agree, "Mr. Buck-
ingham chuseth not to act. Mr. Woodbridge hath nothing
322 The Beginnings of Yale
agt advice." The five seaside Trustees then vote to demand
the 500 Colony money until then in the hands of Bucking-
ham and Woodbridge, the two latter not voting. The
meeting is now in full command of the five seacoast Trus-
tees, and they carry everything before them. Samuel
Andrew is chosen Rector "for the present" over the silence
of the two Hartford ministers; Sir Johnson appears and
accepts his Tutorship; the building committee for the Col-
lege house is named from among the majority; it is voted
formally to inform the students of the change of location
of the School to New Haven; Samuel Russel is asked to
write to Boston for the "Books & Globes given to the Colle-
giate School" by Dummer, and to hand them over to the
Rev. Joseph Noyes; old Moses Noyes of Lyme is voted the
responsibility of the books still at Saybrook; Tutor Samuel
Russel is ordered to bring the "Colledg-Records" from Say-
brook to New Haven; the Senior Tutor is made "Library-
keeper." Throughout all of these formalities, which in the
total firmly established the Collegiate School at New Haven,
neither Woodbridge nor Buckingham took part in the
voting. The seacoast Trustees were in high feather. John
Davenport roundly signed the famous minutes afterwards
as scribe and dispatched them to old James Noyes at Ston-
ington, who "perused & well considered the above 32 voats"
and signed them. Moses Noyes later wavered in his alle-
giance to this decision to remove to New Haven and, some-
what shakingly, joined the two Hartford Trustees in their
later efforts to undo by Assembly act the decision. But the
remaining six, including James Noyes, stuck by their guns,
though they felt it necessary to reaffirm each of these
historic votes at their next meeting.
And thus it was that New Haven secured the Collegiate
School. As a sop to the discomfited Hartford Trustees,
Stephen Buckingham, a young Harvard graduate then
The Struggle for a Site 323
minister at Norwalk, was elected a Trustee. A relative of
Thomas Buckingham of Hartford, and the son of one of
the original Trustees, Ste-
phen Buckingham had been ,3 itlpfii'
one of the five Colony min- ^
isters to receive the degree of Master of Arts at the first
Collegiate School Commencement in 1702. His election
filled out the last of the number of eleven Trustees, which
had been vacant from the first. In order to bring order out
of chaos in the teaching force of the School, young Samuel
Johnson was chosen Tutor, and Samuel Smith again invited
to teach, though the latter appointment was again refused.
The Reverend Noyes agreed to help Tutor Johnson, and,
until a permanent Rector could be chosen, it was voted to
have Samuel Russel, Webb, Davenport, and Ruggles alter-
nate in quarterly visits to the School on behalf of the
triumphant majority. 1
So the first Collegiate School teaching in New Haven
began, thirteen youths coming to town, and doubtless
boarding where they could while going to Mr. Noyes' house
down Elm Street for instruction. 2 Fourteen remained, how-
ever, at Wethersfield, and three or four went back to Say-
brook, where the Rev. Azariah Mather, lifelong irre-
concilable to the removal from Saybrook, taught them at
his parsonage, or at the abandoned Lynde house and where
the great Dummer library still remained.
1 A grandiloquent letter from the Trustees to Jeremiah Dummer, in 1717,
speaks of New Haven as "the Large & Pleasant Town of New-haven to be
the kind Alumna to bear in her Arms, & cherish in her Bosom the Infant
Nursery of Learning in Our Government."
2 Rev. Joseph Noyes, according to maps of New Haven drawn in 1724
and 1748, lived in Governor Eaton's old mansion of the New Haven church-
state days.
CHAPTER VII
THE BEGINNINGS AT NEW HAVEN
I
T might well have seemed that the
division in the School had healed, and
that now all was fair sailing.
But the river-town scholars re-
mained at Wethersfield under Elisha
Williams, and to them were added ten
Freshmen, of whom six were Hart-
ford County boys, including among
the latter the famous Jonathan Edwards from East Wind-
sor, who had just entered at New Haven, but who had left
on account of dissatisfaction with Tutor Johnson. For the
next two and a half years, the Collegiate School existed as a
tripartite institution. Samuel Andrew remained Rector pro
tern throughout this period, apparently unable to bring his
academy together or to heal the difficulties among his
Trustees, if, indeed, he made any extraordinary efforts to
do so. With Timothy Woodbridge still looking for every
opportunity to stop the movement to establish the School at
New Haven and supporting the Wethersfield defection as
a lever in that effort, and John Davenport of Stamford
leading the seacoast Trustees to keep the School at New
Haven, these two or three years must have seen plenty of
excitement. In spite of the hopeful prospects for a college
The Beginnings at New Haven 325
house at New Haven, the whole enterprise promised again,
in 1717, to come to an ignominious and disastrous end.
It will assist us best, I fancy, in visualizing what was left
of the Collegiate School life during these years, to become
acquainted first with the New Haven conditions, and then
the situation at Wethersfield, and then recall the final fight
of the Hartford faction. We may thus arrive at the end
of the long struggle which, through unexpected aid, finally
and permanently settled the academy at New Haven.
II
Tradition has it that the vote of the majority of the
Trustees to remove the Collegiate School to New Haven
was based on the understanding that two good town lots,
one for the college and one for the Rector's house, should
be at the disposal of the School.
These two lots were at the southwest corner of the old
Market-place, where Osborn Hall and College Street Hall
now stand. The former, desired by the Trustees for the
"College house," was known at the time as "Mrs. Hester
Coster's lot." It was some 205 by 274 feet, at the present
corner of College and Chapel Streets. In the original divi-
sion of the Colony land, this lot had been granted to one
Joshua Atwater, a London merchant, who had been Treas-
urer of the New Haven Jurisdiction. On it he had built a
large house facing the wooded Market-place. This he had
sold to William Tuttle, one of his fellow settlers and a
careless sort of person, whose troubles over fencing his
"Indian's land" had previously caused a town vote in favor
of the Indians, "that we may not have such complaints of
cattle and hogs spoiling their corn, which they say makes
their squaws and children cry." Tuttle in turn had sold it,
just after the arrival of James Pierpont to be the town
minister, to a Mrs. Hester Coster, a devout member of
326 The Beginnings of Yale
Pierpont's church, and she, dying in 1691, had willed the
lot to the church and ordered its income used to support
the "lectures" which we have seen James Pierpont giving in
the neighborhood.
The original Atwater mansion having become untenant-
able by 1716, and the income from it negligible, the church
deacons willingly agreed to the Reverend Noyes' proposal
that they dispose of the old Atwater lot to the Collegiate
School, whose Trustees had decided upon it as the best site
for their enterprise. An acre and a quarter of it was
accordingly sold to the School "for twenty six pounds current
money."
The site for the proposed Rector's house, facing the
Coster lot across what is now Chapel Street, and across
College Street from Captain Miles' Tavern, had originally
been the homestead of the Rev. William Hooke. He, also,
had left it to the New Haven church, and it was at this time
an ancient farmhouse, in poor repair, set back from the
present Chapel Street in its garden and orchard. This also
was sold to the Trustees.
With these two well-situated lots, facing each other across
the shady main street of the upper town, the Trustees imme-
diately set about building their "College house" on the
first of them. The School treasury contained an accumula-
tion of some 125 at this time, and, so the historian Trum-
bull tells us, the first 250 of the Colony grant was now
actually in hand. Regardless of the Hartford opposition, it
had been voted to put this money, and what was paid in
from the New Haven pledges, immediately into the pro-
posed building, the haste no doubt being in order to clinch
the New Haven site by erecting a building on it as soon as
possible. All this had been in October, 1716. The New
Haven support had been increased in December by the
appropriation of land in the "Yorkshire quarter," and now,
The Beginnings at New Haven 327
in January, 1717, actual building began, in the face of
renewed attacks by the Hartford Trustees which we shall
refer to later. A building committee, consisting of Rector
Andrew and Trustees Russel, Webb, Davenport, and
Ruggles, had been appointed, and this committee now
found itself in possession of elaborate notions as to "the
architechtonick part of the buildings," from Governor
Saltonstall, whose great mansion on the shores of what is
now Lake Saltonstall had been the wonder and admiration
of the entire Colony. 1 Henry Caner, a Boston carpenter
who had made a reputation by his recent repairs on King's
Chapel, was given the contract, and by September, 1717,
the Collegiate School's first building was well under way.
During these two years, 1716-1717, the New Haven main
part of the Collegiate School had been getting along as best
it could, without a library, and with the dozen or more
scholars boarding about town, probably coming to Samuel
Johnson's lodgings or Mr. Noyes' house for instruction, and
1 Governor Saltonstall's house in East Haven was one of the finest in
Connecticut. Mr. Thomas R. Trowbridge described it years ago, from
personal knowledge, as a house that had evidently been "intended for the
residence of a wealthy and important personage." "A broad hall and
massive oaken stairway," he wrote, "was the feature of the broad central
hall." Triangular cupboards were in the corners of the lower rooms.
There were brass finishings throughout the house, and much wainscoting.
There was an old English-style hiding place back of the chimney. The
"room of state" was on the lower floor, and here hung, "for nearly one
hundred and twenty years, the famous 'Leathern tapestry,' representing a
stag hunt in a forest, with a large and imposing retinue of huntsmen, horses,
and hounds; it covered the four sides of the room and was imported from
England. These 'leather' hangings were famous throughout the state, and
for years were gazed at with admiration by our primitive ancestors, such
magnificence rarely being seen in those days. Some pieces of this 'tapestry'
are in the possession of the descendants of the Governor still." Other pieces
are in the Connecticut Historical Society rooms at Hartford, but the great
part of this "tapestry" fell the victim of visitors' knives, and a good deal
more of it finally became parts of the saddles and wagon seats of the
neighboring farmers.
The Beginnings at New Haven 329
attending the Reverend Noyes' Meeting-house on Sabbath
days. The regularly-appointed assistant to Sir Johnson,
Samuel Smith of Windsor, having steadily declined to come
to New Haven, the senior Tutor was sent by the Trustees
to Wethersfield to reconcile him to the majority party, but
to no purpose. So that Samuel Johnson, well equipped as
he was to take the responsibility, found it necessary to have
the Reverend Noyes take some of his classes, and get along
as best he could with the others.
This low condition of the original faction of the divided
Collegiate School would undoubtedly have sunk to even
greater depths had it not been for the character and the
intellectual power of Samuel Johnson, its youthful Tutor.
Yet even he was depressed. "Things looked dark & melan-
choly," he afterwards wrote of this period, "& even spight-
ful & malicious." The full burden of the task of meeting
this situation devolved upon him, practically alone.
We have already made this young man's acquaintance.
He was a hard student, and a scholar and theologian of an
unusually open mind for his day. And he had the additional
advantage of being, so tradition goes, a man of exceptional
gifts as a leader of young men, though Jonathan Edwards
did not think so. He had probably brought over to New
Haven at least a handful of the more important volumes of
the Dummer collection, still housed at Saybrook, for the
indications are that during these two years he was giving a
great deal of study to them. One of these books, Sir Isaac
Newton's personal gift of his own works, appears to have
been particularly interesting to him. His biographer, Dr.
Chandler, says that as soon as he had put his hands on this
unknown treasure, young Johnson had become fired with an
ambition to master the great Englishman's scientific theories,
startling as they must have seemed to the starved intellect
of this young New England Congregational minister. But
330 The Beginnings of Yale
Johnson had never been a mathematical prodigy, and he
found the scant knowledge that he had imbibed under
Tutors Noyes and Fiske insufficient for the purpose. So he
had begun, just out of the Collegiate School and the single
Tutor in it, to make up for what he had lost. During these
first two years Johnson had proceeded to inform himself in
mathematics with such success that Newton's "Principia"
and "Optics" became, we are told, at least intelligible to
him, and certainly revised his scientific idea from the
bottom up.
In September, 1717, the first Collegiate School Com-
mencement was held at New Haven, no doubt in the
Reverend Noyes' Meeting-house on the public square, with
Rector Andrew in the pulpit and Governor Saltonstall
beside him. Four boys were graduated. Samuel Johnson
on this occasion received the degree of Master of Arts, and
the Trustees, meeting after the public ceremonies, no doubt
at Mr. Noyes' parsonage, gave him an assistant in the
person of Rev. Joseph Moss of Derby, who with the Rever-
end Noyes now took the Seniors, the three lower classes
being taught by Johnson alone. During the college year
1717-1718, this arrangement was maintained as well as it
could be under such disadvantageous circumstances. But by
the end of that year the new "College house" was nearly
ready, and Samuel Johnson, as we shall see, moved into it.
Ill
During all this time, Elisha Williams had been maintain-
ing another section of the Collegiate School at his farmhouse
just outside of Wethersfield. Details are lacking of this
Wethersfield enterprise, so that we do not know how it was
managed, where the scholars boarded, or what different
course of study, if any, from that at New Haven, was given.
The Beginnings at New Haven
I imagine, however, that the youths who went up daily over
the rough back-country roads to the Williams' village farm-
house found themselves in an intellectual atmosphere that
was charged with energy. For Elisha Williams was no
ordinary man. He seems to have been of a restless tem-
perament, full of vim and tireless mental activity, and,
withal, a young man of rather unusual qualities and a
winning manner. There was something in him of his
ancestors, John Cotton and Governor Bradstreet. He had
adventurously voyaged to Nova Scotia after leaving Har-
vard to preach to the fishermen. He was now studying
divinity and helping out his finances by working his farm.
He was elected by his town a Deputy at the Assembly in
1717, holding the clerkship of the Lower House for several
sessions. He was to have, in 1719, a severe illness and
become "sanctified" by it to such an extent as to quit
332 The Beginnings of Yale
politics for the ministry and become the parson at Newing-
ton. In 1739, he was to enter Colony politics again, with
his eye on the Governorship, and become a judge of the
Superior Court. His roving disposition and great energy
were then to take him, as chaplain of the Connecticut troops,
in the audacious and successful attack on Louisburg, out of
which he was to come colonel of a Connecticut regiment
and commander-in-chief of the Colony forces in the follow-
ing campaign in Canada. Business regarding his troops' pay
taking him to England in 1749, he was to be presented in
London society to a beauty of the day, a Miss Scott, by
Dr. Doddridge as "another praying colonel" and marry
her out of hand, to the discomfiture of the great man, who
was currently believed to be a suppliant for the lady's
affections himself. With this fine lady
Too lovely maid, possess'd of every Art
To charm the fancy and command the heart
(Dr. Doddridge had written of her) Colonel Williams
was to return to New England, and, after filling further
public offices, to die at that Wethersfield farm at which, as
a youth, he had taught the dissenting scholars of Samuel
Johnson's Collegiate School.
If the truth were known, this first and highly irregular
proceeding under Elisha Williams at Wethersfield was an
educational success. Judging by his results at Yale College
a little later, and the admiration felt for him by such ambi-
tious students as young Jonathan Edwards, Williams must
have had a thoroughgoing academy there, small as it was.
In 1719 he bought the Wadhams house on the southeast
side of Broad Street, between (according to the old
Wethersfield records) the houses of John Warner and
Richard Montague. The Rev. Stephen Mix was the
minister there at this time, and is said to have assisted in
The Beginnings at New Haven 333
the teaching: a Wethersfield antiquarian is of the opinion
that some of the recitations of the Collegiate School
scholars may have been in his parsonage. It was a common
custom of the times to own Negro or Indian slaves. The
Rev. Timothy Woodbridge of Hartford owned an Indian
boy, John Waubin, whom he "publickly engaged" to bring
up "in the Christian religion." This Collegiate School
Trustee also had Negro slaves, for a few years later he
was to sell a thirteen-year-old Negro boy named "Thorn"
"in plain and open market," and his wife was given another
named "Tom." The Rev. Elisha Williams owned a squaw
Indian slave during his Wethersfield Collegiate School days.
This squaw had a son, "Ambo," born in 1715. "Ambo"
was to grow to become a soldier in the War of 1756 and
march against the French in Eliphalet Whittlesey's com-
pany with seven others of his kind. When the Collegiate
School was at Wethersfield a female child, "Desire," was
born to Williams' slave squaw, thus adding another inter-
esting member of the Tutor's household.
IV
It would be too long a story to narrate here the continued
series of efforts which the two Hartford Trustees, Wood-
bridge and Thomas Buckingham (aided by Stephen Buck-
ingham), made to settle the School at Hartford during this
period from May, 1716, to June, 1719. Looked at from
one point of view, this was a most disturbing and un-
fortunate affair. Voting as they did, for Saybrook, it had
been a highly extraordinary thing for Woodbridge and
Buckingham to bolt, as one might say, the Trustee's unani-
mous action, and ask the General Assembly to undo it.
And it was an extraordinary act, certainly, to abet the Say-
brook scholars in their dissatisfaction (as all traditions unite
334
The Beginnings of Yale
' t \,^4&^/k#w</y /omy %#*& fe^^
t*^ / * S)f\ . \-*\j & u r**~ _^<_Ji />*.A.\.*<-
e&Ax. j t^2 aJim&j
'ircjtid&tjbtvtkf
The above letter by Rector Andrew, which shows his aloofness from
the School and indicates his desire to be relieved of its management, runs
as follows: "Worthy Sr Haveing received two Letters from yourself e
about your Classes takeing their second degree this Commencement I could
not speedily answer to the first, whether there would be any such time, or
when or where it would be, if there was any such thing; as to the other
inquiry, whether it would be expedient for any of yourselves to seek a
second degree at such a time, it was not meet for me to direct in that
matter, your own inclination to it must guide and direct you; the place
where the Commencement may be, can be no discouragement to some, and
I know not why it should be to any, seeing New Haven cant be Judged
inferior to Saybrook, unless because the last's being the birthplace of some
should give it the prheminence in that Judgment; but it seemed most prob-
able to me, that my possible concernment in the matter might be the greatest
The Beginnings at New Haven 335
in saying that they did) and defection to Wethersfield. It
was a peculiar act, for Trustees of the Colony college, to
set up a rival establishment at Wethersfield, and practically
place an outsider, in Elisha Williams, over it as of equal
rank with Rector Andrew of Milford. It is difficult to
understand why the effort to remove the School to Hart-
ford was kept up so long, even after the new college building
had been erected at New Haven.
Yet there would probably appear more extenuating cir-
cumstances than we now have in mind, were we to know
more about the conditions that prompted these various and,
to the majority Trustees, treasonable acts. I imagine that
local pride had had something to do with this, as well as
the traditional jealousies between Hartford and New
Haven public leaders. And I suppose that a dynamic man
like Woodbridge found little that was to his fancy in such
a highly respectable and scholarly, but, withal, inactive
person as his former Harvard classmate, the good Rector
Andrew of Milford. On the whole, I think a thorough
study of this whole period might show that the polished and
discouragement together with the unsettled state of the school, and the great
opposition against New Haven; as to myself e I have Laboured with the
Trustees, that a more suitable person might be improved to give degrees,
not being ambitious either of the Honour or advantage, and should have
absolutely refused, if it had not been such a time, wherein differences among
ourselves might have blasted our present design; it is something difficult for
me to offer Questions, which have not been formerly disputed, but I shall
offer the enclosed to your selves, from which you may choose such as are
best pleasing, which have not been Lately debated avoiding to the best of
your remembrance; for my memory is too brittle to keep long in mind things
of such a nature, being concerned with greater matters; with all the regards
to the Revd Mr. Noyes and yourselfe, praying that the only wise God would
bless your Labours for the advancement of religion and Learning among the
students, in the Collegiate school at New Haven, I am, worthy sr
your very humble servant
SAMUEL ANDREW
Milford, July. 23. 1717."
336 The Beginnings of Yale
cultivated Hartford leader had never been of the New
Haven persuasion in many things, theological and educa-
tional, and was entirely ready, when the first opportunity
came, to swing the Collegiate School over to his neighbor-
hood and to his own way of thinking. He had not been
one of the originators of the enterprise; he had been at
Secretary Addington's elbow when that lawyer had drawn
up the church-control plan for the School's founding that
Pierpont had refused; he was away from Connecticut during
the period of the first meetings of the Trustees; he had
waited until the death of Pierpont before he had taken an
active interest in the School. The three-year flurry which
he now caused in the Collegiate School's life was undoubt-
edly largely for the best of reasons, so far as his view of
them was concerned. That he did not succeed in wrecking
the institution was, however, due to no fault of his, but to
fortuitous circumstances of another and quite unexpected
variety. A brief review of the Reverend Woodbridge's
efforts to side-track the Collegiate School to Hartford, cul-
minating in the final secure establishment of the institution
at New Haven, will bring us out into the last and most
satisfactory period which these rambling chronicles of
Yale's early days have described.
V
The majority vote of the Trustees to settle at New
Haven, clinched as it was by the decision to build the
"College house" at once, had appeared, by October, 1716,
to end the Hartford disaffection. But Woodbridge and
Buckingham did not so look at it. Two months later they
were behind the calling of a Hartford town meeting, at
which a public petition was drawn up ordering the Hartford
Deputies in the next Assembly to oppose the New Haven
site and secure action which should locate the School where
The Beginnings at New Haven 337
the Assembly desired. This decision the two Hartford min-
isters no doubt expected would be for their own town. The
seacoast Trustees made a vigorous reply to this renewed
petition. This was written, so it was said, by Jonathan
Law of Milford, the son-in-law of Rector Andrew and later
to be Governor of the Colony. It argued that New Haven,
being further from Massachusetts (and thus Harvard)
than the Connecticut River section, was the best location in
the Colony for a college which was intended to serve Con-
necticut interests; that it was the center of the life of the
Long Island coast towns, which included the most important
villages in the Colony, and that New Haven had offered
the largest financial support. But the main contention of
this paper by Judge Law harked back to the fundamental
theory upon which the Collegiate School had been estab-
lished. This was a characteristic New Haven claim, the
independence of the Trustees from Colony legislative inter-
ference. We have seen how this had been firmly secured by
that preliminary informal "founding" at Branford by the
original promoters of the college scheme. We have seen
how the senior Trustees had applied that theory by refusing
to obey the summons of the Assembly committee the pre-
vious year to bring their troubles to the public bar. There
was to come a time when, under Rector Clap, this principle
was to be the storm-center of a most important struggle
between the College and the Colony. It was now announced
with clearness and vigor. The Trustees, this statement
said, were empowered by their charter to decide all matters
connected with the School. If what they did was legally
done by majority vote, the General Assembly had no inter-
est in it, and certainly had no business championing the
minority side.
In April, 1717, all of the Trustees but Mather, Wood-
bridge, and Thomas Buckingham met in New Haven and
338 The Beginnings of Yale
chose one John Prout, a recent graduate of the School and
"Naval Officer" for the New Haven port, as Treasurer to
succeed Judge Ailing (who had died just after he had
secured the New Haven money offers for the School) . They
now reaffirmed the vote to build the new "College house"
on the Coster lot whether the absent Hartford members
liked it or not. The Coster lot had now been purchased,
the ancient Atwater mansion on it torn down, and at the
New Haven faction Commencement in September, 1717, the
long frame of the new house had been raised by Caner,
and the work pushed so that something tangible could be
shown to the general Assembly at its October meeting.
Elisha Williams, now beginning that public career which
we sketched in a preceding page, was a deputy from
Wethersfield to this General Court, and, on its organization
in Rev. Mr. Noyes' Meeting-house on the New Haven
public square, became its clerk. His influence, and the
lobbying which he and the Hartford Trustees had done
among the magistrates and Deputies, now had their result.
On the arrival of the members of the Assembly in New
Haven on October 10, 1717, they had seen, with astonish-
ment, the rough framework of the new Collegiate School
building rising skyward through the oaks and elms of the
upper Market-place. As some of the members of that
Assembly considered that the site of the School had not yet
been legally fixed anywhere, least of all at New Haven, I
fancy that there was much excitement over this businesslike
procedure of the majority of the Trustees, and some heat
as well. This at once showed itself in the vote of both
Houses, taken no doubt with much wrath at the Meeting-
house to the accompaniment of the hammering of Caner's
carpenters across the Market-place, that the Collegiate
School Trustees should immediately appear and explain
their unexpected and outrageous proceedings.
^ 1 m
, : * : ', IM ^
340 The Beginnings of Yale
This peremptory summons, considering the state of mind
of the General Assembly, could hardly be neglected, and so
the seacoast Trustees girded themselves for what they
proposed to be their final fight for New Haven. All but
old Samuel Mather and the latest member, Rev. Stephen
Buckingham of Norwalk, attended a special Trustees' meet-
ing called for this purpose just as the Assembly was ad-
journing. It must have been a spicy session, for both
Woodbridge and Thomas Buckingham were there, and John
Davenport rode over from Stamford, armed, as the saying
goes, for the fray. No doubt the great periwigs of these
reverend Trustees shook with the heat of this final trial of
strength between the warring factions, and their ministerial
black silk gowns fluttered vigorously as Trustee after
Trustee stood up (perhaps in Captain Miles' upper room)
and carried on the battle. The result was to be expected.
A majority and a minority report were drawn up. The
first, signed by James Noyes (who drew it) , Rector Andrew,
Russel, Webb, Davenport, and Ruggles, stood emphatically
for New Haven. The minority paper, which, as "Some
Observations," was presented the next day, was signed by
Woodbridge and Thomas Buckingham, and counted in
Stephen Buckingham (who was not present), the bedridden
Samuel Mather, and Moses Noyes. To the claim of the
majority that the legislature had no legal right to interfere
in a question settled by a majority of the Trustees, this
Hartford answer was that it had not been settled by a
majority, Thomas Ruggles of Guilford having been ille-
gally elected a Trustee when he was under the minimum age
of forty. By counting Ruggles out (a highly specious bit of
reasoning, as the Hartford Trustees had never raised the
point before, and had voted at meetings at which Ruggles
had been present), and counting on their side two Trustees
The Beginnings at New Haven 341
who had not been present, the attempt was made to show
that there had been no such majority.
It was at this somewhat critical juncture that Governor
Saltonstall again stepped into the breach and used his
influence to solve the mooted question. The Lower House,
indeed, voted that the School should at once be set up at
Middletown (evidently an effort at a compromise). But
the Upper House, led by Governor Saltonstall, took the
ground that the site question was not one for the Assembly
to settle at all, and that Jonathan Law's argument that the
Trustees alone had that power, was a sound one. And so
the heated controversy cooled down once more, with the
honors still on the side of the New Haven faction. But it
at once flared up again, the Assembly still in session, owing
to the presentation of an exhaustive and decidedly aggres-
sive paper by the New Haven-site Trustees, replying to the
"Observations" of the two Hartford members. The attack
on the actions of the Hartford Trustees, in this paper, was
made with much vigor. The upshot was a special hearing
set for both sides by the Assembly.
This final act in the long drawn-out controversy was
described at the time by young Samuel Johnson, who had dis-
missed his classes for the day and gone over to the Meeting-
house to see what happened. Governor Saltonstall, accord-
ing to Sir Johnson, led off the business by a speech from
James Pierpont's old pulpit, in which he told of "his sorrow
to see the difference," and defined the method of procedure
at this public meeting, which he hoped would definitely
settle the question. The Rev. John Davenport, speaking
for the "Seaside Trustees," then narrated the history of the
whole imbroglio, "and vindicated the same, showing likewise
the irregular and factious management up the River, and
specially of the petition proffered to the General Court" by
Woodbridge and Thomas Buckingham the year before,
342 The Beginnings of Yale
which had brought on all the trouble. I fancy that John
Davenport used all of his colony-wide famous pulpit power
in this presentation of the majority's case, and that he
stirred matters up considerably. Timothy Woodbridge,
suave and polite, but no doubt fired with more than his usual
energy, replied, supporting "what they had done up the
River." Davenport answered this with much strength of
statement, and carried the day. "And so the dispute
ended," writes the reporter Johnson. There was some
argument by a Deputy or two that the charter called for
unanimous action in such a matter, but this was refuted by
Davenport and made the small impression it probably de-
served. "The Upper House," says Johnson, "all as one
man agreed that they would advise the Trustees settling the
School at New Haven to go on with it, esteeming their cause
just and good, and they sent it down to the Lower House,
where there was great throes and pangs and controversies
and mighty strugglings; at length they put it to a vote and
there were [36 to 30] for the side of New Haven."
"And thus at length," proceeds Tutor Johnson, "the up-
river party had their will, in having the School settled by
the General Court, though sorely against their will, at New
Haven, but many owned themselves fairly beat."
But the end was not yet. When the Assembly met at
Hartford the following May (1718) Woodbridge again
broached the subject. The Lower House, which throughout
these proceedings appears to have reflected the popular
opinion perhaps more than the Upper House and Salton-
stall, "considering the great dissatisfaction of the country in
general," voted to divide the annual 200 Colony grant for
the support of the Tutors between those "at Wethersfield,
Saybrook, and New Haven, according to the proportion of
scholars under their tuition." Saltonstall saw to it, however,
that this highly unfortunate bill was not passed by the Upper
The Beginnings at New Haven 343
House, and the New Haven faction was thus again left to
carry on the School as it saw fit.
But the Wethersfield school was still, somehow or other,
maintained (probably by the tuition of the fourteen scholars
still at Elisha Williams' farmhouse) and what was left of
the Collegiate School went about its regular daily business in
New Haven under Tutors Samuel Johnson and Daniel
Browne, the Seniors going to Rev. Joseph Noyes for in-
struction, and Rector Andrew riding over from Milford for
Commencements. It no doubt seemed to those playing their
parts at this juncture, that this situation was likely to prove
a permanent one, and that, unless something unexpected
happened, there would be two Collegiate Schools in the
Colony, one at New Haven, supported by the Governor and
magistrates and with the School funds and building now
all but erected, the other at Wethersfield, under a rival
group of tutors, supported by the evidently irreconcilable
Hartford Trustees and the House of Deputies.
CHAPTER VIII
"YALE COLLEGE" AT NEW HAVEN
I
UT more funds were needed, if the
college house and the proposed Presi-
dent's house were to be paid for and
finished, and so, late in October, 1717,
the successful New Haven party among
the Trustees immediately set about dis-
covering some way in which they might
advance the financial interests of the
academy, now that they had carried their point as to its
site.
The only place to look for this help was apparently again
in England. And among the possible English friends of the
School old Governor Elihu Yale still loomed as the most
promising, as his uncle, Edward Hopkins, had to John
Davenport just sixty years before. A letter was now dis-
patched to the crusty old gentleman, a manuscript draft of
which is still among the University papers. This is worth
quoting. "The affair of our School," says this quaint docu-
ment, "hath been in a Condition of Pregnancy: Painfull
with a witness have been the Throwes therof in this General
Assembly; But We just now hear, that after the Violent
Pangs threatening the Very life of the Babe, Divine Provi-
dence as a kind Obstetrix hath mercifully brought the Babe
into the World, & behold A Man-child is born, whereat We
all Rejoyce." This scriptural-obstetrical epistle no doubt
"Yale College" at New Haven 345
finally reached Elihu Yale -in London and astonished him
greatly.
Jeremiah Dummer was still the Colony agent in London
at this time, v and still a prominent figure, if his activities did
not entirely commend themselves to some of the more
snobbish of the London fashionables. Negotiations were
therefore again opened with this indefatigable gentleman.
The Trustees send him a letter of thanks for his book col-
lection. In this they take occasion to report progress as they
had to Governor Yale. "We are in hopes of having shortly
perfected a splendid Collegiate House," they write, "which
was raised on the nth instant. We behold its fair aspect
[evidently not all of the poetical flights of the day were
monopolized by Wigglesworth or Nicholas Noyes], in the
Market-place of New Haven, mounted in an eminent place
thereof, in length ten rods, in breadth twenty-one feet, and
near thirty feet upright, a spacious hall, and an equally
spacious library, all in a little time to be splendidly com-
pleted." This rhetorical outburst duly arrived at Dummer's
London lodgings 1 and, suggesting as it did further efforts to
raise money on the part of the Colony agent, had, as we shall
see, its immediate effect upon Elihu Yale, already in receipt
of a special and equally flowery letter of his own.
But other agencies were likewise at work for the School
in this connection. Our old acquaintance, the Rev. Cotton
1 Dummer writes in reply to a letter, in February, 1717, that he is "sorry
I cannot yet Send you the rest of the books with the Catalogue, but I hope
to do it by the fall, having a promise of Several large benefactions not yet
come in." He adds that he would like to have "some Oration at your
Commencement take notice of what Books you have already receiv'd (I
mean in General words) & acknowledge your obligations to yor Friends
here, & that then a proper paragraph of it might be prepar'd for the Boston
Gazett, & the Gazett sent over to me. I could perhaps make use of this
contrivance to the great advantage of the Collegd, besides it is a necessary
peice of gratitude in you, & as requisite for my acquittal." I do not know
that this "proper" acknowledgment ever appeared in the Boston papers.
346 The Beginnings of Yale
Mather of Boston, was now again in a hostile state of mind
toward Harvard College, this time largely because John
Leverett had been elected President instead of himself, and
because the progressive Leverett was introducing supporters
of the new theology into Harvard's councils. Cotton
Mather had for these reasons peevishly been staying away
from meetings of the Harvard Corporation for some time,
and was now entirely out of sympathy with that institution
and (if we may believe President Quincy) very much alive
again to the possibilities of the Connecticut Collegiate School
taking Harvard's place as the orthodox New England
college.
While Cotton Mather's renewed interest in the Connecti-
cut college's affairs was to be a considerable factor in the
unexpected turn which matters were shortly to take in its
fortunes, it was natural enough. To such adherents of the
old New England Congregationalism as the Mathers, the
steady progress of Harvard College, through Increase
Mather's final years and Vice-President Willard's and now
John Leverett's, had been toward an intellectual and reli-
gious emancipation which spelled only one thing to the old
order. We have seen how the two Mathers had interested
themselves in the Collegiate School's beginnings. The
establishment of the Connecticut school, however different
it was from the Mathers' suggestions, had undoubtedly
resulted in one satisfactory thing, to men of their way of
thinking. It had very decidedly resulted in keeping Con-
necticut to the traditional and conservative paths that their
own Massachusetts was forsaking. Placed by its charter in
the hands of a self-perpetuating body of Connecticut minis-
ters of their own and the old Massachusetts sort, the Col-
legiate School had been set back still further into the old
order by the adoption in the Saybrook Platform of that
Colony Congregational creed and organization which
"Yale College" at New Haven 347
Massachusetts had failed to get. So that, with President
Leverett developing Harvard by 1718 along new and, to
Cotton Mather, highly dangerous lines, it was natural that
the latter should again have turned to Connecticut and
interested himself in its School's welfare. Writing in that
voluminous diary in which he recorded his religious experi-
ences, Cotton Mather unburdened himself as follows:
"What shall I do for the welfare of this College at New
Haven? I am inclinable to write unto a wealthy East-India
merchant at London, who may be disposed on Several
Accounts to do for that Society and Colony." This he now
did. For we find the Rev. Cotton Mather suddenly taking
it upon himself to write to Elihu Yale (he maintained a
large correspondence with English leaders concerning
many New England matters), suggesting still further gen-
erosity. After one of his most verbose and rhetorical
flights, Cotton Mather proceeds to inform Governor Yale
that "New England is now so far improved as to have the
best part of two hundred meeting-houses." The spiritual
state of the congregations of these Meeting-houses is there-
upon parenthetically prayed for at his usual length by
Mather, who then leads up through that channel (the pre-
vious career of Governor Yale to the contrary notwith-
standing) to urge upon the great London merchant "his
serious regard unto the account which we are to give of our
stewardship." And then, no doubt to Elihu Yale's surprise,
Mather applies all of this argument, not to a money gift to
that Harvard College of which the writer was a Fellow,
but to the little Collegiate School at New Haven with which
he had no official connection whatever. "You have, sir,"
says Mather, in his best style, "been most kindly inquisitive
what you may do for such a people. . . . The Colony of
Connecticut, having for some years had a College at Say-
brook without a collegious way of living for it, have lately
348 The Beginnings of Yale
begun to erect a large edifice for it in the town of New
Haven. The charge of that expensive building is not yet
all paid [evidently Mather knew intimately of the condi-
tions there], nor are there yet funds of revenues for salaries
to the Professors and Instructors to the society. Sir, though
you have your felicities in your family, which I pray God
continue and multiply, yet certainly, if what is forming at
New Haven might wear the name of Yale College, it would
be better than a name of sons and daughters. And your
munificence might easily obtain for you such a commemora-
tion and perpetuation of your valuable name, which would
indeed be much better than an Egyptian pyramid."
This epistle was an extraordinary one, when it is remem-
bered that the Trustees of the Collegiate School, so far as
we know, had given its writer no authority to go to Elihu
Yale, and certainly none to concoct a name for it on his
own account at Boston. Mather (who was little given to
worrying about his own errors) himself probably realized
this. In writing to Governor Saltonstall a little later, he
refers to the matter in saying, "I confess, that it was a great
and inexcusable presumption in me, to make myself so far
the godfather of the beloved infant as to propose a name
for it. But I assured myself, that if a succession of solid
and lasting benefits might be entailed upon it your Honor
and the Honorable Trustees would pardon me, and the
proposal would be complied withal. It is a thousand pities
[he adds] that the dear infant should be in danger of being
strangled in the birth, by a dissension of your good people
about the place where it shall be nourished in the wilderness.
But probably the Yalean assistance to New Haven will
prove a decisive circumstance, which will dispose all to an
acquiescence there."
While the real piety of most of the people of that day
can hardly be denied, certainly the almost fanatical reli-
"Yale College" at New Haven 349
gious fervor of Cotton Mather cannot be, I imagine that
it was more or less a fashionable affectation with many
others, just as, a generation later, it was fashionable to be
anything but pious. Cotton Mather's sincere piety was well
established, but I do not suppose that the Yalean was. And
so Cotton Mather had used the fashionable literary plea
of the times with the great London capitalist, that it would
not "be any disadvantage upon your person or family, for
a good people to make mention of you in their prayers unto
the glorious Lord, as one who has loved their nation, and
supported and strengthened the seminary from whence they
expect the supply of their synagogues." Mather then com-
mitted the soul of Governor Yale to the tender mercies of
Jeremiah Dummer, "an excellent friend, our agent, who has
been a tender, prudent, active, and useful patron of the
infant College at Connecticut," as in truth he had been.
Dummer, he suggests, will wait upon Mr. Yale at his pala-
tial house in Great Ormond Street, and take anything that
he would be willing to give, in order to have the first build-
ing of the "dear infant" Collegiate School baptized with his
name.
Dummer, with a redoubled burst of his extraordinary
energy, promptly undertook this renewed attack on the
coffers of Governor Yale. Yet he seems to have had special
reason for this loyalty to the Collegiate School. Though
still the Massachusetts Colony agent, he had recently been
displaced by one Henry Newman as the Harvard College
London representative. It
was possibly for that rea-
son that Dummer was
shortly to be found contriving to divert gifts from Harvard
to the Connecticut School on his own account, though Presi-
dent Quincy suspiciously suggests that Cotton Mather was
behind him in that effort also. Thomas Hollis of London
350 The Beginnings of Yale
was then beginning his great benefactions to Harvard, and
letters from him to one of the Harvard Fellows at this
period show that Dummer tried hard to get him to shift
his interest to the Collegiate School of Connecticut. Gover-
rior Saltonstall himself sent letters through Dummer to
Hollis for this purpose, as, indeed, he had a good right to
do. But references by Hollis to some anonymous Boston
adviser of this course led Quincy to the possibly correct
notion that this "underhanded" person was none other than
our good friend Cotton Mather again. Be that as it may,
the scheme fell through, and Harvard properly counts the
Hollis family gifts, dating from this time, among its greatest
early donations.
II
Though the Wethersfield school was in full operation
during the summer of 1718, in spite of the Assembly's deci-
sion to let the majority Trustees have their way, the New
Haven party had steadily proceeded with the building of
the new "College house" on the Coster lot, and, just before
Commencement in September of that year, were completing
it, Governor Saltonstall looking in now and then on its
architechtonick side from his home in East Haven.
Yet that situation was still far from satisfactory. The
Hartford faction showed no inclinations whatever to drop
their claim on the School. The Wethersfield scholars had
not responded to repeated invitations to join the regular
classes under Samuel Johnson and the ministers, Noyes and
Moss, at New Haven. Nor was there quite enough money
in hand with which to pay the contractor for the new build-
ing. The possibility was a good one that it could not be
finished at all without help. It was for this last reason that
Dummer had received urgent requests to push Governor
Yale's inclinations as hard as he properly could.
"Yale College" at New Haven 351
That great man had meantime read (doubtless with much
amusement) the fulsome letter of Cotton Mather, and the
physiological description of the Collegiate School's begin-
nings that had been forwarded by the Trustees. We may
fancy that Mather's suggestion that Yale's name would be
given to the new "College house" had appealed to him,
whether the prospect of prayers for his soul had or not.
Yet it was a small matter at the most to the great man.
Thomas Hollis wrote that he himself had never heard
of the New Haven institution, and, though it had of course
been pressed on the attention of the bigwigs of London by
Jeremiah Dummer but a few years previously, I suppose
that most of them had by this time forgotten about it. To
Elihu Yale it was so small an affair that it was likely enough
that he had never thought of it between Dummer's calls, and
that it was in quite an offhand way that he had finally lent
an ear to that agent's persistent arguments, and agreed to
help it.
Compared to his reputed wealth, the gift that Elihu Yale
now made to Dummer was extremely small. We do
not know the precise value of Yale's estate at this time;
but one of his three daughters left some 20,000 years later,
so that it must have been considerable. To Dummer, within
three or four months after he had received the Mather
letter, Governor Yale finally gave goods estimated by him
at 800 in value. These, shipped in three great bales from
London in June, 1718, and arriving at Boston in due season
in the care of former Lieutenant Governor Tailor, were
found to consist of an odd assortment of wares, readily,
however, turned into hard cash in the Boston market. Part
of this consignment contained "25 pieces of garlix, 18
pieces of calico, 17 pieces of stuff (worsted goods), 12
pieces Spanish poplin, 5 pieces plain muslin, 3 pieces camlot,
and 2 of black and white silk crape" (out of the black crepe
352
The Beginnings of Yale
Elihu ^ale
were made the customary scholars' and ministers' gowns of
the time). The whole lot was within the next three years
sold for a total sum of 562 I2s. sterling, the largest pri-
vate donation to the College for the next hundred years
and over.
The news of this gift, of the greatest possible importance
to the Collegiate School Trustees at this particular moment,
happily reached New Haven just before the September
Commencement of 1718. Dame Fortune's face had turned.
"Yale College" at New Haven 353
If Governor Yale could have been present to understand
the value of his contribution to the provincial school, he
might easily have come to a new realization of the compara-
tive importance of things on this mundane sphere. For
what was next to nothing to him, living in his plundered
splendor in his great London house, was everything to the
struggling academy in far-off and primitive New Haven.
For these Trustees, the last of the money needed with which
to pay for the new "College house" was now all but in
hand. The Yale gift marked the successful end of all their
efforts and of those who had stood by them and who had
supported the New Haven establishment.
Immediately after the receipt of the news of this gift, the
Commencement Trustees' meeting was held for the first
time in the new "College hall," now all but completed.
Ill
This great college house, which until now we have
merely seen as it was building, was an extraordinary struc-
ture. Standing on the ancient Atwater lot of John Daven-
port's Colony days, it had been erected about where Osborn
Hall now stands, fifty feet from College and thirty-four
from Chapel Streets, facing the former. It was a much
elongated and pinched-together edifice, 165 feet on the pres-
ent College Street by 22 on Chapel. 1 It was three stories
1 Durfee Hall is 181 feet by 40; South Middle (now Connecticut Hall)
105 by 40; Old South was 100 by 40, while North Middle and Old North
were about the size of South Middle. The depth of this first Yale College
building, 22 feet, while so given by President Clap, would appear to be
underestimated, were it not for the fact that the Trustees so gave it in their
letter to Dummer later on. The drawing by Mr. Diedricksen of this building
follows these dimensions and produces an entirely different looking structure
from the traditional Greenwood engraving, which was entirely out of
drawing and with incorrect proportions, though probably based on correct
items.
"Yale College" at New Haven 355
high, with "50 Studies in convenient Chambers," and had
a kitchen ell on the ground floor on Chapel Street. It was
built entirely of wood, and, on the Wadsworth New Haven
map of 1748, appears to have been painted blue, as were
many of the village houses by that time. James Buck, book-
seller, "at ye Spectacles" in Queen Street, Boston, had a
plate drawn by one J. Greenwood and engraved by T. John-
ston, of this first Yale building, some twenty-five or more
years later. I imagine that this ancient drawing will have to
be taken with some salt, unless Governor Saltonstall's
"architechtonick" gifts were of a much lower order than his
Harvard contemporaries'. For the three Harvard buildings
of the same date, forming three sides of a court that was
open to the country Cambridge roadway, were much more
attractive, if we may believe the representations of them
that have come down to us.
Yet this ungainly structure may not have been as barrack-
like in its actual appearance in 1718 as its extraordinary
dimensions would indicate. A returning graduate, in 1787,
Professor Dexter finds, bemoaned the razing of this build-
ing, saying that it "was by far the most sightly building of
any one that belonged to the University, and most advan-
tageously situated. It gave an air of grandeur to the
others." These "others" were of course what is now
"Connecticut Hall," built in 1752, the Athenaeum, built in
1761, and the Commons (later the Chemical Laboratory),
built in 1782. A correct representation of it suggests that
it may well have been all that Manasseh Cutler said for it
in 1787. Taking the ground floor as a type of the three
stories, there was, at the south end, a thirty-one-foot "Hall,"
used as a dining-room and for a time as a chapel. Next
north came a nine-foot entry for the staircases. Then came
two suites of studies and bedrooms, each suite twenty-one
feet long. Then came another entry, and two more suites.
356 The Beginnings of Yale
The third entry and a single twenty-one-foot suite ended
the structure on the north. Judging from the building direc-
tions, there must have been a considerable "over-hang" to
the sharply pitched roof. While there exists no floor plan
of this elongated structure, we should be able to tell pretty
accurately how the rooms were laid out. President Clap,
who was an indefatigable note-taker on everything about
him, kept a student-room account book when he was presi-
dent. Therein, on rough sketches of the College House
elevation, he would jot down the names of aspirants for
rooms at the next college opening, and record the allotments
when made. In October, 1746, he made such a sketch.
Including the attics, he shows twenty-two suites, each twenty-
one or -two feet wide on the front of the building. The
names of from one to four students are set down in these
spaces on Clap's plan. In addition, he writes names in the
stair-entry spaces over each of the three ground-floor
doorways, hall bedrooms for single roomers. So that
over sixty scholars could be accommodated in the building.
The administrative life of the College centered about the
"Hall" and Library at the south end. These were fairly
large rooms, with fireplaces at the outer sides. The Trus-
tees met in the Library on the second floor.
This large room, the rest of the structure not being com-
pleted, was now thrown open to the Governor and the
Upper House for the formal dedication of the building.
IV
And, properly enough, this was a gala occasion. Colonel
Tailor rode down from Boston with a retinue to attend it.
Governor Gurdon Saltonstall "and his Lady," the Deputy
Governor, and all the Superior Court judges were there,
"Yale College" at New Haven 357
while the Colony leaders who were in sympathy with the
New Haven location doubtless also attended.
The scene, provincial as it might have seemed to the so-
phisticated former Boston Lieutenant Governor, must have
been a splendid one for New Haven, thus attended by the
dignitaries and great folk of the Colony. For the Puritan
garb of the Connecticut people long since had passed away.
The ministers still wore their white bands and black gowns,
their black coats and smallclothes and stockings. But the
gentry had by this time come to dress according to the
fashionable epoch of the mid-i8th Century of Old England.
Gold cords were on the gentlemen's hats; their waistcoats
were creations of embroidery and colored stuffs; their
square-cut coats were even decorated with "frogs" of gold
and silver and brocades. Their powdered periwigs and
perukes were, in some cases, of enormous size. Their
great cuffs ended in ruffles, and their silk stockings were of
many hues. The Colony gentlewomen were quite as re-
splendent in their periwigs and mantles, drawn open to show
the charming hooped-petticoat modes of London and Bos-
ton. The gay attire of these good folk must have lent much
color to the occasion.
Samuel Johnson, still Tutor of the School, has left us a
vivid account of these proceedings. The first business of
this famous Commencement was the formal dedication of
the new College house. At this ceremony, following
Cotton Mather's voluntary suggestion to the great man, the
Trustees now formally named the new building "Yale
College," and a unanimous and probably most enthusiastic
vote was proposed and passed, that "Our Collegiate School"
itself be "named Yale-College."
And then the formal amenities of the occasion begin.
Colonel Tailor, in the prevailingly elegant attire of fashion-
able Boston, addresses the black-gowned Trustees and re-
358 The Beginnings of Yale
splendently-attired Magistrates with a fine speech, in which
he expresses, for the absent donor, his great satisfaction in
giving his little "for the per-
fecting and adorning" of the
truly remarkable building in
which they are met, etc.
These great events over, the whole Assembly marches
to the square Meeting-house in the center of the public
square (much as Yale Commencement processions did for
over a century later, and as, passing around the modern
successor of that early New Haven church, to their own
hall, they do today), and there the first Commencement of
"Yale College" is held. There is a prayer, and then a Latin
Oration "by the Saluting Orator," young James Pierpont,
son of that promoter of the college plan who was first to
bring it to Elihu Yale's august attention. The usual lengthy
Latin "Dissertations" are given by the graduating Seniors
in their black gowns. Then the Rev. John Davenport,
grandson of the pioneer whose life work for the Colony
college had, unknown to him, paved the way for the present
great occasion, makes a most polished and splendid "ora-
tion in Latin," in which he expresses, in the language of the
cultivated men of his day, the thanks of the Trustees "to
Almighty God and Mr. Yale under Him for so public a
favor and so great a regard to our languishing School" [as
Tutor Johnson duly translates it]. Then diplomas are
given to eight Seniors and to two candidates for the Master's
degree. After this long ceremony, Governor Saltonstall,
erect, strong of figure, vigorous of eye, in full-bottomed
periwig, his long ministerial starched band showing on his
many-buttoned and flaring-sleeved coat, and with all the
force and polish for which he was famous through all the
colonies and in New York, steps forward in the high pulpit
and delivers a Latin speech which, coming from him as the
ommencemen
360 The Beginnings of Yale
official head of the Colony, could only mean the final settle-
ment of all disputes, and the beginning of a new era for
the long-suffering School. Governor Saltonstall congratu-
lates the Trustees on their success and courage in building
the new college house, now named "Yale College" 1 by the
grace of God and Governor Yale, and on "the comfortable
appearance of things with relation to their School." And
the ceremonies close again with prayer, after which the
assembly moves out onto the broad tree-shaded Market-
place, assured that all the troubles of the Collegiate School
are at an end, and that, as "Yale College," its future is
sure.
And now the Trustees and the Colony high officials
and the former Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts,
and the judges of the Colony Superior Court in their
gowns, and such of the Colony Magistrates as are there,
return across the Market-place, past the dilapidated old
Courthouse and the new Hopkins Grammar School wooden
building, to the College Hall, where they are "entertained
with a splendid dinner," and the hoop-skirted ladies "at
the same time" are "entertained in the Library," the gallant
Boston Colonel joining them at the table, after which, as
was the custom of the day on such great occasions, they all
stand up and sing "the four first verses in the 65th
Psalm,"
Thy praise alone, O Lord, doth reign
In Sion thine own hill,
"and so the day ended."
"Everything," wrote Samuel Johnson, slipping back to
his lodgings that night to write down the doings of the
1 "Yale's College," the Trustees informed the absent Cotton Mather, was
the name of the new building. While the College house itself was "Yale
College," the School became by that act popularly known by the patron's
name and was so rechristened by the Trustees at this time.
"Yale College" at New Haven 361
day, "was managed with so much order and splendor that
the fame of it extremely disheartened the opposers and
made opposition fall before it." For which consummation,
no doubt, the Trustees had much to thank Governor Salton-
stall.
Yet the Trustees did not stop at this final success of their
long efforts. Meeting in business session on the great day,
they had proceeded to vote that the College library should
be brought into the new "Yale College," and that Rector
Andrew should write to "Mr. Henry Flynt [then the main-
stay of the teaching force at Harvard, but later to show
himself hardly adapted for the undertaking] to obtain
from him some good encouragement that he will accept the
offer of a Rector's post in our Yale-College, our eyes being
on him for Rector." A "Steward" was appointed in charge
of the scholars' rooms and board, and a tutor to assist
Samuel Johnson.
On October 8, 1718, several of the rooms in the new
college house were ready for use, and Samuel Johnson had
his goods brought over to it from his lodgings and the new
assistant Tutor, Daniel Browne, moved into it from his
father's house in West Haven. And I suppose that within
a few weeks the handful of students were given their rooms
by the new "Steward," and that by November the Col-
lege was in full operation under the eye of the Rev. Mr.
Noyes, the local minister. At about this time all of the
Wethersfield scholars also arrived, bag and baggage, Jona-
than Edwards, now a Junior, among them. But they re-
turned in a month to Elisha Williams, evidently still
dissatisfied with the teaching, leaving seventeen scholars
with Johnson. Though we do not now know the precise
reason for their action, I imagine that the failure of the
Trustees to secure Tutor Flynt of Harvard for the Rector-
ship had something to do with it. He, fortunately for Yale
362 The Beginnings of Yale
College, had declined to leave Cambridge, and it would
appear that no further immediate efforts were made to
select another man. Rector Andrew still remained the
nominal head of the establishment.
So, in spite of the settlement of the site question by the
opportune gift of Elihu Yale, the Hartford Trustees still
stuck to their guns.
Yet there was now nothing left of this long-standing
opposition except the determination of Woodbridge and
Buckingham to keep it up. Even the Lower House now
fell into line with the march of events, and deserted the
Hartford faction. The General Assembly of October,
1718, was as usual held in New Haven, and its members
now decided to patch up all the past differences. The
Governor and Upper House on this occasion accepted the
invitation of the Trustees to leave Captain Miles' convivial
Tavern and hold their sessions in the new College Library,
the Lower House sitting, as usual, in the Meeting-house
down the hill on the Market-place.
Over the still tangled affairs of the newly-named "Yale
College" there was now another long legislative discussion.
Yet the situation was plain enough. There had indeed
been a long public squabble over the proper site of the
Collegiate School, with good arguments for each of the
three places that wanted it. But the majority of the Trus-
tees, acting within what the Assembly now agreed was their
right, had decided upon New Haven. They had collected
much money for it. They had succeeded in securing the
munificent gift of the great Governor Yale of London.
They had built a splendid "College house." This and the
institution itself, in the presence of the chief men of the
"Yale College" at New Haven 363
Colony, they had named Yale College. And they had
proceeded to elect a resident Rector.
On the other hand, the leaders of the Hartford dissen-
sion, naturally enough under conditions prevailing some
time back, had refused to agree with their fellow Trustees,
and were persisting in their Wethersfield enterprise. In
fact, they had just granted Collegiate School degrees, before
a large country assembly in the Wethersfield Meeting-house.
This, it would now appear (as the historian Trumbull
solemnly pronounced it just a century later) "could be con-
sidered in no other light than that of a great misdemeanor,
and highly reprehensible." Yet both Woodbridge and
Thomas Buckingham were too important men for even the
most irritated of the New Haven party legislators to
chastise for all this in public. The Assembly proposed to
bring the factions together, and, acting as the Colony Court,
order what should be done to this end.
So we find the Assembly voting, with reference to the
School, that the public money paid to it for the past year
(as had been refused affirmative vote by the Upper House
on the last occasion it was proposed) should be divided
between the Tutors at all three of the rival schools; that
the Wethersfield graduates should be given Yale College
degrees "without examination"; that all the Wethers-
field scholars should be admitted to Yale College with
no questions asked; that these scholars are "ordered" to
"come down to New Haven"; and that "said college be
carried on, promoted and encouraged at New Haven, and
all due care taken for its flourishing." To placate the dis-
gruntled Saybrook and Hartford people for their loss, the
Assembly likewise voted that 500 should be appropriated
for a fine new Statehouse at Hartford, and that 50 should
be given to the Saybrook town school. The Assembly fin-
ished its arrangement of the College's affairs by voting that
3^4
The Beginnings of Yale
the Governor and his Council, at the request of the Trustees,
should give such orders as were necessary "for the removing
of the books, belonging to the said college, left at Saybrook,
to the library provided for the placing of them at New
Haven."
VI
This action, regarding the books, as we have seen, had
already been voted by the Trustees, and on October 28, in
accordance with the Assembly's command concerning it,
Governor Saltonstall and the Council ordered the Secretary
of the Colony, one Wyllys of Hartford, to make out the
necessary papers for their transfer. A formal demand for
the College books was therefore made out by Secretary
Wyllys and sent by messenger to Saybrook.
"Yale College" at New Haven 365
Samuel Johnson, as I have noted, had probably brought
over a few of these volumes to New Haven to assist him in
his teaching and for his private reading (Sir Isaac Newton's
two scientific books among them). But there is evidence
that the remainder of the former Collegiate School collec-
tion had remained at Saybrook all this time, awaiting the
outcome of the struggle over the site, and that these were
still at the old Thomas Buckingham parsonage, or at the
newly-built house of Daniel Buckingham, his son. How
many volumes were thus at Saybrook at this time is not
definitely known. But beside the forty or so original books
given by the "founders" at the first Saybrook meeting, we
have seen some seven hundred arrive from Jeremiah
Dummer, and two hundred from Sir John Davie. So that
there were more than a thousand books in Daniel Buck-
ingham's house when this Colony order reached him.
Two of the Trustees, young Thomas Ruggles, the Guil-
ford minister, probably being one of them, rode over to
Saybrook early in November, with a written order for the
books from Rector Andrew. To their astonishment young
Daniel Buckingham received them coldly, saying that "he
did not know that he had any books belonging to 'Yale
College,' but when he did, and should receive authentic
orders, he would deliver them." It appeared from this
refusal by Buckingham that the Saybrook people, in spite
of their 50 sop from the Colony treasury, had not accepted
the situation and still proposed to fight about it. The Rev.
Azariah Mather doubtless had his hand in this turn of
events, and I imagine that the Hartford Trustees had theirs.
The claim may have been made, for that matter, that the
books had been given to "the Collegiate School at Say-
brook," which was still flourishing with one scholar at the
Reverend Mather's parsonage, and that those responsible
for the new "Yale College" at New Haven had no right to
366 The Beginnings of Yale
them. This in fact was worrying even the New Haven site
Trustees, as in a letter to Dummer he was asked to say
plainly that he had secured his gifts for the Collegiate
School, "wherever the same were finally settled." Dummer
later replied to this to the effect that the site of the School
was of no consequence to him, though he hoped it would
be agreed upon. Young Buckingham evidently took an
opposite view, and sent the two Trustees packing. The
upshot was another appeal to the Assembly to straighten
matters out.
The story of what now developed is well known, as it is
one of the amusing episodes in these extremely serious times.
Governor Saltonstall, already appealed to more than once
to straighten out the tangled conditions of his Colony Col-
lege, wearily called a Council meeting at Saybrook early in
December, and haled young Buckingham before it. But
the latter was obstinate. He still refused to give up the
Collegiate School books. So the Council ordered the County
Sheriff and his constables to go down to Saybrook from
Hartford and get them by force.
We may imagine the excitement that this show of Colony
official power created in the quiet little Saybrook village.
The townspeople, siding naturally with Buckingham and
their minister, doubtless leave their farms and shops and
crowd up about young Buckingham's house and into it as
the sheriff and his constables push their way into the house.
(They say that the house itself was barricaded.) Doubt-
less they jeer loudly as the constables emerge, laden to the
chins with the great folios that had been given by the
"founders" and the books that Dick Steele and Dr. Bentley
and the great Elihu Yale and the Poet-Laureate of England
had sent over. Probably they get in the way as much as
they can and, as the cold December afternoon wanes, be-
come more and more excited as they see the last of the great
"Yale College" at New Haven
367
'^^S&SaK^iM^
volumes deposited in the ox-carts that have been impressed
by the sheriff. Night coming, the cartloads of books are
kept under guard till they can be taken the next morning
across country to Guilford, where Thomas Ruggles was to
house them till New Haven wagons could be sent over to
get them. But during the night the Saybrook people draw
off the guard, turn loose the oxen, upset the carts, carry off
such of the books as they happen to fancy, and send out
parties to break down the bridges over the creeks west of
the village toward Killingworth. When morning comes,
the sheriff finds himself left with no helpers, and with as
many obstacles as possible put in the way of his doing any-
thing further about the business. But he manages to collect
what he can of the debris and the next day arrives safely
at Guilford with a quarter of the original library lost for
good, and many of the remaining volumes permanently
damaged. In his account of this proceeding, Samuel John-
son says that 260 books were lost and 1,000 saved.
This episode marks the end of Old Saybrook's appear-
ance in Yale annals. The old town has added to itself a
368 The Beginnings of Yale
new and thriving village on the mainland, has transferred
its chief interests to it, and has slept peacefully throughout
the two centuries that have since elapsed. The early dream
of a great Puritan metropolis, presided over by Pym and
Cromwell, never came true. The Market-place that was
to be a New- World emporium had become the village Green
when this affair of the College books took place. Today,
with a proper memorial of Yale's first days there set up on
the Lynde lot next to the spot where the fair Lady Fenwick
lies buried, the charming old village is very much the same
that it was when the Collegiate School, for nine brief years,
was its chief citizen.
CHAPTER IX
RECTOR CUTLER
HE remnant of the Collegiate School
books was now in Samuel Johnson's
care in the library of the new "Yale
College." But the Hartford Trustees
still refused to give up their school at
Elisha Williams' Wethersfield farm-
house, and Governor Saltonstall took
Rector Andrew's reins in his hands and
again went at the persistent problem. A formal joint meet-
ing of the Colony Council and the Trustees was called at
New Haven for the nth of March, 1719, to see what could
be done. Only four or five of the Trustees attended this
meeting, and Woodbridge and Thomas Buckingham were
deliberately among the absentees. But Saltonstall proceeded
to business.
Of the principal needs of the struggling academy, two
had by this time been met in the securing of a library and
funds for a "College house," and in the permanent settle-
ment of the site question in favor of New Haven.
There remained, however, the need of a more business-
like government than had been the case since Rector Pier-
son's death twelve years before. The newly-named Yale
College needed the right man for resident Rector. Samuel
Andrew had never evinced any particular capacity for
affairs and, so far as we now can see, had not been a very
strong factor in the troublous times which I have been
370 The Beginnings of Yale
chronicling. He had been assisted by a long succession of
young Tutors, some of whom had not been successful as
teachers and all of whom had been preparing themselves,
while teaching, to become settled ministers elsewhere. The
single flash of activity in settling this question, in offering
the Rectorship to Tutor Flynt of Harvard, had died out,
fortunately, as it happened, with his declination. It had
been because of this failure that the final refusal of the
Hartford Trustees to join the majority had probably been
made, and doubtless with good reason.
All of which now resulted in a highly entertaining, if
serious, student outbreak. The Assembly had ordered the
fourteen Wethersfield students to "come down" to New
Haven, and they had come, including Jonathan Edwards.
They proved an unruly and rebellious lot. And they pro-
ceeded, so Sir Johnson believed, "to unhorse" him from his
Tutorship. This "black design" is possibly borne out by
the facts. For the Wethersfield scholars at once began to
make trouble at the College and in the town, being "very
immoral in their Conversation so that they became odious
to the people of ye Town," writes Johnson, and to "get
together a Collection of faults" with "the public Exposi-
tions & Disputations & managements of the Tutors & espe-
cially of the two upper Classes which were under me."
Johnson says that these complaints were sent clandestinely
to Timothy Woodbridge and approved by him as sufficient
grounds for further efforts on his part to attack the College,
though Woodbridge later on emphatically denied that he
had had anything to do with it. And they did not stop
there, for "presently thereupon comes 3 of the parents of
the Scholars to see how it was, & they designed to have
them away." Rector Andrew being hastily sent for, Trus-
tee Samuel Russel already being at the College house, there
was a great powwow between the parents and College offi-
Rector Cutler 371
cers, which resulted in Andrew's supporting Johnson, but
asking time from the parents to call a special meeting of
his Board. The "3 parents," publicly agreeing to this post-
ponement, privately permitted their sons to leave New
Haven. Here was a great to-do, and, as Johnson writes,
"The Schollars were going away all so fast" that the Rev.
Mr. Noyes had to come into the breach, and agree with the
parents to take the Juniors himself and hand over the
Seniors to Reverend Moss of Derby. But even this did not
help matters, the disaffected parents evidently being ready
to take away their sons on any pretext. A week later they
returned with horses and all of the scholars of the Wethers-
field faction "went away but one." While Timothy Wood-
bridge may not have been a factor in this situation, I imagine
that he received the news of it with satisfaction. At about
this time he had written to Benjamin Coleman, a Harvard
Fellow, suggesting that the dissatisfied Yale students might
finish their course of study at Harvard. He was quite
willing, at least, that his own stepson, in the Class of 1718,
should do so. Coleman very honestly and frankly replied
that he did not think this would be a good thing. It would
be "heavily borne" by the New Haven site faction, he said,
and he rather advised Woodbridge, whose "generous public
spirit" was well known, to quit the struggle. He did not
think that Harvard should receive "any number of your
Scholars at this critical time," though he was willing that
Woodbridge's son should come. Nothing therefore came
of this original idea of the Hartford minister, even his
stepson continuing at the New Haven College.
But the whole situation was now one which could not be
permitted, for the good of the Colony, to continue any
longer. At the joint meeting of the Trustees and the
Assembly, therefore, Governor Saltonstall brought the
problem down to the one issue of a proper head for the
372 The Beginnings of Yale
School. The College officers were practically told by the
General Assembly to find such a Rector.
Proceeding, with some alacrity, to this end, the Trustees
took Mr. Andrew's advice and offered the post, pro tern
for the moment, to his son-in-law, a young minister then
settled over the Stratford Congregational church.
II
This young man, then but thirty-six years of age, was the
Rev. Timothy Cutler. He was a Charlestown, Massachu-
setts, boy, and had been graduated at Harvard under
Increase Mather in the year that the Connecticut Collegiate
School had been started. He had come to the Stratford
Meeting-house from Boston as old Israel Chauncy's suc-
cessor, in 1709, with a reputation of being "one of the best
preachers both colonies afforded." He had married a
daughter of Rector Andrew of Milford shortly after set-
tling at near-by Stratford, and was at this time conducting
the affairs of his little congregation with success. We have
President Stiles' word for it that he was "great in the
philosophy, metaphysics, and ethics of his day." He was a
fluent user of Latin in conversation and public addresses,
and was "of a commanding presence and dignity." And he
was a great reader. He had become a close friend of Tutor
Samuel Johnson, but a few years his junior, and so had
found himself a frequent traveler to New Haven to read
the books which Johnson had brought over from Saybrook.
I suppose, in the light of after-events, that it was the oppor-
tunity which the Rectorship offered him, of being closer to
these books, which decided him to accept the position.
Asked to relieve him from their church ministry to
accept the Rectorship of Yale College, the Stratford people
had "passively" submitted "to God" in the matter and
Rector Cutler
373
agreed to it, which was more than the Killingworth people
had done in Rector Pierson's case. Yet they had asked back
the parsonage and "home lot" which he had been given on
settling there, as the Killingworth people had wanted in
their settlement of the Pierson request; and the Rev. Mr.
Cutler had handed it back, as Abraham Pierson had not
been willing to. The demand of the Stratford people for
100 to call a new minister seems to have been gladly com-
plied with by a General Assembly that saw itself thus rid
of the College trouble. In March, 1719, Rector Cutler
arrived at New Haven and began his duties as the new
head of the academy.
It naturally had been expected by Governor Saltonstall
that this last act in settling the difficulties of the divided
Colony college would have brought the two Hartford Trus-
tees into the fold. But for some reason or other, they still
374 The Beginnings of Yale
held out. Woodbridge, especially, persisted. There is
extant a letter from Governor Saltonstall of this date,
written to Rev. James Noyes, which throws an interesting
light on the Hartford leader's attitude. Woodbridge way-
laid the Governor, says the latter, "as I came out of town"
on horseback, and buttonholed him on the College site ques-
tion. Saltonstall tells Noyes that Woodbridge "moved me
to desire a Meeting of the Trustees ; I told him I could not
think It would be of good Consequence for such a Motion
to begin with Me." Woodbridge pushed the point and the
Governor told him that if he himself "would move, I would
give It what Favour I might; and offered him If He would
write, to take Care of a Lettr to You, Who would probably
discourse with Me about It." This Woodbridge was dis-
inclined to do, and the conversation ended there. Salton-
stall added, for Noyes' own information, that he continued
to stand with the Trustees and did not propose to "insert
my Self into their Affairs, till I see further Reason for It."
If the attitude of these two disaffected Hartford ministers
had hitherto passed through the successive stages of local
pride, educational ambition for their neighbors' sons, and
obstinacy, it now seems to have taken the character of
downright pig-headedness. For, in spite of the complete
failure of their efforts to get the College for Hartford, and
the popularity of the New Haven settlement throughout the
Colony, they now made a final move to even up matters with
Saltonstall, whose interference in affairs had finally spiked
their guns. To this end both Timothy Woodbridge and
Thomas Buckingham offered themselves for election as the
two Deputies from Hartford in the May election in 1719
that now came on. This extraordinary and unprecedented
action could have been but for the one purpose that they
now showed in it. For they began a Colony-wide propa-
ganda to secure the defeat of Governor Saltonstall for the
Rector Cutler 375
next annual term, with the idea that one Gold, at the time
Lieutenant Governor, would become head of the Upper
House in his place, and, with themselves leading the Lower,
undo what had been done regarding the Colony College.
But the scheme fell through. There was a great popular
rally to the support of Saltonstall at the next election. He
was overwhelmingly reflected Governor, though the two
Hartford Trustees got into the Lower House, as they had
planned. Woodbridge made the opening prayer of the
session, but seems to have made some remark that infuriated
the Governor. Saltonstall, long-suffering in his efforts to
smooth the ruffled Hartford Trustees, now blazed forth in
what was undoubtedly a very proper temper. He caused
charges for defamation of character to be brought by a
down-river Deputy in the Lower House against the luckless
Rev. Timothy Woodbridge. The House sustained these
charges and voted to exclude Woodbridge, who vigorously
replied, and the Upper House called for a further hearing.
Though we do not know the outcome, the Reverend Wood-
bridge appears to have from that moment been withdrawn
as a factor in the now-concluded Hartford fight. His inter-
est in the College while Timothy Cutler was Rector, was
sufficient to induce his wife, a wealthy woman by a previous
marriage, to give a bell to the College house. Cutler,
thanking Madam Woodbridge for it in a letter to her hus-
band, says that it was put in place (in 1720) "and gives a
very pleasant clear Sound." From that time forth, Timothy
Woodbridge was a staunch friend of the College.
It was at this time that Elisha Williams underwent his
long sickness which I mentioned in another chapter, and
recovered from it so "sanctified" that he decided to leave off
teaching and enter the ministry at Newington, just outside
of Wethersfield. I presume that this event, together with
the Reverend Woodbridge's public scarification in the
376
The Beginnings of Yale
Assembly, must have been the prime occasion for the final
winding up of the school at his Wethersfield farm that now
took place. For in June, 1719, all of the Wethersfield
scholars, among them Jonathan Edwards, finally left the
Hartford establishment and joined their former Fellows at
the new Yale College at New Haven.
This was the end of the long drawn-out
Wi\ i struggle over the Colony College site. The
new students found good rooms in the new
College hall, and, in Rector Cutler, a head
of the institution who,
as Jonathan Edwards
wrote to his father in
that letter from which
I have already quoted,
"is extraordinarily cour-
teous to us, has a very
good spirit of govern-
ment, keeps the school
in excellent order,
seems to increase in
learning, is loved and
respected by all who
are under him, and
when he is spoken of
in the school or town,
generally has the title
of President." And
young Edwards adds
ml ranee ~ __
fo Sf ffifes Gfturcfi,
tfvrexfiam
that he thanks his father for advice given him. "I am," he
says, "sensible of the preciousness of my time, . . . and I
take very great content under my present tuition, as all the
rest of the scholars seem to do under theirs. . . . The
scholars all live in very good peace with the people of
Rector Cutler 377
the town, and there is not a word said about our former
carryings on."
Ill
According to President Clap's later compilation of gifts
to the College up to this time, it would appear that, in
addition to the books previously mentioned, and the private
and public money pledges, the Treasurer of the College had
received 50 from Governor Saltonstall, and 10 from his
good Lady, two acres of land in New Haven from one
Joseph Peck, seven acres in New Haven from Tutor Moss
of Derby and seven from his father, eight acres in West
Haven from Captain Samuel Smith, and twenty-eight books
from Dr. Daniel Turner of London. The General As-
sembly had voted 300 worth of the new lands, and 40
annually for the next seven years to the College for the
Tutors' salaries.
Moreover, there was much talk of further benefactions
from Governor Yale, who by this time had received the
thanks of the Trustees and an account by them of the cere-
monies at the dedication of the "College house" and of
their action in naming the institution after him, as Cotton
Mather had promised. Jeremiah Dummer had reported
the reception of this address by the now aged and infirm
capitalist. The old gentleman, it appears, was more than a
little pleased by the affair, "saying," writes Dummer, "that
he expressed at first some kind of concern whether it was
well in him, being a churchman, to promote an Academy of
Dissenters. But when he had discoursed the point freely
[and no doubt been informed by Dummer, as had been
old Doctor Salmon, that the Connecticut ministers prob-
ably would change the seminary's theology to suit, if he
pressed the point] he appeared convinced that the business
of good men is to spread religion and learning among
378 The Beginnings of Yale
mankind, without being too fondly attached to particular
tenets about which the world never was, nor ever will be,
agreed." All of which was extremely broad-minded of a
former India merchant who had not worried very much
about such matters in the process of squeezing that portion
of mankind nearest him for his riches. "Besides," puts in
Dummer, quoting the great man, who was now a contented
and honored pew-holder in a London parish church, "if
the discipline of the Church of England be most agreeable
to Scripture and primitive practice, there's no better way to
make men sensible of it than by giving them good learning."
Governor Yale, having eased his Episcopal conscience with
this energetic first aid from the elastic-conscienced Dummer,
now agreed to give 200 a year to his "Yale College"
during the remainder of his life and "to make a settled
annual provision to take place after his death." Goods
valued at 100 were reported shipped by Dummer two years
later. And Dummer constantly pushed ahead for more. "I
was with him last night, to refresh his memory about the
books, pictures, & other presents which I formerly men-
tioned to you, but it seems they won't be in order 'till a
month hence." These "presents" had been expected to be
"Mr. Yale's picture at full length with his nephew's on the
same canvas," 1 which, Dummer said, had been "drawn for
a present to your Colledge Hall, and another parcel of
Books, part of which he has promis'd me shall be the Royal
transactions in seventeen Volumes." Governor Yale had
also thought to send over "a pair of Globes," but Dummer
had told him that the School already had them, and Yale
1 The Elizabethan Club at the University possesses a full length painting
of Elihu Yale with a youth at his side. The age or origin of this portrait
has never been determined. The representation of Yale in it, however, is of
a man much younger than the one in the Zeeman painting which hangs in
the University Dining Hall, and which was done in 1717, according to
President Stiles.
Rector Cutler 379
had agreed to send instead "some mathematical instru-
ments, & glasses for making philosophical Experiments, as
Microscopes, Telescopes, & other glasses for use as well as
for ornament & curiosity."
"But old gentlemen are forgetful," Dummer writes to
the Trustees. And Governor Yale proved the adage. For
he never proceeded with his annual pledge, nor did he put
the New Haven college in his will. He died intestate on
July 8, 1721, at his house in Great Ormond Street, and
that was the last the Connecticut College heard of him.
Poor Jeremiah Dummer, this second chance having slipped
through his fingers through the untimely arrival of the
Great Reaper, hustled about to see what he could do about
it for several years thereafter. But though he made tre-
mendous efforts to interest Yale's three daughters (one
of whom was married to Dudley Lord North and another
to James Cavendish, uncle of the Duke of Devonshire)
nothing ever came of it. There is a story that Governor
Yale, just before his death, had himself seen to the packing
up of 500 worth of goods to send to the New Haven
Trustees, but that he died before he could manage it. These
goods were duly unpacked and distributed with his estate
to his noble daughters, and to that unmarried Ursula who
survived him.
These fine things were all in prospect in 1719, and I do
not doubt were expected by the Trustees of the new Yale
College. In the meanwhile they needed their Rector's house,
had voted to build it, and were asking Colony aid again for
it. The Upper House again was sympathetic, but the Depu-
ties balked, as usual. Not only did they not wish to give
Colony money outright to the College, but they reported
that there was "too great a spirit of learning in the land"
anyway, and that "more are brought up to it than will be
needed or find improvement" (in which we light upon the
3 8o
The Beginnings of Yale
first instance in Yale history of the hard-headed questioning
of the value of a college education). But in May, 1721,
the Assembly agreed to permit the Trustees again to cir-
culate a "brief" to raise money, this time for the Rector's
house. A Colony collection was taken on the Sabbath day,
July 23, which came to 100, paid in small individual con-
tributions from pew-holders in the sixty-five Meeting-houses
of the Colony.
But this was not enough, and in October, the Assembly,
in passing an Act "for the better Regulating the Duty of
Impost upon Rhum," voted that all the money derived from
that genial source during the first two years after its en-
forcement should be paid over toward helping the College
build its Rector's house. President Clap lists this as 115
in his itemized account of the College assets in 1722. The
house cost was 260, according to the same authority,
though other authority is to the effect that the contract with
Caner, the "College-house" builder, called for 600, the
discrepancy doubtless arising from the terms in which the
figures are given.
Jsie Jrcue famiy
church -yarcf near
CHAPTER X
THE NEW HAVEN OF TIMOTHY CUTLER
HE twoscore youths who were gath-
ered together under young Timothy
Cutler's promising Rectorship in the
new Yale College hall in June, 1719,
found themselves living in the midst of
a village life that had hardly changed
from the quiet provincialism of James
Pierpont's times, as that, in its turn,
had not progressed far beyond John Davenport's.
New Haven's total population was less than a thousand
at this time, and there were perhaps a hundred and fifty
houses. Except for scattered farms south of the present
George Street and north of Grove, and a somewhat closely-
built seafaring section east of the present State and Meadow
Streets and thus down to the harbor's shore, the village was
much the same as when the first efforts had been begun for
the Colony college. If we might, in fancy, accompany one
of the new College Freshmen about this little village on his
first walk of a Sabbath afternoon, we might picture to our-
selves, with some approach to vividness, what sort of a
place this New Haven of Rector Cutler's day was.
And I suppose that the small compass of the place would
be the first thing that would interest such a stranger.
Meadows, rye- and oat-fields and stubbly clearings on which
the cattle and geese and pigs of the townsfolk pastured,
surrounded the original nine squares, except where here and
382 The Beginnings of Yale
there the woods came in close to the town's outskirts, as was
the case in the whole section now traversed by Whitney
Avenue and Prospect Hill. No cross lanes had up to this
time been cut through the original town streets laid out by
John Brockett for Theophilus Eaton's settlers. Country
roads had branched off from the western ends of the modern
Chapel and Elm Streets and the north end of College, while
"Neck Lane" and "Payne's Gate" led off eastward from
the north end of what is now State Street. The three creeks
on the banks of which Michael Wigglesworth's elders had
built their first rude huts in 1638, still led up into the
"quarters" from about where the railroad yards are today.
One of these rippled along the east side of the modern State
Street, its west bank dotted by a few houses belonging to
sailmakers, tanners, weavers, and "mariners." A second
creek, emerging from the ancient swamp at the southeast
corner of the Market-place, still trickled muddily across
town and into the State Street rivulet. The broader and
deeper creek just south of the present George Street, up
which John Davenport's small vessel with its burden of the
original settlers had sailed to the College Street corner, was
still a sizable stream in 1719, so navigable that boats could
land passengers where High Street now joins George, at
which place stood a blacksmith's shop in Rector Cutler's
day.
All of the original outside eight squares of the village
were at this time fringed, as they had been since the settle-
ment, by farmhouses, the interior of these blocks being
fenced-in open orchards, meadows and cornfields. Weavers,
blacksmiths, joiners, soap-boilers, saddlers, cordwainers,
coopers, clothiers, and millers occupied many of these
houses, plying their trades, no doubt, there, though the
Town-mill was out the present Orange Street near East
Rock. But, from the old map of Joseph Brown of 1724,
The New Haven of Timothy Cutler 383
from which we can reconstruct something of the New
Haven of those days, most of the folk were "husbandmen,"
"yeomen," and "planters." Numerous "deserted" houses,
relics of Davenport's times, appear in the outlying streets
on Brown's map, and no doubt many of the homesteads
actively in use were antiquated and weather-beaten survivors
of those older days. James Pierpont's parsonage, fronting
the Market-place behind his two "great elms," was occupied
by his son, now fatuously pursuing the English Pierrepont
earldom. His successor in the village Meeting-house,
Joseph Noyes, lived in the old Eaton mansion down Elm
Street, while Treasurer Prout's house was far down toward
the harbor line on what is now Water Street, as became the
Naval Officer of the Port.
But such a new arrival at the College would have been
more interested in the great Market-place of the town, and
the life about the new Yale College house facing it from
its southwest corner. And he would have found his tower-
ing College hall but a small part of this public center of
New Haven. The square bounded by what are now Chapel,
York, Elm, and College Streets at this time had but eight
houses on it, two or three barns, and a group of surviving
log "Sabbath-day houses" where York and Elm now meet.
On York Street, beside these cabins, lived the two Hotchkiss
families, farmers, and Sam. Chatterton, weaver, who was
domiciled at the Chapel Street corner. One house faced
the present Elm Street, about where Peabody Museum now
stands. On Chapel Street above High, lived one Jonathan
Tuttle, a "planter"; Stephen Ball, soap-maker, had his
odoriferous premises where the Art School now stands.
On College Street, Sam Mix, "yeoman," lived at the
Battell Chapel corner, while two barns and the farmhouse
of one Joshua Tuttle, "husbandman," filled in the present
sites of Farnam, Lawrance, and Welch Halls. On the
The New Haven of Timothy Cutler 385
Chapel Street corner, built close to the street lines, and
within its low wood fence, was Elihu Yale's magnificent
structure that Cotton Mather had prophesied would be a
finer affair than an Egyptian pyramid. Three farmhouses
faced Chapel Street on the other side from the modern Old
Campus, as did three on Elm Street, Lieutenant Mix,
Deputy to the Assembly, living where the Divinity School
now stands.
In the midst of all this quiet village life was the great
Market-place, still more or less as it had been in the early
days of the Colony. Facing it, across the present crowded
and busy Chapel Street, were two large and ancient houses,
one, at Chapel and College Streets, that had formerly been
Captain Miles' Tavern, now belonging to one Mr. Wood-
house, and the other, far down where Chapel and Church
now intersect, occupied by the descendants of the ruined
Gregson of Captain Lamberton's "Great Shippe" days.
Between these, where Temple now crosses Chapel, was a
barn. So that the Yale College student of 1719, walking
down Chapel Street in his flowing college gown and broad
flat hat, had nothing but this barn and gardens and open
fields to look at across from the present Green. Four
houses stood on the Elm Street side of the Market-place at
that time, and as many on Church Street, the great spaces
between them being fenced-off meadows and orchards, with
the virgin woods and harbor beyond.
The Market-place itself at this time was but little changed
from James Pierpont's day. The second Meeting-house
had been built in 1668, and enlarged sometime later, as we
have seen. It was about in the center of the public square,
probably just east of the present Temple Street, and was
of wood, with a pyramidal roof, upon the apex of which,
in an open belfry, still hung the bell that we have seen pur-
chased for it from a sailorman in the harbor. The Town
386 The Beginnings of Yale
whipping-post still stood on the College Street side of the
Market-place, and just north of it the "gaol." It had been
ir this same year, 1719, that the two first important changes
in the appearance of the old public square had been made.
One of these was the erection of a Statehouse. This was
now being built at College and Elm Streets, by Caner, whose
work on the "College house" had been approved by the
townsfolk and Assembly, and who was now living on Chapel
Street in an old house facing the present site of the Art
School. The new Statehouse was a two-story wooden
structure, some forty-five by twenty-two feet in size, with
a great chimney at either end, and was to be used by the
County courts and by the General Assembly until 1763, when
a Boston-style brick Statehouse superseded it between the
present Trinity and Center Churches on Temple Street.
Just before this time, the Town had voted to build a new
house for the Hopkins Grammar School. This was now
being built on the College Street side of the Market-place,
between the whipping-post and Chapel Street and nearly
opposite "Yale College." The old Cheever School, that
had been enlarged for the Hopkins Grammar School, was
still standing at this time near Elm and Temple Streets
(though Brown's map does not show it for some reason or
other), and was to be used for an "English school" until
1756, when a brick building took its place. West of the
Meeting-house of course lay the village cemetery, making,
all in all, with the prison and whipping-post, a cheerful
outlook for the scholars in the "College house," and one
that no doubt had a salutary effect upon their morals.
II
It may have been the very gloom of these surroundings
that helped to throw the College into a great uproar, in
The New Haven of Timothy Cutler 387
Rector Cutler's second year. There had been a student
uprising at Saybrook over the boarding accommodations
and the teaching; the Wethersfield group had raised a rum-
pus over Sir Johnson; in 1721 the entire student body rose
in its wrath over the Commons. There seems to have
been trouble, from the first, to secure a competent steward
and a cook for the College kitchen. In Cutler's first year
as Rector the Trustees had "discoursed" with Captain John
Munson, the middle-aged steward, over the hiring of a
cook. The Widow Hannah Beecher had been offered the
place as "standing cook," and the Trustees had voted that
"fresh meat be provided for the Schollars Dinner 3 times
a Week." But this did not solve the difficulty. Within the
year the students were muttering discontents over the food
at the long tables in the hall of the College house. Jonathan
Edwards was a resident postgraduate student at this time,
and a letter to his father tells the story. Suddenly, in Feb-
ruary, 1721, the entire undergraduate body as one man
agreed to boycott the Commons of Captain Munson and
put themselves under bonds of fifteen shillings apiece to
stand by each other. When Munson put on the food no
one appeared to eat it. Rector Cutler sent for Trustees
Andrew and Russel, and haled the undergraduate body into
his presence, where he laid down the law with such firmness
that he "affrighted the scholars that they unanimously
agreed to come into commons again." But this did not end
the matter. The students worked themselves up into a
great state of rebellion. They committed "some monstrous
impieties, and acts of immorality," says Edwards. Espe-
cially prominent among these latter crimes were the steal-
ings of "hens, geese, turkies, piggs, meat, wood, &c
unseasonable nightwalking, breaking people's windows,
playing at cards, cursing, swearing, and damning, and using
all manner of ill language, which never were at such a pitch
388 The Beginnings of Yale
in the Colledge as they are now." Rector Cutler finally
called a Trustees' meeting and expelled some of the ring-
leaders.
The affair must have made a considerable stir in the
quiet provincial village, where there was not much excite-
ment for the College lads except what they could
make for themselves. The New Haven townspeople had
never recovered from the financial ruin of the famous Dela-
ware enterprises, and, as had happened at Saybrook, had
never succeeded in carrying out the great trading ambitions
of the settlers. The long effort to bring trade to the port,
which at one time nearly became successful, had now ebbed
again, so that there were now but two coasting vessels and
a West Indiaman in the harbor, besides a handful of smaller
craft. The people, as we have seen, were all farmers or
small merchants and artisans, though there was a doctor
(one Mather) living on lower Elm Street. There were
no lawyers in those artless days, and the magistrates and
justices and judges had to be selected for common sense and
what smattering of English common law and knowledge of
the Assembly's acts they could muster.
Yet these primitive New Englanders managed to keep
abreast of the fashions of the day, so far as they could by
the occasional voyages to Boston of that Captain Browne's
"Speedwell" which we have heard of on previous pages.
The New Haven folks' relations to this seafaring Captain
have recently come to light in the pages of his old account
book. These were largely in the nature of barter, the towns-
people loading Captain Browne's little vessel with wheat
and flour from the East Rock mill; corn, rye, and oats from
the many farms; pork and bacon, a little beef, and much
fresh butter; peas and beans, nuts, beeswax and honey, and
sometimes some eggs (a basket or two of which occasion-
ally went on to that Madam Knight whom we have seen
The New Haven of Timothy Cutler 389
visiting friends in New Haven). Numerous furs were in
these consignments, and there were usually some bales of flax
or wool sent on, with maybe some linen or worsted cloths,
roughly manufactured at Tutor Johnson's father's place at
Guilford, or by the several
"clothiers" living in New f /> /[ (T).
C/ttA
Haven. Treasurer Ailing
had been a purchaser, as we
have seen, for the Saybrook establishment from Captain
Browne, and he, as well as all of the prominent people in
the town, used the Captain's services.
Something of the flavor of these ancient Yale days comes
back to us in the items which Captain Browne set down in
his old account book. He brings back to the village from
the Boston emporium such things as silver spoons, silver
shoe-buckles, silk handkerchiefs, ivory combs, brass kettles,
writing paper, silver chains, gauze fans, jackknives, whale-
bone for the ladies, pins, gloves, sugar, wineglasses, ribbon,
green wines, tankards, hornbooks for the small people, rum,
felt hats for the boys, looking-glasses, broadcloth suits for
the gentlemen, periwigs, and castor hats of rabbit's fur.
The Derby minister, Rev. Joseph Moss, but recently assist-
ing in the College teaching, is a good purchaser from Cap-
tain Browne. He buys, so the ancient account book shows,
6,000 nails for his parsonage, a pint of wine, the usual
minister's broadcloth coat and black crepe gown, a Bible,
a "great journal," a barrel of gunpowder, 200 pounds of
small shot, half a grindstone, a brass kettle costing 5 35.,
some glass bottles, a glass inkhorn, a trunk with drawers in
it, Madeira wines, a small book called "The Clerk's Guide"
(which he needed in order to brush up for his duties as
Town Clerk of Derby), and Henry Care's "English Liber-
ties," a ponderously-compiled and amazingly dull legal di-
gest. Several stores, in one of which Madam Knight will
390
The Beginnings of Yale
JMAi*
ace
/** *-
\StMJn
Cortlnaine.
be recalled as observing the country people making their
awkward purchases, were scattered about the New Haven
of this day, where the College scholars on their infrequent
off-afternoons might purchase paper and jackknives.
So that, on the whole, the New Haven folk of this period
lived at least a comfortable life, as Madam Knight found
that they did, and, provincial as it was, not entirely out of
The New Haven of Timothy Cutler 391
the fashions of Samuel Sewall's Boston. The houses of the
more easy-circumstanced of these villagers of Rector
Cutler's few New Haven years, were quite comfortable
homes. Roaring log fires heated them and homemade
"white-amber" candles and imported whale-oil lanterns
lighted them. Each house of the better class had its heavy
homemade furniture, with here and there an imported
Jacobean chair or Dutch table, its pewter mugs and platters
and tankards, its warming pans for cold winter nights, and
its costly brass kettles. There were no carpets or rugs, to
be sure, but the thick oak-slab floors were properly sanded.
The great kitchen fireplace, with its yawning cavern where
the great kettles and little kettles swung from cranes, was
the center of the family life. Here the townsfolk had their
neighborly gossip and wines of evenings, and here the occa-
sional dropper-in among the older men had his pipe of
tobacco. Rough woolen suits, worsted stockings, broad-
brimmed fur or felt hats, low shoes and buckles, and great
capes, were the usual garments, except on gala occasions,
of the men. The women of the little village kept Captain
Browne busy picking out fans, and thimbles, and silver
chains, and rings and lockets for them in the Boston market.
But neither the men nor the women appear to have bought
many books. Bibles and hornbooks were brought on in
plenty, some of them "painted" (with rough-colored pic-
tures) . And primers come for the children. But of
general literature, as was the case a generation earlier, there
appears to have been a great dearth in Captain Browne's
accounts. John Flavel's "Husbandry Spiritualized" (a
famous English Presbyterian book of the day) is imported
by one trader; an old salt ventures to invest in "The
Mariner's Compass"; the "Wit's Cabinet, a Companion
for Gentlemen and Ladies," a highly moral compilation
(containing much useful information on palmistry and
392 The Beginnings of Yale
dreams), appear among the items; some "Latin books" are
bought by Samuel Mix, probably for his boy of eleven; a
copy of Bunyan's immortal book is ordered, and "The
Experienced Secretary."
If the literary taste of New Haven from 1707 to
1716, the period covered by Captain Browne's entries,
is to be judged by them, I imagine that very little may be
said for it. But Connecticut folk generally, as we have seen,
were not readers, and, besides the Scriptures, their psalm
books and occasional copies of "sarmons" published by the
great men of the Boston pulpits and now and then of
London, about define their intellectual efforts. It was left
to the ministers in charge of the new College, and to the
ambitious scholars under them, to undertake the more
exalted flights in the ancient languages and the Scriptural
commentaries that comprised the cultivated provincial's
education of the day.
Captain Browne's Boston purchases of Bibles, catechisms,
and hornbooks for his New Haven patrons, was, I fancy,
more significant of the church situation in the Colony at this
time than might appear on the surface of things.
For, in spite of Cotton Mather's flowery introduction of
the Connecticut folk to Governor Yale, the religious condi-
tion among them was again at that low ebb which was the
case when James Pierpont was called to John Davenport's
pulpit. We have seen how General Assembly and Town
Court orders had been passed to stem this religious decline
in Pierpont's day, and how the Collegiate School had been
projected by Pierpont for the same general purpose as well
as for other reasons. We have seen how that School had
been given a Congregational creed in the Saybrook Plat-
form, through Pierpont's influence, and how that Platform
had been expected to bring order out of chaos in the inter-
relations of the churches. All of these enterprises had
The New Haven of Timothy Cutler 393
formed themselves about the common desire of the ministers
and lay leaders of the Colony, to hold Connecticut steadfast
to the traditional theology and the stern morals that were
disappearing in Massachusetts.
But matters had not turned out that way. The disturbing
conditions of Queen Anne's War had reacted on the reli-
gious state of the people, and had brought it, by 1714, in
spite of the Saybrook Platform, to so low a pass that
legislative action had again been necessary. And so, in that
year, the Assembly had requested the Colony ministers to
report on the religious situation among their congregations.
The receipt of a lugubriously gloomy reply had resulted, the
next year, in a blanket act by the Assembly, "for the pre-
venting of such decays in religion." This Act had again
demanded the strict enforcement of the old and neglected
laws regarding primary education, for the "better observa-
tion" of the Sabbath, and against "lying," "swearing,"
"tippling and drunkenness." And it emphatically ordered
that the various town officers should "make diligent inquiry
of all householders, how they are stored with bibles." If
"any such householder be found without one bible," pro-
ceeded this statute, "then the selectman shall warn the said
householder forthwith to procure one," to the end that "all
families be furnished with a suitable number of orthodox
catechisms, and other good books of practical godliness,"
with special reference to their preparation of their readers
for "that great duty, the Lord's supper."
So, just before the Saybrook Collegiate School had be-
come Yale College at New Haven, we find that there had
been a Colony-wide effort on the part of the ministers and
legislators to bring the religious state of the people back
to that orthodoxy from which Massachusetts was rapidly
slipping and to the stern moral conduct of their forefathers,
394 The Beginnings of Yale
and that Bibles and catechisms and hornbooks for the
children had been purchased in numbers.
Nor had this effort to regain the religious plane of an
earlier day stopped there. One of the chief reasons for the
continued attention by the Assembly during these years to
^ e a ^ a ^ rs f tne Collegiate
School had been that upon that
institution the Colony leaders had
based their chief hopes for a new generation of orthodox
religious leaders, both in the pulpit and public life. I do not
doubt that Governor Saltonstall, who was one of the most
vigorously devout men of the day, had interested himself in
the School's affairs very largely for this reason. As we have
seen, though not a Trustee, he had even been willing to
assume the mantle of James Pierpont's constructive leader-
ship of it. He had succeeded in this. The new Yale College
hall now stood in all its cerulean glory among the ancient
trees across the lane from the Market-place upper corner.
All of the formerly divided groups of scholars were housed
in it. He had used his official authority to bring over the
Saybrook books. The Rev. Timothy Cutler, young and
ambitious, and renowned for his scholarship and his preach-
ing, had finally been chosen by the Trustees for its Rector.
Governor Saltonstall no doubt believed that his leadership
in the affairs of Yale College had finally brought forth the
dawn of a new day. And the Trustees of that college, com-
fortable in their thoughts of the reestablished school under
Rector Cutler, may well have had the same hopefulness, and
have proceeded again to attend to their congregations'
spiritual needs without worry over the School for the first
time in the history of their ambitious undertaking. To
them, the great London book collection now properly set
forth upon the shelves of the new Yale Library was to be
the start of a new intellectual interest in the orthodox
The New Haven of Timothy Cutler 395
support of 'their own devoutly-accepted Calvinism. Yale
College, under Timothy Cutler, was to become, in truth, to
the Connecticut of the i8th Century, what Harvard College
had been to New England in the
CHAPTER XI
THE RESULT OF THE BOOKS
I
UT as often happens in this world of
ours, things do not always turn out as
we have planned. Though affairs,
religiously speaking, settled down into
more or less the old channel a few
years later, a flurry now came on which
must have astonished the good Con-
gregational Trustees of the now re-
established College and produced a great commotion
generally.
Curiously enough, this flurry was the direct result of the
receipt of Jeremiah Dummer's great English library, now
stored in the new College hall.
These books had now been in the possession of the Col-
lege for six years. Yet they had hardly been opened, so
aloof from the currents of the modern intellectual world
that was growing up in England were the Connecticut
leaders of this day. And this is a curious thing. For among
the Dummer books were the published products of the most
progressive thinking of the times, at least so far as con-
cerned theology and science, the two all-embracing intel-
lectual interests of the period. Stored in a remote house in
Saybrook, there had been no effort to make use of them until
the Trustees had happened to think of them and request
their removal to New Haven. They had been received, and
shelved, and that had been the end of them. According to
The Result of the Books 397
Tutor Johnson, they had become as if they were not, to the
Colony generally and to the College in particular. The
black-gowned ministers in charge of them had doubtless
viewed with pride their imposing array on the Saybrook
parsonage's bookshelves. With a gratified knowledge that
the great Calvinistic authorities were well represented, the
Trustees had passed over the light frivolities of Dick Steele,
the ponderous volumes of current English Episcopalian
theology, and the unintelligible tomes of the hardly known
Isaac Newton, and had returned to their own small collec-
tions of Latin commentaries and mediaeval Calvinistic
writers, quite satisfied about them.
But, as it had happened, a small group of students and
young graduates had undertaken a somewhat surreptitious
examination of these books that the Trustees did not bother
over. These students were Jared Eliot, 1706, now settled
at Killingworth ; John Hart, 1703, of East Guilford;
Samuel Whittlesey, 1705, of Wallingford; James Wetmore,
of North Haven, Daniel Browne and Samuel Johnson, the
two Yale College Tutors, all three of the Class of 1714.
Going over to Saybrook to read the books, and then to the
new College library in New Haven, this little group of
men, all Congregational ministers, were to find them-
selves, shortly after 1720,
arriving at an intellectual /f x "' N v ^P *^X_
and religious point to which \/GWt* C/ttO f 'ZC -^
it had hardly been expected
by the devout Trustees that the books would bring anybody.
It will serve our purpose best to follow what now occurred
in the case of Tutor Johnson, who has left us the only
account we have of what happened.
We have some time since found this young gentleman
studying some of these volumes privately in his lodgings.
Poring over them under his flickering candle of evenings
398 The Beginnings of Yale
after his college day's labors were over, young Johnson
seems to have immersed himself in the study of them.
Circumscribed, as he had been, by the limits of the education
meted out to the Collegiate School youths at Saybrook,
this young scholar was now making up for lost time with a
vengeance. He had, so he says, been graduated from Say-
brook with a very large conceit of his intellectual attain-
ments. He had drawn up an elaborate system "of all the
parts of learning within his reach," and considered himself
a learned man. But his first plunge into Sir Isaac Newton
had shattered this high opinion of himself, and, with an
intellectual energy that came from the needs of his starved
mind, he had reconstructed his notions of the universe
and therefore his theology. He seemed to himself, imme-
diately this great horizon dawned upon him, "suddenly
emerging out of the glimmer of twilight into the full sun-
shine of open day."
Something of the same sort had now happened to John-
son's classmate, Daniel Browne. When the two friends
were brought together as the first Yale College Tutors,
they threw themselves enthusiastically into the new learning.
To the old hidebound Collegiate School curriculum of Dr.
Ames and the classics and Rector Pierson's primitive
"Physicks," they now added lectures to the Seniors in Locke
and Newton, with the books of these new philosophers on
their tables to read from. "Till now," writes Johnson's
biographer, "the Ptolemaic system of the world was as
strongly believed as the holy scriptures; but they soon were
able to overthrow it, and to establish on its ruins the doc-
trines of Copernicus." For some reason or other, the rever-
end Trustees appear not to have realized this tremendous
departure from their School's teachings. If they did, they
overlooked it as harmless. But the students received the
new learning with alacrity and in one signal instance, at
The Result of the Books 399
least (in Jonathan Edwards' case), it was to produce im-
portant results for an even wider audience than New Haven.
II
And there was another element in the situation that was
now forming at the College among this group of young
Congregational ministers. We have seen how Samuel
Johnson, reading a chance English prayer book at his home
in Guilford as a young boy, had come to feel sympathetic
toward the Church of England ritual and discipline. Timo-
thy Cutler, arriving at Stratford in 1709, had found several
of the leaders in that town leaning toward the Church of
England, as the result of the founding of an Episcopal
Church there by the missionary Muirson. From later
developments, it would appear that Cutler felt himself
moving in that heretical direction as time passed, and that
the opportunity to leave the Congregational pulpit that the
Yale College Rectorship offered him, as well as to read the
Dummer books, had something to do with his acceptance.
However that may be, these young men (now, with Daniel
Browne, the three resident heads of Yale College) were by
1720, at the latest, experiencing the first throes of a seismic
intellectual revulsion from the traditional Calvinism of the
institution, and of the Connecticut Colony itself, and dimly
foreseeing a change of heart toward the Church of England.
I suppose that this change was an extremely important
personal matter for that early day in the i8th Century. If
it came about very gradually among this small group of
scholars, it is certainly true that it resulted, to a very large
extent, from their reading of the contemporaneous English
divines whose heretical books the Trustees had unwittingly
placed on the College library shelves. Little did the con-
tented Trustees, attending to their own flocks' Calvinistic
400 The Beginnings of Yale
orthodoxy, remote from New Haven, know of this surrepti-
tious proceeding. Into their Garden of Eden, planted with
sound Calvinistic vegetation for the orthodox consumption
of their Rector and Tutors, the serpent of the Church of
England had appeared, and was tempting their Adam to eat
of the Tree of Knowledge. Jeremiah Dummer's report
of old Governor Yale's offhand notion that a little more
learning might bring Puritan Connecticut into the fold of
that mother Church which his own career had so adorned,
was not so far from a possibility as it might have seemed to
the Trustees on hearing of it. And Dummer had lost no
chance to plant that tree. The long-winded Barrow, Bishop
Patrick, the rather bigoted Dr. Robert South, Bishop Sharp,
Dean Sherlock of St. Paul's, Whitby the Arminian, and
Archbishop Tillotson, the great English Churchmen of the
decade just passed, were all on the shelves in the new
College hall, and their heretical doctrines open to him who
ran. And, as this small group of Congregational ministers
read them, their Congregationalism gradually slipped off,
and Episcopal robes fell upon their shoulders.
HI
The beginnings of Episcopacy in Connecticut had been
made some eighteen years before this time, when, as we
have seen, the London Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel In Foreign Parts had been chartered by William and
Mary, and an American missionary sent over in the person
of George Keith, the former Quaker. Keith had found
the Connecticut of that time a unanimously "dissenting"
community. Israel Chauncy's little town of Stratford, how-
ever, shortly afterwards had an Episcopal group, and, when
the New York Church of England leaders sent one Colonel
Heathcote in 1706 on a missionary journey along Long
The Result of the Books 401
Island Sound, he had found a hospitable welcome there
among them. The orthodox Congregational people, how-
ever, fought off further Episcopal efforts. Matters came to
such a climax that a staunch deacon of the Stratford council
stood out in the public highway and forbade entrance to the
Episcopal services, threatening all who went with fines of
five pounds. The natural result of such opposition as this
was a wave of Church of England interest all through Fair-
field County. The immediate successor to old Mr. Chauncy
had gone over to the Church. He had been dismissed and
young Timothy Cutler, fresh from Boston and highly rec-
ommended by the Boston orthodox ministers for his
abilities, had been called to that pulpit. In the meantime
the Assembly had passed their Act of Toleration, after
having tied down the Colony to the Congregational creed
and loosely organized the churches in the Saybrook Plat-
form. From that moment Episcopacy advanced steadily
and unobtrusively throughout the coast towns, until its
famous irruption took place in the very center of the Colony
College itself that had been founded for the purpose of
carrying on the traditional Congregationalism.
For the result of the private reading of the Dummer
books by the small group of Collegiate School graduates
whom I have mentioned, had been a revulsion of sentiment
among them against the old theology and church organiza-
tion and toward the ancient Church of England. The new
Rector had joined this group and become its leader. But
the change on their part was gradual. Rector Cutler,
preaching to the General Assembly in October, 1719, was
at that time so far from his final opinions that his sermons
pleased the most conservative of the Colony leaders and
received the unusual compliment of printing. It was through
his suggestion, probably, that the Yale College scholars were
given regular sittings in the New Haven Meeting-house,
402 The Beginnings of Yale
where they occupied "the northeast half of the fore gallery"
and annually paid a shilling apiece to hear the Rev. Joseph
Noyes preach. 1 Throughout the next two years there was
no indication, so far as the public and the Trustees knew,
of any coming difficulties. But these were brewing.
Tutor Samuel Johnson had resigned his office at the close
of Rector Cutler's first year to become the minister of the
West Haven Congregational Church. His diary shows
that he had scruples over the method of ordination which
he received, but that he accepted the situation, near-Epis-
copalian as he was. His classmate, James Wetmore, had
a year before become the North Haven minister. He, also,
had shown a disposition not to fall in with the Saybrook
Platform method of ordination, and he appears not to have
been ordained in the now customary Congregational way.
The coming storm was thus rising. And we find, from
Samuel Johnson's manuscript account of these days, that
this was due to the following circumstances, of which a hint
or two may have been given above. As the small group of
readers of the new books had discussed them from time to
time, the impression had been growing on them that there
was but little resemblance to the Primitive Church in Con-
necticut Congregationalism. The more they read in the
English divines that Dummer had seen to it were included
in the College library, the more these young Congrega-
tionalists found themselves losing faith in the theology and
church methods of their older contemporaries. When they
had arrived at this disturbing state of mind (for it should
be realized how serious a matter it was in those days for
established young Congregational ministers, with their
1 This practice was maintained until the controversy between the two
Congregational factions in the "Great Awakening" resulted in Rector
Clap's establishment of a separate Yale College Church, which has con-
tinued to the present day.
The Result of the Books 403
careers before them, to change their church views) they seem
to have set about a rigid reexamination of the entire subject.
Gurdon Saltonstall, when a young man, had pursued this
same course and come out a "rigid" Calvinist. But John-
son, Cutler, Wetmore, and Browne, with their friends Hart,
Eliot, and Whittlesey to a lesser degree, went through the
process and came out Episcopalians. They reread the tra-
ditional Calvinists, such as Hoadly and Calamy, and
they then reread King's "Inquiry" and Slater's "Original
Draught," and Potter's "Church Government," all in the
College library. And Samuel Johnson as a kind of commit-
tee of one restudied the early Church fathers in the original
tongues and reported his results. The upshot of this intel-
lectual upheaval was the definite opinion on the part of these
young men that the Episcopal Church was the lineal de-
scendant of the Apostles, that the priesthood could only
come down through the Bishops and head of the Church,
and that ordination was unlawful unless given by "a Bishop
at the head of the Presbytery." Shortly after this great de-
cision, young Johnson rode over to Stratford, where one
George Pigot had been settled as the Episcopal clergyman,
talked matters over with him and invited him to meet him
and his friends in the College library at New Haven. The
group which we have named met Pigot there, and listened to
his arguments for Episcopacy. While doing no more than
declaring their keen interest in his statements, they let him
understand (as would appear from the report that Pigot at
once sent to England) that they were prepared to be or-
dained in that Church as soon as they could find that "they
will be supported at home."
IV
This was sometime in June, 1722. The news of it must
have leaked out, for rumors at once began to spread that
404 The Beginnings of Yale
there were heretical tendencies cropping out in the new Yale
College. One Joseph Morgan, traveling through the
Colony, hurriedly wrote to Cotton Mather about it, report-
ing that "Arminian books are cried up in Yale College for
eloquence and learning, and Calvinism despised for the
contrary; and none have the courage to see it redressed."
Samuel Johnson had by this time become famous for the
eloquence with which he conducted the little Congrega-
tional church services in West Haven. So famous had be-
come his prayers that large numbers of devout Congrega-
tionalists were attending his Sabbath-day meetings to hear
them. It is a bit amusing to read in Johnson's own account
of these days that these prayers were not his own, and
extemporaneous as was the custom of the day, but were
taken from the Church of England ritual.
The rumors which had been flying about concerning the
orthodoxy of the College heads must have come to the
attention of the Trustees at about this time, as to Governor
Saltonstall. Added to the local talk there had come a report
from Boston that a money collection was going forward
there to build a Church of England house of worship, and
that Rector Cutler was expected to be its first clergyman.
The Trustees must have been worried, and that worry must
have been brought to a head when, closing his Commence-
ment prayer that September, Rector Cutler boldly ended
with the well-known Episcopal supplication, "And let all
the people say, Amen."
Immediately after this ceremony, the Trustees met in the
College library.
That they were mystified and astounded by the reports
and by Rector Cutler's astonishing departure from tradition
goes without saying. And their agitation could hardly have
been diminished by the number of people who, it is said, had
come to New Haven for the occasion "expecting some
The Result of the Books 405
strange occurrences." This meeting of the Trustees had
been asked, it seems, by Rector Cutler and Tutor Browne,
and the others in the group of men who had been coming
around to the Episcopalian viewpoint. Rector Cutler intro-
duced Johnson and Browne, Wetmore, Hart, Eliot, and
Whittlesey to the Trustees and to the large number of
Colony ministers who also crowded into the room. The
question was at once propounded by these young men, led
by Cutler and Johnson, whether the Connecticut method of
ordination was a lawful one, and the announcement made
that all of them were considering the matter of going over
to the Church of England. The astonished Trustees ques-
tioned each of the group in turn as to their views on this
suddenly-proposed proceeding, and, instead of accepting the
situation (as possibly the applicants had hoped), "expressed
the utmost grief and concern." The declaration of views
of the young heretics was demanded in writing. This was
promptly given, all signing it. The Trustees ordered a
special meeting for a month later, gave the young men the
opportunity in the meanwhile to change their opinions, and
adjourned the meeting, no doubt in the midst of the greatest
excitement that they and the Congregational ministers of the
Colony present had ever experienced.
Events now came on with a rush.
It is a famous story how Governor Saltonstall, unwilling
to believe that a proper statement of the Calvinistic prin-
ciples to the seceding young ministers would not land them,
as it had landed him, on the traditional side, did not wait
for this adjourned Trustees' meeting, but called a public
debate, with himself as moderator, at which the difficulty
could be threshed out; how, at this debate, held in the Col-
lege library on October 16, Rector Cutler, Johnson, and
Wetmore led the argument for the Church of England, and
how the Trustees, floundering in unknown waters, were quite
The Result of the Books 407
unable to meet the standard Episcopal arguments regarding
Timothy's "evident superintendency of the clergy" at
Ephesus, "of the Angels in the seven churches of Asia,"
etc. Faced by Samuel Johnson's glib knowledge of all the
arguments of the great English divines in the books stacked
on the library shelves about them, the astounded Trustees
could not meet him at all in his statements that "they must
either receive Episcopacy or reject infant baptism and the
first day sabbath." It would appear that all the unfortu-
nately-ignorant Trustees could do, met as they were by the
words out of the very books they had so unwittingly placed
on the College shelves, was to lose their tempers. This they
promptly did, no doubt the fiery and orthodox John Daven-
port leading in the fray. Nothing but "mere rhetorical
declamation" coming from the confused Trustees, and "irri-
tating remarks" (which probably young Johnson replied to
as heatedly), Governor Saltonstall had to close <-he debate,
with none of the satisfactory results he had hoped from it.
And now the fat was in the fire. The Collegiate School
had been founded to be a bulwark against Satan, "wherein
youth may be instructed in the arts and sciences, who through
the blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for public em-
ployment both in church and civil state." It had been, in
Cotton Mather's phrases to Elihu Yale, "the seminary from
whence they expect the supply of all their synagogues." It
had been founded to bring up the oncoming generations of
Connecticut youths in the traditional Calvinistic orthodoxy
, of the settlers. And now, its Rectcr and chief Tutor had
been found to be Episcopalians, and undoubtedly to have
been teaching the principles of that ancient heresy to the
Colony youth, abetted by a group of its most distinguished
recent graduates in the neighboring pulpits. Connecticut
orthodoxy had escaped the Scylla of Harvard Latitudi-
narianism only to crash upon the Charybdis of Episcopacy.
408 The Beginnings of Yale
V
How the Trustees took this situation may well be
imagined. As President Woolsey later said, "I suppose that
greater alarm would scarcely be awakened now if the Theo-
logical Faculty of the College were to declare for the
Church of Rome, avow their belief in Transubstantiation
and pray to the Virgin Mary."
The incident was followed by a small avalanche of letters
from the Trustees to their old Boston friends who had sup-
ported them in the founding of the Collegiate School.
Joseph Webb, of Fairfield, describing how prominent men
had become involved in the affair, wrote to Cotton Mather:
"It is a very dark day with us; and we need pity, prayer,
and counsel." John Davenport and Stephen Buckingham
wrote to their Boston friends of the "dark Providence"
hanging over Connecticut. It had been a glorious past that
the Colony College had had, they said in this joint epistle.
"But who could have conjectured that its name, being raised
to Collegian Yalense from a Gymnasium Saybrookense, it
should groan out Ichabod, in about three years and a half
under its second rector so unlike the first, by an unhappy
election, set over it." "In that Rectors election or confirma-
tion or any act relating to him the senior subscriber hereof
. . . never came," devoutly thanks John Davenport. And
"how our fountain, hoped to have been and continued the
repository of truth and reserve of pure and sound principles,
doctrine, and education shows itself in so little a time so
corrupt." Old Moses Noyes, writing later to Judge Sewall,
puts the case of the astonished orthodox Trustees even more
strongly to that original framer of its charter. It had all
happened because no leader had followed James Pierpont,
thinks Noyes (in which he was doubtless right), and now
the simple Colony College, which never should have been set
up at a metropolis like New Haven, where troubles of this
The Result of the Books 409
sort were likely to occur, was in a bad way. "It was an
awful stroke of Providence," writes the aged minister at
Lyme, u in taking away Mr. Pierpont, . . . and it is much
more afflictive because our young men are feared to be
infected with Arminian and Prelatical notions. So that it
is difficult to supply his place. It was a wrong step, when
the Trustees, by the assistance of great men [here a fine
rap at Governor Saltonstall] removed the College at Say-
brook, and a worse, when they put in Mr. Cutler for Rector.
The first movers for a College in Connecticut alledged this
as a reason, because the College at Cambridge was under
the Tutorage of Latitudinarians; but how well they have
mended the event sadly manifests. But God is only wise,
and will produce glory to his name out of the weaknesses
and follies of men."
Holding these views, the action of the Trustees was
prompt and did not wait for the scheduled adjourned
meeting.
The day after the great public debate, they "excused"
Rector Cutler "from all further service as Rector of Yale-
College," accepted Tutor Browne's resignation, voted that
all future Rectors and Tutors should accept the Saybrook
Confession, and "particularly give satisfaction of the sound-
ness of their faith in opposition to Arminian and prelatical
corruptions or any other of dangerous consequences to the
purity and peace of our churches," and elected two new
Tutors, James Pierpont, the son of the former Collegiate
School leader and a graduate of 1718, and William Smith,
of 1719, both "staunch Calvinists" of the orthodox type.
Rector Cutler, Tutor Browne, and Tutor Samuel John-
son had alone stood the public test of their new faith before
Governor Saltonstall, though Reverend Wetmore was to
join them afterwards. Rev. John Hart of East Guilford
meekly returned to the Congregational fold, and was to
4io The Beginnings of Yale
finish out his short life there, in good standing in the Colony
churches. Samuel Whittlesey went back, chastened in spirit,
to his Wallingford congregation, repentant of his close
approach to apostasy, to live a useful life as a good Congre-
gational minister, and publish a number of orthodox ser-
mons of no particular consequence thereafter. Jared Eliot
of Killingworth was to become, as we have seen, "the first
physician of his day," and a scientific man of international
reputation.
Rector Cutler, Samuel Johnson, Daniel Browne, and
James Wetmore, however, went over to the Church of
England.
Samuel Johnson made some effort to have his West
Haven congregation go over with him to the Church, but
without success. On November 5, he sailed from Boston
with Timothy Cutler and Daniel Browne for London, where
he received degrees at Oxford and Cambridge, and was
appointed an Episcopal missionary. Returning to Connecti-
cut on that errand, he became the first settled Episcopal
clergyman in the Colony, came to know that charmingly-
visionary Bishop Berkeley of Rhode Island and was the
cause of that eminent clergyman's great gift to Yale (in
the curious belief that that College might become Episco-
palian). Johnson afterwards was elected the first President
of King's (later Columbia) College at New York, and later
in life returned to Stratford, where he died in his seventy-
sixth year, one of the most noted scholars of his day, its lead-
ing American Episcopalian, and one of its best citizens.
As for the other two heretics, Daniel Browne fell sick
from smallpox on his journey to England and died there,
while Rector Cutler was properly ordained in the Church of
England, and returned to New
England, settling at Boston,
where he lived a long life as
The Result of the Books 411
Rector of Christ Church, embroiled in a steady series of
difficulties with Harvard and the Congregational churches
of the town.
There has been a tradition that this defection of Timothy
Cutler and his friends was but a part of a much broader
movement to turn Connecticut into a Church of England
community. Such a scheme, so the story goes, had been
broached among several "gentlemen of considerable char-
acter among the clergy." Awaiting the outcome of the
Cutler- Johnson secession, these plotters had made "no open
profession," and now, when the College had promptly
stamped it out and "they saw that the people would not
hear them, but dismissed them from their service, they were
glad to conceal their former purposes and to continue in
their respective places." But I imagine that this rather
inglorious story was hardly within the facts. The Episco-
palian flurry of 1722 was a personal matter with the small
group of students of the new College books, and had no
Colony-wide importance. A handful of Connecticut Con-
gregational ministers, indeed, became Church of England
clergymen, one of them the Rev. Samuel Seabury, father
of the future Episcopal Bishop of that name and Yale
graduate of 1748, but this was a number of years later.
While the episode is not exactly within the limits of these
chronicles of Yale's beginnings, the Church of England
upheaval in the College in 1722 had a little later develop-
ment, brief reference to which in this place will serve to
tie up the threads of the famous Cutler affair. When ibe
first Episcopal Church was established in New Haven in
1750, there was a great local to-do. President Clap took
drastic action. Two Yale students, sons of the minister,
were refused permission to attend their father's Church
services. Samuel Johnson, then President of the "intended
College at New York," took up the gauntlet for the Episco-
412 The Beginnings of Yale
palian students of his old Connecticut Colony. Writing a
long letter to President Clap of Yale, and thanking him for
his congratulations upon his own election to King's College,
this first Connecticut Church of England leader agreed "to
hold a good correspondence not only as Colleges but as
Christians," providing the New Haven people would "act
on the same equitable, catholic, and Christian principles as
we unanimously propose to act upon," by which he meant
that Yale College should be free to Episcopalians. "I am
prodigiously mistaken," writes Johnson, "if you did not
tell me it was an allowed and settled rule with you hereto-
fore." Whereupon Yale's old Tutor proceeds to attack
Yale College for excluding "the people of the Church be-
longing to this Colony from having the benefit of Public
education in your College." "Your argument," he writes,
"that it is inconsistent with the original design of the
founders, which was only to provide ministers for your
churches," is untenable. Among the "founders," says John-
son, must be included "the principal benefactors." And he
mentions "Mr. Yale," well known to have been a famous
Church of England pillar, and Bishop Berkeley, whose
purpose he understood to be a "catholic" one in giving his
great donation. This Johnson himself had secured, though
"You," he says to President Clap, "did not think fit to do
me this justice in your History of the College, though
humbly suggested." Yale College should not be restricted
to Congregationalists. "For God's sake," writes the Presi-
dent of King's College to the President of Yale, "do not
be so severe to carry matters to this pass." But President
Clap was obdurate. A separate College church was estab-
lished, and the College laws against attending outside ser-
vices were rigidly enforced. It was not until a century more
had passed that Episcopalian students of Yale were allowed
full liberty to attend their own Church services.
ffufor
[yonainan
CHAPTER XII
THE END OF AN ERA
I
HE Episcopalian irruption having
quieted down, and Yale College again
under theologically-trustworthy Tutors,
the Trustees proceeded again to make
a new start.
We will recall that the Colony
General Assembly, in the Charter of
1701, had not incorporated the Colle-
giate School, partly because it questioned its power to do
so. Even if the Assembly had felt that it had such a power,
it would not have exercised it. The general inclination of
the Colony leaders was to keep out of sight so far as Old
414 The Beginnings of Yale
England was concerned, and to enjoy the privileges they
had plucked from the burning and which less fortunate
Massachusetts had been deprived of. But the terms of
that original document had been ambiguous in language
in some places and troublesome in practice in others.
Not being incorporated, the Trustees had all along been
looked upon by the legislators as mere trustees or "partners"
in a private enterprise of general Colony interest. This had
been productive of a continued paternal interference on the
part of the General Assembly. It had resulted in the acts
of the Trustees becoming matters for public revision. As
the votes of mere private trustees, these acts had been con-
sidered illegal (properly, so we are told on good modern
legal authority) , unless they were unanimously voted.
We have seen how this legal situation had been a
stumbling-block in the settlement of the Collegiate School
site, concerning which there had at no time been unanimous
action. The Trustees had found it necessary to sign in a
body all of the minutes of each meeting. If any of the
Trustees were absent from a meeting, it had been considered
necessary to send around that paper for their signatures.
A Trustee, apparently, could not resign. Nor could an
inactive Trustee be succeeded by a more helpful one. The
result of this had been that the College had been saddled
all these years with old Samuel Mather of Windsor, sick
abed, at no time in touch with affairs, apparently not the
least interested, of failing mind in his old age, and never
at any meeting.
At this juncture Governor Saltonstall was again called to
the College's aid. An "Act in explanation of the Addition
to the Act for erecting a Collegiate School," was drawn up
by him to meet these troubles and passed by the Assembly.
It provided that a Trustee might resign or be succeeded by
another if incapacitated; that seven of the Trustees should
The End of an Era 415
constitute a quorum, and that thirty years instead of forty
was to be the minimum age for a Trustee thereafter. The
Rector, who legally had previously been but a servant of
the Trustees (though Pierson and Andrew had been original
members of the board) , was now made a Trustee ex officio.
Armed with this new power, old Samuel Mather was
promptly ousted from his place, and the Trustees began
proceedings to find some proper minister who would accept
the Reverend Cutler's vacant Rectorship. No eligible man
appeared on the horizon, however, and for the next four
years the College continued without a permanent head,
Samuel Andrew again officiating at Commencements, though
apparently not with his former title pro tern.
II
Just how the College managed, in those four years, to
get along as an educational institution, does not clearly
appear from the ancient records. Young Pierpont and
Smith continued as the only two resident officers until 1724,
when their places were taken by Robert Treat, of Milford,
grandson of old Governor Treat of Andros' times, and by
Jonathan Edwards, both of them well-known subscribers to
the Saybrook Confession.
This latter young scholar, the most brilliant Yale College
graduate of his time and in due course to become the most
distinguished name in the intellectual life of his generation,
had remained in New Haven for two years after his
graduation in 1720, studying theology under the Rev. Mr.
Noyes and by himself. He had then preached for a while
to a dissenting Presbyterian congregation in New York, and
had then returned to his father's house near Elisha Williams'
farm in Wethersfield for further private study. For a year
he had occupied various pulpits about the Colony, and
416 The Beginnings of Yale
refused the ministry at North Haven left vacant by James
Wetmore's apostasy to the Church of England. Accepting
the senior Tutorship at Yale College in May, 1724, young
Edwards occupied the place for the next two years, when
he began that long career at Northampton which is one of
the great chapters in American theological history.
During Jonathan Edwards' two years as Tutor at Yale
College, the conditions were such that practically the entire
responsibility rested upon his shoulders alone. And I fancy
that if he had not been just the type of man he was,
tremendously energetic intellectually (he was accustomed,
later, to spend thirteen hours a day "in close study"),
astonishingly brilliant and as astonishingly capable, the
affairs of Cotton Mather's "dear infant" would have gone
wry indeed. But he happened to be that kind of man, and,
somehow or other, without a permanent and older head,
the Trustees merely taking turns as visitors, the Yale
College of 1724-1726 not only jogged along under his
direction, but very decidedly prospered. When Jonathan
Edwards' career as senior Yale Tutor was over, some sixty
youths had become scholars at the institution.
New England's future theologian, however, did not
altogether relish his routine labors as the spiritual head and
fountain of knowledge for this large flock. 1 He was in the
first phase of that intellectual development which later was
to make him famous. He had, as we have seen, had much
the same experience in reading the Dummer books as
Samuel Johnson, though with opposite results. Reading
Locke's "Human Understanding," in the College library,
we are told he had found "a far higher pleasure in the
perusal of its pages, than the most greedy miser finds, when
1 Anson Phelps Stokes has gathered what is known of Edwards' Yale
career in a chapter of his "Memorials of Eminent Yale Men," published
by the Yale University Press in 1914.
The End of an Era 417
gathering up handfuls of silver and gold, from some newly
discovered treasure." Already a thinker and incipient
philosopher, Jonathan A
Edwards appears to fr?i>&rt>4t*~i i .
have found his life
among the Yale students somewhat irksome. He writes
in his journal, June 6, 1724, at the end of his first week as
Tutor: "This Week has been a remarkable Week with me
with Respect to Despondencies, Fears, Perplexities, Multi-
tudes of Cares and Distractions of Mind; being the Week
I came hither to New-Haven, in order to entrance upon the
Office of Tutor of the College. I have now abundant Rea-
son to be convinced of the Troublesomeness and Vexation
of the World, and that it never will be another Kind of
World."
We have some interesting records of the life of these
youths under Sir Edwards. That it was a period of strong
religious fervor for the most of them, would have been true,
doubtless, had not a Jonathan Edwards been their senior
Tutor. It was just before the first warnings of the coming
great revival, in which the Yale College students were to be
stirred up by a fellow scholar, a religious enthusiast named
David Ferris, and which was to be led by Jonathan
Edwards himself. The pendulum, that had swung toward
irreligion for the past fifty years, was swinging back again.
But there were other reasons for this, as well. The Colony
had been visited by a disastrous plague of smallpox only
three years before; the ravages which this had made had
sobered people considerably. And the Trustees themselves
had brought a new religious strength to the institution by
forcing the two previous Tutors publicly to accept the
Colony creed. The life of the College, therefore, was
strongly tinctured by a renewed rallying to the traditional
faith (however religiously inert the Colony folk, generally
4i 8 The Beginnings of Yale
speaking, were). For the first time since Abraham Pier-
son's death, it seems to have again had something of the
religious fervor of those early days in the Killingworth
parsonage.
And so the daily life of the Yale College youths of this
day formed itself about the serious business of their souls'
welfare. There are daily prayers in the dining hall, at
sunrise of mornings and again late in the afternoon. Pri-
vate prayer meetings in the students' rooms are held, as they
were in Samuel Johnson's day, and students mighty at these
functions are looked upon with admiration by the less gifted.
"Secret prayer" is also a rule of the institution itself.
"Every student," so the ancient code reads, "shall exercise
himself in reading Holy Scriptures by himself every day,"
and hold private prayers for "wisdom for himself" in his
room of nights. The leading scholar of the Senior Class,
under Jonathan Edwards' eye, asks the blessing thrice daily
at meals in the common dining hall. On Sabbath days the
whole retinue of students parade, in their scholars' gowns,
out of the yard of the College house, through the high
board fence that we see in Greenwood's drawing of that
building, down the footpath across the Market-place to the
squat Meeting-house, where they tramp up into the gallery,
and listen to Mr. Noyes' none too interesting though ortho-
dox preaching. The highest fine, twenty shillings, for
any college dereliction at this time fell upon the scholar who
found himself in extremis on these occasions and, writhing
on his bed of pain (as has been the frequent happening ever
since), remained away until the flowing gown of the last of
his fellows disappeared within the Meeting-house doors.
Nor could anyone attend any other religious meeting. All
of each Friday and Saturday appears to have been given to a
rigorous preparation for the Sabbath-day services. Wolle-
bius' "Theology," and Ames' "Theses and his Medulla,"
from
Jresiaenfs blouse
420 The Beginnings of Yale
and "the Assembly's Shorter Catechism in Latin" (so the
laws operative at the close of those two years go) were re-
cited on week days, and Dr. Ames' "Cases of Conscience"
on Sundays. The College year began in the middle of
October, and continued to the middle of the following
September, when Commencement was held.
There were some obstreperous youngsters among these
serious-minded scholars, and College Laws (which had to
be copied by all of the Freshmen as soon as they matricu-
lated) were framed to govern them. Jonathan Ashley's
manuscript copy of these, laboriously and fearsomely
scratched down as a Freshman in 1726, gives a good picture
of the student's life of 1726, in addition to what I have
narrated. "Every student shall consider ye main end of
his study to wit to know God in Jesus Christ and answerably
to lead a Godly sober life," sets down this Freshman. "All
Students shall avoid ye profanation of God's Holy name
Attributes word and ordinances and ye Holy Sabbath, and
shall Carefully attend all public assemblies for Divine wor-
ship, and shall avoid all appearances of Contempt and irrev-
erence." There were injunctions against "lying, needless
asseverations, foolish garrulings, Chidings, strifes, railings,
gesting, uncomely noise, spreading ill rumors, Divulging
secrets and all manner of troublesome and offensive be-
havior." In their relations toward their parents, "as also
magistrates, elders, Rector, tutors," they had to keep "Due
silence in their presence and not Disorderly gaynsaying
them."
Judging from these College laws of 1726, the quiet little
village spread about the borders of the new College yard
could have seen but little of the scholars. Sequestered in
their new College hall, where they roomed, dined, studied,
recited, read the Bible, and met at daily prayers, Jonathan
Edwards' youthful charges had little time to look about
The End of an Era 421
them in the town, or make acquaintances. As at Harvard,
and at the English universities on a greater scale, these
young gentlemen were supposed to spend their four years
of college life strictly attending to business and their souls'
salvation, without many vacations or recreation between-
times. They were rigidly kept at work except for a half-
hour at breakfast, an hour and a half u att noon after
Dinner," and "after ye Evening prayer till nine of ye
Clock." As we now look back upon those early Yale days,
the life was very much that of a latter-day country boarding-
school. During the regular College hours each scholar was
expected to "studiously redeem His time," and to observe
"both ye hours Common for ye students to meet in ye hall
and those yt are appointed to his own lectures which he shall
Diligently attend." Except when a student's father came
to town to see how his son was progressing, none of the
College youths were permitted to look in at any of the town
taverns, "victualling house or inn to eat or Drink." Picking
up stray town acquaintances of a "Dissolute" sort was
naturally regulated against, nor were the opportunities
present to make it possible. Even when the great public
holidays on "Training Days" or at General Court elections,
or the "High Days" came around in the none too generous
Colony calendar, the Yale students had to keep their rooms,
unless special permission came from the Tutors "to go a
hunting or fowling." No lights were permitted in the
College rooms after nine at night or "before four in ye
morning."
All of the scholars of this day were called by their sur-
names, "except he be ye son of a noble man or a Knit's
Eldest son." Until President Daggett's time, the students
were listed in the catalogues according to their family
standing, and no doubt received perquisites on that basis.
The curriculum of Jonathan Edwards' period as senior
422 The Beginnings of Yale
Tutor was only a little broader than that with which Abra-
ham Pierson had begun the Collegiate School education at
Killingworth. We have seen how Tutors Johnson and
Browne had introduced something of Newton and Locke in
the upper-class studies. This had been a very great advance,
and Edwards, who drew upon Locke for his own brilliant
philosophy some score of years later, undoubtedly continued
them in his classrooms. So that the Seniors and the post-
graduate students who came back to study theology, doubt-
less had access to the Dummer books and had their eyes
partly opened to the intellectual activities of England.
Rector Pierson's quaint conception of natural laws, and his
undoubted faith in the theory that the sun rolled around the
earth, were hardly taught to this second generation of Yale
students.
Yet much of the antiquated supernatural rubbish of an
earlier scholastic time was still taught, and, indeed, remained
for many a year the conservative teaching of the College.
One Dr. Daniel Turner, Fellow of the Royal Society of
London, for some now unknown reason, had asked for an
honorary degree from Yale in 1723, and had been granted
one, an M. D., the first New England honorary Doctor's
degree after Increase Mather's personally-granted Doctor
of Laws in 1692 at Harvard. In return for this, possibly
in purchase of it, Turner had sent over twenty-eight medi-
cal books (several of them by himself), and these must
have added considerably to the modern character of the
College shelves.
I presume, however, that few of the students read Dr.
Turner's collection or the library books, as perhaps a num-
ber of the Trustees were now quite willing that they
should. The emphasis in the four-years course of this day
was still on theology and that acquaintance with the classics
which would make the original Scriptures and commentaries
The End of an Era 423
intelligible. We have mentioned Benjamin Lord's recollec-
tion of the books that he studied during the Saybrook Colle-
giate School period: "Tully and Vergil"; that ancient Latin
manual of "Burgersdicius" that was in the Cambridge
course of study of that day; Heerebord and "Ramus's
Logick" ; the "Psalms in Hebrew" ; "Ames' Medulla" and
"Cases of Conscience." Homer was not in the list, nor
much "Composition and Language" (of course no modern
tongue), and the mathematics was elementary. Wollebius
and the Assembly's Catechism we have also noted. And we
have seen how "the utmost that was generally attempted
in classical learning was to construe five or six of Tully's
Orations, as many books of Vergil, and part only of the
Greek Testament, with some chapters of the Hebrew
Psalter. Common arithmetic and a little surveying was the
ne plus ultra of mathematical requirements." To under-
stand Newton and Locke, Rector Cutler had added "Al-
sted's Geometry and Gassendus' Astronomy." But, other-
wise, the chief business of the College was as of yore,
and rigidly theological. For the Freshman year there was
logic and elementary Greek and Hebrew (advanced knowl-
edge of Latin being expected) ; in Sophomore year the same ;
Junior year was "principally in Physicks"; and "ye fourth
year in metaphysicks and mathematicks still carrying on ye
former studies." But for all four classes "ye last days of
ye week are allowed perpetually for Rhetorick, oratory
and Divinity and in teaching both tongues, and Arts [what-
ever that was], and such Authors," doubtless from the
Dummer books, "as shall be approved by ye Rector." The
exercise in translating English and Latin and the Hebrew
Testament into Greek "before they begin to Recite ye origi-
nall tongues," was incessant throughout the three upper-
class years. All of the students had to "publickly Repeat
sermons in ye hall," and all had to prepare their "Disputa-
424 The Beginnings of Yale
tions" and to "Declaim" once in six weeks before the others.
Latin was the only language permitted for "schollars in
their Chambers and when they are together," and for all
classroom work except in English itself. This conversa-
tional Latin was probably not very good. Dankers and
Sluyter, visiting the more cultivated Harvard thirty years
before this, had been scandalized by the bad manners and
illiteracy they found there. They went into Harvard Hall
and found ten scholars "smoking tobacco in a room which
smelt like a tavern." They tried Latin on these youths and
were astonished at the sad result. The Yale students of
1726 probably did no better.
For tuition in this Calvinistic stronghold the scholars paid
at this time thirty shillings, and for board in the Commons
four shillings eight pence a week. At Commencement twenty
shillings were collected for the diploma (paid over to the
Rector), and twenty more for the expenses of the Com-
mencement dinner, thus starting a custom which has come
down to the present day.
Ill
Their charter now legally "defined" by the General
Assembly, a set of College laws in force to protect the
scholars from temptations and theological backslidings, an
increased number of scholars in attendance and the Rector's
house ready, the Trustees now made a final effort to find a
proper person for the permanent Rectorship.
This position had been offered to Timothy Woodbridge
immediately after the Cutler fiasco, probably in a final
attempt to smooth over the Hartford dissension. But he
had declined, though he officiated at the next Commencement
as the presiding officer. During the four years that had
since passed, it would appear that no Rector pro tern (as
The End of an Era 425
had been the case after Pierson's death) had been appointed.
Young Jonathan Edwards seems to have managed so well
that there was no need for one, though old Samuel Andrew
of Milford again acted in the office at the Commencements
in the College hall and Meeting-house.
Edwards, however, was now considering a call to the
Northampton Meeting-house and the necessity for a decision
was thus forced upon the rather inactive Trustees. Several
efforts to this end, to be sure, had been made before this
time, but without success. One Nathaniel Williams, a Har-
vard graduate of 1693, and for the last fourteen years
master of the Boston Grammar School, had declined it.
The Rev. Eliphalet Adams, Harvard 1694, now the suc-
cessor of Gurdon Saltonstall at the New London church,
and just elected a Trustee, was approached; he was willing
enough, but his congregation refused to dismiss him. A
unanimous election had then, in 1724, been offered to the
Rev. Edward Wigglesworth, Harvard 1710, Professor of
Divinity at Harvard, but he had refused. As a substitute
for him the Trustees had elected the young William Russell
of Middletown, the son of little old Noadiah Russell of
almanac fame, and, as we have seen, a former Tutor. At
that same meeting, it was the one when Jonathan Edwards
had been appointed Senior Tutor, it had been voted to
call Elisha Williams in case Russell did not want it. Russell
declined and Elisha Williams was formally elected the Yale
College Rector, September 29, 1725.
We have followed this enterprising young gentleman
through his days as the head of the rival Collegiate School
at his Wethersfield farm, his minis-
terial labors at Newington, and his
entry into Colony politics as clerk of
the Lower House. During these years he had been Jona-
than Edwards' instructor, and I suppose that the latter's
426
The Beginnings of Yale
firm friendship and admiration for him no doubt had had
something to do with the call now voted.
Yet conditions were different in 1726, so far as the Board
of Trustees was concerned, than they had been during the
long struggle over the College site. The bitternesses had
evaporated that had come from that controversy. Governor
Saltonstall had gone. Of the original eleven Trustees, only
four, Andrew, Woodbridge, Webb, and Samuel Russel,
were left. James Noyes, Israel Chauncy, Thomas Buck-
ingham, Abraham Pierson, James Pierpont, and Noadiah
Russell had gone the way of all men, and the decrepit Samuel
Mather had been quietly retired. Their successors, Moses
Noyes, Ruggles, John Davenport, Thomas and Stephen
Buckingham, who had taken part in the Hartford con-
troversy, were still Trustees, and to their number had been
recently added Eliphalet Adams of New London and Samuel
The End of an Era 427
Whitman, also a recent Harvard graduate, and now the
minister at Farmington. The Trustees were now for peace,
and Elisha Williams' election appears to have been satis-
factory to all of them. Some little matters had to be
adjusted, however, concerning the financial reimbursement
of the Newington church people for his loss (as was the
regular Assembly fashion of the day) before he could accept.
The Assembly finally lifted Colony taxes from the town for
four years until a sum could be in hand to settle another
pastor, and Elisha Williams turned his back on politics for
the moment, rode down to New Haven with his wife and
goods, was joyfully received by the Trustees, took the oath
of allegiance to the Saybrook Confession, and moved into
the new Rector's house, which in turn was to become the
home of Presidents Clap, Stiles, and Dwight.
President Clap's "Annals" has a pleasant little account of
the installation of this new Rector that was to close this
first era in Yale history. "In the Library," he says, "before
the Trustees, he gave his Consent to the Confession of Faith
and Rules of Church-Discipline, agreed upon by the
Churches of this Colony, in 1708. After Dinner he made a
publick Oration in the Hall; and the Trustees successively
came and saluted him as Rector."
And after this ceremony he no doubt entertained some of
the visiting ministers at his new Rector's house. This was a
rather fine building for that early day. Standing at the south
end of the old Hooke lot at the corner of the present Chapel
and College Streets, it faced the latter highway, some twenty
feet back from it. It was a large house, two-storied after
the manner of the better houses of the day, with a great
high-sloping roof with dormer windows and two chimneys,
between which was a square-fenced open cupola. Between
the great square lower rooms was a broad central hall, ex-
tending through to the gardens, broad double doors leading
428
The Beginnings of Yale
into it from the roadway. In the rear was a summer kitchen,
surrounded by orchards and meadow running out to the
present Chapel Street. It had been built, finally, from the
College funds and 300 received from the Colony imposts
on u rhum," and it was to stand until 1834, when, after an
interim, it was to be succeeded by the church building, now
College Street Hall, still standing on the site. Sitting at
his library window in this spacious "President's House,"
Rector Williams could look up across his garden, and the
street with its slow ox-teams and its square-coated vil-
lagers in their knee-breeches passing by, to the cerulean
College building where his Tutors and the College library
and the scholars were housed, and where, bulwarked on all
sides against the insidious approach of any new and heretical
theology, the Connecticut Colony leaders of the i8th
Century were to be started on the orthodox path.
The End of an Era 429
IV
And so we come to the end of these easy-going chronicles
of the beginnings of Yale. Puritan settlers, black-gowned
ministers, Colonial Governors, youthful scholars, troop be-
fore our eyes out of the musty past, up and down the King's
Highway of the Long Island shore, as we recall these early
Yale days. But a century before, and the site of the new
Colony College, and of New Haven itself, had been a
wilderness. Settled by dreamers of a Puritan Utopia, the
New Haven theocracy and with it its proposed Puritan col-
lege, had faded away in that workaday world which its dis-
illusioned founders came to see existed in New England as
it did in Old England. New times had come, and with them
that renewed need of a Colony school which should rebuild
the shattered religious fabric of the settlers. This had been
accomplished, and Yale College, rising out of the all but
wrecked Collegiate School, now faced the ancient New
Haven Market-place, "mounted in an eminent place
thereof," a veritable "Egyptian pyramid" to the memory of
Governor Elihu Yale, who had unexpectedly made it
possible.
The foundations had thus been laid for the Yale that
was to come. Yet these beginnings of the College were
more than half a century before the Revolutionary War,
and in a period in American history when every social in-
stitution was primitive and provincial and in the makings.
The keynote of the settlement o-f New England had been
religious liberty. John Davenport and Thomas Hooker
had set up their tabernacles in the Connecticut wildernesses
with this chief end in view, and their successors had main-
tained that end. The stern Puritanism of the Colonial
settlers, indeed, was to come down through the next century
and mould, if not retard, the intellectual character of the
430 The Beginnings of Yale
Connecticut people. A survey of i8th Century Yale
would show this clearly, if, indeed, a study of still later days
would not still find conservative currents flowing, if in less
measure, from this early Puritan spring. It was not until
the modern scientific period came in, and American national-
ism became a fact, that the Yale which developed from these
early beginnings came to throw off the intellectual con-
servatism with which, bounded by its Puritan theological
horizon, it started. If religious liberty was the characteristic
of the first Connecticut generation, and political liberty that
of the Revolutionary period, it was another century before
the next step intellectual liberty followed. Yet, with all
of its drawbacks, the stern Puritanism of the beginnings of
Yale has been a mighty force in the upbuilding of the
country. It had in it the germs of freedom, just as it itself
sprang from the religious and political iconoclasm of its
early English beginnings.
But this was all in the future. The first quarter century
of the College hardly had been more than a continuous
struggle for life itself. Harvard, having thrown off the
yoke of the traditional Massachusetts Theocracy, was well
on the way toward its second and broader intellectual stage
when Yale began as a Connecticut Congregational strong-
hold on the Saybrook Platform.
INDEX
INDEX
Adams, Eliphalet (Haw. 1694),
minister at New London, 425 ;
elected Trustee of Yale College,
425, 426; declines Yale College
Rectorship, 425
Addington, Isaac, Mass, conserva-
tive, 137; asked for draft of Col-
legiate School charter, (1701) 159,
164; reply with Samuel Sewall,
166; sends charter, 176; for
church-control of Collegiate
School, 177; letter to Founders
about charter, 178-9; Pierpont's
changes from charter of, 179-81
Allerton, Isaac, early New Haven
house of, 35
Ailing, John, of New Haven, Colle-
giate School Treasurer (1702-17),
203, 250, 287; solicits money for
New Haven site for college,
(1716) 319; New Haven house
and public offices of, 203 ; death
of, (7777) 338; purchases for Col-
legiate School, 389
Andrew, Samuel (Harv. 1675),
called to Milford, Conn., church,
(7(5^5) 121; career at Harvard,
122, 251; pioneer in Collegiate
School movement, 144-7; conserv-
ative in church-synod movement,
157; Trustee of Collegiate School,
181, 312, of Yale College, 426; at
Trustees' meetings, 196, 284, 319-
22, 340; scholarly but unbusiness-
like character of, 197, 251, 313,
324; poor administration head for
School, 251, 369; sends scholars to
Collegiate School, 234; Rector pro
tern, (1707-16} 288, 307, 316, 322,
324; pro tern, (1716-19) 330, 335,
343, 362, 369, 415, 425; undesirous
of Rectorship, (7777) 313 (foot-
note), letter to that effect, 334-5;
helping to secure new Rector,
361-2; for Saybrook site for
School, 317, 319; for New Haven
site, 320, 340; teaches Senior
classes, (7707 ff.) 250, 318; on
College House building committee,
(7777) 327; relations with Tim-
othy Woodbridge, 335; orders
Saybrook books brought to New
Haven, 365; and student rebellion,
(7779) 370-1; and Commons re-
bellion, (7727) 387-8; advises
Rector Cutler's election, 372;
among few surviving Founders,
(1726) 426
Andros, Sir Edmund, Governor-
General of N. E. and N. Y., 110;
effort to absorb Conn., 115, 121;
arrives in New Haven, 132; gift
of books to Collegiate School,
300-1
Antinomianism, in Mass., 23, 105
Arithmetic, in Collegiate School cur-
riculum, 423
Arminianism, in Yale College, 409
Ashley, Jonathan (Y. C. 1730), copy
of College laws by, (1726) 420
Astronomy, added to Yale College
curriculum, (1719) 423; Coperni-
can theory first taught, (1721) 398
Athenasum (of 1761), 354
Atwater, Joshua, New Haven Colony
Treasurer, 44; College Street lot
of, 325-6; sold to Collegiate
School for College House, 326;
house torn down, (1717) 338
434
Index
Bay Psalm Book, 268-9
Beecher, Widow Hannah, College
cook, (1721) 387
Bells, first New Haven church,
(1681) 129; first Killingworth,
(770.?) 229, 230 (footnote) ; first
Yale College, (1720) 375
Berkeley, Bishop, gift to Yale sug-
gested by Samuel Johnson, 410,
412
Bible, and Puritans, 6, 55; reading
of in originals chief end of N. E.
common school education, 56; pur-
chased in New Haven, (1721)
391; General Assembly orders
families to buy, 393-4
Blue, first mention of color in Yale
annals, 255, 355, 428
Blue Laws (Peters), 38
Boston, Post- road, 224; Synod, 279
Bowers, John, New Haven school-
master, 78 ; school troubles of, 79 ;
resigns, 81; instructor of Abraham
Pierson, Jr., 81 (footnote)
Branford (Conn.), stockade of, 32
(footnote), 207; joins New Haven
Jurisdiction, 64; settlers' removal
to Newark, N. J., 98 ; boys at
Harvard (to 1690), 119; lapse in
ministry, 120; calls Samuel Russel,
121; Collegiate School Founders'
meetings in, 158-161, 168-171; de-
scription of, (1649) 206-7, (1701)
168
Brockett, John, surveys New Haven,
30
Browne, Captain, agent for Colle-
giate School, 254; purchases for
Collegiate School, 254-5; pur-
chases for New Haven people,
(1721) 388-392
Browne, Daniel (Coll. Sch. 1714),
leaning toward Episcopal Church,
311, 397, change to, (1721) 403,
remains in, 409; Tutor, (1718-22}
343 ; moves into new College
House, 361; reads Dummer books,
397; intellectual awakening of,
398; before Trustees, 405-7; goes
to England and death of, 410
Buckingham, Daniel, houses Colle-
giate School books at Saybrook,
365; struggle to keep, 366-7
Buckingham, Stephen (Harv. 1693),
153; receives Collegiate School
M.A. degree, (770^?) 233, 322;
Trustee, (1716) 322, 426; absent
from Trustees' meetings, 340;
counted against New Haven site,
340; letter on Episcopalian move-
ment in College, (1722) 408
Buckingham, Thomas (Harv. 1690),
of Hartford, army chaplain,
(/;//) 301; Trustee, 312, 426;
petitions Assembly for Collegiate
School removal to Hartford, 313-
4, 316; opposition to Saybrook
site, 315 ff. ; at Trustees' meetings,
319 ff., 340 ff. ; opposition to New
Haven site, 320, 333 ff . ; calls
Hartford town meeting to secure
School, 336, 340; support of
Wethersfield School, 315-6, 335,
363; absent from Trustees' meet-
ings, 337, 369; character, 363;
obstinacy of Hartford defection,
374; Deputy in House, (777p)
374-5 ; end of opposition to ma-
jority Trustees, 376
Buckingham, Thomas, of Saybrook,
sketch of, 154; conservative on
church-synod movement, 157;
active in agitation for Collegiate
School, 165, 176, 186; Trustee,
181; strong character of, 194, 250-
1; at Trustees' meetings, 196, 284,
319; for Saybrook site for Colle-
giate School, 201, 314; letter to
Index
435
Fitz-John Winthrop on Collegiate
School's Founding, 203-4; first
Collegiate School Commencement
at house of, (1702) 232; sends
scholar, 234; in charge of School,
(1707-9) 250; death of, (1709)
254; mentioned, 312, 426
Bulkeley, Gershom (Har<v. 1655),
sketch of, 149; against Collegiate
School charter, 169-70, 187; sends
scholars to School, 234
Burgersdicius, Latin manual of
studied in Collegiate School and
Yale College, 239, 423
Cambridge University (England),
graduates in N. E., 264; Locke
studied in, 266 (footnote) ; degree
given to Samuel Johnson, (1722)
410; Latin manuals in, 423
Caner, Henry, builder of first College
House, (1717-8) 327, 380, 386; of
Statehouse, 386; house on Chapel
Street, 386
Charles I, and Puritan clergy, 22;
Civil Wars of, 67; relations to
N. E., 108
Charles II, Restoration and N. E.,
89; and Puritans, 89, 100, 105;
and New Haven and Conn. Col-
onies, 90-1, 107; attitude toward
N. E. results in new conditions,
107-10, 139
Chauncey, Charles (President of
Harv.), 100
Chauncy, Israel (Haw. 1661),
sketch of, 151; conservative on
church-synod movement, 157;
active in Founding of Collegiate
School, 165; Trustee, 181; at
Trustees' meetings, 196, 197; de-
clines Collegiate School first
Rectorship, 202; death of, (1703)
312, 426
Chauncy, Nathaniel (Coll. Sch.
1702), degree granted to, (1702)
233 (and footnote)
Cheever, Ezekiel, first New Haven
schoolmaster, 44, 51, 263 ; charac-
ter, 52; career in New Haven
Town School, 58, 59; Latin
"Accidence" of, 53 ; and Harvard
College, 60; leaves New Haven,
(1649) 60, 69
Chemical Laboratory (of 1782), 354
Clap, Thomas, quoted: on Collegiate
School Founding, 144, 158-61; on
the date of the Founding, 169; on
College House dimensions, 353
(footnote), on cost of, (1722) 380;
on Yale College finances, (of
1720) 377, (of 1722) 380; on
Rector Williams' installation,
(1726) 427; antagonistic to Epis-
copal Church students, 412
Classical Languages, studied in
N. E. schools in order to read New
Testament in originals, 55; see
Latin, Greek and Hebrew
Clinton (Conn.), see Killingworth
Coleman, Benjamin (Harvard Fel-
low), declines to take disaffected
Yale students, (1719) 371
Coleman, John, in new Boston
church, 113
"College-corn," 70-1, 120 (footnote)
College Entrance Requirements, for
Harvard, (1639 ff.) 53, 60, 89;
(1684) 118; for Collegiate School,
(1701) 199
Collegiate School of Connecticut
(I70I-18)
Founding (1701) : agitation for
begun, (1692 ff.) 134, (1699-1700)
142-3 ; few Harvard graduates
from Conn., 120; more Conn,
orthodox ministers needed, 136;
relation of to old New Haven
436
Index
"College" project, 134; relation
of to Harvard and Mass, theol-
ogy, (after 1692) 110, 136-42, 164,
176-7, 408; relation of to Conn,
church conditions, (after 1685)
135-6, 146-7, 156-7; Moses Noyes
on reasons for Founding, 137, 409;
President Clap's sequence of
events, 144, 158-61; orthodox Cal-
vinistic purpose in, 198, 258, 392,
407-9, 429; "Public service" pur-
pose of, 57, 189; church-synod
control proposed, 156-7, 189, de-
feated, 157; proposed by Cotton
Mather, 164; use of name "Colle-
giate School," 180, 188; Colony
"Inspectors" proposed by Cotton
Mather, 165, Assembly question
on, 188; Quarterly Trustee "Visit-
ors" named, (1716} 323; Harvard
"Founding" of disproven, 164
(footnote), 176-7; Assembly first
meeting in New Haven (Oct.
1701) seized as opportunity, 161-3;
Founders' letters asking advice of
Mathers, Sewall, and Addington,
(1701) 164; do. of Bulkeley, Secre-
tary Kimberly, and John Eliot,
164; replies by the Mathers, 164-5;
replies by Sewall and Addington,
165-6; "Instructions" sent to
Sewall and Addington for charter,
167; Branford "Founding Meet-
ing," (Oct. 1701) 167-71, Clap's
account, 158-61; fear of English
interference, 163, 187; prior
Founding by ministers an impor-
tant necessity, 168-9, 170, 188, 337;
Sewall-Addington charter draft
received, 176; contents of and
Pierpont's changes from, 176-81,
preamble to charter, 187 (foot-
note) ; charter granted by General
Assembly, 186-90; question of date
of Founding, 158-60
Organization (1701-2} : theo-
logical purpose in, 180, 199;
organization meeting at Saybrook,
192-203; Treasurers chosen: Na-
thaniel Lynde, (1701) 203, Richard
Rosewell, (1701) 203, John Ailing,
(1702) 203; course of study, 200;
laws, (1701) 199 ; Trustees chosen,
181; first Rector elected, 202-3;
Rector not necessarily a Trustee,
189 (footnote), 199; entrance re-
quirements to, 199; tuition at, 200;
degrees to be granted, 200; site
question, see below
(1701-7) in Killingworth: 225
ff.; curriculum of, 180, 199-200;
at Pierson parsonage, 236 ff . ; stu-
dent life of, 237 ff., 240 ff. ; student
rebellion, (1704) 237; intellectual
standards of, 273, 276; lack of
culture of, 12; scientific theories
taught at, 273-6; failure of threat-
ened, 235, 245; moved to Say-
brook, (1707) 250; Commence-
ments, 232-3
(1707-18) in Saybrook and New
Haven: 245 ff. ; Seniors go to Mil-
ford, (1707) 250; Samuel Andrew
elected Rector pro tern, (1707)
250-1; in Lynde house, 252-4;
supplies bought for, 254-5 ; course
made four years, 255 ; Commence-
ment work, 257; Commencements
quiet, 257, Benjamin Lord's de-
scription of, 257-8, (1717) 330,
338; failure of School threatened,
286, 288, 304, 312, 318, 329; pro-
vincial intellectual standards of,
275-6, 301, 310; military duty
lifted from scholars, (1713) 288;
curriculum, 310, 423; permanent
Rector voted, (1714) 307; and
Index
437
Colony church, 277-8, 279, 282;
and Saybrook Platform, 285-6,
q.v.; control of attempted by
General Assembly, 304, g.v.;
James Pierpont's appeal for finan-
cial aid to England, (//v/) 290,
292 ; Jeremiah Dummer's efforts
for, q.v.; Pierpont's appeal for
books, (1712) 295-6; Sir John
Davie's gift of books, (1714) 296-
8 ; Dummer books received,
(77/4) 298-302; need of College
House to store books, 304-5 ;
appeal to Assembly for money,
(1714) 305-6; money voted by
Assembly, 306 ; Trustees vote to
build College House in Saybrook,
(1716) 306, 313; site struggle, see
below; Saybrook a poor location
for School, 251, 311; poor teach-
ing at, 315; student rebellion over
Tutors, (1716) 316; division of
School into three sections, (1716)
318; removal to New Haven,
(1716} 322-3; Senior "Disserta-
tions," 358; Elihu Yale's gift,
(1718) 344-51; second Commence-
ment in New Haven, (1718) 356
ff. ; name changed to "Yale Col-
lege," (/7/5) 357, 360; Calvinis-
tic theology of, 180, 423 ; after
1718 see under Yale College
Site Struggle: decision left
blank in charter, (1701) 181,
reasons for, 183 ; Killingworth
selected as temporary makeshift,
(7707) 199, 200-4, 246; efforts to
settle permanently at Saybrook,
(7707-7) 246-50; settlement at
Saybrook, (7707) 250; Saybrook
not a good place for School, 251,
311; division of Trustees over,
(1714-6) 304; results of need of
College House, 305-7; vote for
permanent settlement at Saybrook,
306; Woodbridge and Buckingham
appeal to Assembly against Say-
brook site, (7776) 313-4, 316;
astonishment of Saybrook faction,
314, 316; Pierpont's party for Say-
brook, 201, 246, 314, 315; reasons
for Hartford Trustees' dissatis-
faction, 315-6; Assembly orders
hearing, (1716) 317, small attend-
ance at, 317; Trustees told to
decide on site, 318; Colony agita-
tion of site question, (1716) 318;
Wethersfield School begun, 311,
318, q.v.; rival claims for, 318-9;
New Haven subscription for, 319 ;
Saybrook again voted for by ma-
jority, 319; New Haven first voted
for, (1716) 320; removal of School
to New Haven, 322-3 ; character
of Hartford opposition, 334-6,
370; Hartford town meeting op-
poses New Haven choice, 336;
reply by seacoast Trustees, 337;
New Haven site vote reaffirmed by
majority, (7777) 338; Assembly
orders hearing of majority action
in building College House, (7777)
338-40; Saltonstall stops Assembly
movement to change site, 341 ;
exchange of Hartford and New
Haven arguments, 341 ; final deci-
sion for New Haven by Assembly,
(7777) 342; continuance of
Wethersfield School, 343, 350, q.<v.;
Elihu Yale gift settles question,
(7775) 361
College House: Cotton Mather
on no need of, (1701) 165, 307-8;
on aid from Elihu Yale for, 348;
need of as result of Dummer
books, (7776) 304-5, 308, 311, 429;
Assembly financial aid for, (1716)
305-6; voted for Saybrook, 306,
438
Index
313, for New Haven, 321; Salton-
stall helps on "architechtonick
part" of, 321 ; building committee
on, 322, 327; New Haven site pur-
chased, (1716) 326; building be-
gun, (Jan. 7777) 327, in progress,
338, 350; first Commencement in,
353 ; opened to scholars, 361 ;
rooms in, 356; money needed for,
344; description of in letter to
Dummer, 345, 353-6
General: Commons, at Rector
Pierson's parsonage, (1701-7) 239,
240; scholars help furnish table,
243; at Saybrook, (1707-16) 254;
Finances, (1710) 287, (1712) 288,
(1-717) 326, 342, (1718) more
funds needed, 344 ff.; Gifts, (to
1701) 181; Fitch, 190-1; Lynde,
254; New Haven subscription,
319; New Haven land, 319; Elihu
Yale, 351-3; Colony grants, 287-8,
315, 325-6, 377; Library: books
given at Branford, (//(?/) 158,
169; at Saybrook, (1701) 198;
from Abraham Pierson, (1707)
211-2; Davie gift of, 296-8, 365;
Dummer collection, q.v.; Moses
Noyes "Custodian" of, 322; Libra-
rian (Senior Tutor), 322; in Say-
brook, 323, 365 ; part of brought
to New Haven, (1716) 329; Say-
brook collection brought, (1718)
361, 364-8; number in, (1718)
367; Library room in College
House, 356; Rector's house, voted
for Saybrook, 306-7, for , New
Haven, 321; site purchased, (1716)
326; money needed, 344; Scholars:
(1702) 232; (1703-5} 234-5;
(1706-7) 243, 245; (1714} 288,
307, 315; (1716-9) 324; first rebel-
lion of, (7704) 236-7 (and foot-
note), 387; rebellion, (of 1716)
316; critical attitude toward
Tutors, (1709-14) 308-10, 311, 316;
Trustees, how selected, 181-2;
changes in, (by 1716) 312, 323;
letters of, to Dummer, (1712) 295,
(1716) 323 (footnote), (1718)
345, 366, to Elihu Yale, 344;
divided over site, g.v.; meetings
of, (/70/) 192-203, (1702) 203,
(7707) 278, (1708) 283 ff., (7775)
305, (777<5) 306, 311-2, 319, 320-2,
(7777) 337-8, (777^) 353
Composition, in Collegiate School
curriculum, 423
Congregationalism, changes in N. E.,
135, 139, 142, 392
Connecticut Colony
(1636-65) : settled, 25; com-
pared with New Haven, 26; broad
franchise of, 27 ; political success
of, 113-4; proclaims Charles II,
90; secures new charter, 91;
claims New Haven jurisdiction,
91-8; absorbs New Haven Colony,
98 ; compared with Mass., 113 ;
religious condition low in, (1721)
392
(1665-1726), political calm
during, 114-5; religious changes
few, 115-6, 136, 146-7; new
church organization, 156-7, 278 ff.,
(1724.) 417; relations to England,
163, 289-90; people in, (1701-14.)
259 ff. ; dress and manners, 262-3;
and Colony churches, 282, 285;
increasing conservatism in, 346;
religious laws of, 393 ; and alleged
Episcopal plot, (1722) 411; small-
pox in, (7776) 318, (77^) 417
Education, not supporting a
"Colony College," (1652) 75; com-
pulsory school code, (1650) 79,
118; students at Harvard, 79, 119-
20; failure of, 79-80, 118, 120, 265;
Index
439
Hopkins bequest to, 84-5 ; few
educated people in, (1701) 189,
(1721) 392; General Assembly on
"too much learning," 379-80; sub-
scription to Rector's House, (1721)
380; books in, (2721) 391-2; re-
mote from England, 396
General Assembly, grants Col-
legiate School charter, 183, 186-90;
meetings of, 161, 172-91, 338 ff.,
362-4; reorganization, 162; mem-
bership, (Oct. 1701) 186 (foot-
note) ; and Colony church, 282,
285, 393; financial aid to School,
g.v.; attempted control of School,
304, 313-4; and Coll. Sch., g.<v.;
and Colony church orthodoxy,
392-3
"Connecticut Hall," (of 1752) 354
Cooke, Samuel (Y. C. /7J0), Trustee,
(1732} 235
Copernicus, theory of first taught at
Yale, (1721} 398
Coster, Mrs. Hester, College Street
lot of, 325; sold to Collegiate
School, (1716) 326
Cotton, John, in England, 16-7; in
Boston, 18; and John Davenport,
20; and Harvard, 24; ancestor of
Rector Elisha Williams, 311
Coventry (England), description of,
(1600) 1; Puritanism in, 6-9;
Free School of, 7, 8, 55
Cromwell, Oliver, friendly to New
Haven Colony, 67, 68; and Say-
brook immigration, 193, 368
Curriculum, see under Collegiate
School, and Yale College
Cutler, Manasseh (Y. C. 1765), on
College House, 354
Cutler, Timothy (Har<v. 1701), son-
in-law to Rector Andrew, 372-3 ;
character, 376; elected Rector of
Yale College, (1719) 372; sketch
of, 372-3, in Stratford, 401, in
Boston, (after 1722) 410-1; reads
Dummer books, 373 ; arrives in
New Haven, 373 ; Episcopal move-
ment reasons for coming, 399 ;
promise of orthodox Congrega-
tional leadership, 394-5 ; thanks
Mrs. Timothy Woodbridge for bell,
375 ; Jonathan Edwards quoted on,
376; stops Commons rebellion,
(7727) 387-8; leaning toward
Episcopacy, 399-401, change to,
(1721-2) 401-2, 404; Episcopalian
form of prayer used by, 404; and
Boston Episcopal Church, 404,
410-1 ; before Trustees on Episco-
pacy, 405-7; stands by theological
change, 409; "excused" from
Rectorship by Trustees, (1722)
409; goes to England for orders,
410; Rector of Christ Church,
Boston, 410-1 ; adds geometry and
astronomy to College studies, 423
Dankers and Sluyter, on Harvard
manners, 424
Davenport, John, of New Haven
Colony, born, (1597) 1; Coventry
(Eng.) life, 7-9; at Oxford Uni-
versity, 9-13; in London Church
of England pulpit, 13-6; turns
Puritan, 15; flees to Holland,
(1633) 17; in Holland, 20; returns
to England and emigrates with
Eaton, (1637) 20; lands at
Boston, Mass., 23 ; Church-state
theory of, 22, 27, 59, 61 ; assists in
founding of Harvard College, 24;
settles Quinnipiac, (1638) 25;
house of, 35; at Meeting-house,
45; religious sternness of, 48-50;
educational plans of, 52 ff., failure
of, 81 ; unique theory of public
education, 55-7; character of, 61,
440
Index
99; failure of life-plan, 66, 68,
88, 95-9; plan for a Colony "Col-
lege," 24, 72 ff. ; antagonistic to
Dunster's Harvard tendencies,
(1654.) 75; efforts to start a col-
lege, (1647) 72, (1652) 74, (1654-
5) 76 ; financial appeal to Edward
Hopkins, (1656-7) 82-4, gift prom-
ised, 84, left in will, 85; founds
Hopkins Grammar School, (1660)
87; end of "College" plan, 89; de-
layed proclamation of Charles II
by, (1660) 90-1; hides Regicides,
(1661) 90; fights Conn. Colony
absorption, (1662-5) 91 ff. ; refuses
General Assembly sessions for
New Haven, 161-2; leaves New
Haven for Boston, (1668) 101;
death of, (1670) 101; influence on
James Pierpont, 127
Davenport, John (Har<v. 1687), of
Stamford, at Harvard, 119, 127;
sketch of, 152; Trustee, (1714)
312, 426; at Trustees' meetings,
284, 319, 340 ff. ; strong character
of, 313; leadership of Trustees,
(1716 ff.) 313, 317, 341; for Say-
brook site, 317; votes for New
Haven site, 320, supports New
Haven, 324, 340; chosen Quarterly
Visitor, (1716) 323; on College
House building committee, 327;
oration at New Haven Com-
mencement, (1718) 358; against
Episcopalian movement, (1722)
407, letter regarding, 408 ; not for
Rector Cutler, 408
Davie, Sir John (Harv. 1681), at
Harvard College, 122 (footnote) ;
sketch of, 296; claims English
baronetcy, 297 ; gift of books to
Collegiate School, (1714) 296, 298,
365
Degrees, first Harvard Doctor of
Divinity, 140; first Doctor of
Medicine, (If ale College, 1723)
422; see Collegiate School
Dickinson, Jonathan (Coll. Sch.
1706), on Abraham Pierson's
Presbyterianism, 216-7
Dummer, Jeremiah, sketch of, 290;
displaced as Mass, agent, 349;
Conn, agent, 294-5 ; and James
Pierpont's family, 124, 290; and
Collegiate School needs, 290, 292-
3, 296, 349, 378-9, 293-4, 298-302,
365; gives globes, 296, 322, 378;
letters from Pierpont, 124, 290,
292, 295-6 ; letters to Pierpont, 124,
290, 293, 294; letters from Trus-
tees, 295, 323, 345, 366; letters to
Trustees, 366, 377; letter to
Timothy Woodbridge, 296 (foot-
note) ; gift of books, (1714) 298
ff. ; result of books, 302-3, and
Samuel Johnson, (1717) 329, and
Episcopal movement, 396 ff. ;
Episcopal missionary purpose in
book gift, 400; appealed to for
College House funds, (1717) 344
ff., 345, (1718) 350 ff.; promises
to change Collegiate School's
theology to suit donors, 377, 400;
unsuccessful later Elihu Yale
efforts, 379
Dunster, Henry (President of Harv.),
theological troubles of and New
Haven "College" plans, (1654)
74-5, 136
East Guilford (Madison, Conn.),
227, 278; scholars at, (1716) 318
Eaton, Nathaniel, first Harvard
superintendent, 24, 236
Eaton, Samuel, emigrates to New
Haven, 19; against Davenport's
Church-state theory, 28
Index
44
Eaton, Theophilus, sketch of, 18;
marriage to widow of David
Yale, 19, 291 ; character of, 18, 19,
47 ; emigrates with John Daven-
port, (1637) 23; at Boston, 24;
settles New Haven, (1638) 25;
elected Governor of New Haven
Colony, 28 ; house of, described,
35-6, Rev. Joseph Noyes in, (1716)
323 (footnote), (1724) 383;
Colony court of, 48 ; Mrs. Moore's
theological case, 50-51; Trustee
of Hopkins bequest, 85; death of,
(1658) 85
Education, Dutch parochial school
system, 55; Conn., g.v.; English
University, see Oxford and Cam-
bridge; English school, 8, 54;
Harvard, g.v.; New Amsterdam,
56; New England, q.<v.; New
Haven, q.v.; Virginia, 56
Edwards, Jonathan (Y. C. 1720},
sketch of life (to 1724), 415-6; at
Wethersfield School, (7777) 324,
(1718) 361; opposed to Samuel
Johnson, 329; admirer of Elisha
Williams, 332, 425-6; student at
New Haven, (1719) 370, 376;
student life of, 376; result on
intellectual life of, of College
books, 399, 416; Tutor, (1724-26)
415, 417, great success as, 425;
brilliant intellectual attainments
of, 415-6; influence of Locke on,
416; to be minister at Northamp-
ton, Mass., (1726) 416, called
there, 425 ; and "Great Awaken-
ing," 417; quoted, on Timothy
Woodbridge, 150, on Rector Cut-
ler's good standing in New Haven,
(/7/p) 376, on Commons rebellion,
(1721) 387; mentioned, 286, 310
Eldred, Mrs., Elm Street lot for
New Haven "College," (1647) 72;
James Pierpont's parsonage on,
128
Eliot, Jared (Coll. Sch. 1706), enters
Collegiate School, 235; Guilford
schoolmaster, 309; scientific at-
tainments of, 235, 309, 410; read-
ing Dummer books, (1721) 397;
change to Episcopacy, 403 ; before
Trustees, 405-7; returns to Con-
gregationalism, 410
Eliot, John, of Windsor, letter to
Founders of Collegiate School
supporting plan for Assembly
charter, (1701) 168, 170; helps
pass charter, 187-9
Episcopalians, in Mass., 108 ; in
Conn., 279, 400-1; alleged plot to
change Conn. Colony to, (1722)
411; authors in Dummer books,
400; movement in Yale College,
(1721-2) 396 ff.; President Clap's
opposition to, 412 ; first liberty to
in the College, 412; Elihu Yale
and, 378 ; see Samuel Johnson,
Timothy Cutler, etc.
Fenwick, George, 194, 224, 227
Fiske, Phineas (Coll. Sch. 1704),
enters Collegiate School, 234;
Tutor, (1706-13) 237, 239, 240,
250, 252, 254, 330
Fitch, John, gift to Collegiate
School, (/70/) 190-1, 287
Flynt, Henry, Tutor at Harvard,
308; invited to become Rector of
Yale College, (777^) 361; declines
election, 362, 370
Gardiner, John, surveys Saybrook,
193
General Assembly, see under Conn.
Colony
Geometry, added to Yale College
curriculum, (1719) 423
442
Index
Goffe, William (Regicide), in New
Haven, 90, 209, in Hadley, Mass.,
122
Goodyear, Deputy Governor, 44;
offers house for New Haven
"College," (1658) 76; house of,
76, 173 (and footnote)
"Great Awakening," The, 286, 417
Greek, theological use of in Puritan
education, 55; in New Haven
school, (1660) 87; for entrance to
Harvard, (1640) 60, (1684) 118;
entrance to Collegiate School,
(1701) 199; in Collegiate School
curriculum, 239; in Yale College
curriculum, 423 ; Homer, and
Cotton Mather, 60, not read, 423 ;
New Testament studied, 423
Greenwood, J., sketch of first Col-
lege House, 355, also see note to
title of drawing
Gregson, Thomas, "Corner" of in
early New Haven, 31; house of,
see note to title of illustration,
deserted (1724), 385
Guilford, Conn., and Colony Col-
lege (1652), 75 (and footnote) ;
insurrection against New Haven
Jurisdiction (2663), 96; and New
Haven, 97; boys at Harvard (to
1690), 119
Hale, James (Har<v. 1703), Tutor,
(1707-9} 252, retires as, 254
"Half-way" Covenant, results of,
112-3, 115-6, 121, 267
Harriman, John, New Haven ordi-
nary of, 41, 173 (footnote)
Hart, John (Coll. Sch. 1703), enters
Collegiate School, 234; Tutor,
('703-5) 236-7, resigns, 250;
minister at East Guilford, 237;
scholars temporarily with, (1716)
318; reads Dummer books, 397;
change to Episcopacy, (1721-2)
403; before Trustees, 406-7; re-
turns to Congregationalism, 409-
10
Hartford, boys at Harvard, (to
1690) 79, 119; resident Collegiate
School Trustees chosen late in
movement, 181-2, 202; and site of
School, 183, 201, 246, 314-6, see
Timothy Woodbridge and Thomas
Buckingham; Collegiate School
scholars from, 315; Wethersfield
School scholars from, 324; town
meeting to secure School, 336; end
of agitation (/7/5), 361-3; con-
tinued antagonism to New Haven
faction, 369; final site agitation
unsuccessful (/7/p), 374; State-
house given by Assembly (1719),
363; see Conn. Colony
Harvard College, founding of,
(1636) 24, 77; New Haven Colony
scholars in, 58-9, 70, 119-20; New
Haven Colony support of, 70-1,
120 (footnote) ; President Dun-
ster's difficulties, 74-5, 136; Conn.
Colony scholars at, 79; broaden-
ing change after 1692 charter, 110,
137-42; relation to Founding of
Collegiate School, 110, 120, 147,
408-9 ; Quincy's theory of influ-
ence in do. denied, 164 (footnote),
176-7; graduates leaving N. E.,
120 (footnote) ; Class of 1681, 122
(footnote) ; entrance requirements
to, (1639) 53, 60,. 89, (1684) 118;
curriculum, (1701) 199, 265-6;
"Physicks" in, (1708) 274-5; reli-
gious broadening of, 286, 346, (in
l8th Century) 430; library of,
(/7//) 293; teaching at, 308;
Thomas Hollis' gifts to, 350 ; build-
ings of, (1720) 354; life at, 421;
Index
443
Latin conversation of scholars,
424
Hebrew, in New Haven school,
(1660) 87; in preparation for
Harvard, (164.0} 60; in Collegiate
School curriculum, 239; in Yale
College, 423
Heminway, Jacob (Coll. Sch. 1704),
232, 233 (footnote), 234
Hollis, Thomas, Dummer's appeal
to for gifts to Collegiate School
(/7/5), 350-1
Hooke, William, at Meeting-house,
45; and Oliver Cromwell, 67;
leaves New Haven Colony, 68 ;
College Street lot sold to Colle-
giate School, (1716) 326
Hooker, Daniel (Harv. 1700), Tutor,
(1702-3} 236
Hooker, Thomas, in England, 16;
settles Conn. Colony, 25 ; broad
. political theories of, 27, 111 (foot-
note), 113-4; and Abraham Pier-
son, Sr., 206
Hopkins, Edward, emigrates, 19;
marriage to Mrs. Anne Yale, 19 ;
settles at Hartford, 25 ; career in
Hartford, 82-3; critical attitude
toward New Haven Theocracy,
61, 84; returns to England, 82;
legacy to New Haven and Conn.
Colonies for school, 83-4, 344
Hopkins Grammar School (of Had-
ley, Mass.), 85 (footnote), 122;
(of New Haven), 233, 234, and
see New Haven Colony grammar
school
Johnson, Samuel (Coll. Sch.
sketch of, 309; self-education of,
309-10, 329-30, (1721} 397 ff.;
Tutor, (1716-9} 321, 322, 323, 327,
330, 343, 350, 361, 369, (1721}
resigns, 402 ; character of, 329 ;
and Dummer library, 329-30, 365,
397; receives M. A. degree, 330;
moves into new College House,
(1718} 330, 361; difficulty in con-
trolling Wethersfield scholars,
(1719} 370-1; father's house in
Guilford, 309, 389; intellectual
awakening of, (1721-2} 398;
teaches Newton and Locke to
scholars, 422; leaning to Episco-
pacy, 311, 399; Congregational
minister in West Haven, (1721)
402, 404; changes to Episcopal
Church, (1722} 403 ; before Trus-
tees, (1722) 405-7; stands by
Episcopal change, 409-10; leaves
West Haven church, 410; goes to
England and receives degrees at
Oxford and Cambridge, 410; ap-
pointed Episcopal missionary to
N. E., 410; and Bishop Berkeley's
gifts, 410, 412; first President of
King's College, 410, 412; corre-
spondence with President Clap
about Episcopacy and Yale Col-
lege, 412; death of, (1772} 410;
quoted, on Dummer books, 298; on
Saybrook site struggle, 316, 317;
on General Assembly and Trus-*
tees site hearing, (1717} 341-2;
on Commencement, (/7/5) 357,
360-1; on Saybrook book fight,
365-6; on Episcopal Church
movement in Yale College, 402 ff.
Killingworth (Clinton, Conn.), boys
at Harvard (to 1690), 119; low
tax rating of, (1701} 202; descrip-
tion of, (1694-1707) 227, 242;
First Meeting-house, 228 ; Second
Meeting-house, 229-30; school,
230 (footnote), 239; people in,
(1701-7) 242; contest over Colle-
444
Index
giate School remaining there, 204,
246-50
King Philip's War, 128, 213
King's College (Columbia Univer-
sity), 410, 412
Knight, Madam, on James Pier-
pont, 123; journey of, 224; de-
scriptions of Conn, life and people,
(1704.) 260-2, 389-90
Lamberton's "Great Shippe," foun-
ders, 64-5, 72, 73
Latin, Cheever's "Accidence," 53 ;
New Testament reading in Puri-
tan education, 55, (1701-26) 309;
in New Haven school, (1660) 87;
in preparation for Harvard,
(1639) 53, 60, 89, (1684) 118; for
Collegiate School, 199; in Colle-
giate School curriculum, 239, 423 ;
scholars' conversation in, 240, 424;
in Yale College curriculum, 423
Latitudinarianism, at Harvard, 142,
407, 409
Laud, Archbishop William, at Ox-
ford, 12; and John Davenport, 15-
7, 22; and Puritans, 20; im-
prisonment, 67
Law, Jonathan, writes New Haven
site argument, (1716) 337, 341
Laws, of Collegiate School (1701),
199; of Yale College (7724 ff.),
418, 420
Leete, Governor William, 96, 97
Leverett, John (President of Harv.),
theologically progressive, 113; in-
troduces new theology at Harvard,
346-7; Cotton Mather against,
346; mentioned, 141, 308
Libraries, New Haven Colony,
(1660) 87, bought by James Pier-
pont, 144-5 ; Collegiate School,
q.<v.; owned in New Haven, (1700)
267, (1720) 389, 391-2; Doctor
Salmon's, (1713) 294; Harvard's,
(/?//) 293; in N. E., (1714) 301;
Abraham Pierson's, 211-2 (and
footnote), 239
Literature (English), and Puritans,
12; in N. E., (1710) 266 ff.; New
Haven limitations in (1721), 391-
2; small attention to in College
School curriculum, 310
Locke, John, studied in English
universities, 266 (footnote) ; taught
in Yale College, (1719) 422,
(1724-6) 422, 423; and Jonathan
Edwards, 416, 422; mentioned, 273
Logic, in Harvard curriculum, (to
1710) 266; in Collegiate School
curriculum, (1702-7) 239; in Yale
College curriculum, (1724-6) 423
Lord, Benjamin (Coll. Sch. 1714),
Tutor, (1715-6) 311, 318; voted,
on Commencements, (1710-4)
257-8; on Collegiate School curric-
ulum, 310, 423
Lynde, Nathaniel, Assembly Deputy,
(1701) 186 (footnote) ; Collegiate
School Treasurership offered to,
(1701) 203, 246; sends scholar,
234; gives house in Saybrook to
School, 252, 283; description of
house, 254 (footnote) ; house of
mentioned, 307, 323 ; Saybrook
Platform drawn up in house of,
(1708) 283
Madison (Conn.), see East Gull ford
Market-place, see New Haven
Colony
Massachusetts Colony, founded, 15;
connection with England, 21 ; com-
pared with New Haven Colony,
21, 26, 28, 413; restricted suffrage
of, 27; bad results of franchise
theory, 112; broadening of fran-
chise, 113; early schools in, 54;
Index
445
early theology in, 75; troubles
with Charles II, 89-90, 108-9; new
Puritanism of, 101, 393; charter,
(of 1692) 110; effects of new
charter, 139-42; decline of origi-
nal church in, 112-3; effort at
church reorganization, 156, 176,
278 ; failure of traditional church,
393; witchcraft in, 113; Presby-
terianism in, 106, 218; Episcopa-
lian Church in, 108, 404
Mathematics, in Collegiate School
curriculum, (1701-16) 239, 310,
423; in Harvard curriculum, 265;
Elihu Yale's promised instruments,
379
Mather, Azariah (Coll. Sch. 1705),
Tutor, (1709-10) 254; takes Say-
brook scholars, (1716) 323, (1718)
365; in Saybrook book struggle,
(1718) 365
Mather, Cotton, educated by Ezekiel
Cheever, 60; against new Mass.
theology, (1692) 113, 139; advice
on Collegiate School Founding,
(1701) 164, 307-8; writings of,
266; opposition to Harvard,
(1718) 346-7 ; interest in Collegiate
School orthodoxy, 346-7 ; letter to
Elihu Yale for Collegiate School
aid, (1718) 347, 351, 407; names
School "Yale College," 349, 351;
informed of Episcopalian move-
ment in Yale College, (1722) 404,
408 ; quoted on James Pierpont,
123, on Gurdon Saltonstall, 280-1
Mather, Increase, secures Mass,
charter, (1692) 110; loss of Mass,
leadership, 112-3, 137-42, 346;
advice on Collegiate School
Founding, (1701) 136-42, 165, 346;
retires from Presidency of Har-
vard College, 142
Mather, Samuel (Har<v. 1671), of
Windsor, sketch of, 149 ; Trustee,
181; not at Trustees' meetings,
182, 196, 312, 317, 337, 340, 414;
for New Haven site of Collegiate
School, (/70/) 201 (footnote) ; for
Hartford site, 201 (footnote), 317;
sends scholar to School, (1702)
234; retired from Trustees, 415,
426
Meeting-houses, see Killingivorth,
New Haven
Metaphysics, taught in Collegiate
School, (1701-7) 239, 273; in
Harvard, 266; in Yale College,
(1724-6) 423
Middletown (Conn.), boys at Har-
vard, (to 1690) 119; Collegiate
School voted for by Lower House,
(7777) 341
Miles, (Captain) John, New Haven
tavern of, 173 (and footnote),
326, 362, (7724) 384; Upper House
at, 174, 183, 184; Trustees at, 340
Milford (Conn.), stockade of, 32
(footnote) ; stands by New Haven
Jurisdiction, 64, 97; votes for
"Colony College," (1654) 76; boys
at Harvard, (to 1690) 119; lapse
in ministry, 120; Samuel Andrew
called, 121; Collegiate School
Seniors in (777<5 ff.), 250
Milton, John, and Saybrook settle-
ment, 193 ; poems of carried by
army chaplain, (1711) 301
Mix, Stephen, helps teach Wethers-
field scholars, (1716-9) 332
Moss, Joseph (Harv. 1699), of
Derby, 156, 333; assistant to
Tutor Samuel Johnson, 330, 350,
371 ; gift of land to Yale College,
377; purchases from Captain
Browne, (1721) 389
Munson, Captain John, Yale College
446
Index
Steward, (1721) 387; student re-
bellion against, (1721) 387
New England, settled by Puritans,
14; Confederacy, 64; left alone
by Charles I, 108; troubles with
Charles II, 89-90, 108-10; under
William and Mary, 110; religious
liberty of settlers, 429; Puritan
Theocracy of, see Puritans
Education, Latin in, 53 ; early
need of, 54, 55; compared with
others, 56; low condition of,
(1650} 79-80, (7700) 265, (/72/)
392; standard of, (7707) 239, 260,
264 ff., 273 ; "too much learning
in," 379-80
New Haven Church-state, prelimi-
nary "Covenant," (1637} 20-1;
founded, (1639) 27-8; compared
with Mass, and Plymouth, 21, 26,
28, 96, with Conn. Colony, 26, 27,
96; church meetings of, 43; stern
religious laws, 47-8 ; discipline, 48-
51; restricted franchise, 27, 28;
failure of, 66, 68, 95-9, 116, 429;
end of, 96, 98, 121; see John
Davenport
Colony (1638-65), settled, (1637-
8) 25-6, as a Separatist State, 23;
criminal laws of, 48 ; early com-
mercial plans of, 19, 30 ff., 61-5,
failure of, 66, 74, 116, 388; con-
flict with Dutch New Amsterdam,
62-6, 74; "Great Shippe," 64;
attempt to secure charter from
Cromwell, 66-7; educational laws,
80, 87; refusal to abandon settle-
ment, 68; and Charles II, 89-
91; hostile to Quakers, 90, 106-7;
hides Regicides of Charles I, 90;
slow proclamation of Charles II,
90; absorbed by Conn. Colony
under Winthrop's charter, (of
1662) 91-9; separate identity lost,
(1665) 98; departure of Daven-
port, (1668) 101
(1665-1701], lapse in ministry,
120-1 ; James Pierpont called,
(1685) 121; character of people,
(1685-1700) 129 ff.; dress, (7^5
ff.) 130, 184; and Collegiate School
site question, 183
(1701-26), and Collegiate School
site question, 201, raises subscrip-
tion, 319, chosen as site, (1716)
318-9, 322-3; manners of people,
261-2; dress, 357, 388-91; sells
lots to Collegiate School, 325-6;
land given to School, 326; popula-
tion of, (1720) 381; books owned
in, (7727) 389, 391-2; Episcopal
Church in, (7750) 412
Colony College, first considered
by Davenport at Harvard Found-
ing, 24, 71 (footnote) ; "Oyster-
shell-fields" allotted to, 71, ordered
used for "College," 86; Mrs.
Eldred's lot given by Town, 72,
ordered used for "College," 86;
worry over Harvard situation,
(1654) 74-5, 136; Colony agita-
tion for, (1652) 75, (1654) 76-7,
83; Governor Goodyear offers
house, 76; supposed founded, 77,
86; Edward Hopkins' bequest, 83-
4, trust given to Town committee
by Davenport, 86; end of "Col-
lege" plan, (1660) 85-9; project
renewed, 134; see Collegiate
School
Colony ("Hopkins") Grammar
School, begun, (1660) 81, 87-8;
low condition of, 88; collapse of,
89, 117-8; new start for, (1684)
118; girls' education, 118; in old
schoolhouse, (1685) 129; new
building, (777^) 360, 386
Index
447
Jurisdiction (1643), established,
64; revolt of outside plantations,
96-8; end of, 98-9
Market-place, (1639) 31, 58;
(1685) 128; (1724.) 383-6
Meeting-houses: First built,
(164.0} 31; description of, 31-2;
services in, 43-7; Second, 128-9,
418; first bell in, 129, 385; en-
larged, (1668) 384; description of,
(1724) 384; Assembly sessions in,
174, 184-91, 288, 338, 362; College
Commencements in, (1717) 330,
(1718) 358-60; College students
at services in, 402
Schools, the . first schoolhouse
ordered, (164.1) 54, do. erected,
(164.1} 58; compared with others,
55-6; unique American experiment,
57; theological purpose of, 76;
early preparation for Harvard
College, 58, 70-1, 74, 119; failure
of, 60, 79-80; Grammar School,
failure of, 77, 78, 120, end of, 81;
restricted education of girls in
Davenport Colony, 77; "Dame
Schools," 78; curriculum, 53, 79;
school code, (1656) 80
Town, description of, (1639) 30
ff., (1685} 128, (1720} 381 ff., 391;
manners and dress, (1650) 38,
(1685) 130; life in, (1639-50) 37,
40, (/72/) 388-91; early houses
in, 31, 33, 383; sumptuary laws,
38 ; church meetings, 43 ; inven-
tories, (1639) 36, (1685) 130;
books owned in, (7^9-50) 87,
(7700) 267, (7720) 389, 391-2;
gaol, (164.0} 32, 173, (1724.) 386;
watch, 32, 41, 129; watch-house,
32, 129; stocks, 32, 48, 129, (1724)
386; streets, 31, 37, (1720) 382;
stockade, 32 (and footnote), 128;
"quarters," 33; fences, 33; pound,
37; wharves, 37, 173, (7724) 382;
causeways, 31, 45, 128; creeks,
30-1, 382; taverns, (Andrews') 41,
(Harriman's) 41, Miles', q.v.;
drummer, 41, 129; Town Crier,
129; "Oystershell-fields," 37, 71;
burial ground, 32, 173, (777$)
386; gates, 32 (footnote), 128,
382; Courthouse, 173, (777^) 360;
maps of, (164.0} 39, (Brown's,
7724), 174, 382-3, 390, Wads-
worth's, (for 174.8} 354; Pierpont
elms, 383 ; "Sabbath-day" houses,
383; bell on Meeting-house, 384;
new Statehouse, (in 1724} 386,
(of 1763) 386
Newark, N. J., settled by old New
Haven Theocracy remnant, 98-9,
209; description of, (1670-97) 213
ff. ; ministers in, (after 1692) 218-
9; calls Samuel Johnson (1716),
321
Newington (Conn.), Elisha Williams
minister in (7779-25), 374; Gen-
eral Assembly help to settle new
minister (1725-6), 427
Newton, Sir Isaac, gift of books to
Collegiate School, (777^) 298-9,
result of to Samuel Johnson, 329,
365; scientific theories of taught in
Yale College, (1724-6) 422, 423;
mentioned, 273, 301, 397, 398
Noyes, James (Harv. 1659), sketch
of, 153 ; conservative in church-
synod movement, 157; letter on
gift of books to Collegiate School,
(7707) 169; Trustee, 181, 312; at
Trustees' meetings, 196, 284, 319-
22, 340; for Saybrook School site,
201, 314, 317, 319; Presbyterian-
ism of, 278 ; for New Haven site,
320, 322, 340; letter from Salton-
stall on Woodbridge conference,
374; death of, 426
448
Index
Noyes, Joseph (Coll. Sch. 1709),
Tutor, (1710-5) 254, 257, 307;
resigns Tutorship, 311; minister
at New Haven (/7/f), 319; mar-
riage, 320 ; poor teaching of, 308-
11, 330; conservative in theology,
310-1; for New Haven site for
Collegiate School, 319; secures
deciding Trustees' votes for New
Haven, 320; helps instruct scholars
in New Haven, (1716) 323, (/7/7)
327, 329, 330, (///<?) 343, 350, 361;
living in Eaton house, 323, 383;
and student rebellion, (/7/p) 371;
preaching to College students,
(1721 ff.) 402; uninteresting
preacher, 418; teaches theology to
Jonathan Edwards, 415
Noyes, Moses (Harv. 1659), sketch
of, 154, 196; for Saybrook site of
Collegiate School, 201, 317, 319,
320, 322; for Hartford site (1717),
340; Trustee, 254, 312, 426; at
Trustees' meetings, 284, 319-22;
opposition to Rector Cutler, 409;
strong conservative, 154; quoted,
on reasons for Collegiate School
Founding, 137, 409; on James
Pierpont, 408-9 ; on change from
Saybrook, 409
Noyes, Nicholas, poetry of, 272
"Oratory," in New Haven schools,
(1660) 88 ; in Yale College curric-
ulum, (1724-6) 423
Oxford University, (in 1600) 9-12;
graduates in N. E., 264; Elihu
Yale's proposed gift to, 293; de-
gree given to Samuel Johnson,
(1722) 410; Locke studied in, 266
(footnote)
Pardee, George, New Haven school-
master, 89, 117; town bell-ringer,
129; ferryman, 190
Peck, Jeremiah, New Haven Colony
grammar-school master, 87-8, 119
Physics, studied in Collegiate School,
(1701-14) 239, 266, 273; Abraham
Pierson's treatise on, 239-40, 398;
studied in Harvard College, 266,
274-5; Noadiah Russell's theories
in, 275-6; in Yale College curric-
ulum, (1724-6) 423
Pierpont, James (Harv. 1681), called
to New Haven church, (1685)
121; career of, (to 1685) 122;
arrives in New Haven, 122, 125-6;
house of, (1685) 127-8, (1724)
383; sermons of, 123; character
of, 122-3, 302-3; and English
Pierrepont family claim, 124-5 ;
personal appearance of, 123-4,
197; Cotton Mather on, 123, 302-3;
Moses Noyes on, 408-9; and
Andros, 132; marriages, 133, 145
(footnote) ; leader in Collegiate
School Founding movement, (1602-
1701) 144-7, 157, 165 ff . ; buys
New Haven public library, 144;
sympathetic with conservative
Harvard party, 147; conservative
in church-synod movement, 157,
284; sends "Instructions" to Sewall
for Collegiate School charter,
(1701) 167; changes charter draft,
176-81; secures prior "Founding"
by ministers, (1701) 169, 171, 303;
Trustee, 181; leads organization
meeting of Trustees, 196 ff . ; choice
of Abraham Pierson for Rector,
202; at Trustees' meetings, 196,
284; midway position on Saybrook
Platform, (1708) 147, 278 ff., 284
ff., 392; for Saybrook site of Col-
legiate School, 201, 246, 314, 315;
leadership of Trustees, (1701-14)
202, 290, 302, 312; sends scholars,
232, 234; and Collegiate School
Index
449
and Colony church, 277-8, 282;
letter to ' Jeremiah Dummer on
family claim, 124; letter to
Dummer on Collegiate School
needs, 124, 290, 292, 295-6; se-
cures books, 298 ; letter to Sir
John Davie, 296 ; suggests Elihu
Yale as possible benefactor, (1710)
292; death of, (1714) 302, 305,
426, bad result of for School, 312,
408-9; College House result of
books, 305
Pierpont, James, Jr. (Coll. Sch.
1718), Commencement oration of,
(1718) 358; Tutor, (1722-4) 409;
resigns, 415
Pierson, Abraham, 96, 97; sketch of,
205 ff.; library of, 211; death,
211
Pierson, Abraham, Jr. (Harv. 1668),
birthplace of, 206 (footnote) ; New
Haven education of, 81 (footnote),
88 (footnote), 119, 208; sketch of,
205 ff.; at Harvard, 208; studies
theology in Milford, 208 ; mar-
riage, 209; assists father as
Newark minister, 209 ff. ; life in
Newark, 210 ff. ; great wainscot
chair of, 210 (footnote) ; minister
in Newark, 212 ff . ; Presbyterian-
ism of, 217, 278 ; leaves Newark,
(1692) 218; at Greenwich
(Conn.), 219; called to ministry
in Killingworth, (1694.) 219;
active in Founding of Collegiate
School, 145, 157, 165, 166, 167, 168,
186, 202; conservative in church-
synod movement, 157; Trustee,
181; at Trustees' meetings, 196;
elected first Rector of Collegiate
School, 202, 219; Killingworth
house of, 225 (footnote), 230-2;
begins teaching Collegiate School,
(1702} 234; secures scholars, 235;
family of, 235 (and footnote) ;
teaching of, 239-40, 273, 422;
physics text-book of, 208, 239-40,
273, 398; trouble over School site,
246 ff. ; scientific theories of, 273,
301; Rector's salary of, 247; estate
of, 243-4; death of, (7707) 243,
250, 426 ; gravestone of, 228 ; char-
acter of, 213 ; personal character-
istics of, 197, 212-3; library of,
211-2 (and footnote), 239
Piggott, George, confers with Col-
lege Tutors regarding Episcopacy,
(1721) 403
Plymouth Colony, political theory of
compared with New Haven, 21, 27
Presbyterianism, Mass, cabal, 106;
church theory of, 135; movement
in Conn, toward, 157, 217 ff . ;
compared with Congregationalism,
218; lapse of in Conn, and rise in
N. J., 219; and Saybrook Plat-
form, 278 ff.
Prout, John (Coll. Sch. 1708), of
New Haven, elected Collegiate
School Treasurer, (/7/7) 338;
house of in New Haven, (1724}
383
Prudden, Peter, emigrates, 20; in
Milford, 64
Ptolemaic theory, taught in Collegi-
ate School, 273, 398, 422
Puritans, rise of in England, 8, 13-5;
at Oxford, (1600) 12; and Eng-
lish culture, 12; last important
emigration to N. H. Colony in
the Davenport party, (1637) 18;
and Laud, 23; and the Bible, 55;
success of in England, 66, 68 ;
final failure of, 89; and Charles I,
22; and Charles II, 89, 105
Puritans (N. E.), settle Mass., 14-5;
differences between several settle-
ments, 21-2, 26-7; and Bible, 55;
450
Index
and Charles II, 89 ; second genera-
tion's changes from, 100; crest of
political power, 106; political
theory of, 110-1; failure of, 112-3;
decline of, 135, 137-42; retarding
results of in 18th Century, 429-30
Quakers, New Haven persecutions
of, 90; protected by Charles II,
105-7
Queen Anne's War, (1702) 393
Quincy, President, of Harvard, in-
accurate statements regarding
Harvard's influence in Collegiate
School Founding, 164, 176-7; on
Cotton Mather, 346, 349
Quinnipiac, discovered, (1637) 25;
settled by Davenport and Eaton,
25-6
Randolph, Edward, in Mass., 109
Regicides, Colonels Goffe and
Whalley in New Haven, 90, 209;
in Hadley (Mass.), 122
Rhetoric, in Yale College curric-
ulum, (1724-6) 423
Rosewell, Richard, of New Haven,
chosen Collegiate School Treas-
urer, (//o/) 203; library of,
(7707) 268
Ruggles, Thomas (Haw. 1690),
minister at Guilford, 156; Trustee,
(1710-28) 312, 426; for Saybrook
site for Collegiate School, 317;
votes for New Haven site, 320,
340; chosen Quarterly Visitor to
School, (7776) 323; on College
House building committee, 327; at
Trustees' meetings, 340; question
of age of as Trustee, 340; and
Saybrook book fight, (777$) 365,
367
Russel, Samuel (Harv. f68l), called
to be minister at Branford, 121-2;
previous career, 122; active in Col-
legiate School Founding, 145 ;
"Founders' Meeting" at Branford
house of, 168-71 ; house of de-
scribed, 168; Trustee (1701-30),
203, 246, 312, 426; sends scholars,
234; at Trustees' meetings, 284,
340; for Saybrook site for Colle-
giate School, 317, 319; for New
Haven site, 320, 340; chosen
Quarterly Visitor to School, (1716)
323 ; on College House building
committee, 327; and student re-
bellions, (777p) 370, (7727) 387
Russell, Noadiah (Harv. 1681), edu-
cated in New Haven, 119; student
at Harvard, 122 (footnote) ;
sketch of, 149; Trustee (1701-13),
181; at Trustees' meetings, 196,
284; for Hartford site, 201; scien-
tific theories of, 275-6; death of,
(777^) 312, 426; mentioned, 254,
425
Russell, Samuel (Coll. Sch. 1712),
Tutor, (1714-6) 311
Russell, William (Coll. Sch. 1700),
Tutor, (1713-4) 254, 307; declines
Yale College Rectorship, 425
Saltonstall, Gurdon (Harv. 1684),
sketch of, 155, 280-1; description
of, 358; strong character of, 280-1,
313; progressive on church-synod
movement, 157, 271; active in Col-
legiate School Founding, 165, 186;
sends scholar, 235 ; elected Gov-
ernor of Conn., 281; and Saybrook
Platform, 278 ff., 281 ff. ; and
Episcopal Church, 279; helps Col-
legiate School book gift, 297, 305-
6; interest in preserving Conn,
orthodoxy, 394; helps settle Colle-
giate School site question, 304, 305,
341; for Saybrook site, 314; and
Index
College House, 321, 327, 350, 354;
East Haven house of, 327 (and
footnote) ; at Collegiate School
Commencements, 330, 356 ff. ;
orders Saybrook people to give up
College books, 364, 366; urges
election of permanent Rector for
Yale College, 369, 371-2; leader-
ship of Collegiate School, 394;
Moses Noyes against, 409 ; letter
to James Noyes regarding Timothy
Woodbridge, 374; re-elected Gov-
ernor over Woodbridge-Bucking-
ham opposition, (/7/p) 374-5 ;
charges libel against Woodbridge,
375; gift to Yale College, 377;
attempts settlement of Episcopal
movement in College, (1722) 404,
failure, 406-8 ; draws up amended
College charter, (1723} 414-5 ;
death, 426; Cotton Mather on,
280-1
Saybrook (Old), settled, 25; Colle-
giate School organization meeting
in, (1701) 192-203; description of,
(1701) 192-5, (1709-16} 251, 308,
(/7/5 ff.) 368; Collegiate School
removes from Killingworth to,
(7707) 250; and Collegiate School
site contest, 201, 246-50, 308, 319;
smallpox in, (1716} 318; School's
removal to New Haven, (1716)
323 ; a few scholars left at
Azariah Mather's, (1716) 323,
(777^) 365; College House voted
to be built in, (777<5) 306,
363 ; first Commencement in,
(1702) 232; Commencements in,
(1710-14) 257-8; Saybrook Plat-
form drawn up in, (1708) 283;
Collegiate School books removed
from, (7775) 364, 367; end of in
Yale annals, (777^) 367; Yale
College monument in, 368
Saybrook Platform, times not ready,
(1680) 135; preparation for,
(7703) 278; synod called by Gov-
ernor Saltonstall, 281; James Pier-
pont's conservative leadership in,
282; meeting held at Saybrook,
(1708) 283; description of, 284-5;
purpose of to preserve Conn, ortho-
doxy, 392; conservative result of,
on Collegiate School and Conn.
Colony, 346, 393, 430; Yale Col-
lege officers have to accept, 409,
417; Rector Williams subscribes
to, 427
Schoolhouses, in New Haven: first,
(1641) 31, 54, 58, (1685) 129,
(1724) 386, (7756) 386; Hopkins
Grammar Schoolhouse (1718), 360,
386; in Killingworth, 230 (foot-
note), 239
Schools, first in N. E., 54; Coventry
Free School, 7, 8, 55; general
failure of in colonial N. E., 79-80,
265, 392; see New Haven
Science, in Connecticut, (1701-14.)
273 ff., in Collegiate School, 273,
301; taught in Yale College,
(7779) 422, (1724) 422-3; see
Samuel Johnson, Isaac Neivton,
etc.
Separatists (English), see Puritans;
in New Haven Colony, 23
Sewall, Samuel, and witchcraft,
(1692) 113; conservative in theol-
ogy, 137; helps suggest Collegiate
School Charter, 164, Clap's account
of do., 159; Founder's letter to,
(7707) 165, reply to, 166, 176;
draft of charter by, 176-81; letter
to Trustees concerning charter, 179-
80 (footnote) ; curious about site
of School, 180 (footnote) ; enter-
tains Timothy Woodbridge in
Boston, 177; friendly to Colle-
452
Index
giate School, 180 (footnote) ; gift
of books to School, (1707) 180
(footnote)
Slaves, Samuel SewalPs first Ameri-
can tract against, (1701) 166; of
Timothy Woodbridge and Elisha
Williams, 333
Smith, Samuel (Coll. Sch. 1713),
offered Tutorship, (1716) 311;
refuses Tutorship, 318; re-elected,
321; again refuses, 322, 329
Smith, William (Y. C. 1719], Tutor,
(1722-4} 409; resigns, 415
Steele, Richard, gives books to Col-
legiate School, 397
Stiles, Ezra, quoted: on Abraham
Pierson's Presbyterianism, 218; on
Pierson parsonage in Killing-
worth, 230; on Jacob Heminway,
232; on Timothy Cutler, 373; on
Elihu Yale portrait, 378 (foot-
note)
Stoddard, Solomon, of Northampton
(Mass.), 235, 262
Stratford (Conn.), boys at Harvard,
(to 1690) 119; Episcopal Church
in, 279, 399-400; releases Timothy
Cutler to become Rector of Yale
College, 373
Street, Nicholas, assistant to John
Davenport in New Haven church,
92; New Haven minister, 120-1
Street, Samuel, Hopkins Grammar
School teacher, 117
Surveying, in Collegiate School
curriculum, 423
Tailor, Lieut. Gov. of Mass., receives
Elihu Yale's gift for Collegiate
School, (1718) 351; acts for Elihu
Yale at Commencement, (1718)
356 ff.
Theology, in New Haven education,
(7^55) 79; in Collegiate School
curriculum, 180, 199, 273; gradu-
ate students in, 258; in Harvard,
266; Saybrook Platform and, 277-
86; in Yale College curriculum,
(1724-6) 422-3; second N. E.
generation's change in, 100, 139;
(1721) 392; Cambridge Platform
adopted, 106; in Harvard charter,
140; see various sects
Thompson, Anthony, 44
Tompson, Benjamin, poetry of, 263
Treat, Governor Robert, 148, 184,
415; and Samuel Andrew, 162
Treat, Robert (Coll. Sch. 1718),
Tutor, (2724-5) 415
Turner, Dr. Daniel, of London, gift
of medical books to Yale College,
377, 422; honorary degree of
M. D. given to, 422
Tuttle, William, College Street lot
of, 325
Vane, Sir Harry, at founding of
Harvard, 77; beheaded, 89
Ward, Lawrence, wainscot chair of
owned by Abraham Pierson, 210
(and footnote)
Webb, Joseph (Harv. 1684), sketch
of, 151; Trustee, 181, 312, 426;
at Trustees' meetings, 196, 197,
340; for Saybrook site, 317; votes
for New Haven site, 320, 340;
chosen Quarterly Visitor, (1716)
323; on College House building
committee, 327; letter to Cotton
Mather on Episcopal movement in
College, (77.22) 408
Wethersfield (Conn.), boys at Har-
vard, (to 1690) 119; description
of village, (1718) 332-3
Collegiate School scholars sent
Index
453
to, (1716} 311; School at, 318, 323,
324, 343, 350; Commencement,
(/7/5)363; scholars refuse to come
to New Haven, 350; scholars ar-
rive in New Haven, (/7/S) 361;
General Assembly orders scholars
to New Haven, 363, 370; School
continued, (/7/p) 369; scholars
arrive in New Haven, (/7-Jp) 370,
and attempt to "unhorse" Tutor
Johnson, (/7/p) 370-1; return to,
371; end of School at, (/7/p) 376
Wetmore, James (Coll. Sch. 1714),
reads College books, (1721) 397;
minister at North Haven, 402;
resigns, 416; leaning toward Epis-
copal Church, 311, 402; changes
to Episcopacy, 403 ; before Trus-
tees, 406-7 ; stands by change to
Episcopacy, 409
Whalley, Col. Edward (Regicide),
in New Haven, 90, 209; in
Hadley, Mass., 122
Whitefield (in "Great Awakening"),
310
Whitfield, Rev. Henry, minister in
Guilford, 20
Whitman, Samuel (Harv. 1696),
Trustee, 427
Whittlesey, Samuel (Coll. Sch.
7705), Newark minister, 218; reads
College books, (1721) 397; changes
to Episcopacy, 403 ; before Trus-
tees, 406-7 ; returns to Congre-
gationalism, 410
Wigglesworth, Edward (Har<u.
/7/0), declines Yale College
Rectorship, 425
Wigglesworth, Michael, in New
Haven, (1639} 31; taught by
Ezekiel Cheever, 53 ; poetry of,
269-72
William III, and Mass. Colony, 110;
and Conn. Colony, 281 ; renews
Conn, charter, 115; and Harvard,
140
Williams, Elisha (Harv. /7//),
sketch of, 311-2, 331-2, 425; char-
acter of, 331-2; arrives at
Wethersfield, 315; receives dis-
satisfied Saybrook School scholars,
(1716) 311, 318, 323, (/7/7) 324,
(/7/5) 330, 343, 361, (/7/p) 369;
ends teaching of Wethersfield
scholars, (/7/p) 375-6; illness of,
and "sanctified," (/7/p) 331;
enters ministry at Newington,
(/7/p) 332, 375; slaves of,
333; Deputy to General Assembly,
(/7/7) 338; Clerk of Lower
House, 338; elected Rector of Yale
College, (1725) 425; Assembly
settles his successor in church, 427 ;
Jonathan Edwards' friendly rela-
tions with, 332, 425-6; moves to
New Haven and into new Rector's
house, (1726) 427; installation as
Rector of Yale College, (1726)
427
Williams, Nathaniel (Harv. 1693} ,
declines Rectorship of Yale Col-
lege, 425
Wilson, John, minister at Boston,
24, 205; death of, 100
Windsor (Conn.), boys at Harvard,
(to 1690) 119
Winthrop, Fitz-John, Governor of
Conn. Colony, 149, 156; mission
to England, 155; dress, 184, 262;
interest in the Collegiate School,
162, 203, 250; for Saybrook site
for Collegiate School, 314; death,
(/707) 281
Winthrop, John, Governor of Mass.
Bay Colony, 15; political theory
of, 111 (footnote)
Winthrop, John, Jr., Governor of
Saybrook, 25, 193; Governor of
454
Index
Conn. Colony, (1659-75) 90; pro-
claims loyalty to Charles II,
(1660) 90; secures new and
broader Colony charter, (1662) 91,
107; relation to Conn, absorption
of New Haven, 91-4; character of,
91 (footnote)
Woodbridge, Timothy (Haw. 1675),
at Harvard, 119, 122; ordained to
be minister at Hartford, 122 ;
sketch of, 150; progressive in
church-synod movement, 157, 178,
278; ill in Boston, (1701-3) 177-8,
336; guest of Sewall and Increase
Mather, 177; probably agreeable
to Sewall and Addington's plan
for church-control of Collegiate
School in their charter draft,
(1701) 178, 336; curious with
Sewall about site, (1701) 180
(footnote) ; Trustee named late,
181, 312, 426; farm of, 191; first
attends Trustees' meeting, (1703)
278 ; absent from Trustees' meet-
ings, (1701-3) 196, (/7/7) 337,
(/7/p) 369; at Trustees' meetings,
278, 284, 319, 340 ff . ; sends
scholar to School, (1702) 234;
poetry of, 264; for Hartford site
of Collegiate School, 201, 313 ff.,
317, 336, 340, 342, 362; and Say-
brook Platform, 278 ; effort to suc-
ceed Pierpont as leader of Trus-
tees, 312, 336; applies to Assembly
to remove School to Hartford,
(1716) 313-4, 316; opposition to
Saybrook site, 315, 319 ff. ; oppo-
sition to New Haven site, 320, 324,
333 ff. ; calls Hartford town
meeting to secure School, 336;
leader in support of Wethersfield
factional School, 324, 335, 362,
end of, 375-6; slave owner, 333;
probably unsympathetic with
Samuel Andrew, 335; reasons for
site attitude, 335-6, 370; holds
rival Commencement at Wethers-
field, (7775) 363; reported sup-
port of student rebellion against
Tutor Johnson, (7779) 370-1 ; sug-
gests entering disaffected Yale stu-
dents at Harvard, (1719) 374; is
elected Deputy to Lower House,
(7779) 374-5; attempts defeat of
Saltonstall for Governor, (1719)
374; alleged libel on Saltonstall,
375 ; excluded from Lower House,
375 ; drops Hartford opposition to
Trustees, (7779) 375-6; wife's gift
of bell to College, 375; later sup-
port of College, 375 ; offered
Rectorship and declines, (1722)
424; presides over Commencement,
424; Jonathan Edwards on, 150;
high character of, 313, 335, 363
Woolsey, President Theodore D.,
quoted on Episcopal Ci urch move-
ment in Yale College, 408
Yale College (1718-26), see Colle-
giate School (to 1718); name
changed to, (1718) 357, 360; new
College House opened, 361, cost
of, 380; steward appointed, 361;
continuance of site controversy,
(7775) 362-3; Assembly orders to
Wethersfield School, (1718) 363;
Saybrook books brought to New
Haven, 366-7; final efforts by
Timothy Woodbridge to change
site, 374; end of fight, (1719)
375-6; student rebellion over Tutor
Johnson, (7779) 370-1 ; Assembly
orders permanent Rector elected,
371-2; Timothy Cutler chosen
Rector, 372; end of Wethersfield
School, (7779) 376; financial con-
dition of, (1722) 377; further ex-
Index
455
pectations of Elihu Yale aid de-
feated, 377-9; description of Col-
lege environment, (1722) 383-6;
Commons rebellion of students,
(1721) 387; new religious revival
wanted, 393-5 ; Episcopalian move-
ment result of Dummer books, 396
if.; Rector Cutler and Tutor
Browne "excused," (1722) 409;
decision to have all future College
officers subscribe to Saybrook
Platform, 409; charter changes,
414-5; length of year, 420; suc-
cessful two years under Tutor
Jonathan Edwards, 416-25 ; Col-
lege laws, (1726} 420; religious
life of scholars, 417; fines, 418;
efforts to find permanent Rector,
(1725-6} 425; election of Elisha
Williams, 425; Trustees perma-
nently reunited, (1726) 427; con-
servative future of College, 398,
430; great influence in American
growth, 430
Commencements, (1724. ff.) 420,
student charges for, 424
Curriculum, (1724-6) 420, 421-
4; geometry and astronomy added,
(/7/p) 423; theological tendency
in, 423
General, cultural lack, 12; pub-
lic service purpose of, 57; and the
State, 171, 377; and Saybrook
Platform, 285, 430; name of, first
mentioned by Cotton Mather,
(1718) 348; first bell given,
(/7/p) 375; "President," title of
used for Rector Cutler, 376; Epis-
copal students given no liberty,
(1750) 412; church services,
(7727) 401-2 (and footnote),
later, 412; rank of students in
Catalogue, 421 ; theology in curric-
ulum, 422-3; tuition, (1724-6)
424; intellectual standards of, 398;
salaries of Tutors, 377; blue, first
mention of color, 255, College
House painted, 355, 428; finances
of, 377, 380
Gifts from (Governor Salton-
stall) 377, (Tutor Moss) 377,
(Dr. Turner) 377, 422, (General
Assembly) 377
Library, brought from Saybrook,
361, 364-7; (of 1718) 365; Epis-
copal books in, 400; placed in new
College House, 369; Dr. Turner's
medical books, 377, 422; unread,
(to 1721) 396; Episcopal results
of, 399, 401 ff.
Rector, need of permanent,
(7779) 369, 415; made a Trustee,
415; efforts to select, (1722-6),
405, 424-5; elections refused by:
Timothy Woodbridge, 424, Na-
thaniel Williams, 425, Eliphalet
Adams, 425, Edward Wiggles-
worth, 425, William Russell, 425;
Elisha Williams elected, 425, in-
stalled, 427
Rector's House, need of, see un-
der Collegiate School, (1719) 379;
finished, (1725) 427; description
of, 427-8
Scholars, Wethersfield set un-
ruly, (1719) 370; rebellion over
Tutor Johnson, (7779) 370-1, 387;
Commons rebellion, (1721) 387-8;
life of under Rector Cutler, 376,
381; life of under Tutor Edwards,
416-25; bad manners of, 377, 387,
420; trouble-makers expelled, 388;
(in 7779) 324; rooms of under
President Stiles, (1786) 356
Trustees, meet with Council on
Rectorship, (7779) 369; letter of
thanks <o Elihu Yale, 377; expec-
tation of orthodoxy under Rector
Index
Cutler, 394, 398-400; worried
over Episcopal movement, (1722)
404; conference with Rector Cutler
and others over do., 405-7 ; dismiss
Rector Cutler, 409; adopt Say-
brook Platform for Tutors, 409,
417, 430; under charter, (of 1701)
414, (1723} 414-5; Visitors elected,
416; changes in personnel, (to
1725) 426-7
Yale, David, of Boston, in London,
(1637) 19; in New Haven Colony,
35, 44
Yale, David, of Denbighshire,
Wales, 19
Yale, David, of North Haven
(Conn.), considered as heir to
Elihu Yale's estate and returns to
Conn., 291-2
Yale, Elihu, sketch of, 291; gift to
Collegiate School, 83, suggested,
292-3, 296, 344; and Jeremiah
Dummer's appeals, 292-3, 296;
gives books, (1714) 301; interest
in Oxford, 293 ; Trustees' appeal
to for aid to build College House,
(1718) 344, 351; Cotton Mather's
appeal to, (1718} 347, 351;
Dummer's appeals to, 350-1; gift
of goods, (1718} 351-3; small
interest of in gift, 351, 353; estate
of, 351; talk of further gifts,
(77/9) 377, 378-9; Trustees' letter
of thanks to, 377 ; worries over a
gift to "Dissenters," 377; broad
theological views of, 378 ; hopes
Episcopal literature will convert
Collegiate School Trustees, 378,
400 ; Samuel Johnson on "found-
ing" by, 412 ; portrait painted for
College, 378 (and footnote) ; Zee-
man portrait of, (/7/7) 378; death
of, (/?*/) 379
Yale, Thomas, of New Haven, 19,
291
CD
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