Xtbrarp of "foarvarfc
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CONTRIBUTIONS
EDITED BY JUSTIN WINSOR
LIBRARIAN
THE LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE
1667-1877
BY
ALFRED CLAGHORN POTTER
Harvard College Library
AND
CHARLES KNOVfLES BOLTON
Brookline Public Library
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
Issueti 65 tfje ILifcrarg of f^arbarti
1897
Already issued or in preparation : -
[Some of these Contributions are out of print.]
VOLUME I Nos. i TO 20.
VOLUME II Nos. 21 TO 37.
VOLUME III Nos. 38 TO 51.
VOLUME IV.
52. ALFRED C. POTTER and CHARLES K. BOLTON. The Librarians of
Harvard College. 1667-1877.
Xfbrar? of tmrvarfc 'dniversit?
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CONTRIBUTIONS
NUMBERS LI I TO LVIII
EDITED BY WILLIAM COOLIDGE LANE
LIBRARIAN
VOL. IV
CONTENTS
52. ALFRED C. POTTER and CHARLES K. BOLTON. The
Librarians of Harvard College. 1667-1877. 1897.
53. WILLIAM GARROTT BROWN. A list of Portraits in
the various Buildings of Harvard University. 1898.
54. WILLIAM F. YUST. A Bibliography of Justin Winsor.
1902.
$5. ALFRED C. POTTER. Notes on the Library of Harvard
University. 1903.
56. CATALOGUE of English and American Chap-books an
Broadside Ballads in Harvard College Library. 190;
57. T. FRANKLIN CURRIER and ERNEST L. GAY. Cats
logue of the Moliere collection in Harvard Colleg
Library. 1906.
58. MORRIS H. MORGAN. A Bibliography of Persius
1909.
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
OF
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
6g tije SUfrrarg 0f Pfarfcarfc
1897-1909
0
\
A
PEEFAOE.
DURING the early years of the College Library each library-keeper or librarian held
the office for a short time only, usually while he was preparing to enter the Christian
ministry. Although no one librarian, during his short period of service, could exert a
very large measure of influence upon the administration of the institution under his
charge, the Library for generations kept its position as the most useful and important
store-house of knowledge on the continent. It is believed, therefore, that the Harvard
graduates who thus shaped its destinies for so many years have a claim to grateful
remembrance for this service as well as for their honorable labors in after years.
Of the sixty men whose lives are recorded here only five — Shapleigh, Cogswell,
Peirce, T. W. Harris, and Sibley — can be said to have made librarianship their pro-
fession. Of the others twenty- nine, or over half, became clergymen ; seven were teachers ;
six entered the legal and three the medical profession ; and the remaining ten followed
various pursuits. The average term of office for the whole period is three and a half
years; but for the first century (1667-1767) the average was not quite two and one
third years.
The principle sources for the history of the Library may be here summarized. The
earlier history is to be found in the manuscript Records of the Corporation and of the
Board of Overseers, which contain frequent notices of the Library and of the appoint-
ments of Librarians ; lists of books given ; codes of laws for its administration, and
amendments thereto ; and other matters of importance. The Treasurer's books and the
books of letters, especially those from Thomas Hollis, also contain much of value. The
Library's own manuscript records date back only to the fire of 1764 ; and, indeed,
prior to Mr. Sibley's day, they are scanty and unsystematic. There is a MS. catalogue,
not dated, but probably prepared about 1780 or 1790, which contains the names of
the givers of books then in the Library. For Sibley's own administration his manu-
script Library Journal, containing, besides his annual reports, a detailed record of
events, is invaluable. This and his letter-books are preserved in the College Archives.
The printed sources mainly deal with the later periods of the Library's history, although
the histories of Harvard by Quincy, Peirce, and Eliot, have more or less matter per-
taining to it in earlier times. Lists of the books bequeathed by John Harvard, by Peter
Bulkley, and Sir Richard Bellingham, were printed in Mr. Andrew McFarland Davis's
Notes on the records of Harvard College (Bibliographical Contributions, no. 27). Mr.
Sibley's chapter on Gore Hall and the College Library contributed to the Harvard book
198129
PREFACE.
(1875, v. i. pp. 112-121) sketches the history of the Library. Dr. George Birkbeck Hill
in his Harvard College by an Oxonian (1894) devotes a chapter (pp. 285-296) to an
historical and descriptive account. Bush's Higher education in Massachusetts, issued by
the Bureau of Education in 1891, also has some references to the Harvard Library.
The report on Public libraries in the United States, published by the same Bureau in
1876, has two accounts (pp. 21-26, 78-95). The several printed catalogues, issued in
1723, 1773, 1790, and 1830-34, of which 'detailed mention is made under the various
Librarians who prepared them, throw light on its composition at their respective dates.
The Annual Reports of the Presidents of Harvard College (1826-1896) contain sum-
maries of the conditions and needs of the Library, and since 1877 include a separate
report by the Librarian. The committees appointed by the Board of Overseers to visit
the Library generally printed their reports between 1854 and 1864. These were usually
accompanied by the Librarian's report and by other documents ; that for 1864 con-
taining Mr. Abbot's Statement respecting the new catalogue (pp. 36-76). In 1833,
President Quincy printed Considerations relating to the Library Of Harvard University
respectfully submitted to the Legislature of Massachusetts (8°. pp. 16) ; and in 1858
appeared a Report of the committee of the Association of the Alumni appointed to take into
consideration the stale of the College Library (8° . pp. 44), and this was followed the next
year by an eight page Letter of the Librarian addressed to the same committee. The
Library has issued the Harvard University Bulletin, in seven volumes, 1879—94, con-
taining lists of accessions, records of the Corporation, the necrology, bibliographical
matter, and notes ; and fifty-one numbers of Bibliographical Contributions, partly re-
printed from the Bulletin. The following magazine articles should be mentioned :
Charles A. Cutter, Harvard College Library in the North American review, Oct. 1868
(cvii. 568-593), and the New catalogue of Harvard College Library, in the same, Jan.
1869 (cviii. 96-129) ; John Fiske, A librarian's work, in the Atlantic monthly, Oct.
1876 (xxxviii. 480-491), also reprinted in his Darwinism and other essays, 1879, etc. ;
Kate V. Smith, A glance into the " Sumner alcove," Harvard Library, in Scribner's
monthly, March, 1879 (xvii. 732-736) ; Charles Knowles Bolton, Harvard University
Library, in the New England magazine, Dec. 1893, (n. s. ix. 433-449), also reprinted
separately.
This list indicates the chief material to be used in making a history of the Harvard
College Library. It is hoped that the following records of the lives of Harvard's
Librarians may also serve as a contribution towards that end.
V
fair IT*
INDEX OF LIBEAEIANS.
ALLIN, DANIEL .
BADGER, STEPHEN
BROOKS, EDWARD
BYLES, MATHER
CHAMPNEY, JOSEPH
COGSWELL, JOSE
COOKE, WILLIAM
COOLIDGE, SAMUEL
COTTON, JOHN
CUSHING, MATTHEW
DEANE, SAMUEL
DENISON, JOHN
DIM AN, JAMES
ELIOT, ANDREW
FOLSOM, CHARLES
GEE, JOSHUA
GIBBS, HENRY
GOOKIN, DANIEL
GOOKIN, NATHANIEL
GORE, JOHN
HANCOCK, BELCHER
HANCOCK, JOHN
HARRIS, THADDJ
HARRIS, THADDI
HOLYOKE, EDWARD
HOLYOKE, ELIZUR
MARSH, PEREZ
MARSH, THOMAS
MAYHEW, WILLIAM
APPENDIX I.
n.
III.
PAGE
PAGE
-lOVEJOY 34
MOORE JONATHAN
28
. 9
NEWMAN HENRY
10
IEN 24
NORTON, ANDREWS
. . 35
RD • . 26
NOURSE, PETER
. . 33
it 25
PEABODY, OLIVER
. . 23
3EPH 20
PEIRCE, BENJAMIN
. . 38
EPH GREEN .... 36
PEMBERTON, EBENEZER ....
. . 11
M 17
PRAT, BENJAMIN
. . 22
UEL 21
PRENTICE, CALEB
. . 29
10
PYNCHON, JOSEPH
. . 20
"HEW 23
RAND, JOHN
. . 25
L 27
ROBIE, THOMAS
. . 16
16
ROGERS, JOHN
16
21
SALTONSTALL, NATHANIEL . .
11
r • 28
SEWALL, MITCHEL
. . 18
,ES 37
SEWALL, SAMUEL
. . 9
17
SEWALL, STEPHEN
. . 19
20
SEWALL, STEPHEN
. . 27
L 9
SHAPLEIGH, SAMUEL
. . 32
\.NIEL 13
SIBLEY, JOHN LANGDON
39
. 13
SMITH, ISAAC
31
3HER 22
STODDARD, ANTHONY ....
. . 12
S 19
STODDARD, SOLOMON ....
. . 7
>EUS MASON .... 32
THACHER, SAMUEL COOPER
. . 34
)EUS WILLIAM .... 39
WARD, NATHANIEL
. . 29
'ARD 14
WELSTEED, WILLIAM
. . 17
UR 26
WHITING, JOHN
. . 13
. . . 24
WlLLARD, JOSIAH
. . 12
.8 21
WILL ARD, SIDNEY ......
. . 33
JAM 29
WINTHROP, JAMES
. . 30
43
43
45
THE LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
1667-1877.
BT ALFRED CLAGHORN POTTER AND CHARLES KNOWLES BOLTON.
i667-i672(?).
Solomon Stoddard, the first Librarian of
Harvard, was born in Boston near the end of
September, 1643. His baptism is thus recorded
1 October, 1643, on the records of the First
Church, " Solomon of Anthony Stoddard aged
about 4 days." His father was Anthony Stod-
dard, a linen-draper, a representative to the Gen-
eral Court, and for many years recorder of
Boston. His mother, Mary Downing, was the
first of Anthony Stoddard's five wives. Sibley,
however, apparently following the News-Letter,
says she was his second wife, and gives her name
as Lucy ; but both the printed genealogies of the
Stoddard family and Savage agree in giving her as
the first wife and her name as Mary. Solomon
Stoddard graduated from the College in 1662, and
on taking his second degree in course three years
later, sustained the affirmative on the question,
" Utrum Deus puniat peccata necessitate naturae."
In November of the next year, he was made
a tutor, and the following spring, by vote of the
Corporation, " March. 27. 1667. Mr Solomon Stod-
dard was chosen Library keeper." This is the first
record of the appointment of a Librarian at Har-
vard. "While the Library had been in existence
since John Harvard's bequest, nearly thirty years
before, it is not probable that previously the care
of it had been entrusted to any distinct officer. A
code of laws defining the duties of the Librarian
and regulating the use of the books was now
adopted and entered on the Corporation Records.*
How long Stoddard retained the office is uncer-
tain ; his successor was not appointed until 1674 ;
but two years before that he had accepted , 7 Feb-
ruary, 1672, a call to the church at Northampton,
where, moreover, he seems to have already
preached at least occasionally for some two years.
* See Appendix I,
As early as 4 March, 1670, the town had voted
that they hoped to give him £100 annually, and
a few days after this vote Stoddard married
Esther, daughter of Rev. John Warham, and
widow of Eleazar Mather, his predecessor in the
Northampton pulpit. His ordination took place
11 September, 1672. He must, therefore, have
left the Library as early as that year, and pro-
bably he left a year or two earlier. In an
obituary notice, reprinted by Colman from the
News -Letter, it is stated that "Growing out of
Health by reason of too close an Application to
his Studies he was prevail'd on to take a voyage
to Barbados, with Governor Serle as his Chaplain,
where he preach'd to the Dissenters on that
Island. But his State of Health growing better,
he return'd to his Native Country in about two
Years." No date is assigned for Stoddard's resi-
dence there, and it is difficult to fix any. Daniel
Searle was governor of Barbados from 1653 to
1660; it could, then, hardly have been during his
term of office. Searle lived in Boston for some
years later, returning finally to his estates in Bar-
bados in 1669. He may, perhaps, have visited
the island for a year or so during this period, and
Stoddard may have then accompanied him. The
most probable time for the latter's stay there,
which could not have lasted two full years, is
between taking his A.M. in July, 1665, and his
appointment as tutor in November, 1666.
Mr. Stoddard's pastorate of nearly sixty years
was distinguished by five revivals, or "harvests,"
as he termed them, during which "the bigger
Part of the young People in the Town, seemed to
be mainly concerned for their eternal Salvation."
For some years he was the oldest minister in the
province, and it was said of him that "he pos-
sessed, probably, more influence than any other
clergyman for a period of thirty years." For a
long time he regularly attended Commencement,
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
and the next day gave the annual " Public
Lecture." He continued to preach until shortly
before his death, 11 February, 1728-29, at the
age of 86. Two years earlier his grandson, Jona-
than Edwards, had been installed as his assistant.
Stoddard printed about twenty sermons and
several other works, of which Sibley gives a full
list. His book on the "Safety of appearing at
the Day of Judgement, in the righteousness of
Christ," went through four editions (1687, 1729,
1742, 1804). In a pamphlet published in London
in 1700, under the title, "The Doctrine of the
instituted churches explained and proved from the
word of God," he first promulgated what was long
known as the Stoddardean doctrine. The main
point of his views, that the communion table
should be accessible to all persons not immoral,
excited a long and bitter controversy. " His
Sermons were plain and powerful, experimental
& spiritual, close & searching, yet rational &
argumentative."
Of his twelve or thirteen children may be men-
tioned his son Anthony (H. U. 1697), minister at
Woodbury, Conn. ; Colonel John (H. U. 1701), a
man of considerable influence, and five daughters,
all of whom married clergymen.
AUTHORITIES : Allen, Second century address at North-
ampton, 1855, p. 15. Boston — Record Commissioners, Re-
port, 1883, p. 16. Clarke, Antiquities of Northampton,
1882. Colman, Sermon on death of Stoddard, 1729.
pp. 33. Ewer, Oeneal. family of Anthony Stoddard, 1849,
p. 3. Northampton — First Parish, Meeting houses and
ministers, 1878, p. 9. Savage, Geneal. dictionary, 1862,
iv. 199, 201. Sibley, Harvard graduates, 1881, ii. 111-122.
Sprague, Annals Amtr. pulpit, 1857, i. 172-174. Stoddard,
Anthony Stoddard and his descendants, 1865, p. 2. Wil.
Hams, Sermon on the day of the interment of Stoddard,
1729. pp.32.
1674.
Samuel Sewall, the second Librarian of the
College, was born 28 March, 1652, at Bishopstoke,
Hampshire, England, second child of Henry and
Jane (Dummer) Sewall. He studied at the gram-
mar school at Romsey until the family came to
New England in 1661, where he continued his
education under the Rev. Thomas Parker at New-
bury.
Hannah Hull, daughter of the wealthy master
of the colonial mint, was present at Sewall's
graduation from Harvard in 1671, and as he
afterwards relates in his famous Diary, she lost
her heart to him on that day. He was a tutor
and fellow in 1673-1674, receiving his A.M. the
same academic year. On 1 March, 1674, it was
"ordered by the Corporation that Sr Sewall be
from henceforth the Keeper of the Colledg Li-
hrary." He held this office only nine months.
Sewall studied divinity, and preached for two
hours and a half in Mr. Parker's church 4 April,
1675, being afraid to look at the hour-glass. But
his marriage, 28 February, 1676, to the daughter
of the mint-master, put him in possession of
wealth and gave him special opportunity for
usefulness in civic life.
In 1681-1684 Sewall was manager of the print-
ing-press in Boston. In 1684-1686 he held the
office of assistant, and from 1692 to 1725 he was
a member of the council. From 1692 to 1718 he
was a judge of the superior court, and from 1718
to 1728 chief justice. During most of this period
he was ex officio a member of the Board of Over-
seers of the College.
In 1692 Mr. Sewall was chosen one of the
judges of a special court of Oyer and Terminer
to try persons accused of witchcraft. Several
of these were condemned to death, and he never
ceased to regret the part he had taken in their
destruction. In January, 1697, he gave Mr. Wil-
lard, the minister of the Old South Church, a
written confession of his sin, which was read
aloud in the church while he stood with bowed
head.
Of his fourteen children by his wife Hannah,
Joseph was elected President of Harvard, but de-
clined. The chief justice married 2d Abigail,
daughter of Jacob Melyen and widow of William
Tilley, 29 October, 1719, and 3d Mary, daughter
of Henry Shrimpton and widow of Robert Gibbs,
29 March, 1722.
He contributed to the church for "praying
Indians" at Natick and built a meeting-house at
Sandwich, besides giving generously to the Col-
lege. His little pamphlet of three quarto pages,
"The selling of Joseph," published in 1700, de-
nounced negro slavery, but brought upon him
" Frowns & hard words." Among his other pub-
lications was "Description of the New Heaven"
(1697). But he is to-day best remembered for
his Diary, a minute record of his life for many
years, that throws a clear light on the colony
of those days. He has well been called "the
Pepys of New England." This was published
by the Massachusetts Historical Society in three
volumes (1878-82), and the same society a
few years later issued his Letter-books in two
volumes (1886-88). He was captain of the
Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in
1701, and for twenty-four years he set the tune
at church and led the singing. He died at Bos-
ton, 1 January, 1729-30. His must have been an
impressive figure, as Whittier pictures him :
Stately and slow, with thoughtful air,
His black cap hiding his whitened hair,
Walks the judge of the great assize, \
Samuel Sewall, the good and wise.
LIBRAKIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
As the weekly News-Letter truly said, he was
" worthy of very distinguishing regard in the
New England histories."
AUTHORITIES : Samuel Sewall, Diary, (Mass. hist, soc.,
Collections, 5th ser., v. vi. vii. 1878-82). Colonial soc. of
Mass., Transactions, 1895, i. 84-112 (portrait). Ellis, Ad-
dress on the life and character of Samuel Sewall, 1885.
pp. 28. Ewell, Judge Samuel Sewall in American soc. for
church history, Papers, 1895, vii. 25-54. Salisbury, Family
memorials, 1885, 145-148, 190-202. Sibley, Harvard gradu-
ates, 1881, ii. 345-370. Winsor, Memorial hist, of Boston,
1880, i. 210, 540; ii. 148 (portrait), 417.
1674-1676, l679-l68l.
Daniel Gookin, the son of Major-General
Daniel Gookin and his wife Mary, was born at
Cambridge, 12 July, 1650. At the age of 19 lie
graduated at Harvard with the class of 1669 and
proceeded to his degree of Master of Arts. In
May, 1673, he " was chosen probation1, & is forth-
with to take ye charge of a Classis," and in the fall
his fellowship was confirmed by the Corporation.
He remained a tutor and resident fellow for eight
years, meanwhile twice serving as Librarian. At
a meeting of the Corporation, 11 December, 1674,
it was "Ordered further that hencforth Mr
Daniell Gookin be Library keeper : And that he
enquire of persons formerly [con]cerned for
finding out & restoring the book[s] found
wanting in the last surveigh ma[de] by the
Praesidt : himself and Mr Sewal as in the Li-
brary book." In August, 1676, there was "paid
mr Dan1 Gookin, one of the Fellowes, money 50s
in Satisfaction for his paines in removing the
library to the new Colledge & placeing them."
This was evidently extra work, for some months
previously Daniel Allin had been appointed Li-
brarian ; perhaps in the removal of the books to
the first Harvard Hall, then only partially com-
pleted, the new Librarian was glad to have the
aid of his predecessor. Gookin, however, in
June, 1679, was again " chosen Librarie keeper."
Two months later the account-books of the Col-
lege have the entry, ' ' Paid to Jn° Palfrey 36s on
the president's note for 1 doz. Stooles made for
Colledge Library." The following winter there is a
record of payments of over £20 for freight on
eleven boxes of books for the Library ; probably
these were the library of the English philolo-
gist and divine, Theophilus Gale, then recently
bequeathed to the College.
In 1681, resigning his positions at Cambridge,
Mr. Gookin began his services as a minister.
He seems to have assisted the Apostle Eliot
in his work among the Indians at Natick, and
is described by him as " a pious and worthy young
man." In March, 1685, he was ordained pastor of
the church at Sherborn, with an annual salary of
"twenty pounds in money and twenty pounds in
country pay." Here Mr. Gookin preached for
many years, both to his parishioners and to the
Indians, and here his death occurred, after a long
illness, 8 January, 1717-18. William Rider of
Natick wrote to the editor of the News-Letter as
follows : " The Reverend, learned and pious Mr.
Daniel Gookin deceased, aged about 67 years :
who in his younger Time was a Fellow of Har-
vard College about the space of seven years ; and
since has been an Ordained Minister in said Town
about 34 years ; who many years preached the
Indian Lectures at Natick; a Gentleman sound
in his Doctrine, explaining the Scriptures to the
weakest Capacity, and painfull in his Studies,
tender of his Flock, and Exemplary in his Life,
and Lamented of all Good Men that had Acquaint-
ance with him, especially in his own Church and
Town." And his friend Sewall notes in his Diary :
" He was a good Scholar, and a solid Divine. We
were Fellows together at College, and have sung
many a Tune in Consort ; hope shall sing Halle-
lujah together in Heaven."
Gookin married, first in 1681, Elizabeth, daugh-
ter of Edmund Quincy, and second, in 1692,
Bethia, daughter of Edward Collicott. Savage
credits him with another wife, name unknown,
whom he is said to have married in 1682, but this
is more than doubtful. He had seven children.
Daniel Gookin never published anything, but
there exists a printed catalogue of his library,
which was sold, together with that of Joshua
Moody, in 1718.
AUTHORITIES : Biglow, History of Sherburne, 1830, pp.
49-56, 62. Harvard Corporation Records. Mass. hist. soc.
Collections, 1st series, iii. 185, 5th series, v. vi. vii. passim
(Sewall's Diary) ; Proceedings, 1862, p. 340. Morse,
Oeneal. register of Sherborn, 1856, p. 43. N. E. hist, and
geneal. register, iv. 79. Quincy, Hist, of Harvard, 1840,
i. 274. Salisbury, Family memorials, 1885, p. 445. Savage,
Geneal. dictionary, ii. 279. Sibley, Harvard graduates,
ii. 277-283.
1676-1679.
Daniel Allin was the son of Rev. John Allin,
the first minister of Dedham, and his second wife,
Catherine, widow of Samuel Hackburne and of
Governor Thomas Dudley. Sibley and Savage
give the date of his birth as 5 August, 1656, but
the following entry made by his father in the
records of the First Church at Dedham shows
that the actual date was a week earlier : " Daniell
my sone being borne 31d 5m was baptised 3d 6m
1656 " ; and this date is confirmed by the Dedham
town records. At college he was a scholar of the
house, and not long after his graduation with the
class of 1675, " at a Meeting of ye Corporatio at
Cambridge 11. 2. 76. [it was] Ordered that Sr
Allin be Librarie-keeper." He continued in that
io
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
position until 1679, meanwhile taking his second
degree. His thesis on this occasion was on a
medical subject, "An hepar sanguificet?" and not
long after he seems to have begun the practice of
medicine in Boston or Charlestown. Sewall in
his Diary refers to him as a physician in Boston.
The first of his six children by his wife Mariana
was born in June, 1680. Sibley states that he
died in 1692, apparently on the authority of Sav-
age and of Mann's Historical annals of Dedham.
The latter says (p. 86) " he seems from his Will
(Suffolk Prob. Rec.) to have died in December,
1692." But an examination of these records shows
that while the will was drawn 17 November, 1692,
and the codicil added five days later, it was not
admitted to probate until 6 June, 1694. That
this latter year is the real date of his death is
confirmed by an entry in the diary of Lawrence
Hammond of Charlestown under 7 May, 1694 :
"Dr Daniel Allen, a true Lover of his Country &
most Loyal to the Crown of England, Learned,
Wise, Humble pious, most true to his friend, the
approved, able and beloved physician &c. Sick-
ned Saturday the 28th day of April in ye night,
and dyed this day being Munday, to the universall
griefe of all good men who were acquainted with
his worth."
AUTHORITIES: Hammond, Diary (Mass. hist. soc. Pro-
ceedings, 2d series, vii. 166). Hill, Record of baptisms,
marriages, and deaths from church records of Dedhamt
1888, p. 34; Record of births, marriages, and deaths in the
town of Dedham, 1886, p. 6. Mann, Historical annals of
Dedham, 1847, p. 86. Professional and industrial history
of Suffolk county, 1894, iii. 233. Savage, Geneal. diction-
ary, I860, i. 29, 40. Sibley, Harvard graduates, iii. 470.
Suffolk county probate records, xiii. 437. Winthrop's inter-
leaved triennial.
l679-l68l.
[See Daniel Oookin, above, p. 9.]
1681-1690.
John Cotton, the son of Rev. Seaborn Cotton,
and grandson of the famous Rev. John Cotton of
Boston, was born at Hampton, New Hampshire,
8 May, 1658. His mother, Dorothy Bradstreet,
was the daughter of Governor Bradstreet and
granddaughter of Governor Dudley. The son
graduated at Harvard in 1678. His thesis is
preserved by the Massachusetts Historical Society.
In 1681 he in some way brought upon himself the
displeasure of Rev. Increase Mather ; and a kins-
man, Joseph Dudley, wrote in alarm to Mather
urging a reconciliation, lest this resentment should
"tend to his utter ruine." After receiving his
A.M. and while the College Librarian, 1681-1690,
he preached from time to time. He was success-
ful, it may be supposed, for Rev. Joshua Moody
in 1683 wrote: "The people like his preaching
very well."
Mr. Cotton was a Fellow from 1681 to 1690, and
a tutor from 1681 to 1685. In 1682, "At a cor-
poration meeting : Ordered that the double Books
in the Colledge Library be prized & sold & ye
money improved for the buying other books y'
are wanting."
The same year the general court voted fifty
pounds to Mr. Andrews and Mr. Cotton, fel-
lows, they " hauing tooke much paynes & vsed
much diligenc in carrying on the praesidents
worke, since mr Oakes death." Rev. Increase
Mather, acting president in 1685, had very little
leisure from his duties in Boston to give to the
college, and the money voted by the General
Court that year for the president was to be applied
by the Corporation "for the encouragement of
such as have done the work." A share of this
money came to John Cotton, who had, no doubt,
been restored to favor. A letter by him and an
official communication upon which his name ap-
pears— both relating to college business — have
been preserved in the " Mather papers."
On August 17th, 1686, Mr. Cotton was married
to Anne, daughter of Captain Thomas Lake of
Boston. The next year he was invited to settle
as pastor of his father's church at Hampton, but
then and on later occasions declined. He con-
tinued to preach at Hampton irregularly ; and for
a time occupied the pulpit at Portsmouth during
the absence of Mr. Moody, but refused to
be settled there. After repeated solicitation Mr.
Cotton accepted a call to the church in Hamp-
ton, and was ordained 19 November, 1696. From
a membership of twenty-five the church grew
rapidly, until his labors were terminated by his
sudden death, 27 March, 1710. His widow, the
mother of his eight children, afterwards married
Rev. Increase Mather. Sewall refers to the
"dreadful news" of Mr. Cotton's death, and in
speaking of him on the Lord's day following, gave
him " a very august character."
Mr. Cotton published a wedding sermon in 1699.
His qualities, as noted by contemporary writers,
are very attractive, even allowing for the partiality
of friends. He was said to be " one who had very
much of the Gentleman in him," catholic, schol-
arly, hospitable, entertaining and sweet tempered.
AUTHORITIES : Harvard Corporation Records. Mass,
hist. soc. Collections, 1st series, 1809, x. 45, 4th series, 1868,
viii. 246, 359, 482, 522, 656, 5th series, 1879, vi. 276-278, 301;
Proceedings, 1857, iii. 133. N. E. hist, and geneal. reg.,
1847, i. 164, 326; 1855, ix. 164. Sibley, Harvard graduates,
1885, iii. 2-5.
1690-1693.
Henry Newman, who was born 10 November,
1670, was the son of Rev. Noah Newman of
Rehoboth, and his wife, Joanna Flynt. Graduat-
ing from Harvard in 1687, he began in the year in
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
I I
which he took his second degree, his service of
three years as Librarian. In September, 1691,
there is an entry in the College records of £3
paid to him as "Library-keeper." Later in the
records (1694-95) are several references to his
services in procuring " the Colledge arms to be
cut in Freestone or in marble " ; but it is uncertain
whether this plan, which seems to have originated
with him, was finally carried out.
About 1707 Newman went to England, where for
a time ho lived in the Duke of Somerset's family,
— in what capacity we are not told. Afterwards
we find him settled in the Inner Temple in Lon-
don. Nearly half a century before this time,
Edward Hopkins had bequeathed a legacy to Har-
vard College, but his heirs had disputed his will
and it was still unsettled. In 1709 the College
appointed Newman its agent toward procuring this
bequest; and in three or four years his efforts
were successful. In fact, during the whole of his
life in England, Newman was active in furthering
the interests of the College in that country, and
procured for it many gifts both of money and of
books. It is said by Turell, the biographer of
Dr. Colman, that he "saw cause to conform to
the Established Church. — But he ever cherished
and exprest a warm and generous Love and Regard
for his Country, and the Churches and Colleges
here, and sought their Prosperity and flourishing."
As late as 1741, he was still the English agent of
the College as appears from the following votes
of the Corporation, passed 6 April, 1741 : " That
in Consideration of the many good Services done
for the College by Henry Newman of London,
Esq :, Mr. Treasurer be directed to give him a full
Discharge, of whatsoever may be due from him to
the College, upon his Book. That the Presdt be
desir'd to give the Thanks of the Corporation to
Henry Newman of London, Esq., for the informa-
tion he gives us by Dr Colman of some Prospect
there is, of our obtaining a part of the Library of
Sr Richard Gyles Bar. which he is about to bestow
upon Dissenters, & pray him to continue his good
Offices to the College, and particularly in that
affair."
For many years Newman was the agent in Eng-
land of New Hampshire. Governor Belcher was
his warm personal friend, and many of the letters
that passed between the two have been preserved
and printed. Several others of Newman's letters
have been printed : two or three to Colman, one
to President Leverett, and another to his uncle,
Tutor Flynt, well-known in the College history.
His only other publications were two Almanacs
for 1690 and 1691, and a paper in the London
Philosophical Transactions (xxxii. 33) on "The
way of proceeding in the small pox inoculated in
New-England."
The date of Henry Newman's death is not
known. His name was starred in the Triennial
Catalogue of 1745, but Sibley states that he was
living as late as 1748. He was certainly dead in
1749, when TurelFs book, mentioned above, was
published.
AUTHORITIES: Mass. hist. soc. Collection*, vi. 118; 3d
series, v. 229; 6th series, vi. vii. passim (Belcher papers) ;
Proceedings, vi. 352; 2d series, ix. 383. Quincy, History of
Harvard, 1840, i. 205, 231, 383, 474. Savage, Geneal. diet.,
iii. 275. Sibley, Harvard graduates, 1885, iii. 389-394.
Turell, Life of Colman, 1749, p. 146.
1693-1697.
Ebenezer Pemberton, A.M., a distinguished
minister of Boston, fifth son of James Pemberton,
one of the founders of the Old South Church, was
born in 1671-72. He graduated at Harvard in 1691,
held the positions of Librarian 1C93-1697, of tutor
1697-1700, and of fellow from 1707 until his death,
13 February, 1717. On leaving the college he was
ordained as colleague of the Rev. Samuel Willard
of the Old South or Third Church, Boston, 28
August, 1700. He was married 12 June of the
next year to Mary Clark, who survived him.
Their son Ebenezer (H. U. 1721) was one of the
founders of the College of New Jersey (now
Princeton University).
Mr. Pemberton's "Sermons and Discourses on
several occasions " were printed in London in
1727, with a portrait of the author and a memorial
sermon by the editor, Rev. Benjamin Colman.
H" had also previously printed a number of sepa-
rate sermons. After his death a catalogue of his
library to be sold by auction was issued by
"Samuel Gerrish, bookseller, near the Old
Meeting-house." It consisted of 1000 lots, and
is "perhaps the first instance in New England
of a printed catalogue of books at auction."
Mr. Pemberton had a high reputation as a
preacher, and held his audience by his strong,
masculine style, and the fervor of his delivery.
"He had," says Dr. Joseph Sewall in his funeral
discourse, " a great natural capacity, a large and
comprehensive genius, and by hard study and
great industry had amassed a rich treasure of
learning. I suppose few in these corners of the
earth have been better acquainted with books and
men."
AUTHORITIES: Watkins, The Pemberton family, 1892.
Sprague, Annals of the Amer. pulpit, 1857, i. Winsor,
Memorial hist, of Boston, 1881, ii. 212, 419.
I697-I70I.
Nathaniel Saltonstall. fourth child of Colonel
Nathaniel Saltonstall of Haverhill, and Elizabeth
Ward, was born at Haverhill 5 September, 1674.
His family had held an honorable position in Eng-
12
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
land before his ancestor, Sir Richard, settled at
Watertown in New England. From the time of
their setting foot in America each generation has
been represented by a graduate of Harvard.
Saltonstall took his first degree in 1695, followed
by the master of arts degree. He was Librarian of
the College in 1697-1701, and tutor in 1700-1702.
The following from Judge Sewall's Diary refers
to him : " Decr 26 [1728] Mr. Nathan1 Saltonstall
was at Lecture ; came in lately from England, with
a very long and Cold passage."
John Frizel of Boston, a benefactor of Harvard
College, died in April, 1723. He was a merchant
of wealth and influence, as we learn from Cotton
Mather's funeral sermon. His gifts to churches
and other institutions had won for him marks of
gratitude from Glasgow and other cities and towns.
He was one of the few men who kept a car-
riage. Mr. Frizel had married Dorothy, daughter
of Francis Parnel. His widow now became the
wife of Mr. Saltonstall, reserving, however, the
right to dispose of her own estate.
In March, 1732: "Nathan11 Salenstal Esqr
Chose a Selectman in the Room of Thomas Lee,
who Refused." The minutes of the Boston select-
men for April 18th, 1733, have a vote "that Mr
Saltonstal be desired to agree with a Printer
for Printing Two Hundred Advertisements relat-
ing to the Inhabitants entertaining In-mates con-
trary to the Law." His duties as a selectman
during the year were numerous and varied, as
shown by the records.
Mrs. Saltonstall died 4 April, 1733, leaving by
will, among many legacies, £200 to be distributed
among the poor of the town, and the further sum
of twenty pounds to buy Bibles and testaments
"for such poor children as their parents are not
able to furnish them with." She bequeathed £300
to Harvard College, and "unto my loving hus-
band the sum of five hundred pounds."
Nathaniel Saltonstall died very suddenly at
Woburn, 23 June, 1739. He was, said the News-
Letter, in announcing his death, "a Gentleman
well respected among us," and another writer
said he had "a high reputation for abilities and
learning."
AUTHORITIES : Boston — Record commissioners, Reports,
1885, xii. 39, xiii. 240. Porter, Rambles in old Boston,
p. 286. Drake, History of Boston, 1856, p. 606. Phippen,
Pedigree of Saltonstall. Brazer, A discourse on the life
and character of Hon. Leverett Saltonstall, Salem, 1845,
p. 52. Mass. hist. soc. Collections, 3d series, 1846, ix. 123.
Boston News-Letter, 28 June, 1739. Saltonstall, Memorials
of the Saltonstall family, pp 21, 141 (in press; title not de-
cided) . Sewall, Diary, 1882, iii. 394.
I70I-I702.
Anthony Stoddard, the second of the eleven
c hildren of Simeon Stoddard and nephew of Solo-
mon Stoddard, Harvard's first Librarian, was born
in Boston 24 September, 1678. He graduated in
1697, received his A.M. in 1700, and the next year
(1701-1702) acted as Librarian. Moving to Bos-
ton, where he seems to have become a citizen of
prominence, he held the following offices : justice
of the peace, 1728-48 ; justice of inferior court
of common pleas of Suffolk county, 1733-48;
member of the council for the province, 1735-42.
From his father, who died in 1730, a rich man for
those days, he inherited considerable property.
While in the council he served on several commit-
tees appointed in connection with the Spanish war
and the ezpedition against Carthagena in 1740. His
death took place 11 March, 1748. His wife, Mar-
tha, daughter of Andrew Belcher and sister of
Governor Jonathan Belcher, h;id died just a month
earlier. Of their three children, Simeon gradu-
ated from Harvard in 1726, and was "placed"
first in the class. There is a portrait of Anthony
Stoddard in the possession of a descendant in New
York.
AUTHORITIES : Boston Evening Post, Monday, 14 March,
1748. Colman, Sermon after the funeral of Simeon Stod-
dard, 1730. pp. 24. Stoddard, Chas., Anthony Stoddard
and his descendants, 1865, p. 3, and Appendix, 1873, p. 129.
Mass. hist. soc. Proceedings, 1881, xviii. 363-378. Prince,
Sermon on the decease of Mrs. Martha Stoddard, 1748.
pp. 24. Whitmore, Mass, civil list, 1870.
1702-1703.
Josiah Willard, the son of Samuel and his
second wife, Eunice (Tyng) Willard, was born in
Boston 21 June, 1681. His father was the pastor
of the South Church in Boston and, from 1701 to
1707, vice-president of Harvard College. Josiah
graduated in 1698, and received the degree of
A.M. in 1701. During the next year he was
Librarian and the three following years (1703-
1706) a tutor. He had studied for the ministry,
but, " on account of an unconquerable diffidence,"
gave up preaching. He then made several voyages
to the West Indies and to England, and at one
time was in command of a ship in the London
trade.
He married, 24 October, 1715, Katherine Allen
of Boston. She died in 1725, and the next year
(7 April, 1726) he married Mrs. Hannah Clarke,
who survived him. By these marriages he had
ten children.
In 1717, "George I. exceedingly gratified and
bless'd this Province, by appointing Him our
Secretary." For nearly forty years Willard filled
this important position, and, says Prince in his
funeral sermon, he was " a bright and most
amiable Example of Care, Diligence, Integrity,
Publick Spirit, Wisdom, Goodness and Gener-
ousity ; to the great Honour and Advantage, and
LIBEARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
to the universal Pleasure of his Country." He
was often spoken of as the "good Secretary."
He held two other public offices, — judge of pro-
bate for the county of Suffolk, 1731-45, and
member of the council for the province, 1734-56.
While in the latter office he acted as Overseer of
the College. He died 6 December, 1756, aged 76.
He was " a gentleman of polished manners, of
humane and generous feeling, demonstrated by
his deeds, of sterling intellectual gifts and literary
cultivation, and, above all, of noiseless, unostenta-
tious, but deep devotional character."
AUTHORITIES : Oliver, Poem sacred to the memory of the
honourable Josiah Willard, 1756. pp.16. Prince, The char-
acter of Caleb. In a sermon delivered after the funeral of
the honourable Josiah Willard, 1756. pp. 30. Sewall, A
sermon preached after the death of the honourable Jonah
Willard, 1756. pp. (2), 22. Willard, J., Willard Memoir,
1858, pp. 357, 368-9, 400-3. Willard, S., Memories, 1855, i.
254.
1703-1706.
John Whiting, born in Lynn, 20 January,
1681, was the sixth son of Rev. Joseph Whiting,
by his first wife, Sarah, daughter of Thomas
Danforth, deputy governor of Massachusetts. He
graduated from Harvard in 1700, and after taking
his A.M. degree was made Librarian. He kept
this office for three years (1703-6). During the
last year of his tutorship of five years (1707-1712)
he was a fellow of the Corporation. In the fall of
1711 he was chosen minister at Concord. It is
interesting to note that one of the two other candi-
dates for this position was Edward Holyoke, then
Librarian and afterwards President of the Col-
lege. He was ordained 14 May, 1712, receiving a
settlement of £100 and an annual salary of the
same amount. The latter, however, was increased
by frequent additional grants.
About the time that he went to Concord he mar-
ried Mary, the daughter of Rev. John Cotton
(Librarian, 1681-90). By this marriage he had
eight children. His first wife died in 1731, and
he married, second, Rebecca (Bulkley), widow of
Dr. Jonathan Prescott, of Concord. He had no
children by this second marriage.
John Whiting served as pastor to the church in
Concord for about twenty-six years. In 1738, as
the result of the religious controversies which
were at that time disrupting most New England
parishes, he was obliged to leave his pulpit, but
continued to preach to a few members of his old
flock who seceded from the church with him. He
die;l 4 May, 1752, at the age of 71.
" Mr. Whiting was one of the (then) old school,
quiet, modest, gentle, and persuasive." "He was
a man of wealth, learning, influence, and talents."
His epitaph tells us he was " a gentleman of
singular hospitality and generosity, who never
detracted from the character of any man, and was
a universal lover of mankind."
AUTHORITIES : Quiney, Hist, of Harvard, 1840, i. 278-9.
Shattuck, Hist. Concord, 1855, p. 165. Whiting, Memoir of
Rev. Sam'l Whiting, 1873, pp. 202, 206-16.
1706-1707.
John Gore, born 22 June, 1683, was the son of
Samuel, a carpenter, of Roxbury, and Elizabeth
Weld. He graduated from Harvard in 1702, took
his A.M. in course, and was Librarian from 1706
to 1707. He was admitted to the first church in
Cambridge 6 January, 1707. Gore afterwards be-
came a sea captain, and married Rebecca Smith,
12 May, 1713, but had no children. On a voyage
from London, in the fall of 1720, the small-pox
broke out on his ship. Several of the passengers
and crew had died of it. On their arrival in
Boston harbor Gore himself was not sick, but
although in those days when small-pox was both
more dreaded and less guarded against, there were
no quarantine laws, he refused to land for fear of
carrying the contagion. He remained on board
his vessel and in a few days died of the disease,
12 November, 1720, aged 37.
He "was a Gentleman of very good parts; of
great industry, knowledge, prudence, and cour-
age ; He excelled in Philosophy and Mathematical
learning; ... of strict, unaffected, rational and
immovable Piety ; ingenious, free and chearf ul in
conversation . . . one that seemed to be set as a
rare example for all ship-commanders and sea-
faring men to observe."
AUTHORITIES : Cooper. A sermon concerning the laying
the deaths of others to heart. Occasioned by the lamented
death of that ingenious & religious gentleman John Gore
M.A. of Harvard college in Cambridge N. E. who died of
the small-pox, Nov. 7 [sic] 1720. In the 38th. year of his
age. With an appendix containing something of Mr. Gore's
character, by the Reverend Mr. Colman. 1720. pp. (4) ,34, 6.
Glover, Glover memorials, 1867, pp. 120-3. Mass. hist. soc.
Proceedings, 1873-5, p. 424. Whitmore, Geneal. Payne and
Gore families, 1875, p. 28.
1707-1709.
Nathaniel Gookin, son of Rev. Nathaniel of
Cambridge and his wife Hannah Savage, and
nephew of Daniel Gookin, the third Librarian
of Harvard, was born 15 April, 1687. Graduat-
ing with the class of 1703, and receiving the
master's degree in 1706, he was appointed Libra-
rian the next year. Near the close of his service
of two years, the Treasurer, 16 September, 1709,
paid him £2 10s " for his pains in taking a Cata-
logue of ye Books in ye Library, about a year or
two ago." This seems to be in addition to his
regular salary of five or six pounds a year.
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
While acting as Librarian, Gookin occasionally
preached from neighboring pulpits. Sewall in his
Diary, under date of 5 December, 1708, has this
characteristic entry concerning him: "Mr. Na-
thaniel Gookin preaches in the forenoon ; I think
every time he mention'd James, 'twas with prefix-
ing Saint : about 4 or 5 times that I took notice
of. I suppose he did it to confront me and to
assert his own Liberty. Probably, he had seen
the Letter 1 wrote to Mr. Flint. Spake also of
Reverence in God's Worship; he may partly
intend being cover'd in Sermon-Time : It had
better becom'd a person of some Age and
Authority to have intermeddled in things of
such a nature. Qucedam Confidential non est
virtus, at audacia."
Early in the spring of 1710 the town of Hamp-
ton, N. H., voted "that Mr. Nathaniel Gookin
shall be called to the work of the ministry in the
town." The terms proposed, however, do not
appear to have been satisfactory to Gookin, and
it was not until 15 November, 1710, that he was
ordained as the pastor. Under the final terms, the
town agreed to pay the new minister £70 per
annum, one half to be in money and one half in
produce, to give him the use of the parsonage dur-
ing his ministry, and also twenty cords of wood
a year ; moreover, when he should have a family,
the £70 was to be increased to £80. In a little
more than a month after his ordination he married
(21 December) Dorothy Cotton, daughter of his
predecessor in the pulpit at Hampton — John
Cotton (Librarian, 1681-90). The increase of
ten pounds which he was thus able to claim so
soon could not have availed him much, for his
family grew rapidly, and no less than fourteen
children were the result of this marriage.
Mr. Gookin's ministry was long and successful,
and he greatly endeared himself to his people. In
1719, after the erection of a new meeting house,
the town voted to sell the old one " for the use &
benefitt of ye Reverd Mr. Nath1 Gookin." The
town also paid for the education of his son Na-
thaniel at Harvard (A.B. 1731); and after the
death of their pastor amply provided for his
widow during her life. The only matter of
especial interest during his pastorate is perhaps
his sermon preached on the afternoon preceding
the great earthquake of October, 1727. For his
text he took the words: "The day of trouble is
near," and in his discourse said he felt a strong
foreboding of some evil close at hand. It was but
a few hours later that the shock of the earthquake
was felt. From this incMent Mr. Gookin, although
disclaiming any such power, almost attained the
reputation of being a prophet ; at all events there
followed upon this a great religious awakening in
his church. This sermon, together with three
others preached after the earthquake, "and an
account of the Earthquake, in Hampton; and
something Remarkable of Thunder and Light-
ning, in 1727," Mr. Gookin had printed in Boston
the next winter in a pamphlet of over eighty
pages octavo. It forms his only publication.
Soon after this event, although he was still a
young man, Mr. Gookin's health began to fail,
mainly owing to throat trouble, and the town
voted to secure an assistant for him. His death
came on 25 August, 1734. At his funeral, which
was at the charge of the town, the sermon was
preached by Rev. Mr. Fitch. His colleague, Rev.
Ward Cotton, wrote in the town records an obitu-
ary of him, from which the following is extracted :
" He was justly esteemed by the most judicious, a
well accomplished Divine, a judicious Casuist ex-
cellently qualified both to feed & guide the flock
of Christ; an eminent preacher, excelling in the
most correct phrase, clear method, sound scrip-
tural Reasoning, a masculine style, manly voice,
grave utterance, and a lively, close application to
his hearers, with great affection, and yet free from
affectation. . . . He was a zealous asserter of the
civil Rights, and Religious liberties of mankind.
His temper was grave & thoughtful, yet at times
cheerful and free, and his conversation very enter-
taining. . . . He was much given to hospitality,
and took great pleasure in entertaining such as he
might improve [himself] by conversing with."
AUTHORITIES : Allen, American biog. and hist, dictionary,
1832, p. 420. Dow, Historical address at Hampton, 1839,
pp. 34-36. Dow, History of Hampton, 1893, pp. 187-189,
377-389, 735. Mass. hist. soc. Collections, 5th series, vi.
243; Proceedings, 1862, p. 351. jy. E. hist, and geneal.
register, i. 327-8, ii. 172. Sabin, Dictionary of books, vii.
339. Salisbury, family memorials, 1885, pp. 450-452. Sav-
age, Geneal. dictionary, 1860, i. 279. Shurtleff, Gospel
ministers, 1739, p. 31.
I709-I7I2.
Edward Holyoke, who was born in Boston, 25
June, 1689, was the son of Elizur and Mary (Elliot)
Holyoke. Entering College at the age of twelve,
he received his bachelor's degree in 1705 and his
master's degree in 1708. For three years (1709 to
1712) he was Librarian, and for four (1712 to 1716)
tutor. He was during the last three years of his
tutorship a fellow of the Corporation. In 1715
he and John Barnard (H. U. 1700) were rival
candidates for the place of assistant pastor to the
aged Mr. Cheever at Marblehead. Barnard was
elected, but some of the parish were dissatisfied
with the choice and withdrawing, organized a new
church, over which Holyoke was ordained 25
April, 1716. The two pastors, however, remained
close friends.
After the death of President Wadsworth in
1737, there was difficulty in choosing his sue-
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
cessor. The Corporation appear to have been
equally divided between Holyoke and Rev. Joshua
Gee (Librarian, 1721-22) ; while the Overseers
were at first strongly opposed to the former, both
because his orthodoxy was held not to be strictly
Calvinistic and because he was a country clergy-
man. The Corporation compromised by electing
the Rev. William Cooper, but he declined the office.
Finally, after over two months of discussion, the
Corporation unanimously elected Holyoke, and
two days later, 2 June, 1737, the Overseers unani-
mously confirmed the choice. The causes that
led to this change can hardly be determined;
Barnard in his Autobiography seems to attribute
it to his own influence on Governor Belcher, and
relates the conversation he had with him shortly
before Holyoke's election, in which he vouched
for the latter's scholarship and Calvinism. The
society at Marblehead, however, was unwilling to
let their pastor leave. Finally, at one of the
meetings to discuss the question, Mr. Barnard
prayed that they might have light in the matter,
and forthwith they accepted Holyoke's resigna-
tion. Afterwards, when it was asked why they
allowed him to go, it was said, as Barnard quaintly
relates, that "old Barnard prayed him away."
Holyoke's inauguration took place 28 Septem-
ber, 1737. His administration, the longest in the
history of the College, covered years of prosperity
and progress. A number of bequests were re-
ceived and new professorships established, and
several buildings were erected. New methods of
teaching and text-books were adopted, and the
laws governing the students were revised. The
early part of his term was disturbed by a con-
troversy with Whitefield. The revivalist had
attacked the College as a place of darkness
and irreligion. His charges were answered in a
pamphlet entitled "The testimony of the Presi-
dent, professors, tutors, and Hebrew instructor of
Harvard College, in Cambridge, against the Rev-
erend George Whitefield and his conduct" (1744).
To this Whitefield replied, and was answered in a
printed letter by Professor Wigglesworth, with an
appendix containing Holyoke's refutation of the
charge of inconsistency. Whitefield among other
things had declared that " Bad books are become
fashionable amongst them. Tillotson and Clarke
are read instead of Shepherd and Stoddard and
such like Evangelical writers." Wigglesworth's
answer to this charge indicates the kind of use the
students made of the Library in the middle of the
eighteenth century: "for almost nine years," as
was shown by an examination of the Library
records and "attested by the Library Keeper,"
"Tillotson had not been so much as once taken
out of the Library by any Undergraduate ; nor
any of Dr. Clark's Works for above two years :
Whereas Owen, Baxter, Flavel, Bates, Howe,
Doolittle, Willard, Watts, and Guyse (who be
sure most of them can be reckoned Evangelical
Writers, as well as Shepherd and Stoddard) have
some or other of them been borrowed by Under-
graduates during this whole time ; and that they
they are scarcely ever in the Library." Professor
Wigglesworth's letter ended the controversy so
far as the College was concerned, although the
pamphlet war outside continued long after. The
peace of the later years of President Holyoke's
long term was somewhat marred by trouble with
the students over the commons.
Holyoke continued the active duties of his office
until not long before his death, 1 June, 1769, in
his eightieth year. At his funeral, Professor
Stephen Sewall (Librarian, 1762-1763) delivered
a Latin oration.
Edward Holyoke was three times married : 1st
in 1717 to Elizabeth, daughter of John Browne,
of Marblehead ; 2d in 1725 to Margaret, daughter
of John Appleton and grand-daughter of Presi-
dent Rogers ; and 3d in 1742 to Mary, widow
of Samuel Epes of Ipswich. He had eleven
children.
President Holyoke published very little ; Quincy
suggests that it was owing to his being unwilling
as the head of the College to enter into contro-
versy. During his presidency his only publica-
tions, besides his part mentioned already in the
Whitefield incident, were a convention sermon, in
1741, on the " Duty of ministers of the Gospel to
guard against the pharisaism and sadducism of the
present day," and a Latin poem contributed to the
" Pietas et Gratulatio," sent by the College to
George III. on his accession. When a young man
he had edited several numbers of an almanac
(1715, etc.), and shortly before he became Presi-
dent he printed his sermon preached at the ordi-
nation of James Diman (Librarian, 1735-37)
over the church at Salem. The previous year
he had published his election sermon delivered
before Governor Belcher, which it is said influ-
enced the Governor in his favor. His Dudleian
Lecture, delivered in 1755, the first of the series,
was never printed. The manuscript of it, how-
ever, is preserved in the College Library, where
also may be found several manuscript sermons by
him, — some of them in short-hand.
Nathaniel Appleton, in his discourse after the
funeral of President Holyoke, thus describes his
appearance and character: "The former of our
Bodies gave him not only a comely Countenance,
and a graceful Presence, but an healthy, robust
and active Constitution of Body. And the Father
of our Spirits endowed him with supgriacJ'owers
of the Mind ; and by his kind
special Advantages for jjppj|?jp|rlu»d enlarging
i6
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
his mental Powers, in the various kinds of useful
Learning, by an earlier Admission and longer Con-
tinuance than common in that Society, over which
he has since for many Years so laudably presided.
. . . Idleness and Sloth was an Abomination to
him, so that he took Care to fill up his Time with
some useful Service or other : Some for the Health
of his Body ; others for the Improvement of his
Mind ; some for the gratifying a particular Genius,
and others for the accomodating his Family, or
for the public Good."
AUTHORITIES : Appleton, The crown of eternal life, 1769.
pp. 52. Essex inst. Hist, collections, 1861, iii. 59. Mass,
hist. soc. Collections, viii. 70-73; x. 158; 3d series, v. 217-
222. Peirce, Hist, of Harvard, 1833, pp. 174-316. Quincy,
Hist, of Harvard, 1849 , ii. 1-136. Roads, Marblehead, 1880,
pp. 42, 50, 359, 379. Sewall, Oratio funebris, 1769. pp. 2, 8.
Smith, C. C., iu Harvard graduates1 magazine, 1896, iv.
365-372 (portrait). Sprague, Annals Amer. pulpit, 1857,
i. 293.
I7I2-I7I3.
Thomas Robie, the son of William and Eliza-
beth (Greenough) Robie, was born in Boston 20
March, 1689. Graduating in 1708, and obtaining
his A.M. in 1711, he acted the next year (1712-13)
as Librarian. In April, 1714, he was chosen
"fellow of the House," as tutors at that time were
called; and eight years later (7 April, 1722) was
elected "fellow of the Corporation." This was
the time, under President Leverett, of the contro-
versy over the right of the resident fellows, or
tutors, to be also members of the Corporation.
It may have been partly this controversy that led
Robie to resign his position in the College in
February, 1722-3. He had preached occasion-
ally, but a report "that his sermons were only
heathenish discourses, no better Christianity than
was in Tully," caused him finally to withdraw
from the pulpit. He then became a physician and
settled in Salem. He was married to Mehitable
Sewall, daughter of Major Stephen Sewall and
sister of Chief Justice Sewall, who was Librarian,
1726-28. Three children were born to them.
Mr. Robie died in Salem, 28 August, 1729, at the
age of 41.
Thomas Robie was a man of good scientific
attainments ; many of his papers on mathematical
and physicial subjects were published in the
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
of London. He was " a handsome writer ; speci-
mens of his scientifick abilities, and his manner of
composing, may be found scattered in the maga-
zines and newspapers during 20 years of the 18th
century.". President Leverett wrote of him: "It
ought to be remembered that Mr. Robie was no
small honor to Harvard College by his mathe-
matical performances, and by his correspondence
thereupon with Mr. Durham and other learned
persons in those studies abroad." Besides his
contributions to periodicals and societies, Robie
published little. He edited several numbers of
an almanac and a few years before his resigna-
tion printed a "Sermon preached in the College
at Cambridge, to a society of young students"
(1721).
AUTHORITIES : Eliot, Biog. dictionary, 1809, p. 404. Felt,
Annals of Salem, 1827, p. 392. Peirce, Hist. Harvard, 1833,
pp. 113-118. Quincy, Hist. Harvard, 1840, i. 281, 294-5, 306,
309-10. Savage, Geneal. Dictionary, 1861, iii. 549. Winsor,
Memorial hist, of Boston, 1881, iv. 492.
I7I3-I7I4.
John Denisoii, the son of .John and Elizabeth
(Saltonstall) Denison, and the nephew of Na-
thaniel Saltonstall (Librarian, 1697-1701), was
born in 1688. His father was for many years the
minister at Ipswich. Graduating in 1710, he took
the degree of A.M. in 1713. He was Librarian
for a year from 1713 to 1714. He studied for the
ministry, but, on account of poor health, gave up
preaching after a year or two, and settled in
Ipswich as a lawyer. In this profession Denison
appears to have been very successful ; his Latin
epitaph in the old grave-yard at Ipswich speaks
of him as most skilled in jurisprudence. For
three years (1716-18) he was the representative
from Ipswich to the General Court, and later he
was lieutenant colonel and high sheriff of Essex
county. In 1719 he married Mary, daughter of
President Leverett of Harvard ; by this marriage
he had two children. He died at the age of 35,
on 25 November, 1724.
AUTHORITIES: Antiquarian papers, Ipswich, Feb., 1880.
Baldwin and Clift, Record of dependents of Capt. Geo.
Denison, 1881, p. 332. Felt, History of Ipswich, Essex, and
Hamilton, 1834, p. 175.
I7I4-I7I8.
John Rogers, born in 1692 (?), was the oldest
son of Rev. John Rogers, minister of Ipswich, and
Martha Whittingham. His grandfather was presi-
dent of Harvard 1682-1684. John took his first
degree in 1711 and his A.M. three years later.
He served as Librarian from 1714 to 1718, and
on 16 October of the latter year was married to
Susannah, sixth child of Major John Whipple of
Ipswich.
As early as 1715 Mr. Rogers was invited to
Kittery, Maine, to preach on probation. "His
labours proving acceptable he was continued
among them from year to year until suitable
materials were found for constituting a Church."
On the 22d of June, 1721, a church was organized
at Sturgeon Creek, the north or second parish of
Kittery, and Mr. Rogers, having accepted an invi-
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
tation to become the minister there, was ordained
25 October following. In this place (later called
Elliot) Mr. Rogers labored for over fifty years,
taking an active part in the work of the ministry,
and attending conventions and ordinations. He
preached at Gloucester, Mass., when his son
accepted a call to that church. Mr. Rogers was
unable to preach towards the close of his life, and
received Rev. Alpheus Spring as his colleague 29
June, 1768. He died five years later, 16 October,
1773, at the age of eighty-one. His wife, by whom
he had nine children, died 22 October, 1779.
AUTHORITIES : Greenlcaf, Sketches of eccl. hint, of
Maine, 1821, p. 32. Jf. E. hist, and geneal. rt'g. v. 320,
327 (where his son is incorrectly mentioned as librarian).
Putnam's Historical magazine, ii. 13. Williamson, History
of Maine, 1832, ii. 617.
I7I8-I72O.
"William Welsteed was born at Boston in
1695. His father, for whom he was named, was
naval officer of the port and a man of considerable
means ; Elizabeth, his mother, was the daughter
of Henry Bering of Boston. William graduated
at Harvard in 1716, and was Librarian from 1718
to 1720. The Rev. Samuel Mather, in his quaint
English, says: "As while he was young and
tender he not onely was desirous of knowledge
and sought after it, but he was swift to hear and
ready to obey good counsels, and both a lover of
good order and government and subject unto it.
So continuing the same after he came to years of
maturity, he was therefore judg'd to be, and there-
fore chosen as, a most suitable person by the cor-
poration and overseers of our little academy, to
have the instruction and ordering of a class in it."
This office of tutor he held from 1720 to 1728,
when he was ordained as second minister of the
New Brick Church, Boston, where he preached
until his death, 29 April, 1753. He married 16
January, 1728, Sarah, sister of Governor Thomas
Hutchinson, who survived him.
William Welsteed died of palsy, as did his
father, having "had a fixed impression on his
mind that he should be seized with it." It is
worthy of note that his colleague for fifteen
years, Ellis Gray (H. U. 1734), died, at the same
time and of the same disease. " They were not
especially distinguished men, but were accom-
plished and exemplary, diligent and useful."
His election sermon on "The dignity and duty
of the civil magistrate " was printed at Boston in
1751.
AUTHORITIES : Mather, The walk of the upright, with its
comfort. A funeral discourse after the decease of the Rev-
erend Mr. William WeMed who died April 29th, and Mr.
Ellis Gray, 1753. Allen, Amer. biog. and hint, dictionary,
1832. Winsor, Memorial hist, of Boston, 1881, ii. 226
(portrait).
I720-I72I.
William Cooke, or Cook, was born at Hadley,
Mass., 20 June, 1696, the son of Westwood and
Sarah (Coleman) Cooke. He graduated at Har-
vard in 1716 and took his A.M. in course. After
he had served a year (1720-21) as Librarian, the
Corporation elected him a tutor ; President Lev-
erett's ill health had made it impossible for him to
continue giving instruction to the students. The
Overseers, however, considered another tutor un-
necessary, and at once annulled the election.
At this time the inhabitants of Sudbury, living
on the west side of the river, had successfully
urged a division of the town into two parishes
on account of the difficulty of crossing the
water in winter. The east precinct was organ-
ized 25 June, 1722, and on 20 March, 1723, Mr.
Cooke was ordained as pastor. The salary, voted
by the town, varied from year to year. Wood was
furnished and the value deducted from the sum
appropriated. In 1733 the town voted twenty
pounds to Mr. Cooke "towards making up for
the loss of his barn," and also forty pounds as a
gratuity.
In "A sermon preach'd to a society of young
people, in Sudbury, on a Lord's-day evening,
October, 1730," there is evidence of a simple,
vigorous style and an earnest, kindly heart. The
language suits his purpose admirably. Several
other addresses are still accessible in printed form.
Mr. Cooke lived "in much harmony with his
people, and was highly esteemed by them for his
work's sake." After a long and successful minis-
try a lingering illness kept him from the pulpit
until his death, 12 November, 1760. Mr. Cooke's
wife was Jane, daughter of Major Stephen Sewall
of Salem and sister of Mitchel Sewall (Librarian,
1722-1723) . His only son, William, (H. U. 1748) ,
had died in 1758, after teaching the grammar
school since 1751.
AUTHORITIES: Hudson, History of Sudbury, 1889, pp.
290-1, 351-52. Judd, History of Hadley, 1863, p. 465. Mass,
hist. soc. Collections, 1816, 2d series, iy. 61.
I72I-I722.
Joshua Gee, the son of a respected tradesman
of the same name, was born in Boston, 29 June,
1698. He took his A.B. in 1717, his A.M. in
course, and served as Librarian of the College in
1721-1722. It was he who prepared the first
printed catologue of the Library, as is shown by
the following votes of the Corporation :
30 April, 1722. "Upon the Intimation lately
made by Mr Hollis, and formerly by Mr Neal, that
it may be of great advantage to the College Li-
brary, that a Catalogue of the Books in this
Library be printed and sent abroad, Voted, that
i8
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
forthwith the Library-keeper take an Exact Cata-
logue of the Books in the Library, and that the
Same be printed in Order to transmit to friends
abroad."
3 October, 1722. " That Mr Gee Library-keeper
having prepar'd a Catalogue of the Books belong-
ing to the Library for the press is desired to take
care to get 300 Copys printd off & stitch'd for the
use of the Corporation."
At the meeting at which the last vote was passed
Mr. Gee resigned, but the publication of the
catalogue he had made proceeded and it was
issued the next year in a small quarto volume of
106 pages, under the following title: " Catalogus
librorum Bibliothecae Collegij Harvardini quod
est Cantabrigiae in Nova Anglia. Boston! Nov-
Anglorum : Typis B. Green, academiae typographi.
MDCCXXIII." This is not only the first cata-
logue of the Harvard College Library, but proba-
bly the first library catalogue printed in America.
The " Prsemonitio ad Lectorem" described briefly
the arrangement of the Library and the catalogue.
The books, it says, are arranged in numbered cases
of seven shelves each, and the books on each shelf
are also separately numbered. Attached to each
case is an index of the books in it. By the direc-
tion of the Corporation, the catalogue is divided
into three alphabetical sections, according to the
size of the books, — folio, quarto, and octavo and
under. That the books may be readily found,
these numbers are given in the left hand margin,
while the right margin is devoted to the place and
date. The preface ends with an appeal .to the
reader: "Cum nullum in hujusmodi Laboribus
utcunque versatum lateat, quam proclive sit in
numerorum notis et ejusmodi aliis, identidem
errare ; nihil restat nisi ut fretus Lectoris Candore,
& Humanitate hie filum abrumpam." There are
about three thousand titles entered in this cata-
logue. The most of the works are theological,
and the Latin language predominates. In English
literature, Shakespeare and Milton are almost
alone, while in French the works of Clement
Marot are oddly enough nearly the sole repre-
sentative.
Mr. Gee was ordained 18 December, 1723,
pastor of the Old North, or Second, Church,
Boston, as the colleague of Rev. Cotton Mather.
In 1732, Mather having died four years before,
his son, Rev. Samuel Mather, was settled as col-
league of Mr. Gee. But a separation occurred
nine years later, and a new church was built
for Mr. Mather. In 1747 Samuel Checkley was
called as an assistant to Mr. Gee, who remained
an invalid until his death in Boston, 22 May,
1748.
His wife was Sarah, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel
Rogers of Portsmouth, N. H., a near relative of
President Rogers and of Rey. John Rogers (Li-
brarian, 1714-1718).
Joshua Gee was a powerful advocate of revivals,
and distinguished himself by his defence of White-
field, whom he entertained at his home in Boston.
He was a member of the assembly of clergymen
that met in Boston 7 July, 1743, to discuss the
progress of religion in this country. In a printed
letter to the moderator he complained of indiffer-
ence and the doctrinal errors prevalent among the
New England ministers. He is said to have been
considered as a possible successor to Wadsworth
as President of the College in 1737. His learning
and his penetrating mind gave him great influence
and made him feared as a possible "fire-brand
among the churches." Yet it has been said "his
foible was a strange indolence of temper. He
preferred talking with his friends to everything
else." As a preacher he was full of zeal and
convincing in argument. He greatly endeared
himself to his people, and was instrumental in
founding a library for the use of the church.
Beside the letter referred to above, Mr. Gee
printed a sermon preached after the death of
Cotton Mather in 1728, and the next year two
sermons under the title ' ' The straight gate and
the narrow way." It was said of him that he
" was reluctant to print his discourses, when
urged, because he must finish them with some
labour."
AUTHORITIES : Appleton, Oyc. of Amer. blog., 1887.
Quincy, Hist, of Harvard, 1840, ii. 3-4. Sprague, Annals
Amer. pulpit, 1857, i. 312-314. Winsor, Memorial hist, of
Boston, 1881, ii. 224, 227, 240.
1722-1723.
Mitohel Sewall, the seventh child of Major
Stephen Sewall of Salem, and Margaret, daughter
of Rev. Jonathan Mitchel, was born 29 October,
1699. He was with his uncle, Chief Justice
Samuel Sewall, at Cambridge on commencement
day in 1714, and at his graduation in 1718 the
Chief Justice "saw Mitchel Sewall hold a ques-
tion." He took his master's degree three years
later, and was Librarian of the College 1722-1723.
Mitchel soon returned to Salem, becoming
clerk of the court of sessions and common
pleas in 1725, and justice of the same in 1733.
James Jeffrey, in an interleaved almanac, men-
tions a journey to Ipswich 24 August, 1727,
with Mitchel Sewall, B. Lynde (afterward chief
justice), and others, to proclaim the king (George
II.), and adds that they "supped at Stanford's
anJ returned at 2 in the morning."
Sewall inherited his father's home in Salem,
where he lived until his death, 13 October, 1748,
" a very respectable and worthy citizen." His
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
first wife, whom he married 10 May, 1729, was
Mary Cabot. They had three daughters. By his
second marriage, 10 January, 1743, to Elizabeth
Price, he had one daughter and two sons. Jona-
than Mitchel Sewall, the youngest child of this
marriage, was a lawyer and poet, whose ode,
"War and Washington," was sung in the revo-
lutionary army.
AUTHORITIES: Essex inst. Hist, collections, iii. 3; vi.
106. JV. E. hist, and gen. Register, v. 48. Salisbury,
Family-memorials, 1885, pp. 188-189.
1723-1726.
John Hancock, minister at Braintree, Mass.,
was the son of Rev. John Hancock (H. U. 1689)
of Lexington, and Elizabeth, daughter of Rev.
Thomas Clark. He was born 1 June, 1702,
graduated at Harvard in 1719, taking his A.M.
in course, and served as Librarian 1723-1726.
During his term a supplement to the Catalogue
was printed. It was a small pamphlet of only five
leaves, without a title-page, and paged continu-
ously with the Catalogue of 1723. The heading
of the first page reads : " Continuatio Supple-
ment! Catalog! Librorum Bibliotheca? Collegij Har-
vardini, quod est Cantabrigia3 in Nova Anglia";
the colophon is "Boston! Nov-Anglorum : Typis
B. Green, Academic Typographi. MDCCXXV."
There is a copy of this supplement in the library
of the Massachusetts Historical Society, but the
College Library does not possess a copy.
Some years previously Thomas Hollis of Lon-
don, the first of the benefactors of that name, had
begun his long series of gifts of money and books
to the College. His letters still preserved contain
frequent references to the Library. The follow-
ing extract from a letter written in June, 1725,
presents a sorry picture of its condition at that
time: "Your library is reckoned here to be ill
managed, by the account I have of some that know
it, you want seats to sitt and read, and chains to
your valluable books like our Bodleian library, or
Sion College in London, you know their methods,
wch are approved, but do not imitate them, you
let your books be taken at pleasure home to Men's
houses, and many are lost; your (boyish) students
take them to their chambers, and teare out pic-
tures & maps to adorne their Walls, such things
are not good ; if you want roome for modern
books, it is easy to remove the less usefull into a
more remote place, but not to sell any, they are
devoted."
Mr. Hancock was ordained at Braintree 2
November, 1726, and proved himself an able
minister, a counsellor of moderation, yet a
forcible defender of his belief, industrious and
hospitable. His reply to the Rev. Joshua Gee's
attack upon the assembly of ministers which met
at Boston in 1743 is clear, concise, and not with-
out cutting repartee. He baptized President John
Adams. His brother Thomas founded the Han-
cock professorship of Hebrew and other Oriental
languages.
John Hancock married Mary Hawke, widow of
Samuel Thaxter, and died at Braintree (now
Quincy) 7 May, 1744. Of his three children, his
son, Governor John, was president of the conti-
nental congress, a signer of the Declaration
of Independence, and a donor of five hundred
pounds to the College towards replacing the
Library and philosophical apparatus after the
fire in 1764.
AUTHORITIES: Gay, Sermon preached at the funeral of
the Reverend Mr. John Hancock. 1744. pp. (2), 25. Hollis,
Letters (MS.). Hudson, History of Lexington, 1868, p. 85
(of gcneal. reg.). Pattee, History of Old Braintree and
Quincy, 1878, pp. 217-220. Quincy, Hist, of Harvard,
1840, i. 432. Sprague, Annals of Amer. pulpit, 1857, i. 240.
1726-1728.
Stephen Sewall, the twenty-fourth Librarian
of Harvard, and chief justice of Massachusetts,
was a nephew of Samuel Sewall, the second
Librarian of the College, chief justice of the
colony in 1718. His brother Mitchel was Libra-
rian 1722-1723, and Stephen, son of his cousin
Nicholas, held the position in 1762-1763.
Stephen was born at Salem 18 December, 1702,
the ninth child of Major Stephen Sewall and
Margaret, daughter of Rev. Jonathan Mitchel.
He graduated with the class of 1721, took his
A.M. in course, and for a time kept a school at
Marblehead, devoting much of his leisure to
preaching and to the study of divinity. Return-
ing to Cambridge, Sewall became Librarian at
Harvard in 1726. In 1728 he withdrew from
the Library, but held a tutorship until 1739.
"As a tutor he proved that there was a perfect
consistency between the most rigorous and reso-
lute exertion of authority and the most gentle and
complacent manners."
Turning his attention, meanwhile, to the study
of law, for which his mind seemed especially
fitted, he accepted in 1739 a seat on the bench of
the supreme court of Massachusetts. In 1752
he was appointed chief justice to succeed Paul
Dudley (H. U. 1690) ; he became also a member
of the council. These positions he held until his
death, 10 September, 1760.
Mr. Sewall doubted the legality of granting
general writs of assistance upon which the cus-
toms officers depended for their power to suppress
illicit trading. This view of the question brought
him into great favor with the patriotic party. He
died before passing final judgment.
20
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
He was of a reverent nature, modest, yet with
dignity becoming his position, and charitable even
to a fault, leaving his estate insolvent at his death.
Mayhew speaks of him as "of the two, rather of a
gay than of a grave turn " and of ' ' affable dis-
position, and singular delicacy of manners." In
pronouncing sentence of death his "moving,
pathetic counsels and admonitions . . . hardly
ever failed to force sighs and draw tears from
almost every person present."
AUTHORITIES : Mayhew, Discourse occasioned by the
death of the honourable Stephen Sewall, 1760. pp. 66.
Allen, Amer. biog. and hist, dictionary, 1832. Appleton,
Cyc. of Amer. biog. Salisbury, Memorials, 1885, p. 189.
1728-1729.
Joseph Champney, son of Joseph Champney
of Cambridge, was baptized 19 September, 1704.
He prepared for Harvard and graduated in 1721.
Later he became a master of arts. He fitted him-
self for the ministry, but held the position of
Librarian 1728-1729. Six months after the death
of Rev. Thomas Blowers of Beverly, Mr. Champ-
ney was called to take his place. To the ordina-
tion, 10 December, 1729, the neighboring churches
were invited, and twenty pounds were voted to
defray the expense. He was expected to preach
a monthly lecture and catechise the children. His
salary, £140 in province bills of credit, was to
change with the fluctuation of the bills. In 1749
this amounted to £660 old tenor, and in 1750 it
was £90 "lawful money." Either through Mr.
Champney's influence or the natural sentiment in
the congregation, the church gave only a half-
hearted support to the Cambridge platform and
the denominational organization which it advo-
cated. At about this time, and also shortly before
his death, Mr. Champney was brought into oppo-
sition to the work of Whitefield. He was, how-
ever, of a " peaceable temper and behavior, and a
steady, prudent conduct."
While the first mutterings of the Arminian theo-
logical feud were too faint to stir the people, Mr.
Champney's health began to fail. Mr. Joseph
Willard was called as his colleague in 1772, and
Mr. Champney died 23 February, 1773. A monu-
ment was erected over his grave at the expense of
his parish. "He was of medium stature, light
complexion, social habits, and, as was customary
with clergymen of his time, wore a wig and cocked
hat."
Mr. Champney was married 1 October, 1730, to
Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Mr. Blowers. She
died 13 January, 1732, at the age of nineteen,
leaving an infant son. By his second wife,
Thankful Pickens of Lynn, whom he married
in 1733, he had six children. She died 31 July,
1777. Their daughter Elizabeth was a successful
teacher for many years.
AUTHORITIES : Stone, History of Beverly, 1843, pp. 226-
230. Whitney, The Christian mother. An address . . .
at the funeral of Mrs. Susanna Champney, 1855, p. 18.
1729-1730.
Joseph Pynchon, the son of Col. John and
Bathshua (Taylor) Pynchon, was born in Spring-
field, 8 February, 1704-5. Graduating from the
College in 1726, he was made Librarian in the
year in which he received his second degree, and
served one year (1729-30). He studied both
medicine and divinity, and although he preached
at times, he had no regular settlement, and was
better known as a physician than as a preacher.
Settling first in Longmeadow, he may have been
the Joseph Pynchon who was a selectman of
Springfield in 1747. From 1747 to 1759 he was
a member of the council of the Colony. He mar-
ried, 13 October, 1748, Mary, widow of Rev.
Thomas Cheney of Brookfield, and daughter of
Rev. John Cotton of Newton. Shortly after-
wards he removed to Boston, where he seems
to have passed the remainder of his life. Little
is known of him; he is referred to as a "phys-
ician in Boston " by Belknap, but it was Dr.
Charles Pynchon who attained some fame for
his able and generous work among the poor of
Boston during the small-pox epidemic of 1764.
Dr. Joseph Pynchon is mentioned in the town
records occasionally as being on the various com-
mittees to visit the Boston schools. His death
occurred in October, 1765. By his will, dated
5 October and admitted to probate the 25th of
that month, he left his entire estate (consisting
in part of five farms in western New Hampshire,
one farm in Weston, and lands in Brookfield) to
his four minor daughters, over whom his brothers
Edward and Charles were appointed guardians.
His wife had died previously.
AUTHORITIES : Belknap's interleaved triennial. Boston —
Record commissioners, Report, 1887. Green, Springfield,
1888, p. 262. Longmeadow, Centennial celebration, 1884,
pp. 78-79 (geneal. appen.). N. E. hist, and gen. register
xxxviii, 47. Suffolk co. Probate records. Pynchon, Record
of the Pynchon family, 1894, p. 10. Whitmore, Mass, civil
list, 1870.
1730-1734.
Henry Gibbs, born 13 May, 1709, was the son
of Rev. Henry Gibbs of Watertown and Mercy
Greenough. He graduated in 1726 and received
his A.M. in 1729. He was Librarian for four
years, from 1730 to 1734. He afterwards was a
merchant in Salem, where he became a citizen
of considerable prominence. For several years
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
21
(1753-56) he was the representative from Salem
to the General Court, and for a time he acted
as clerk of the House. He was appointed, 25
January, 1754, a justice of the court of common
pleas for Essex County. He died, of the measles,
17 February, 1759.
Mr. Gibbs married, first, 31 January, 1739,
Margaret, daughter of Jabez Fitch; second,
28 May, 1747, Katherine, daughter of Josiah
Willard (Librarian, 1702-1703). He had three
sons and two daughters. Secretary Willard, his
father-in-law, wrote of him: "He is a man of
so universal good education, that I am persuaded
that Katy will be very happy with him."
AUTHORITIES: Felt, Annals of Salem. 2d ed. 1849, ii.
565. Gibbs, family notices, pp. 2-3. Savage, Geneal.
dictionary. Willard, Willard memoir, 1858, p. 402.
1734-1735.
Samuel Coolidge, the son of Lieutenant
Richard Coolidge and his second wife, Susanna
, was born at Watertown, 16 August, 1703.
He graduated from College with the class of
1724, and took his A.M. in 1727. Immediately
after graduating he had been the schoolmaster
in Watertown. He was Librarian for the year
1734-35. In 1738 we find him serving as chap-
lain at Castle William in Boston harbor. He is
said to have been a man of brilliant parts, but
very eccentric. One of his many peculiarities
was his habit of talking in Latin. During the
latter part of his life he became intemperate and
was probably insane. He never married. He
died a pauper at the age of 63, and was buried
at the expense of the town of Watertown, 13
January, 1767.
His only publication was a sermon with the fol-
lowing title : A sermon preached at his Majesty's
Castle William, March 26, 1738. Upon the much
lamented death of her late most excellent majesty
Caroline, queen-consort of the most puissant
George the second, by the grace of God, of Great
Britain, France, and Ireland, king, defender of
the faith, &c. Whom God bless and preserve
with long life, health and honour and all worldly
happiness. By Samuel Coollidge, A.M. chaplain
of the Castle. * * * Boston : N E. printed and
sold by S. Kneeland & T. Green, in Queen-street.
1738. 12°. pp. (4), 26.
AUTHORITIES : Bond, Genealogies of Watertown, 1860,
pp. 168, 748. Savage, Geneal. Dictionary.
1735-1737.
James Diman was born 29 November, 1707,
in East Hampton, L. I., the eldest son of Thomas
Diman and Hannah Finney. In 1730 he gradu-
ated from Harvard, and three years later received
the degree of A.M. He was appointed Librarian
in 1735 and served until the spring of 1737.
During his term a new code of laws for the
administration of the Library was adopted by
the Corporation.* In February of that year he
was called to the pastorate of the Second, or
East, church in Salem. At his ordination there,
11 May, 1737, the sermon was preached by Ed-
ward Holyoke (Librarian, 1709-1712), then the
pastor of the church in Marblehead. Mr. Di-
man, it is recorded, was to have a salary of
" 150 ounces of silver, at 6/8 an oz., and a free
contribution." By his marriage with Mary Orne,
6 December, 1743, he had seven children.
His ministry in Salem of over fifty years was in
the main prosperous and peaceful. He was, how-
ever, an old-school Calvinist, and at the end of
his pastorate his parishioners were growing away
from his rigid orthodoxy. This increasing differ-
ence of views culminated in the calling as col-
league to the aged pastor a young Unitarian
minister, Rev. William Bentley (H. U. 1777).
After this the senior pastor withdrew more and
more from the parish work, until his death, 8
October, 1788, at the age of 81.
James Diman is described as a man of " grave
aspect, invested with imposing dignity — rather
stern and awe-inspiring — peculiar to the ministry
of the age of huge wigs, which were the symbol
of the clerical authority and the orthodox theology
of the day."
His only publication was: A sermon, preached
at Salem, January 16, 1772. Being the day on
which Bryan Sheehan was executed, for commit-
ting a rape, on the body of Abial Hollowell, the
wife of Benjamin Hollowell, of Marblehead. By
James Diman, A.M., Pastor of the Second Church
in Salem. Salem : printed by Samuel and Ebe-
nezer Hall, near the Exchange. MDCCLXXII.
8°. pp. 24.
He delivered the charge or gave the right hand
of fellowship at the ordinations of Rev. Enos
Hitchcock at Beverly in 1771, of Rev. Thomas
Barnard, Jr., in 1773, of Rev. John Prince, 1779,
and of his colleague, Rev. William Bentley, 1783,
and these were printed with the ordination sermons
on those occasions.
AUTHORITIES : Dimond, Geneal. of the Dimond or Dimon
fam., 1891, pp. 114-5. Felt, Annals of Salem, 2d ed., 1849,
ii. 597, 602, 619, 626. Kurd, Hist, of Essex co., 1888, p. 42.
Osgood and Batchelder, Hist, sketch of Salem, 1879, p. 86.
I737-I74L
Thomas Marsh, son of Thomas Marsh and
Mary Burr of Hingham, was born 20 January,
1711. He graduated at Harvard in 1731. On
* See Appendix II.
22
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
20 May, 1737, he was elected Librarian at a
salary of £25 per annum, and served until 1741.
The following interesting action was taken
during the first year of his connection with the
Library : —
21 March 1737/8 voted : " That the Members of
the Corporacon in Town wth Mr Stewd Boardman
be a Comtee to provide Boxes for the Books in the
Library, fitted wth handles &c wrby the said Li-
brary may be Speedily & Safely remov'd in case
of Fire."
In 1741 he received a unanimous call to become
minister of the church in Rutland, but preferred
to accept the position of tutor at Harvard. The
duties of this office he performed very satisfactorily
from 1741 to 1766. On January 6 of this year he
married Hannah Sprague, and upon his marriage,
according to the rules of the College, he sent in
his resignation. At a meeting of the Corporation
of the College 1 September, 1766, this acknowledg-
ment of his services was placed upon the records :
" The Time of Mr. Thomas Marsh's being Tutor
of this House & Fellow of the Corporation, being
now expir'd, Voted, That the Thanks of the Cor-
poration be given to the sd Mr Marsh, for his long
& Faithful Services in those Capacities, & That
his Allowance as a Tut1 be continued to the End
of his present Quarter, being the Eleventh of this
Instant." Mr. Marsh was a fellow of the College
from 1755 to 1766.
On the 14th of June, 1777, he purchased of
John Stratton a dwelling-house, barn, and forty
acres of land in Watertown. This estate he made
his home, taking his nephew, John Marsh, into his
family. At his death in Watertown, 22 September,
1780, he left a considerable estate, the use of which
was given to his wife during her lifetime. His
nephew, John, eventually inherited nearly all this
property in Watertown, Westminster, Stoddard
(New Hampshire) , and elsewhere. The inventory
mentions portraits of Newton and Montagne ; and
fifteen sermons, these valued at one shilling and
three pence, a rather discouraging estimate ! The
inscription on his tomb was written by " Mr
Sewall." He left no children. His widow soon
returned to Cambridge, where she died 24 October,
1788, aged 84.
AUTHORITIES : Marsh, Geneal. of the family of George
Marsh, 1887, p. 42. Reed, Hint, of Rutland, 1836, p. 83.
Corporation records. Middlesex County Deeds and Wills.
I74I-I742.
Belcher Hancock, the son of a Cambridge
shoemaker, Nathaniel Hancock, and of Prudence
Russell, his wife, was born 24 April, 1709. He
took his degree at Harvard in 1727, but we have
found no record of his life during the ten years
following. In 1741-42 he acted as Librarian of
the College, and for the next twenty-five years
held the position of tutor. From 1760 to 1767 he
was also a fellow of the Corporation.
Sidney Willard, in his "Memories of youth and
manhood," tells an amusing story of Hancock's
last year at Harvard. When it was made known
to the tutor in 1766 that he would not be reelected
for another term of three years, he asked to be
chosen again with the understanding that he
should resign shortly after the appointment was
announced. When reelected, however, Hancock
deliberated a whole year before handing in his
resignation. He died unmarried 8 November,
1771, aged 62.
AUTHOITIES: Paige, History of Cambridge, 1877. Wil-
lard, Memories, 1855, p. 34.
1742-1743.
Benjamin Prat was born 13 March, 1710-11,
in that part of Hingham now called Cohasset, the
fourteenth child of Aaron Pratt, a farmer and
constable. He began life as a mechanic. When
about nineteen years of age he fell from an apple-
tree and was so badly injured that his leg had to
be "taken off up to the hip." Incapable now of
earning his livelihood in the ordinary ways open
to a young man in a country town, he fitted for
Harvard and graduated in 1737. He continued
to suffer from this accident, and at times the pain
was so great that the sweat stood out on his face
as he bent over his books. He was accounted the
lowest in social rank in his class. Three years
later he received the degree of A.M. In 1742-
1743 he had charge of the Library. For a short
time he went from one to another of the islands in
Boston harbor, preaching to the Indians and teach-
ing them. He studied law with Judge Robert
Auchmuty, and opened an office on King, now
State, street, north-east of the Old State House.
He rose rapidly in his profession and associated
himself with the leading men of the time. From
1757 to 1759 he represented Boston in the General
Court (the second member of the legal profession,
it is said, who attained to that position) , and became
advocate general for Massachusetts. He had a
country house at Milton Hill, with 160 acres,
where his love for historical study and poetry
would have led him, had not his professional
business kept him in the midst of affairs. Through
Gov. PownalPs influence he was early in 1761
appointed chief justice of New York and a mem-
ber of its council. In October, 1761, a group of
his friends accompanied him as far as Dedham
on his journey to New York, which was under-
taken hastily on account of the unsettled condition
of the courts there. His fellow-members of the
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
Boston bar joined in a laudatory address to him on
his departure. In 1762, having been obliged to re-
turn to Milton chiefly from lack of money, he
appealed to the Lords of Trade for his salary, which
had been denied him by three successive sessions
of the Assembly because his commission had not
been granted during good behaviour. Mr. Prat
went back to New York, however, and in June
the Lords of Trade declared in an address to the
king that "had it not been for the disinterested
zeal of Mr. Prat, the administration of Justice
had totally ceased in the Province." As a partial
settlement of the dispute the Chief Justice's salary
was paid out of the quit-rents, as suggested by
Lieut. Gov. Golden. At first many felt a preju-
dice for Mr. Prat as a stranger, but before his
death, which occurred 5 January, 1763, his ability
began to win recognition. He attempted to stop
corrupt practices and extortion among the lawyers.
Says Mr. Golden : " He was received with contempt
& displeasure. He died beloved and regretted as
the greatest loss the Province ever suffered."
Chief Justice Prat was buried under the chancel
in Trinity church. John Adams pictured him as
"wit, sense, imagination, genius, pathos, reason,
prudence, eloquence, learning, and immense read-
ing, hanging by the shoulders on two crutches,
covered with a great cloth coat."
Besides his ability as a lawyer and a judge ("he
was," says Hutchinson, " of the first character in
his profession"), he wrote poetry, which in those
not too critical days was highly esteemed.
His wife was a daughter of Judge Robert Auch-
muty. His daughter Isabella inherited the prop-
erty at Milton Hill.
AUTHORITIES: Mass. hist. soc. Proceedings, 1864, p. 35.
History of Ifingham, 1893, iii. 116. O'Callaghan, Colonial
History of New York, vii. Winsor, Memorial hist, of Bos-
ton, 1881, ii. 430, iv. 575-7.
1743-1748.
Matthew Gushing, the son of Solomon and
Sarah (Loring) Gushing of Hingham, was born
4 April, 1720. His father, a tanner by trade,
was a selectman and a deacon. Matthew gradu-
ated from Harvard in 1739. The winter after he
was granted his second degree, he was chosen (21
February, 1742-3) Librarian. On the following
Commencement (6 July, 1743), the Corporation
passed this vote : " That Mr. Gushing Library-
keeper be call'd to an Account with Respect to his
Absence from the Library to Day Whereby the
Overseers & Corporation were hindred from going
in." It is to be presumed that he was able to give
a satisfactory excuse for this negligence, as he
seems to have served as Librarian for five years.
Of Mr. Cushing's later career but few details
are to be found. In September, 1749, the town
of Charlestown granted him permission to keep a
private school in that place, and the next spring,
when the town voted to maintain two public
schools, he was appointed master of the Latin
school with a salary of £60 a year. Here he
taught a year, until the summer of 1751, when
the two schools were merged into one. Five
years later we find him teaching school in Plym-
outh for two years, 1756-1758, and then again we
lose all trace of him, until in 1763 he was chosen
master of the grammar school, then newly estab-
lished in connection with King's College (now
Columbia University), in New York. The next
year that college gave him the honorary degree
of A.M. The grammar school does not appear
to have been a success, for in a few years reforms
were thought necessary and the expenses were
reduced. One of the two teachers was dismissed,
but whether it was Gushing or his colleague, Alex-
ander Leslie, does not appear. As a new master
was not appointed until five years after the form-
er's death, it would seem probable that it was the
latter who was retained in the school. In this
case, the last dozen years of Mr. Cushing's life
are a blank to us. He died in New York, 8 Janu-
ary, 1779.
AUTHORITIES : Columbia College, Catalogue of officers
and graduates, 1754-1888, p. 34. Cushing, Genealogy of
the Cushing family, 1877, p. 29. Historical sketch of
Columbia college, 1876, pp. 24, 28. History of the town
of Hingham, 1893, ii. 157. Mass. hist. soc. Collections,
2d series, iv. 90, 95. Wilson, Memorial history of New
York, 1893, iv. 592. Winsor, Memorial history of Boston,
1881, ii. 321. Wyman, Genealogies and estates of Charles-
town, 1879, i. 254.
i748-i75o(?).
Oliver Peahody, the oldest son and second
child of Rev. Oliver Peabody, minister at Natick,
Mass., and missionary to the Indians, was born 15
January, 1725-6. His mother was Hannah Baxter,
daughter of the Rev. Joseph Baxter of Medfield.
Oliver graduated in 1745 and became Librarian
in the year in which he received his second de-
gree, 1748. In September, 1749, he was reflected
for one year, and the following fall he was chosen
pastor of the First church in Roxbury, where he
was ordained 7 November, 1750. As no record
appears of the appointment of a successor to him
at the Library until the election of Marsh as Li-
brarian pro tempore in April, 1751, it would seem
either that he continued during the first few
months of his pastorate to carry on the duties
of Librarian or that there was no " Library-
keeper " during that time. After less than two
years of labor in this parish, Mr. Peabody died,
unmarried, 29 May, 1752, at the age of 26. The
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
house that he built for a parsonage during his
brief ministry is still standing. The minister to
the Indians of Natick and his family were remem-
bered with peculiar reverence and love by the
townspeople, on account of their piety, learning,
and their simple and kindly natures. The College,
too, took paternal care of the elder Peabody,
making several grants to him, and after his death,
shortly before his son's, paying his funeral ex-
penses.
AUTHORITIES : Allen, Amer. biog. and hist, dictionary,
1832. Endicott, Geneal. of Peabody family, 1867.
1751.
Perez Marsh, son of Captain Job Marsh, town
clerk of Hadley, and Mehitabel, daughter of Hon.
Samuel Porter, was born at Hadley, 25 October,
1729. He graduated from Harvard in 1748, and
in the spring in which he took his second degree
the Corporation passed, 24 April, 1751, the follow-
ing vote : " 1 : That Sr Marsh be Library-Keeper
till the Commencement, after wch it shall be con-
sider'd, what Proportion of the established Salary
of that Officer, shall be allow'd to him . . . 3. That
the Consideration of the Choice of the Library-
keeper for the next year be left to the next Meet-
ing." The matter, however, was not taken up
until the fall, when, 16 September, 1751, the fol-
lowing rote was passed: "Vote 1. That whereas
Sr Marsh who was chosen Library-keeper, pro
Tempore, at our Meeting Apr. 24. 1751, at which
time it was proposed to give him, for sd Business,
some Proportion of the established Salary of sd
Office, the sd Proportion was now debated upon,
And inasmuch as it appears to us, That he hath
been very negligent in the Business he was ap-
pointed to Voted that he have allow'd him, for
what Care he hath taken of said Library viz. Dur-
ing the Space of nine Weeks, no more than the
Sum of thirteen Shillings and four pence." From
this it appears that, although his name has always
been included in the list of Librarians, Marsh was
in reality only Librarian pro tempore during a few
weeks of the summer of 1751.
In 1754 Mr. Marsh received an honorary A.M.
from Yale, and at about this time, although the
year is uncertain, he settled in Dalton, where he
soon became one of the leading men in western
Massachusetts. His marriage, about 1759, to
Sarah, daughter of Colonel Israel Williams of
Hatfield, allied him to the more prominent families
of the county. Although Dr. Marsh is mentioned
as a surgeon at Lake George in 1755, it is doubtful
if he ever practised the profession in Dalton. He
was the proprietor of a very successful tavern.
From 1765 to 1781 he was nominally judge of the
court of common pleas for Berkshire, although it
was not allowed to sit after September, 1774.
Dr. Marsh died at Dalton 20 May, 1784. Of his
eleven children, Martha married Thomas Gold,
and was the grandmother of Thomas Gold Apple-
ton and of Mrs. Henry W. Longfellow.
AUTHORITIES : Beers, History of Berkshire County, i.
Marsh, Genealogy of Marsh family, 1886. Winthrop,
Nathan Appleton, 1861, p. 63.
I75I-I753.
Stephen Badger was born in Charlestown, 26
April, 1726. He was the son of Stephen, a potter,
and Mary Noseitor. He graduated in 1747. After
taking his A.M. he was appointed (16 September,
1751) Librarian, and served for two years. 27
March, 1753, he was ordained as missionary over
the Indians at Natick, succeeding Rev. Oliver
Peabody (H. U. 1721) in this office. On the Col-
lege records, under dates of 9 January and 7
February, 1753, appear two votes of the Corpora-
tion, by which they express their interest in the
Indian lectureship and agree to grant Mr. Badger
annually one moiety of the Boyle donation,
amounting to £22 10s., and to give also the sum
of forty pounds towards building him a house on
land given him by the Indians, this money to be
returned to the College if he should leave his
charge within ten years, and provided further that
the Corporation for propagating the gospel in New
England should grant him like sums. Over the
congregation here, composed mostly of Indians
and half-civilized whites, he presided forty-six
years. His ministry was disturbed by a violent
controversy about the location of the meeting-
house, and after his retirement in the summer of
1799 the church was dissolved. He was twice
married, first, to Abigail Hill of Cambridge, by
whom he had seven children ; and second, to
Mrs. Sarah ( ) Gould of Boston. He died
28 August, 1803, at the age of 78.
"In stature Mr. Badger did not exceed the
middle height; his person was firm and well
formed ; his manners dignified and polished ; and
his countenance intelligent and pleasing . . . His
sermons were mostly practical, free from the pe-
dantick, technical terms of school divinity, written
at full length, and read without any attempt at
oratory." Although he did not openly avow it, in
religious faith he is said to have been a Unitarian.
Mr. Badger printed in 1774 two temperance ser-
mons under th6 title, "The nature and effects of
drunkenness considered ; with an address to tavern-
keepers, to parents, and young people, relating to
the subject." This was reprinted in substance in
1811 by the Massachusetts Society for promoting
Christian knowledge. He contributed to the col-
lections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (v.
32-42, 1798) a paper on the " Historical and char-
acteristic traits of the American Indians in general,
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
and those of Natick in particular." In the Colum-
bian Centinal appear some essays on electricity by
him. In 1784 he issued a pamphlet to prove that
" a publick, formal and explicit confession " was
not necessary for admission into the Christian
church.
AUTHORITIES: Allen, Amer. biog. and hist, dictionary,
2d ed., 1832, p. 63. Bacon, History of Natick, 1856, pp.
65-71. Bigelow, History of Natick, 1830, pp. 59-69, 77-83.
Moore, Sermon at Natick, 5 Jan., 1817, pp. 13-14. Wyman,
Geneal, and estates of Gharlestown, 1879, i. 44.
1753-1755.
John Rand, born in Charlestown, 24 January,
1726-7, was the son of Jonathan Rand, a hatter,
and Mellecent Estabrook. He graduated in 1748.
In the spring of the year in which he took his
master's degree (1751) he taught for a few months
the town school of his native place. By the fol-
lowing vote of the Corporation, 21 May, 1753, he
was appointed Librarian: "That Mr. Rand be
College Library-keeper for one year from this
Day, and that he be allow'd for that Service the
Sum of six Pounds, provided He take due Care of
the Trust in that regard reposed in Him accord-
ing to ye Library Laws." He retained the office
two years.
In 1756 the town of Lyndebprough, N. H. , de-
termined to establish a church, and invited John
Rand, who had been preaching there occasionally,
to become the first minister. His ordination did
not take place until 7 December, 1757. The
society voted to give him, in addition to a
settlement of forty pounds, an annual salary of
the same amount, a certain quantity of wood,
and " one shilling each for each soul in town, and
to increase the number of shillings according to
the increase of the number of souls." His minis-
try was a short one, for he was dismissed 8 April,
1762. Some time previously he had married
Sarah, daughter of John Goffe, of Derryfield,
now Manchester, N. H., and he now moved to the
latter place. After leaving Lyndeborough he
does not seem to have preached regularly, but
ministered at times to a few friends of the Episco-
palian faith, to which denomination he was said to
have inclined. He entered to some extent public
life, holding a commission as justice of the peace,
and after his removal to Bedford in 1778, being
town clerk there and representing the town in the
New Hampshire constitutional convention. He died
in Bedford, 12 October, 1805.
Rand was a man of some prominence in the com-
munities in which he lived, but in his personal
affairs he never prospered. Perhaps his family
of seven children and his own somewhat roving
disposition kept him in poverty. His friends often
had to aid him financially. John Hancock and
other creditors at one time signed a paper granting
him exemption from arrest for certain debts.
AUTHORITIES : Clark, Hist, address at Lyndeborough,
Sept. 4, 1889, 1891, pp. 41-42. Hist, of Bedford, N. H.,
1851, pp. 269-271, 326. Wallace, John Rand in Granite
monthly, x. 1, (Jan., .1887). Winsor, Memorial hist, of
Boston, 1882, ii. 321. Wyman, Geneal. and estates of
Charlestown, 1879, ii. 786.
1755-1757.
Mather Byles was born in Boston 12 Janu-
ary, 1734-5. His father, Dr. Mather Byles, was
for many years the pastor of the Hollis Street
Church in Boston. Mather the younger gradu-
ated from Harvard in 1751, and took his A.M.
three years later. Other degrees granted to him
were A.M. (honorary) by Yale in 1757, and
S.T.D. by Oxford in 1770. He was Librarian
for two years from 1755 to 1757. It was dur-
ing his Librarianship that Benjamin Franklin
attempted to -start a general subscription to pro-
cure funds for the increase of the Library. In a
letter dated at Philadelphia, 11 September, 1755,
and addressed to Thomas Hancock, he expressed
great interest in the College and his feeling of the
necessity of a fund to provide for the purchase of
books. He enclosed a subscription paper to be
circulated and signed by such friends of the Col-
lege as should be ready to give a sum of money
annually for five years. He also sent his own
order for the payment of " Four Pistoles, or Four
Pounds Eight Shillings Lawful Money." Of this
gift he wrote, " 'Tis but a Trifle compar'd with
my hearty Good-will and Respect to the College,
but a small Seed, properly Sown, sometimes pro-
duces a large and fruitful Tree ; which I sincerely
wish may be the good Fortune of this." But this
seed must have fallen on barren ground, for no
further subscriptions were made nor was Frank-
lin's own order ever collected.
In the spring of 1757 Byles preached to the
Congregational church at New London, Conn.,
and that society unanimously called him, 28 July,
to the pastorate. At his ordination, 18 November,
1757, the sermon was preached and the charge
delivered by his father. His ministry here, last-
ing a little over ten years, was much disturbed by
the constant quarrelling between his parish and
the Quakers in the town. In April, 1768, Mr.
Byles astounded his congregation by announcing,
in a special parish meeting, that he had become a
convert to Episcopalianism, and requesting an im-
mediate dismissal, as he had already received a call
from Christ Church in Boston. His salary in the
new position was to be £100 a year and a dwelling-
house, — more than he was receiving in New Lon-
don ; he offered, however, to return the sum
26
LIBEAKIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
of £180 which had been given to him as a gra-
tuity. The records of the New London church
state that Mr. Byles " dismissed himself from the
church and congregation." His change of faith,
although at the time it excited considerable com-
ment and no little ridicule, was no doubt perfectly
sincere.
Before settling in Boston he went to England
to take orders, the society paying the expense of
the journey. Returning in September, he began
his work in his new parish. After some years,
various differences, mainly political, arose be-
tween him and his parishioners, and Dr. Byles
determined to accept an invitation to become
minister of St. John's Church in Portsmouth,
N. H. His resignation was accepted 18 April,
1775 ; but the outbreak of the war prevented his
going to Portsmouth. He was a staunch loyalist,
and after suffering many hardships, fled to Hali-
fax. His name appears on the list of those pro-
scribed by the act of 1778. In Halifax he was
chaplain to the garrison and assistant to the rector
of St. Paul's. In 1788 he was chosen rector of
the parish of St. John, N. B. Here he remained
until his death, 14 March, 1814.
Dr. Byles was twice married, first to the sister
of Dr. Walter, rector of Trinity and many years
afterward of Christ Church; and second, to Sarah
Lyde, whom he married in Halifax in 1777.
Mather Byles, Jr., does not seem to have been
possessed of the sparkling wit for which his father
was long remembered in Boston. He has left us
a number of printed sermons, among them : The
Christian Sabbath explained and vindicated (New
London: 1759), and two thanksgiving sermons
"for the late signal successes" of the British
troops (New London : 1760, and St. John's, N. B.
1778). He also printed a "Debate between the
Rev. Mr. Byles, late pastor of the First Church in
New London, and the brethren of the Church."
(1768.)
AUTHORITIES : Appleton's Cyclopedia of American biog-
raphy, 1887, i. 485. Atlantic monthly, Ixvii. 859 (June, 1891).
Burroughs, Hist, account of Christ Church, 1874, pp. 23-27.
Caulkins, Hist, of New London, 1852, pp. 489-498. Mass,
hist. soc. Proceedings, 1862-63, pp. 354-6. Sabine, Ameri-
can loyalists, 1847, p. 192. Sprague, Annals of Amer.
pulpit, 1857, i. p. 379- "Winsor, Memorial hist, of Boston,
1881, iii. 128, 448.
1757-1758.
Elizur Holyoke, born in Boston, 11 May, 1731,
was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Brigham)
Holyoke, and the nephew of President Edward
Holyoke. Graduating from Harvard in 1750, he
took the degree of A.M. in course. His Libra-
rianship covered only the years 1757-58. In the
late fall of the latter year, the first church and
parish in Boxford, Mass., which had long been
without a minister, called him to the pastorate.
His annual salary was to be £66.13.4 and twenty
cords of wood, in addition to £160 at settlement.
Having accepted this call, although with some
hesitation, he was ordained 31 January, 1759.
Elizur Holyoke married, 13 November, 1760,
Hannah, daughter of Rev. Oliver Peabody of
Natick, and sister of the Oliver Peabody who was
Librarian from 1748 to 1750. Eight children were
born from this union.
Mr. Holyoke's pastorate at Boxford was long and
uneventful. In its earlier years, there was a vio-
lent controversy over the substitution of " Tate &
Brady's New Version of the Psalms " for the old
version. In 1782, £6 were added to the minis-
ter's salary. In February, 1793, Mr. Holyoke had
a stroke of paralysis, from which, although he
preached occasionally during the rest of that year,
he never fully recovered. Although he was able
to perform none of the duties of pastor, his salary
was continued and no successor was appointed.
In 1798 an effort was made by the parish to lead
him to resign or to accept a small annual payment
instead of his salary, but his family, for the aged
minister was now too infirm to take any part in
the discussion, objected to this arrangement, and
so the relations of parish and pastor continued.
He died, after a sickness of thirteen years, 31
March, 1806. He was buried in Boxford, near the
church over which he had been the pastor for
forty-seven years.
AUTHORITIES : Essex institute, Hist, collections, 1861, iii.
60-61. Perley, History of Boxford, 1880, pp. 191-194, 267-273.
1758-1760.
Edward Brooks, the son of Samuel and Mary
(Boutwell) Brooks, was born at Medford, Mass.,
4 November, 1733. His father was a wealthy land-
owner and slaveholder in the town. Edward, the
son, took his A.B. at Harvard in 1757 and before
he took his second degree, was elected Libra-
rian by the following vote, 26 December, 1758 :
" That Mr. Holyoke who hath been our Library-
keeper, being about to leave the College, Voted,
That Sr Brooks our Present Butler have the Care
of the Library committed to Him, till the semi-
annual Meeting of the Corporation in April next."
This appointment was confirmed in April, 1759,
and he continued to hold both offices, Butler and
Librarian, until Deane's election as his successor
in the summer of 1760. He received a call to the
First Church, at North Yarmouth, Maine, and
was ordained 4 July, 1764. Mr. Brooks found
the members of bis congregation rigid Calvinists,
to whom his more liberal theology became less
and less acceptable as time went on. In March,
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
1769, he resigned and returned to Medford.
On the memorable 19th of April, 1775, he did
active service, and in 1777 became chaplain to the
frigate "Hancock." The " Hancock," under the
command of Capt. Manly, captured the British
frigate "Fox" but was in turn overpowered off
Halifax. After his release, Mr. Brooks returned
to Medford, where he lived until his death, 6
May, 1781.
His wife was Abigail, daughter of Rev. John
and Joanna (Cotton) Brown, of Haverhill. Of
his four children, the second child, Peter Char-
don Brooks, became a distinguished merchant
of Boston.
AUTHORITIES: Brooks, History of Medford, 1855. Chase,
History of Haverhill, 1861, p. 248. N. E. Hist, and Gen.
Register, viii. 298-299. Old Times: a mag. devoted to the
early history of North Yarmouth, Me. pp. 265, 910.
I76O-I762.
Samuel Deane, was born at Dedham, Mass.,
10 July, 1733, the oldest son of Samuel and Rachel
(Dwight) Deane. He graduated at Harvard in
1760, having the honor of contributing to the
volume of congratulatory addresses (" Pietas et
Gratulatio ") sent by the college to George III. on
his accession to the throne. Mr. Deane's English
poem (No. 10) and the Latin poem supposed to
have been written by him (No. 21) give fervid as-
surance that King George would be the pride and
protection of his American subjects ; although
within twenty years the colony demonstrated to
King George's satisfaction that he was neither the
one nor the other. He was Librarian from 1760
to 1762, and tutor 1763-1764.
On the 17th of October, 1764, Mr. Deane was
ordained colleague of Rev. Thomas Smith at the
First Church, Portland, Maine. After a success-
ful ministry of forty-five years, Deane received
as his colleague Rev. Ichabod Nichols, who be-
came pastor after his death, 12 November, 1814.
His wife was Eunice, fourth daughter of Moses
Pearson.
Mr. Deane began a Diary in 1761, and continued
it until his death. The diary which was published
at Portland in 1849 under the title "Journals of
the Rev. Thomas Smith and the Rev. Samuel
Deane," is a concise record of a busy, useful life.
He was chosen in 1787 to the convention in Massa-
chusetts for the adoption of the national consti-
tution, but declined. He was a member of the
committee to advise on the separation of Maine
from Massachusetts, and drew up an able report.
His tastes were classical and literary; he was a
fellow of the American Academy, and received the
degree of D.D. from Brown in 1790. Many of his
poems appeared in contemporary periodicals, and
a few sermons and a longer poem are preserved
in pamphlet form.
His knowledge of agriculture was both practical
and scientific, and his work " The New England
farmer, or Georgical dictionary " (Worcester, 1790)
was widely read and used. He was not given to
bigotry nor to theological quarrels. In appear-
ance he was tall and portly, of dignified carriage
and of keen wit, with social and agreeable man-
ners. His sermons were simple and practical,
delivered without oratorical display.
A portrait accompanied the ' ' Journals " cited
above.
AUTHORITIES : Journals of Rev. Thos. Smith and Her.
Samuel Deane, ed. by Wm. Willis, 1849. Allen, Amer.
biog. and hist, dictionary, 1832.
1762-1763.
Stephen Sewall, born at York, Maine, 4
April, 1734, was the son of Nicholas and Me-
hitable (Storer) Sewall. He graduated at Har-
vard in 1761, having taught in the Cambridge
grammar school. In May of the same year he
was appointed to give instruction in Hebrew at
the college, and two years later "in the other
learned languages." He received in 1764 the
newly founded Hancock professorship of He-
brew and other Oriental languages, and was
publicly installed 19 June, 1765 ; this chair he
held until September, 1785, having been for
nearly three years mentally and physically in-
capable of performing his duties.
Prof. Sewall held the position of Librarian in
1762-1763, and was a master of arts, a fellow
of the American Academy, and in 1777 a repre-
sentative to the General Court from Cambridge
as a whig. He married Rebecca, daughter of
Rev. Edward Wigglesworth, the Hollis pro-
fessor of divinity, 9 August, 1763 ; their only
child Stephen died in infancy. Prof. SewalPs
executive ability, coupled with his wide acquaint-
ance with the Oriental languages and literature,
raised his department into merited prominence.
Beside Hebrew and Chaldee, he is said to have
taught in a more private way Samaritan, Syriac,
and Arabic. He died at Boston 23 July, 1804, at
the age of 71.
Of the thirty pieces in the volume entitled
" Pietas et Gratulatio," referred to above under
Deane, Professor Sewall is said to have con-
tributed seven or eight, — four in Latin, two in
Greek, and either one or two in English. He
was also the author of a Latin oration on
President Holyoke, an English one on Pro-
fessor Winthrop, and several other pamphlets.
At the request of the College he ^prepared a
Hebrew grammar to replace that previously in
28
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
use, which Sewall declared was both bad and
out of print. The new grammar was published
in 1763, and reprinted in 1802 and again in 1812.
In a copy of the first edition, now in the Li-
brary, is a manuscript letter from Sewall to
Rev. Richard Gray, D.D., of Hinton in North-
amptonshire, England, upon whose work the gram-
mar is in part founded. In asking him to accept a
copy of the book, Sewall calls his attention to
the fire which destroyed the Library in 1764, and
encloses the broadside account of it reprinted
from the Massachusetts Gazette of 2 February,
1764; he begs him "to adorn the public library
of our academy " with his works and to use his
influence with his learned friends for similar gifts ;
and in a closing apology for the boldness of the
request he adds, " what I have ventured to request
is in behalf of literature, whose advancement is
the common utility." The letter, of course, was
written after Sewall's Librarianship, but it serves
as an illustration of the efforts of the friends and
officers of the College to build up again the Li-
brary.
AUTHORITIES : Edwards, Writings, 1853, ii. 209-210. Essex
Inst., ITist. collections, xxv. 125. Quihcy, Hist, of Harvard,
1840, ii. 130-131, 264-265, 496-497, 590. Salisbury, Family
memorials, 1885, pp. 179-180.
1763-1767.
Andrew Eliot, son of Rev. Andrew Eliot,
D.D., and Elizabeth Langdon, was born in Bos-
ton 11 January, 1743. His father was a prominent
preacher who at one time declined the presidency
of Harvard. Andrew, the son, graduated in 1762,
receiving later his A.M., and the same degree
(honorary) from Yale in 1774. He was appointed
butler of the College 21 June, 1763, and 12 Sep-
tember, 1763, the Corporation voted :
" That Sr Eliot the Butler (for want of some
other suitable Person) have the Care of the Li-
brary for the Present, & to be allow'd for it @ the
Rate of six Pounds $ Annum."
At this time the Library numbered about 5000
volumes, given by members of the Hollis family,
and by the many benefactors throughout England
and New England who for one reason or another
were interested in the College.
On the night of 24 January, 1764, Harvard Hall,
containing the Library and philosophical appa-
ratus, caught fire "in the middle of a very tem-
pestuous night." A beam under the hearth in the
Library, becoming heated by the fire which had
been built for a sitting of the General Court in
the room, broke out in flames and the building
was destroyed. About one hundred books were
saved, including one from Rev. John Harvard's
library. Great as the loss was felt to be, the pub-
lic spirit of the time went far toward furnishing
the College with a Library equal to the former
one. In November, 1765, Mr. Eliot was allowed
£20 " for reducing the Books of the new Library
into alphabetical Order." 12 December, 1765,
the Corporation adopted new laws* for the Library
which materially increased the Librarian's duties ;
the salary was raised to £60 and Eliot was re-
elected for a term of three years. In 1766 the
new Harvard Hall was completed ; the Library
occupied the upper room at the western end, and
the philosophical apparatus the eastern room.
In May, 1767, he was elected tutor, but chose
"rather to continue The Librarian"; in July,
however, he accepted the tutorship, a position
which he kept until 1774. For the last two years
of his term he was also a fellow.
On the 22d of June, 1774, he was ordained
minister at Fairfield, Conn., where he remained
until his death, 26 October, 1805. When the
town was burned by General Tryon in 1779 Mr.
Eliot's house and library were destroyed, although
orders had been given to spare them. He married
Mary, daughter of Hon. Joseph Pynchon, and left
seven children.
" His acquaintance with general science,
urbanity, friendly and social affections, concili-
ated the esteem of all ranks," wrote the Rev.
James Dana. He was a member of the Con-
necticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a
corresponding member of the Massachusetts His-
torical Society.
AUTHORITIES : Eliot, Geneal. of Eliot Family, 1854, p.
171. Mass. hist. soc. Collections, x. 188-189; 2d series, i.
228. Sprague, Annals Amer. pulpit, 1857, i. 420.
1767-1768.
Jonathan Moore was born at Oxford, Mass.,
7 July, 1739, the son of Captain Elijah and Doro-
thy (Learned) Moore. The father was for twenty-
five years an inn-keeper of the town and a public
spirited citizen. Jonathan graduated at Harvard
in 1761, and obtained his A.M. in three years. He
taught Greek and Hebrew for a time, and received
from Yale an honorary A.M. in 1765. In Septem-
ber, 1767, he became Librarian at Harvard, but
at the end of the college year accepted a call to
the church at Rochester (now Marion) Mass.,
where he was ordained 7 September, 1768. On
the 13th of October following he married Susanna
Parkman. He soon had many warm followers in
his ministry but his changing theological views at
last caused his separation from the church in 1792.
A number of his parishioners withdrew with him
and held services together for several years at his
* See Appendix III.
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
house. A memorandum by a nephew in 1808
would seem to indicate that he became a Baptist
minister.
On the death of his first wife Mr. Moore married
Anna Hammond of Newport, R. I. He died at
his home in Rochester, 20 April, 1814, having had
five children. The historian of the town says,
"He was of a social temperament and jocose in
manner. "
AUTHORITIES : Allen, American biog. and hist, diction-
ary, 1832. Daniels, History of Oxford, Jtfasy., 1892, p. 620.
1768.
Nathaniel Ward, dying 12 October, 1768,
just a week after his appointment as Librarian of
llarvard, was a young man of unusual promise.
The papers of the time with one accord deplored
his death. The Essex Gazette said : " Few young
Gentlemen ever received such early Honors, or
distinguished Tributes to superior accomplish-
ments; fewer so well deserved them."
Nathaniel Ward was born at Salem, 29 July,
1746, the son of Miles and Hannah (Hathorne)
Ward. He took his degree of A.B. in 1765, fol-
lowed by the degree of A.M. He was particularly
fond of mathematics in college, and was offered
the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy
at King's (now Columbia) College, New York.
This offer he declined, as well as a vacant tutor-
ship in Cambridge. The office of Librarian at
Harvard he accepted, and was looking forward
with great pleasure to his duties when he was
prostrated with a fever which proved fatal. He
was to have married Priscilla, youngest daughter
of President Holyoke. Among the tributes in the
Boston Weekly News-letter is the following: "Of
an open and frank disposition, his mind was ele-
vated above every thing mean and groveling, and
his whole conduct discovered the Benevolence of
his Soul."
He is buried in the Charter Street Cemetary,
Salem, where the Latin inscription over his grave
is still to be seen. The calculations, transits, etc.,
for the 1769 edition of the "Essex Almanac" were
made by Mr. Ward.
AUTHORITIES : Essex inst. Hist. Collections, ii. 206, (article
by B. F. Browne) . Essex Gazette, 18 Oct. 1768.
1768-1769.
Caleb Prentice, or Prentiss, was born in
Cambridge, 14 November, 1746, the son of Caleb
and Lydia (Whittemore) Prentice. He took his
A.B. in July, 1765, his A.M. three years later, and
served as Librarian 1768-1769. On the 25th of
October, 1769, he became pastor of the First
Church, Reading, Mass., with £200 settlement, a
parsonage, and a yearly salary of £80 and twenty
cords of wood to be delivered at the door.
Mr. Prentice married 1 January, 1771, Pamela,
daughter of Rev. John Mellen and granddaughter
of Rev. John Prentiss of Lancaster. He was sing-
ularly successful in promoting harmony in his
church, and he entered into every duty which
claimed his attention. In the running fight from
Lexington to Charlestown, when the British sol-
diers under Earl Percy retreated from Concord
bridge, he bore his part, musket in hand.
Mr. Prentice was accustomed to receive pupils
to educate, and thus increased his meagre income,
which ill sufficed for his thirteen children. The
inroads of consumption gradually undermined his
strength, occasionally interrupting the performance
of his duties, until he died 7 February, 1803, in
the 34th year of his ministry. Among his char-
acteristics were " meekness in wisdom, humbleness
of mind, stability in friendship, calmness in con-
duct, candor in judging of others, sincerity in his
profession, fidelity in discharging the various
duties of life, and hospitality to his numerous
acquaintances."
His sermons were simple and practical ; his
prayers were impressive, delivered with great rev-
erence, and with felicity of expression. Several
of his sermons were published. There is an ex-
cellent portrait of him in the Prentice genealogy,
with the autograph " Caleb Prentiss."
AUTHORITIES : Binney, Hist, and geneal. of the Prentice
or Prentiss family, 1852, p. 115. Eaton, Geneal. history
of Reading, 1874, p. 165. Stone, Discourse at the interment
of the Rev. Caleb Prentiss.
1769-1772.
William May hew, the son of Zachariah and
Elizabeth Mayhew, was born on Martha's Vine-
yard, probably in the town of Chilmark, 7 July,
1746. Entering Harvard at the age of seventeen,
he graduated in the class of 1767, and before taking
his second degree, he began to serve as Librarian.
He held this position, at least nominally for three
years (1769-1772) ; for the last two years his
successor Winthrop seems to have acted for
him. Returning to Martha's Vineyard, he mar-
ried Peggy , by whom he had three children.
He was appointed, 23 April, 1772, sheriff of Dukes
County.
About 1783, the town of Hudson, N. Y., was
founded by people from Nantucket, Martha's
Vineyard, and Providence. William Mayhew was
either one of this party of emigrants or soon fol-
lowed his townspeople to" their new home. In
1785, we find him an alderman in the first common
council of Hudson. He could not have held this
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
office long, however, for he died the 13th of July
of that year.
AUTHORITIES: Miller, Hist, sketches of Hudson, 1862,
pp. 18, 115. Whitmore, Mass, civil list, 1870, p. 117.
Winthrop's interleaved triennial.
1772-1787.
James Winthrop, born 28 March, 1752, was
the son of John Winthrop, Hollis professor of
mathematics and natural philosophy, and his first
wife Rebecca Townsend. Graduating in 1769, he
began, in the year in which he took his second
degree, his Librarianship, destined to be nearly
twice as long as that of any of his predecessors.
From the vote by which the Library was given to
his care, 1 May, 1772, we learn that he had acted
as substitute for Mayhew for over two years.
He did not, however, sign the formal agreement as
Librarian until the following December. His
salary was fixed at £60 per annum. The next
year he issued the second printed catalogue of the
Library under the following title : —
" Catalogus Librorum in Bibliotheca Cantabrigi-
ensi selectus, frequentiorem in usum Harvardi-
natum qui Gradu Baccalaurei in Artibus nondum
sunt donati. Bostoniae : Nov. Ang. Typis Edes
& Gill. M,DCC,LXXIII."
This catalogue of twenty-seven pages is an
alphabetical list containing perhaps about a thous-
and titles. It aims to omit books " supra Captum
Juniorum Studentium," and, in general, books in
foreign languages (excepting the classics) and
medical and legal works. Two years later, when
the College buildings were occupied by the con-
tinental army, it became necessary to remove
the Library to a place of safety. The Provincial
Congress voted, 15 June, 1775, " that the Library
apparatus and other valuables of Harvard College
be removed as soon as may be to the town of
Andover, that Mr. Samuel Phillips, Mr. Daniel
Hopkins, and Dummer Jewett Esq. be a committee
to consult with the Revd. the President, the Honble
Mr. Winthrop', and the Librarian or such of them
as may be conveniently obtained and with them to
engage some suitable Person or persons in said
town to transport, receive and take the charge of
the above mentioned effects, that said Committee
join with other gentlemen in employing proper
persons in packing said Library apparatus and
such other articles as they shall judge expedient
and take all due care that it be done with the
greatest safety and despatch." The work of re-
moval was begun at once. On the 17th, Samuel
Phillips, jr., wrote " Amid all the terrors of battle
I was so busily engaged in Harvard Library that I
never even heard of the engagement (I mean the
siege) until it was completed." While the books
were being thus packed up, the Librarian, who was
an ardent patriot, was taking part in the battle of
Bunker Hill, where he received a wound in the
neck. Among the receipts for moving the books
is one " for carting one load of Books ... to the
house of George Abbot, Esq. in Andover, 17
miles, £0. 17," signed by John L. Abbot, the
father of the Librarian of the same name. A sub-
sequent vote of the Congress authorized the re-
moval of some of the books to such other places
besides Andover as might seem best. Many books
had thus been taken to Concord, and there it was
decided the following fall to open the College.
The authority of the Provincial Congress for this
and for the removal of the books to that town
from Andover was obtained, and the Corporation
voted, 24 October, 1775, that the boxes of books
be opened there for the use of the students ' ' as
soon as the Librarian can remove to Concord &
attend to the duties of his office." Although by
the following June, the students had returned to
Cambridge, it was May, 1778, before the whole of
the Library was restored to the College halls.
In the spring of 1775, Winthrop had been
appointed postmaster at Cambridge ; but after six
weeks he felt obliged to resign. In a letter (5 July,
1775) to the president of the Provincial Congress,
he says : "As the office will not furnish the single
article of victuals, as the establishment is at pres-
ent, I shall be constrained to quit the place of
business and seek for a sustenance somewhere
else. All the money I have received since the oath
was administered on the 25th of May, amounts to
£7 7s. lOd. ; 15 per cent, of it is my pay for six
weeks, that is at [the rate] of 6£d. a day nearly.
Judge then, sir, whether this be sufficient to fur-
nish one, who has no other support, with a suste-
nance." At this time, it should be noted, the
College finances were at the lowest ebb, partly on
account of the hard times occasioned by the war,
and partly because the Treasurer, John Hancock,
was too engrossed in public affairs to attend to the
business of the College. Winthrop, for these
reasons, was probably receiving no salary. In
September, he was appointed register of probate,
an office he held for forty-two years. Indeed, it
was this position that led to his resignation from the
Library in 1787; for the Corporation had passed
a law (aimed directly at him) that no officer of the
College should hold any civil or judicial office.
He was also for some time a justice of the court
of common pleas. Winthrop died unmarried, 26
September, 1821. By his will, he left his library
to the then recently established Allegheny College,
which a few years before had granted him an
LL.D.
James Winthrop was a scholar of ability both in
science and languages. He contributed a number
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
of mathematical papers to the memoirs of the
American Academy, and after his father's death
was a candidate for the Hollis professorship of
mathematics. He later became interested in theol-
ogy especially in prophecies and chronology, and
on these topics he published a number of pamph-
lets. He was one of the original members of the
Massachusetts Historical Society, but, although he
took great interest in the society and was seldom
absent from the meetings, does not appear to have
contributed much to their publications. A con-
temporary sums up his character thus : " He was
a pleasant, and generally an instructive companion.
His conversation was most frequently on useful
and literary topicks ; and yet there was, sometimes
an appearance of trifling and levity, in familiar
discourse, which induced a stranger to form an
opinion not sufficiently favourable to his learning
and his worth. We have no hesitation, however, in
ranking him among the most learned, useful and
patriotick citizens of Massachusetts."
AUTHORITIES: Allen, Amer. biog. and hist, dictionary,
1832, p. 786. Bailey, Hist, sketches ofAndover, 1880, p. 334.
Mass. hist. soc. Collections, 2d series, x. 77-80 ; Proceedings,
1st series, i. 338 (portrait) , xii. 69, xiii. 229. Paige, History
of Cambridge, 1877, p. 700. Willard, Memories, 1855, i.
90, 129. Winsor, Memorial hist, of Boston, 1881, iv. 500.
I787-I79I.
Isaac Smith, the son of a prosperous Boston
merchant of the same name, was born 18 May,
1749. At the age of fourteen he entered Harvard
with the class of 1767. After taking his second
degree, and preparing for the ministry, he travelled
in Europe for some years. Returning to this coun-
try, he was appointed, in 1774, a tutor in the Col-
lege, but the position he was not destined to hold
long. Smith was a firm loyalist, and when on the
19th of April, 1775, Lord Percy marched through
Cambridge to reinforce the British troops at Lex-
ington and Concord, the young tutor was the only
person in Cambridge willing to show the puzzled
leader, confused by the number of roads branching
off from the Common, which one to take for Lex-
ington. Being for this service to the enemy al-
most ostracized by the good people of Cambridge,
he was glad to sail a month later for England with
many other exiled loyalists. After living a few
years in London, he was ordained (24 June, 1778)
pastor over a dissenting church in the little town
of Sidmouth in Devonshire. Of his pleasant life
there, in a comfortable home, with congenial so-
ciety and light parish duties, we get glimpses in
the published Journal and letters of his fellow
exile, Samuel Curwen. In the spring of 1784, re-
signing his pastorate, he returned to America.
In August, 1787, Smith was appointed Librarian
although he did not sign the formal engagement
until the next March. In May, 1789, the Corpora-
tion allowed him £13. 13s. " for instructing the
classes in Latin for six weeks and an half in the
third term, three times a day, being seven dollars
per week."
The third printed catalogue of the Library ap-
peared the next year : " Catalogus Bibliothecae Har-
vardianas Cantabrigiae Nov-Anglorum. Bostoniae :
Typis Thomas et Johannis Fleet. MDCCXC."
8°. pp. [4], iv, 358.
The Latin preface says : " Ut ista omnibus, qui
ei consulere velint, utilior fieret, libri alphabetice
sub diversis capitibus, secundum propria eorum
genera, in hoc catalogo disponuntur." The first,
or general, part of the catalogue is divided into
fifty-four classes in alphabetical order, and the
books under each are also alphabetically arranged.
About one fourth of the titles are under " Theo-
logia"; yet the names of Shakespeare, Milton,
Ben. Johnson [s?'c],Pope, the Tatler, the Specta-
tor, Racine, Rabelais, and Cervantes show that
polite literature was not wholly neglected. In the
second part of the catalogue, which is devoted to
" Tracts," out of 150 pages, theology occupies over
100. In the preparation of this catalogue Smith
had the aid of Prof. Stephen Sewall, (Librarian
1762-63) and Hezekiah Packard, (H. U. 1787).
The latter was an assistant in the Library ; in
his memoirs he says: "The next year [1789] I
took charge of the Library as an assistant." For
his services in preparing this catalogue Smith was
allowed by the Corporation in April, 1791, the sum
of £37. 10s. in addition to his regular salary.
In April, 1790, the trustees of Durumer Academy,
at Byfield, Mass., elected Isaac Smith preceptor of
that institution, but it was nearly a year before he
entered on his duties there, 25 March, 1791. The
Academy was not successful under his manage-
ment ; his good nature and easy-going ways were
not those of a good teacher or a strict disciplina-
rian ; the school fell off greatly in numbers, and it
was not strange that, in April, 1809, the trustees
accepted his resignation. He removed to Boston
where he was appointed chaplain of the Alms-
house, — a position which he held for many years.
He was never married, and died in Boston, 29 Sep-
tember, 1829, at the age of 80.
One of his scholars, writing years afterward,
recalls him as " a short, nice, rubicund, but kindly
and scholarly-looking old gentleman." "In spirit "
says another writer, ' ' he was mild and tolerant ;
in creed, broad and liberal." He was " a man of
singular purity, gentleness, and piety."
Besides the Catalogue mentioned above, his only
publication seems to be "A sermon preached at
Cambridge, May 5th, 1788 on occasion of the death
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
of Mr. Ebenezer Grosvenor, student at the Uni-
versity. Boston: 1788." 8°. pp. 19.
AUTHORITIES: Boston — Celebration of centennial anni-
versary of the Evacuation, 1876, pp. 190-191. Cleaveland,
First century of Dummer Academy, 1865, pp. 34-39, xviii.
Curwen, Journal and letters, 3d ed., 1865, p. 465 and passim.
Packard, Memoir, 1850, p. 18. Sabine, American loyalists,
1847, p. 618. Willard, Memories, 1855, ii. 123-126. Winsor,
Memorial hist, of Boston, 1881, iii. 72.
I79I-I793.
Thaddeus Mason Harris was born in Charles-
town, 7 July, 1768. His father, "William Harris,
lost all his property in the Revolution and died soon
after. His mother, Rebekah, daughter of Thad-
deus Mason, married again not long after her first
husband's death. Young Harris by various means
partly supported himself and was partly cared for
by Dr. Ebenezer Morse (H. U. 1737) of Boylston,
with whom he lived and by whom he was fitted to
enter college in 1783. During part of his course
he was a waiter in the Commons Hall and was also
helped from the beneficiary funds. After gradu-
ating in 1787, he taught school for a year in Wor-
cester, and then returned to study divinity. At
Commencement, 1790, he took his A.M. and the
next day delivered the 4> B K oration. He had
already assisted Smith in the Library and in 1791
became his successor as Librarian. He served
only two years, but his interest in the Library
continued. As Overseer he was for many years
chairman of the Committee on the Library and
annually made elaborate reports on its condition.
Long afterwards he was described as "the little
quaint old man, bent almost increditably, but still
wearing a hale aspect who used to haunt the
alcoves of the old library in Harvard Hall."
Mr. Harris had already preached in many places
and, 23 October, 1793, was ordained as pastor of
the church in Dorchester. In January, 1795, he
married Mary, daughter of Dr. Elijah and Dorothy
Dix. He had eight children. His health having
broken down, he made a journey to Ohio in 1802.
As a result of this he published, in 1805, a "Jour-
nal of a tour into the territory northwest of the
Allegheny mountains, with a geographical and
historical account of Ohio." In the same year
(1805), he gave the <£ B K poem. Five years later
he spent nine months in Great Britain, — an ex-
perience which he afterwards recalled with peculiar
pleasure. In 1813, Harvard granted him the de-
gree of S. T. D. His health again failed him in
1832 and he spent a year in the South. His active
mind did not allow him to be idle and he here
gathered the materials for the life of Oglethorpe
which he published in 1841. After a successful
pastorate of forty-three years, he resigned his
pulpit in 1830. He continued to preach occasion-
ally until within a fortnight of his death, which
occurred 3 April, 1842.
Dr. Harris was connected with numerous socie-
ties : he was a member and for some years libra-
rian of the Massachusetts Historical Society ; he
was one of the original members of the Antiqua-
rian Society ; he was a corresponding member of
the historical societies of New York and of Georgia,
and of the Archaeological Society of Athens,
Greece ; and his name also appears on the rolls of
the Massachusetts Bible Society, the Humane So-
ciety, the Peace Society, and several others. He
was also prominent as a free mason, and was
secretary and chaplain of the Grand Lodge. Sev-
eral of his books and pamphlets are on Masonry.
In the anti-masonic furore of 1826-27 he was the
object of many bitter attacks by the opponents
of the order.
Besides the works mentioned above, Dr. Harris
issued many publications. Nearly sixty of his ser-
mons were printed. His Natural History of the
Bible, published first in 1793 and re written in 1820,
passed through three editions in England. In 1803,
he edited the Minor Encyclopaedia in four volumes.
Among his other printed works are a " System of
punctuation," 1797, and a " Chronological and
topographical account of Dorchester," 1804. He
also arranged and indexed for Sparks the Wash-
ington manuscripts.
Dr. Harris was a man of overflowing sympathies,
tender-hearted and kindly almost to excess. Sing-
ularly gentle and mild in his disposition, yet he
was at times subject to fits of deep depression.
As a preacher, he was simple and effective. In
his discourses he was rarely philosophical, and,
caring little for name or for creed, he seldom ven-
tured into the arena of controversy.
AUTHORITIES : Frothingkam, Memoir, 1855. pp. 28. (Also
in Mass. hist. soc. Col lections, 4th series, ii. 130-155). Froth-
ingham, Sermon after the funeral of Rev. Dr. Harris, 1842.
pp. 15. Hall, Address at the funeral of Rev. T. M. Harris,
1842. pp. 28. Huntoon, Eulogy in commemoration of Rev.
and R. W. T. Jf. Harris, 1842. pp. 16. Sprague, Annals of
Amer. pulpit, 1865, viii. pp. 215-222.
1793-1800.
Samuel Shapleigh was born in Kittery, Maine,
9 July, 1765. Left an orphan at an early age, he
was twenty before he entered college with the class
of 1789. He taught a while in the Cambridge gram-
mar school, and then studied law, but his poor
health prevented him from practising. In Novem-
ber, 1790, he was chosen Butler and three years
later (27 August, 1793) Librarian. His salary was
fixed at $360, on condition that he or a substitute
should " continue in the College during the Sum-
mer, Fall and Spring vacations that Company may
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
33
have access to the Library. " He acted as Librarian
until his death, 16 April, 1800. By his will he
bequeathed nearly the whole of his property to
the College, the income to "be sacredly appro-
priated to the purchase of such modern publica-
tions as the Corporation, Professors, and Tutors
shall judge most proper to improve the students
in polite literature ; the books to be deposited in
the library of the University, and to consist of
poetry and prose, but neither in Greek nor Latin."
This fund now amounts to about $4000. His
epitaph in the old Cambridge burying ground
describes him as "a virtuous son, faithful li-
brarian, and liberal benefactor of Harvard Col-
lege," and President Quiney wrote of him : " His
disposition was amiable, modest, and unobtrusive ;
liis manners gentle and singularly polite and con-
ciliatory, winning the affections of all. His dili-
gence, kind demeanor, and zeal for the improve-
ment of the library, were acknowledged during
his life, and are gratefully remembered."
AUTHORITIES: Harris, Epitaphs, p. 154. Harvard cor-
poration records. Quiney, Hist, of Harvard, 1840, i. 410-411.
I800-I805.
Sidney Willard, son of President Joseph and
Mary ( Sheaf e) Willard and great-grandnephew of
Josiah Willard (Librarian, 1702-3), was born at
Beverly, 19 September, 1780. Entering college
at the age of fourteen, he graduated in 1798. In
addition to the A.M. granted him in course, he
received in 1810 from Dartmouth College an
honorary A.M. In 1800 he was put in charge
of the Library, which then contained, including
pamphlets, from twelve to thirteen thousand vol-
umes. By a vote of the Corporation in 1804, he
was allowed $75 " for ninety days' services in the
Library in making out a Catalogue of references
to all the books in the Library and inserting the
titles of books which had been omitted,"— this
apparently being in addition to his regular salary.
He resigned in 1805, and during the next two
years preached in various places, but declined
two calls to a regular settlement. In 1807 he
was inaugurated as Hancock Professor of He-
brew and other Oriental languages, — a chair which
he held for twenty-four years. During part of
his term of service, in addition to teaching
Hebrew he gave instruction in English grammar
and composition, and in 1827 the Latin instruc-
tion was added to his duties. This he found
so burdensome that in 1831 he handed in his
resignation.
Relieved from his academic cares, Willard started
in 1832 the American Monthly Review. This peri-
odical, of which he was both editor and proprietor,
lasted only two years, — dying, says Dr. Peabody,
" solely because it was too good to live." He had
previously contributed many articles to other peri-
odicals;— the Monthly Anthology, the Christian
Examiner, the North American Review, the Gen-
eral Repository, all had frequent papers from his
pen. In 1817 he published an excellent Hebrew
grammar and in 1855 issued two volumes entitled
"Memories of Youth and Manhood," which give
an interesting account of the College in the first
quarter of this century. His Dudleian lecture
(1827) was never printed. He entered public life
to some extent after leaving the College, and was
three years (1848-50) mayor of Cambridge, and
several years a member of the legislature and of
the executive council. He died suddenly in Cam-
bridge 6 December, 1856, aged seventy-six.
Mr. Willard was twice married and had four
children. His first wife, Elizabeth Ann Andrews,
of Ipswich, whom he married 28 December, 1815,
died 17 September, 1817. He married second 27
January, 1819, Hannah S. Heard, also of Ipswich.
She died in June, 1824.
"His life was one of unceasing industry and
usefulness, and was enriched and adorned not
only by the cardinal virtues, but equally by
those traits of peculiarly Christian excellence
which make home happy, and win the affection-
ate regard of all within the sphere of their in-
fluence."
AUTHORITIES: Appleton, Cyclop. o/Amer. biog. Paige,
Hist, of Cambridge, 1877, p. 692. Palmer, Necrology Alumni
Hare. Col., 1864, p. 113. Peabody, Harvard reminiscences,
1888, pp. 60-67. Willard, Memories, 1855. 2 v.
I805-I808.
Peter Nonrse, born 10 October, 1774, at Bol-
ton, Mass., was the son of Jonathan and Ruth
(Barret) Nourse. He graduated in 1802, received
the A.M. in course, and was Librarian for three
years from 1805 to 1808. Four years after leav-
ing the College he and his wife Polly, daughter of
Rev. Caleb Barnum of Taunton, moved to Ells-
worth, Maine, where, 9 September, 1812, he was
ordained over the newly established Congrega-
tional church. The ordination sermon was by
Rev. Samuel Kendal and the charge by Ezra
Ripley. Here he lived as pastor and at least
part of the time as schoolmaster, until his dis-
missal from the church in November, 1835. His
wife had died previously to this, and, as he had
no children, he went to live, first with his brother,
Dr. Amos Nourse, at Bath, and then with his
nephew, Dr. Thomas Childs, at Phippsburg, Maine.
At this place he died at the age of sixty-five,
25 March, 1840. He was buried at Ellsworth.
" Reverend Peter Nourse," wrote one who as a
boy years before had been in his parish, "was a
34
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
famous man in those days, renowned for his in-
tegrity in doctrine, for his zeal in the gospel
ministry, and for the goodness of his heart . . .
When I first read Goldsmith's ' Deserted Village '
it seemed to me that his parish clergyman,
'Passing rich with forty pounds a year,'
was either the real or the counterpart Pastor
Nourse. This godly man was indeed highly
useful in his time in educational as well as re-
ligious matters ; but if my childhood's memory
serves me well, his life was not a gay period of
enjoyment, or rich with present rewards for
work well done." And another writer says of
him: "No more enthusiastic or self-denying
teacher ever lived than Peter Nourse, and the
town owed more to him than to any other of its
citizens."
AUTHORITIES : Bangor hist, mag., 1888, iv. 99. Barry,
History of Framingham, 1847, p. 344. Emery, Ecclesiasti-
cal hist, of Taunton, 1853, ii. 9. Maine hist. soc. Collections,
1890, 2d series, i. 181-182, 215. Merrill's interleaved triennial
of 1839.
I8o8-l8ll.
Samuel Cooper Thacher, who was born in
Boston, 14 December, 1785, was sprung from a
long line of preachers. His father Peter, was the
pastor of the Brattle Street church in Boston, and
his grandfathers from the days of the Peter
Thacher who in the beginning of the seventeenth
century was a clergyman at Salisbury, England,
had all been ministers. It was not strange, that
immediately after his graduation at the head of the
class of 1804, he should have " all his hopes and
wishes directed " to preparing himself for the min-
istry. He studied theology in Boston under Dr.
Channing and then spent two years in Europe.
Upon his return to this country, he was in 1808
elected Librarian. This office he held for the
term of three years. At the inauguration of Pres-
ident Kirkland in November, 1810, Thacher was
appointed to deliver the Latin address of welcome,
— a performance for which he received high
praise.
Not long after this event, Mr. Thacher was
called to fill the pulpit of the New South church
in Boston, left vacant by Kirkland. His ordina-
tion took place on the 15th of May, 1811. He be-
gan his pastorate with enthusiasm and success, but
before many years his health failed, and the re-
mainder of his life was a brave but unavailing
struggle against consumption. In August, 1816,
he sailed for England hoping to benefit by the
change. The first winter he passed at the dreary
Cape of Good Hope, and the next fall he went to
Moulins, France. Neither of these places helped
him much, and at the latter he died, 2 January,
1818. There he was buried and over his grave is
a monument bearing a Latin inscription by bis
friend and classmate Andrews Norton, (Librarian,
1813-1821).
Mr. Thacher was elected a Fellow of the Cor-
poration, 19 February, 1816, but was present at a
few meetings only before his departure for Europe.
He was also a member of the American Academy.
After his death his library, consisting of 676 lots
was sold at auction. By vote of the Corporation
the President was authorized to expend $50 at
the sale on books for the College Library. Mr.
Thacher wrote a number of articles for the Monthly
Anthology, and published one sermon, preached at
the dedication of the new church in 1814. His ser-
mon on the Unity of God, in which he gives a
clear exposition of the Unitarian doctrine, was
printed in Liverpool in 1816 without his knowledge
and reprinted in Boston and also in Worcester the
next year. In 1824, was issued a volume of his
Sermons, with a memoir by his successor at the
New South church, Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood,
(H. U. 1814).
Samuel Cooper Thacher was a man of great
social attraction ; at once gentle and sincere,
affable and dignified, he endeared himself to all.
"There never was a clergyman more sincerely
loved, nor more deeply lamented," says his bio-
grapher. Another old friend thus described him :
" In person he was of middling stature and size.
His features were regular, his complexion fair, and
his countenance habitually lighted up with a cheer-
ful smile." Dr. Channing, his old instructor, con-
cluded his eulogy with these words : ' ' He was one
of the most blameless men, of the most devoted
ministers, and of the fairest examples of the
distinguishing virtues of Christianity."
AUTHORITIES : Allen, Geneal. of descendants of Thomas
and Antony Thacher, 1872, pp. 18-21, 23-26. Channing,
Discourses, etc., 1830, pp. 598-603. Greenwood, Memoir,
in Sermons by S. C. Thacher, 1824, pp. xii-Lxx. Sprague,
Annals o/Amer. pulpit, 1862, viii. 435-446.
John Lovejoy Abbot was born in Andover,
29 November, 1783. His father for whom he was
named was a farmer. Young Abbot prepared for
college at the Academy in his native town, and
graduated from Harvard in 1805. He studied
theology in Andover under Dr. Ware. For a year
(1807) he held the office of reader in the Cambridge
Episcopal church, and the next year he occasionally
preached in neighboring pulpits. In 1811 he was
made Librarian, and held the office two years. " In
his capacity as an officer and librarian at college,
there are numbers to bear witness to his ability,
fidelity, and zeal. Distinguished for the decision
of his purpose, and his attachment to the literary
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
35
and religious interests of the University, he has
left upon the minds of those who were connected
with him there, many lively impressions of affec-
tion and respect."
In the spring of 1813, after his resignation from
the Library, he was chosen pastor of the First
Church in Boston. At his ordination, 14 July,
1813, the sermon was by Professor Ware and the
introductory prayer by Rev. Mr. Thacher, (Libra-
rian, 1808-11). But Mr. Abbot preached in this
pulpit only a few Sundays ; the consumption
which had been threatening him grew so much
worse that in the fall he was obliged to ask a leave
of absence. His parishioners had already become
deeply attached to their new pastor and they unani-
mously voted in their resolutions of sympathy and
regret, " that the expenses of supplying the pulpit
be paid by the Society during the absence of the
Rev. Mr. Abbot, and that his salary be continued."
About a month later, he married, 24 October,
Elizabeth Bell Warland of Cambridge. In another
month he sailed for Portugal in hopes of benefiting
by the voyage. But on his return in June, 1814,
he was so little recovered that he was unable to re-
sume preaching. He gradually grew worse until
his death on October 17th. At his funeral, which
was from his church in Boston, Edward Everett
preached the sermon.
AUTHORITIES : Abbot, Geneal. register of descendants of
George Abbot, 1847, p. 26. Ellis, History of First church in
Boston, 1881, pp. 243-247. Everett, Address at funeral of
Rev. John Lovejoy Abbot, 1814. pp. 20.
l8l3-l82I.
Andrews Norton, the youngest child of
Samuel and Jane (Andrews) Norton, was born in
Hingham, 31 December, 1786. Entering Harvard
as a sophomore he graduated with honors in 1804.
He received an A.M. in course and an honorary
A.M. from Bowdoin College in 1815. At the lat-
ter college he had been tutor for a year (1809-
1810) and in 1811 he was chosen tutor of mathe-
matics at Harvard. Two years later he received
two appointments : that of Dexter Lecturer on
Biblical Criticism and that of Librarian. During
the eight years of his administration he did much
to improve the Library ; but the provision for the
purchase of books was exceedingly meagre. Of
the legislative grant of ten thousand dollars a year
to the College from 1814 to 1824, but a small part
seems to have come to the Library. That Mr.
Norton was keenly aware of the deficiencies of the
Library is shown by his statement to the Visiting
Committee of the Overseers that for its immediate
needs ten thousand dollars would suffice. While
the purchase of books was thus restricted, it was
during his term that the Library received the dona-
tion from Israel Thorndike of the Ebeling col-
lection— perhaps intrinsically the most valuable
gift ever presented to the Library. In 1821, en-
grossed by his increasing duties as a teacher, Mr.
Norton resigned the Librarianship. Two years
previously, on the establishment of the Divinity
School, the title of his chair had been changed
to Dexter Professorship of Sacred Literature. In
the discussions which arose in 1824-25 in regard
to the form of government of the College and the
constitution of the Corporation, Mr. Norton took a
prominent part, and two of his contributions to
the controversy were printed. A few years later,
in 1830, he resigned his professorship.
Relieved from academic duties, he had during
the rest of his life abundant leisure for close appli-
cation to his literary and theological studies. He
had already contributed numerous articles to peri-
odicals. Even before his graduation he published
in the Literary Miscellany a review of the life and
writings of the poet Cowper, and in the Monthly
Anthology are several articles from his pen. He
was a member of the Anthology Club, which pub-
lished the last-named magazine. From the asso-
ciation in this Club of the leading literary men
of Boston and Cambridge grew the Boston Athe-
naeum. Soon after the suspension of the An-
thology, he established in 1812 a quarterly journal
entitled The General Repository and Review.
Although ably conducted it lasted only two years ;
it is said to have been too bold in its heterodoxy
and too solid in its learning to meet with public
favor. He also wrote more or less frequently on
both theological and literary subjects for the
Christian Disciple, the Christian Examiner, and
the North American Review. In 1833-34 he
joined with Charles Folsom (Librarian, 1823-26)
in editing the Select Journal of Foreign Periodical
Literature.
But Mr. Norton's most important work was
his book on the Genuineness of the Gospels. This
he commenced as early as 1819, but it was nearly
twenty years before the first volume was printed
(1837) ; the third volume was issued in 1844, and a
final volume, on the internal evidences, appeared
in 1855, after his death. This book is an elaborate
examination into the external and historical evi-
dences of the authenticity of the Gospels and fur-
nishes a clear and logical argument in support of
their genuineness. After his death also appeared
his Translation of the Gospels, edited by Ezra
Abbot (Assistant Librarian, 1856-1872).
As a theologian Andrews Norton was at once a
sceptic and a believer, heterodox and orthodox.
His attitude was that of a thorough investigator ; no
portion of his religious faith would he accept with-
out the closest and strictest search Into its founda-
tion, but once adopted on what to him seemed
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
reasonable grounds the belief became a part of
his life and of unassailable truth. In his early
manhood he was in advance of the thinkers of the
day in his theological views. Later the stream of
liberal religious thought, of which his own teach-
ings had done not a little to start the current,
swept past him, and he was left among the
more conservative elements of the Unitarian body.
Although one of his ablest works was a refuta-
tion of the trinitarian doctrine, he always objected
to the name Unitarian or to a separate church
organization under that designation. He had no
sympathy for the transcendental movement, and
with one of its leaders, George Ripley, he had
a long controversy over what he termed the " latest
form of infidelity," namely, the denial of the mira-
cles as an essential proof of Christianity. The
discussion left no bitterness behind it and it is to
his opponent we must go for the most appreciative
account of Mr. Norton's personal character and
philosophical beliefs.
In his chapter on ' ' Philosophical thought in
Boston " in the Memorial history of Boston, Mr.
Ripley writes thus concerning Andrews Norton :
"Every scholar in Cambridge received an inspir-
ing impulse from his example. The lucidity of
his intellect, the depth of his erudition, and the
choice felicities of his language presented a new
standard of excellence, and gave a higher tone to
the literary character of Boston. But the personal
traits of Mr. Norton exerted a still more powerful
influence. His hatred of pretension was equalled
only by his devotion to truth. He spurned with a
beautiful disdain whatever he deemed to be false,
or shallow, or insincere. He demanded the stamp
of genuineness, reality, harmony of proportion
and perspective on everything which challenged
his approval. ... A man of stainless purity of
purpose, of high integrity of life, with a profound
sense of religion, and severe simplicity of manners,
his example was a perpetual rebuke to the con-
ceitedness of learning, the vanity of youthful
scholarship, and the habit of ' vain and shallow
thought.' His influence is deeply stamped on the
literature of Harvard ; the intellectual atmosphere
has not yet lost the fragrance of his presence ; and
if he solved no deep problems of philosophy, if his
insight was restricted within a comparatively nar-
row compass, and he failed to appreciate justly the
philosophic tendencies of the age, yet the course
of speculative thought in Boston, it is believed, is
largely indebted to the influence of his character
and example for whatever tincture of sound learn-
ing it may exhibit, for its thoroughness of inquiry,
its accuracy of research, and its comparative free-
dom from extreme and erratic conclusions."
In 1821 Mr. Norton married Catherine Eliot,
daughter of Samuel Eliot, a merchant in Boston,
and a generous benefactor of the College. The
home thus formed was henceforth the centre of
Mr. Norton's life ; for he was a recluse, not in the
sense that he held aloof from his fellowmen, but
that he was profoundly engrossed in his studies
and cared little for either general society or public
life. His house was, however, ever noted for
generous hospitality and he himself was prominent
in the literary circle of Cambridge and Boston.
His health, never robust, began to fail him in 1849,
and he remained an invalid until his death, at
Newport, R. I. , 18 September, 1853. Hu son,
Charles Eliot Norton, has been Professor of the
History of the Fine Arts in the College since 1875.
AUTHORITIES : Newell, Discourse on the death of An-
drews Norton, 1853. pp. 32; Notice of the life and charac-
ter of Andrews Norton, 1853. pp. 30. Peabody, Harvard
reminiscences, 1888, pp. 73-78. Willard, Memories, 1855, ii.
121, 152. Winsor, Memorial hist, of Boston, 1881, iv. 299-301,
310-311.
I82I-I823.
Joseph Green Cogs-well, the son of Francis
and Anstice (Manning) Cogswell, was born 27
September, 1786, in Ipswich, Mass. After study-
ing for two years at Phillips Academy, Exeter, he
entered Harvard in 1802, and in 1807 was given his
degree as of the class of 1806. After making a
voyage as supercargo to India, he began the study
of law in Boston. This he continued, with the
interruption of a voyage, full of adventures and
hair-breadth escapes, which he made in 1809
and 1810 to France and the Mediterranean, until
his marriage in 1812 to Mary, daughter of John
Taylor Gilman, the governor of New Hampshire.
He began to practise law in Belfast, Maine, but
after the death of his wife the next year, he
returned to Cambridge. In 1814, he received the
degree of A.M. and was made tutor in Latin. Re-
signing at the end of a year, he went to Europe,
where he remained, travelling and studying, most
of the time for the next five years. The Univer-
sity of Gottingen gave him the degree of Ph.D. in
1817.
Soon after his return to America, in 1821, he
wrote to a friend : ' ' They offer me at Cambridge
a combination of offices and honors, — for ex-
ample, the charge of the Library at $660, a new
professorship of mineralogy, with as much as I
can get for my services, $500 secured, and Gor-
ham's chemical chair with $800 or thereabouts.
. . . Probably I shall accept these several appoint-
ments ; that of Librarian I certainly shall for a
time, — long enough, I mean, to put the Library
into better order than it now is in." Of the
appointments thus referred to, he accepted, in
1821, the Librarianship and the Professorship of
Mineralogy and Geology, — offices which he held
for only two years.
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
37
Of Dr. Cogswell's work in the Harvard Library,
George Ticknor, then the Smith professor, thus
wrote, in October, 1822, to S. A. Eliot: "The
Library is now in fine order. It is arranged on the
same plan with that at Gottingen, though for want
of books the subdivisions are much fewer at pres-
ent, and the catalogues are made out in the same
way, so that all possible future additions will re-
quire no alteration in any part of the system."
Discouraged at the illiberal allowance then
made by the Corporation for the care and in-
rrease of the Library, Dr. Cogswell resigned his
charge of it in 1823, and in company with George
Bancroft established the Round Hill School at
Northampton, Mass. This institution, although
a notable and influential departure in educational
methods, was not a financial success, and it was
given up in 1834. After two years spent in
teaching a school in Raleigh, N. C., and another
year in Europe, he settled in New York. Here
began his friendship with John Jacob Astor, with
whom he lived as companion and adviser until the
death of Mr. Astor in 1848. It had been Mr.
Astor's intention to erect an expensive monument
in New York City to the memory of Washington ;
but it was by Dr. Cogswell's persuasion that he
was induced to build and endow a library instead.
Thus to Cogswell's suggestion and influence the
Astor Library owes its foundation, while to his
indefatigable energy and wide knowledge in the
selection of books is due its great value. Ap-
pointed by Astor's will one of the trustees, he was
also elected the first superintendent of the Li-
brary, and in 1848 made the first of many visits
to Europe for the purchase of books ; and he
always claimed that he was enabled to keep the
average cost of the volumes purchased very low,
because of the sacrifice of libraries, incident to
that revolutionary epoch. In November, 1861,
after thirteen years of the closest and most devoted
services, which included the issuing of the cata-
logue in four volumes, mainly the result of his
own unaided efforts, he resigned on account of ill
health. The office of trustee he continued to hold
until his removal to Cambridge, in the fall of 1864.
In 1863, Harvard gave him the degree of LL.D.,
an honor previously (1842) bestowed on him by
Trinity College, Conn. He lived quietly in Cam-
bridge, making occasional short journeys and visits
to friends in New York and elsewhere, until his
death, on the 20th of November, 1871, at the age
of eighty -five.
Dr. Cogswell was a man of broad scholarship
and minute accuracy. There were few fields in
which his knowledge was not exact and far reach-
ing. Devoted to his profession, he yet found time
for many close friendships ; during his frequent
trips abroad he became intimate with many well-
known men, — among them, Goethe, Humboldt,
Byron, Scott, and Jeffries. To the bibliographical
skill and learning of its first superintendent the
Astor Library is as enduring a monument as it is
to the liberality of its founder.
A marble bust of Dr. Cogswell, given to the
Harvard Library by several of his pupils at the
Round Hill School, is preserved in the room of
the Librarian.
AUTHOBITIES: Life of Joseph Green Cogswell as sketched
in his letters, [ed. by Anna Eliot Ticknor,] 1874. pp. xii.
377. (portrait.). American annual cyclopaedia, 1871, pp.
120-122. Appleton's Cyc.ofAmer. biography, i. 679. Astor
library, Reports, 1862, 1865, 1872. Boston daily advertiser,
28 Nov. 1871. Necrology of Harvard College, 1869-72,
1872, pp. 8-10. Saunders, Biog. sketch of J. G. C. in
Library journal, xiii. 7-10, (Jan. 1888). Wilson, Jos. G.
Cogswell, in Appleton's journal, vii. 19-20, (6 Jan. 1872).
1823-1826.
Charles Folsoiu, born in Exeter, N. H., 24
December, 1794, was the son of James and Sarah
(Gilman) Folsom. After studying at Phillips
Academy, Exeter, he entered Harvard in the
sophomore class and graduated in 1813. During
the winter vacations while an undergraduate and
for the year after his graduation, he taught school.
Returning to Cambridge the next year, he began
to prepare himself for the ministry, but poor
health forced him to give it up. Meanwhile he
was a proctor and regent in the college, and in
1816 received the degree of A.M. The same year
he accepted an appointment as chaplain and in-
structor of mathematics on the U. S. ship Wash-
ington about to cruise in the Mediterranean. He
remained abroad five years, part of the time serv-
ing as United States consul at Tunis (1817-19).
In 1821, he returned to this country and was
chosen tutor in Latin, a position he kept until in
September, 1823, he was made Librarian. By the
direction of the Corporation he issued in 1824 a
printed list of duplicates which were offered for
sale at fixed prices. It was during his administra-
tion that greater freedom in the use of the Library
began to be granted, especially to visiting schol-
ars; and it was largely at his suggestion that
the Library was thrown open " to all comers, with
the implied assurance of welcome and aid." In
1826, he resigned the office and also the tutorship
of Italian he had held for a year, in order to give
his full time to a position he had partly filled for a
year or two, — namely, corrector of the University
Press. Yet his interest in the Library did not
cease, for we find him apparently still in charge
(in March, 1828) of the sale of duplicates as
begun during his term, and he gave Peirce able
assistance in the preparation of the catalogue of
1830. The Greek motto prefixed to the catalogue
of maps was suggested by him.
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
Writing but little himself, it was in such ways
as this, giving unstintedly his own time and labor
and accurate scholarship to the correction and re-
vision of the work of others, that Charles Folsom
exercised a decided influence in the world of let-
ters. Sparks, Prescott, Quincy, and many other
prominent authors were glad to acknowledge his
skill and ever willing assistance. And so on
the books which passed through his hands at the
Press, it is said that his "passion for exact and
minute accuracy," often led him to spend more
time than had the authors themselves. Indeed,
the pains he took in the verification of even the
slightest details consumed so much time that he
was finally obliged to resign his position, — the
press could not wait for him. In 182-1, he had
edited with William Cullen Bryant, the United
States Literary Gazette, and ten years later he
joined Professor Norton (Librarian, 1813-21) in
editing the four volumes of the Select Journal of
Foreign Periodical Literature. His only publica-
tions apart from those in periodicals were school
editions of Livy and Cicero. He was frequently
asked to write inscriptions, a species of composi-
tion for which he had great talent ; those on the
monuments to Presidents Dunster, Willard, and
Webber in the Cambridge burying ground are
from his pen. Mr. Folsom was a member of the
American Academy, of the American Antiquarian
Society, and of the Massachusetts Historical
Society, and contributed a number of papers to
their publications.
In 1841, moving to Boston, Folsom opened a
school for young ladies. But at the end of four
years he was elected Librarian of the Boston
Athenaeum, then just entering its new building
and widely extending its influence. Shortly before
accepting this office he wrote to his friend S. A.
Eliot a long letter giving his views, which were
singularly advanced for the times, on libraries
and librarians; — "A letter," says Dr. Peabody,
"which can hardly be transcended in simplicity,
purity, and elegance of diction." Leaving the
Athenaeum after a faithful and useful service of
nearly eleven years, he returned to Cambridge to
spend the remaining years of his life. ' ' He was
to the last a busy man ; but the fruits of his indus-
try were for the most harvested by those whose
only return could be their thanks and their grate-
ful remembrance." He died, 8 November, 1872,
in his seventy-eighth year.
Charles Folsom married, 19 October, 1824,
Susanna Sarah, daughter of Rev. Joseph McKean,
Boylston Professor of rhetoric and oratory. He
had four children.
He was a man of unusually sweet and generous
disposition, ever ready to do a kindness, never
willing to think evil of anyone. A man whose
scholarship might have brought him to a position
of eminence, he was content to remain behind
while he helped others to climb to the fame his
own talents deserved.
AUTHORITIES : American academy, Proceedings, ix. 237-
238. Chapman, Genealogy of Folsom family, 1882, p. 121.
Folsom and Chapman, Descendants of John Folsom, 1876,
p. 26. Parsons, Memoir of Charles Folsom, 1873. pp. 19.
Peabody, Harvard reminiscences, 1888, pp. 100-104. Quincy,
History of Boston Athenaeum, 1851, p. 170.
I826-I83I.
Benjamin Peirce, born in Salem, 30 Septem-
ber, 1778, was the son of Jerahmeel and Sarah
(Ropes) Peirce. After graduating at the head of
the class of 1801, he returned to Salem and
entered the India trade with his father. He was a
representative to the General Court from Salem
for several years and a senator from Essex county
in 1811. But neither a -mercantile nor a political
life fully satisfied him and he was glad to accept
in 1826 the position of Librarian at Harvard. He
at once set about the preparation of a catalogue of
the Library which was published in 1830-31 in
four volumes : the first two containing an alpha-
betical catalogue by authors, the third a systematic
index, and the fourth a catalogue of maps. In his
preface he related briefly the history of the Library
and described its present condition. " The Library
rooms," he said, " contain twenty alcoves. Over
the windows of several of them are inscribed the
names of Hollis, Hancock, Lee, Palmer, Thorn-
dike, Eliot. The apartments are also adorned
with pictures and busts. . . . The judicious and
convenient disposition of the books according to
their subjects, which was introduced by that
accomplished scholar, Joseph G. Cogswell, Esq.,
has been continued with respect to those received
since he had charge of the Library, so far as cir-
cumstances would permit. Many of the books,
however, which have been added to the Library
for several years, have been excluded from their
appropriate places by the want of room."
It was, perhaps, partly the labor involved in
making this catalogue that caused his health to
break down. The last volume had hardly come
from the press, when Mr. Peirce died, 26 July,
1831, aged 53. He had left in manuscript a great
part of a "History of Harvard University, from
its foundation, in the year 1636, to the period of
the American Revolution." This was edited by
his friend John Pickering, and published in 1833
(Cambridge ; Brown, Shattuck and Company. 8°.
pp. xx., 316, 160). Quincy, in his History of
Harvard, describes the book as "of great merit
and usefulness, possessing the traits of that sound-
ness of judgment and accuracy of investigation so
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
39
eminently his characteristics." He also published
an "Oration delivered at Salem, 4th of July,
1812."
He married, 11 December, 1803, Lydia R.
Nichols. His son Benjamin (H. U. 1829) was a
distinguished mathematician, and for many years
Perkins professor of astronomy and mathematics.
One of his three other children Charles Henry
(H. U. 1833) was a physician in Salem and
Cambridge.
AUTHORITIES : Peabody, Harvard reminiscences, 1888,
p. 68. Peirce, B., Hist, of Harvard, (preface}. Peirce,
F. C., Peirce genealogy, 1880, pp. 52, 74. Quincy, -History
of Harvard, 1840, ii. 390.
I83I-I856.
Thaddeus William Harris, the eldest son
of Thaddeus Mason Harris (Librarian, 1791-
1793), was born in Dorchester, 12 November,
1795. He graduated from the College in 1815 and
from the Medical School five years later. He
began the practice of his profession in Milton with
Dr. Amos Holbrook, whose daughter, Catherine,
he married in 1824. Soon after the birth of the
first of his twelve children, he moved to Dorchester
Village, where he continued to practise medicine
for a few years. Interested more in science than
in medicine, Harris welcomed the opportunity
of being made Librarian at Harvard as likely to
relieve him of the exacting duties of a country
physician and give him more time for his favorite
scientific pursuits. As early as 1826, he was con-
sidered as a candidate for the position, but it was
not until after the death of Peirce in 1831 that he
was elected. In a measure his hopes of gaining
more leisure were not realized. The Library in
those days was rapidly growing and the care of it
demanded more and more of his time. During the
twenty-five years it was in his charge, it increased
from about 30,000 to 65,000 volumes; new funds
and subscriptions for immediate use were received ;
and a new building, Gore Hall, was erected in
1840 at a cost of $73.500. In 1834, the " First
Supplement " to the Catalogue was issued ; it was
a volume of 260 pages and bore the imprint of
" Charles Folsom, printer to the University."
While he seems to have considered the increasing
duties of this office a burden and a serious drag on
his scientific work, he conscientiously and energeti-
cally fulfilled them. "To the office of Libra-
rian," writes one of his biographers, " Dr. Harris
brought habits of precision and method, a disci-
plined and scholarly mind, and a wide range of
general and scientific information. To those who
visited the Library for purposes of study and re-
search he was always accessible, and his advice,
suggestions, and assistance were freely given them.
He was admirably adapted by taste and education
to the position in which he now found himself."
A student of history, an antiquarian, and a
painstaking genealogist, it was as a scientist that
he won fame. His special subject, entomology, was
an almost unoccupied field in this country at that
time. By his collections, his numerous writings,
and his correspondence with other scholars, he
reached a position of prominence as an authority.
Agassiz declared that he had few equals as an
entomologist. For several years (1837-1842) he
gave lectures on natural history in the College, but
he never attained the longed-for professorship in
this subject. A hard and constant worker, he was
scarcely absent from the Library a day during his
long term. ' He died, after a sickness of two
months, 16 January, 1856.
The list of Dr. Harris's publications is a long
one; Mr. Scudder enumerated 114 titles. The
greater part of these consists of articles on ento-
mology published in some thirty different periodi-
cals ; but there are a number on botany and a few
on miscellaneous subjects. His most important
separate work was a Report on the insects of
Massachusetts injurious to vegetation published in
1841 by the Zoological survey, and re-issued
in 1842, 1852, and 1862. This long remained a
standard work, as did his list of insects contributed
to Hitchcock's Report on the geology, mineralogy,
botany, and zoology of Massachusetts (1833).
Some years after his death the Boston Society of
Natural History published his Scientific corres-
pondence, edited by Samuel H. Scudder (1869).
This was accompanied by a portrait and by a
memoir by Colonel T. W. Higginson. Dr. Harris
was a member of the Massachusetts Historical
Society, the American Academy, and the Boston
Society of Natural History, and a corresponding
member of the Entomological Society of London.
AUTHORITIES : Harris, E. D., Memoir, in Mass. hist. soc.
Proceedings, 1882, xix. 313-322. Higginson, Memoir, 1869.
pp. [1] xi. xlvii. Palmer, Necrology, 1864, pp. 86-87. Pea-
body, Harvard reminiscences, 1880, p. 105.
1856-1877.
John Langdon Sibley, the eldest child of
Dr. Jonathan and Persis (Morse) Sibley, was born
in Union, Maine, 29 December, 1804. After
studying for two years at Phillips Exeter Academy,
he entered Harvard in 1821. He attained a high
rank as a scholar and was given parts at the exhi-
bitions in his junior and senior years and at his
graduation in 1825. During his college course he
mainly supported himself, by acting as President's
Freshman, by giving music lessons, and by work-
ing in the Library in his vacations. On gradu-
ating, he was appointed Assistant Librarian at a
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
salary of $150 a year ; in the Treasurer's report for
1825-G, Sibley is entered as receiving $112.50 as
Assistant Librarian and $50 for instruction in
French. The next year, on the appointment of
Peirce, the office of Assistant Librarian was dis-
continued, and the Librarian's salary was doubled,
making it $600. In describing the condition of
the Library at this time, Mr. Sibley years after
said, "As the books had been distributed, 'but
not marked' to their places, applications for them
were made on the day before they were taken, in
order that the Librarian might have time to find
them."
Mr. Sibley had already spent a year at the
Divinity School, and, finishing his course there in
1828, was ordained the following May, as col-
league of the Rev. Jonathan Newell at Stow,
Massachusetts. Mr. Newell died the next year,
and Sibley remained the sole pastor until 1833,
when he resigned and returned to Cambridge. He
took a room in Divinity Hall and devoted himself
to various literary pursuits. He edited for three
years the American Magazine of Useful and
Entertaining Knowledge, an illustrated monthly
journal which did not prove a financial success.
During this period, Mr. Sibley had given occa-
sional assistance in the Library, and in March,
1841, just before the removal of the books to Gore
Hall, he was re-appointed Assistant Librarian, and
began his thirty-six years of continuous service in
the Library. At this time the number of volumes
was about 41,000, and the annual income from in-
vested funds was but $250 ; when he resigned the
Librarianship in 1877, the number of books had
increased to 164,000 volumes and the investments
instead of $5,000 amounted to $170,000. Im-
mediately after his appointment, Mr. Sibley began
his never-ceasing efforts to increase the Library
by obtaining gifts both of books and of money.
The following account of his endeavors in this
direction is taken from an address he made in 1879
before the American Library Association : " I
began to beg for the Library. Appeals were made
to authors for their books and pamphlets. I asked
people to send whatever they had that was printed,
whether they considered it good for anything or
not. ' Clear out your garrets and closets, send me
their contents.' And with such earnestness did I
plead, that I literally had boxes and barrels sent
to me, and once I received a butter-firkin. Almost
always I got something precious which I had for
years been trying to obtain. Even the butter-
firkin contained an unexpected treasure. Collec-
tions of books and libraries in the course of time
were added. I acquired the name of being a
sturdy beggar, and received a gentle hint from the
College Treasurer to desist from begging, which I
as gently disregarded. . . . My connection with
the Library had lasted longer than that of any
other person on record. I had given to it the
greater part of a long life : it had taken prece-
dence in all my employments and pleasures, and I
had the satisfaction of finding that during the last
thirty-six years more had been done in the way of
funds and books than by all other persons since
the foundation of the College." During the fifteen
years he served as Assistant Librarian, he states
elsewhere, he procured by gift 7,000 volumes and
from 15,000 to 20,000 pamphlets.
By vote of the Corporation, 23 February, 1856,
and of the Overseers, 12 March, 1856, John Lang-
don Sibley was appointed to succeed Dr. Harris
as Librarian. He at once began what he describes
as a " Librarian's Diary," a blank book into which
he not only copied his annual reports and impor-
tant letters, but entered day by day all events of
interest connected with the Library. Visits from
distinguished men, the appointment of assistants
and the pay they were to receive, the purchase of
supplies, and similar matters are duly recorded.
There is an account of a long controversy he had
with the Corporation in reference to his practice
of binding in the covers of periodicals when they
were made up into volumes. Under the date 18
November, 1862, he describes one of his hunting
expeditions after books and pamphlets and relates
that he " spent four hours with a lantern and cloak
in the chilly cellar and found many things not in
the College Library." In short, the Diary fur-
nishes a carefully detailed history of the Library
for a period of twenty years.
When Gore Hall was built in 1841, it was sup-
posed that it would accommodate the accessions
for the rest of the century ; but the growth of
the Library was so unexpectedly rapid that in little
more than twenty years it was overcrowded with
books. In his annual report for 1863 the Librarian
declared it to be " virtually filled." Yet it was not
until the last year of his service (1876-7) that an
addition was completed. This addition containing
a book " stack" of six floors, besides an office for
the Librarian and alcoves for the cataloguing
force, was erected at a cost of about $90,000.
But the progress of the Library during this
administration was not wholly confined to the
growth in size ; there was also an advance in its
management and use. When Mr. Sibley took
charge there was accessible to the public only the
printed catalogue of 1830 and its supplement ; the
official card catalogue of accessions since that date
could only be consulted through the Librarian or
some assistant. In 1861, the present public card
catalogue, in two parts, author and subject,
planned and supervised by the Assistant Librarian,
Ezra Abbot, was commenced. In the printed re-
port of the Visiting Committee for 1863, Dr.
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
Abbot wrote a full description of this catalogue,
which introduced many features then novel in
library work.
Popular tradition usually pictures Mr. Sibley as
the jealous custodian of the Library, anxious only
for the accumulation of books and the preservation
of them unharmed, and ever eager to discourage
and drive away the would-be reader. But this is
a most unjust view of him. It is true perhaps
that he was inclined to emphasize this side of a
librarian's duties. He had little sympathy for the
desultory reader, seeking only amusement, and he
would not tolerate any abuse of the Library privi-
leges. But to anyone, student or stranger; doing
serious work, access to the alcoves was freely
granted upon application and many a graduate
still remembers with gratitude his ready and
efficient aid.
Toward the last part of his service Mr. Sibley's
eyesight began to fail him, and in 1877 he was
forced on this account to resign. His resignation
was accepted by the Corporation 24th of Septem-
ber and the same day he was appointed Librarian
Emeritus. It was with deep regret that he left
the place he had filled so many years and he wrote
in the Diary: "The Library will continue to be
like an old home as long as I live."
Mr. Sibley edited twelve Triennial Catalogues
(1842-1875) and one Quinquennial Catalogue
(1880) of Harvard University. In the first issue
he corrected many dates that had been erroneous
and supplied many that had been omitted in earlier
editions, besides inserting in full the middle names
of many of the graduates. In his second edition
(1845) he first gave the dates of the deaths of
graduates. For twenty years (1850-1870) he also
edited the Annual Catalogues. He printed in 1865
a pamphlet of 67 pages entitled "Notices of the
triennial and annual catalogues of Harvard Uni-
versity ; with a reprint of the catalogues of 1674,
1682, and 1700." For fifteen years he prepared the
annual Necrology issued at Commencement time.
He published in 1851 a history of his native town,
Union, Maine. To magazines and to the publica-
tions of the Massachusetts Historical Society he
was an occasional contributor. But by far his
most important work was his " Biographical
sketches of the graduates of Harvard University."
Of this monumental work he published three
volumes, in 1873, 1881, and 1885 respectively,
covering the graduates through the class of 1689.
The third volume was prepared and issued under
conditions that would have discouraged a less reso-
lute or a less patient man from attempting such a
task ; his sight was fast failing him and he had
remaining little physical strength ; yet it was done
with his usual painstaking care and accuracy.
" It is impossible," writes Dr. Peabody, " to over-
estimate the worth of these volumes. . . . The
work could not have been better done, nor so well
done by any other man. . . . Mr. Sibley tells all
that one wants to know, in his own concise and
perspicuous style, with the occasional interpolation
of quaint extracts from their writings or those of
their coevals." After the life of each graduate
there is a full bibliography of his writings.
Speaking of this, Lowell wrote, somewhat dis-
paragingly: "It is the very balm of authorship.
No matter how far you may be gone under, if you
are a graduate of Harvard College, you are sure
of being dredged up again and handsomely buried,
with a catalogue of your works to keep you down."
Cotton Mather, it may be noted, is safely buried
beneath a list of 456 titles.
Mr. Sibley continued to occupy his room in
Divinity Hall until his marriage, 20 May, 1866, to
Charlotte Augusta Langdon Cook, daughter of
Samuel Cook, a Boston merchant. Although
beginning when he was advanced in years his
home life was particularly happy. In the numer-
ous charities which formed a marked feature of
his simple life his wife gladly joined. Many
needy students found in him a kind and ready
helper, and to Phillips Exeter Academy he gave
during the years 1862 to 1872 nearly fifteen thous-
and dollars to create a fund in memory of his
father for the aid of meritorious students. He
was not at the time a rich man, and it is said that
one of these gifts of five thousand dollars repre-
sented more than half of his entire property. His
death occurred after a long illness, 9 December,
1885. By his will, he left all his property to his
wife, with the provision that after her death such
part as she had not expended was to pass to the
Massachusetts Historical Society to provide for
the continuation of his lives of Harvard graduates.
To the custody of the same Society he left his
manuscript material gathered for the same pur-
pose.
Mr. Sibley was a member of the Massachusetts
Historical Society, of the New England Historic-
Genealogical Society, and of the American Acad-
emy. From Bowdoin College he received the
honorary degree of A.M. in 1856.
Dr. Peabody thus sums up his leading traits :
"In Mr. Sibley's character, integrity bore a con-
spicuous part ; and by this I do not mean mere
honesty in the narrower sense of the word, but
also conscientious accuracy, truthfulness and jus-
tice, in all the details of thought, word, and deed.
He would be lavish of time and of money if need
were, in determining an obscure date, or the
proper orthography of an unimportant name,
simply because he deemed it wrong to state what
he did not know, or to omit, in any work which he
undertook, the full statement of all that he could
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
know. ... As a friend, he was true and loyal.
In dress, manners, appearance, and personal hab-
its, he preserved to the last, much of the sim-
plicity, and many of the unconventional ways, of
his rural birthplace and his early life ; but there
was in him the very soul of courtesy ; and those
who knew him best had often fresh surprises in
his fineness and delicacy of feeling, his tenderness
for the sensibility of others, and his choice of such
modes of performing kind acts as might best keep
himself in the background, and ward off the pain-
ful sense of obligation."
AUTHORITIES: American academy, Proceedings, 1886,
xxi. 537-539. The Harvard book, 1875, i. 112-121, 167-169
(portrait). Library journal, 1878, iv. 305-308. Lowell,
Letters, 1893, ii. 147. Peabody, Memoir of Sibley in Pro-
ceedings Mass. hist, soc., 1886, 2d series, ii. 487-507 (por-
trait). Peabody, Harvard reminiscences, 1888, pp. 146-154.
Sibley, MS. library journal.
APPENDIX I.
LIBRARY LAWS OF 1667.
THESE FOLLOWING ORDERS WERE MADE BY THE OVERSEERS. ANNO. 1667. FOR THE
RECTIFYING OF YE LIBRARY & RULES FOR THE LIBRARY KEEPER.
1. No prson not resident in the colledge, except
an overseer shall borrow a book out of the Library.
2. No schollar in the Colledge, under a Senior
Sophister shall borrow a book out of the Library.
3. No one under master of Art (unless it be a
fellow) shall borrow a Book without the allowance
of the President
4. If any prson whatsoever shall be found inju-
rious to the Library by abusing or not carefully
restoring any Book borrowed by him, upon com-
plaint to the President by ye Library Keepr he shall
pay double dammage & be debarred from borrowing.
5. No prson besides the Library keeper shall be
allowed to have a key to the Library, except the
President, the Pastor of the Church in Cambridge,
& the Senior Fellow for himselfe & the rest of the
Fellows & no other of the Schollars shall have
liberty to study in the Library.
6. There shall be no lending or removing out of
the Library the new Globes or books of extraordi-
nary vallue (as Biblia Polyglotta, King of Spains
Bible &c) but with very great caution & upon
extraordinary occasion.
7. The Library keep1 shall take care that by
the help of ye Treasurer of the Colledge, the
Library be kept in good repair, that no dammage
come to any of the books by the weather or want
of convenient shelving &c. Also he shall keep the
Library duly swept, & the books clean & orderly
in their places.
8. The Library keep1 shall write or cause to be
fairly written in a book (to be payd for by the
Treasurer) the names of all the Books belonging to
the Library. First in the order as they are placed
& disposed according to the affixed catalogue.
Secondly, In one continued Alphabet setting down
the Authors name & what of his works are in
the Library & where. Thirdly The names of the
Severall Donors of ye Books with the Books given
by them
9. No Book shall be sold unless in the Library
there be two or more of the same sort, & not that
but by ye order of the corporation & the same
exactly recorded.
10. If any new book or Books be given, they
shall be brought into the Library with the Knowl-
edge of President & fellows & an exact Accompt
thereof taken & kept from time to time by the
Library keep1.
11. The Library Records & other manuscripts
& w* else shall be judged expedient shall be kept
in a chest in ye Library undr Lock & Key to be
kept by the Library keepr.
12. No book shall be taken out of the Library
or returned without the knowledge & presence of
the Library keepr, the name of the Borrower &
restorer with the book & time of borrowing & re-
turning being orderly sett down in the Library
keeprs book by the prson himselfe.
13. The ordinary time for borrowing & return-
ing books shall be between ye Hours of eleven in
the forenoon & one in the afternoone.
14. No book shall be lent ordinarily for above a
months time & once in halfe a year all the Books
shall be actually called in & sett in their places.
15. Once in two yeers the Library keepr shall
be newly chosen &, then give up his Accompt to
the President & Fellows.
16. Upon the new choice or removall of the
Library Keepr, the fellows shall look over the Li-
brary & see that all the books be actually in
their places ; if any be wanting the Library keepr
shall make them good
College Book, no. III., pp. 25-27.
APPENDIX II.
LIBRARY LAWS OF 1736.
THIS BODY OF LAWS FOR (OR RELATING TO) YK LIBRARY OF HARVARD COLLEGE, WAS
MADE BY YE CORPORATION OF SAID COLLEGE, AND FINALLY COMPLEATED
BY YE OVERSEERS CONSENTING THERETO. MAY. 20. 1736.
1. That ye Library-Keeper be chosen for no
longer a time than one year ; and on his removal,
or a new choice, he shall give up an account of ye
State of ye Library to ye Corporation ; and the
Corporation (or those whom they shall appoint)
shall look over ye Library, & see y* ye Books and
other things pertaining to ye Library, are all in
their place & order.
2. When y* Library Keeper goes out of Town,
he shall (with ye approbation of ye President, &
one or more of the Tutors signified under their
hand) substitute some faithf ull scholar, with whom
44
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
he shall intrust ye Key of ye Library till his return ;
who shall be obliged to ye same duty & attendance,
as ye Library Keeper himself is when present.
3. No Book shall be taken out of ye Library, or
returned, without ye knowledge & presence of ye
Library Keeper or his Substitute ; ye name of the
borrower & restorer, with ye Book itself & time of
borrowing and returning, being orderly set down
in ye Library Keeper's Book, by ye Library Keeper
or his Substitute.
4. Such persons as are in y8 Instruction or
Government of ye College, & such Graduates as
reside at ye College, or in ye Town of Cambridge
(for ye benefit of following their studies) whose
names are, or shall be, at their desire inserted in
ye College Quarter Bills, and all ye Senior Sophis-
ters, may borrow Books out of ye Library; and no
other person without leave from ye Corporation ;
unless such Gentlemen of Learning as are settled
in ye Town of Cambridge, and have special allow-
ance from ye President & one or more of ye
Tutors under their hands, for such Books as they
shall desire. And no other things but Books shall
be borrowed out of ye Library, except by those in
ye Instruction or Government of ye College.
5. No Scholar in ye College, under a Senior
Sophister, may borrow a book out of ye Library :
nor shall any borrower let any Book, or other
thing which he hath borrowed, go from under his
personal custody.
6. When ye Senior Sophisters shall be admitted
to ye priveledge of borrowing Books out of ye
Library, ye President, Professors & Tutors, shall
advise them what Books are most proper for their
reading
7. No Scholar shall borrow any Book out of ye
Library, oftner than once in three weeks : and
the Masters, Bachelours, & Senior Sophisters, shall
have in their order, their distinct weeks for
borrowing.
8. No person, except such as are concerned in
ye Instruction & government of ye College, shall
keep any Book belonging to ye Library, longer
than three weeks ; or borrow more out of ye
Library than three Books at a time ; without leave
obtained from ye President & Tutors, signified to
ye Library Keeper, by a note under ye President's
hand.
9. The stated time for borrowing & returning
Books shall be fixed to Fryday; on which day
in each Week, from eleven a clock till two in
ye afternoon (times of vacation, & dinner time in ye
College, excepted) the Library Keeper or his sub-
stitute shall be obliged to give his attendance in ye
Library for y* end ; and shall not permit any
Scholars to enter into ye Library, but shall deliver
& recieve ye Library Books, asked for, & re-
turned, by ye Scholars, at ye Library door. And if
any Scholar shall at such times attempt to enter
into ye Library, he shall, upon complaint wch ye
Library Keeper shall make to ye President & Tu-
tors, be by them debarred ye privelege of borrow-
ing Books out of ye Library, and punished by
pecuniary mulct, or otherwise, according to ye
nature & circumstances of his offence.
10. If any Scholar abuse, or unseasonably
detain any Book borrowed by him, or injure y*
Library any other way, said Scholar, upon com-
plaint which ye Library Keeper shall forthwith
make to ye President & Tutors, shall pay double
damages, and be debarred from borrowing till he
has paid said damages (or has been otherwise
punished at ye discretion of ye President & Tutors)
and has obtained new leave from ye President &
Tutors to borrow, signified to ye Library Keeper
by a note under ye President's hand. But if any
damage be done to ye Library, it's Books, or other
things (unless by unavoidable Providence, or on
publick occasions when ye persons y* hath done the
damage can't be found) ye Library Keeper shall be
charged with it, by ye President & Tutors ; and
ye Sum charged shall be substracted from his
Salary by order from under ye President's hand.
11. If any Scholar steal any Book, raritie, or
other thing out of ye Library, he shall be expelled.
*[12. To repair damages done by borrowing
Books out of ye Library, each Bachelour, $ Master
all Borrowers (except those in ye Instruction or
government of ye College) who holds a study in
y~ College, as also each Senior Sophister, shall pay
eight shillings per Annum, to be charged in their
respective Quarter Bills : this Law to continue &
be in force for ye space of four years $• no
longer. ]
this law should run as follows viz.
With respect to ye following Law. vid. Lib. N° 4.
p. 225.
12. To repair damages done by borrowin Books
out of ye Library, all borrowers, except those
who are in ye Instruction or government of ye
College, & Gentlemen of learning settled in Cam-
bridge, & others that may have special leave from
ye Corporation, shall pay two shillings per Quarter
to ye College, which shall be charged in their re-
spective Quarter Bills ; and this Law to continue
for four years ^ no longer.
13. No person shall go into ye Library without
ye presence of ye Library Keeper or his Substitute,
except those in ye Instruction or government of ye
College and they only f
14. No person besides ye Library Keeper, shall
be allowed to have a Key to ye Library, excepting
ye President who shall have one in his personal
custody, to be used only in case of fire, or some
other publick necessity.
. 15. The Library Keeper shall, at ye charge of
ye College, take care y1 ye Library be kept in good
repair, & yt no damage come to any Books or
other things in ye Library, by ye weather, or want
of convenient shelving &c also he shall keep ye
Library duely swept, and ye Books clean, & orderly
in their places.
16. The Library Keeper shall go on to write
(or cause to be fairly written) in ye Library Book
ye names of all ye Books yt shall be brought
into ye Library (1) In ye order as they are
placed & disposed according to ye affixed Cata-
logues (2) In one continued Alphabet setting
down ye Authors names, & what of their works are
in ye Library, & where. (3) The names of ye
Several Donors of ye Books, with ye Books given,
& ye times when they were given. The like
method he also shall take with respect to Manu-
scripts, Rarities, or any other things presented to ye
Library for ye service of ye College, viz. That
ye names of ye Donors, ye time of their Donations,
and a particular account of ye things themselves
* Law 12, as given in brackets above was erased in the
Records and the second " law 12 " adopted. The italicized
words in both the laws have also been cancelled by a line
drawn through them. Against the second form of the law is
written in the margin : " This law being expired, was made
perpetual by ye Corporation & Overseers Oct. 7. 1740 [there-]
fore the last line is [here] obliterated."
f A line at the foot of the page is wanting here.
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
45
yt are given be recorded by him in ye Library
Book.
17. If any Book or Books be given to ye Li-
brary, they shall be brought into ye Library with
ye knowledge & consent of ye President & Resident
Fellows of the Corporation, and an exact account
thereof both in ye College Book, and in ye Classes
hanging before ye Library Books shall be taken, &
kept from time to time by ye Library Keeper ; and
till such accounts be taken, no person whatso-
ever shall be allowed to detain or borrow any such
Book or Books given to ye Library.
18. The Library Records, Manuscripts & such
Rarities & other things as ye Corporation shall
Judge expedient, shall be kept under Lock and
Key in one or more convenient Receptacles in ye
Library, and ye Key or Keys be kept by ye Library
Keeper. But ye College Records (except those of
frequent use) shall be kept in a suitable strong
Receptacle in ye Library, and ye Key thereof kept
by ye President or Senior resident Fellow.
These Laws were here entered in this
Book. May. 24. 1736. and were pub-
lished in ye College Hall by ye
President after morning prayers.
July. 1. 1736.
College Book, no. I., pp. 164^-166.
APPENDIX III.
LIBRARY LAWS OF 1765.
At a meeting of the Presdt & Fellows of Harvard
College Dec. 12. 1765. regularly warn'd.
Consideration having been had of several Arti-
cles recomended to us as proper for Laws for the
new Library, said Articles [being considerably
alter'd] here follow.
Previous Regulations for ye Library.
1. All the great Donations of Books to the
Value of £.50 sterl. & upwards, shall he kept by
themselves ; The Names of the Donors, wth the
Sum given, if it may be had, being written in large
Gold Letters over the Donations respectively.
The Particular placing of These & all the other
Books, shall be directed by a Comtee of the Over-
seers and Corporation, to be chosen for that
Purpose.
2. Every Book shall be letter'd on the Back,
& its Place upon its shelf number'd there also
gilded @ the Top of the Back.
3. A written Catalogue of all the Books in each
Alcove, shall be hung up therein ; And an alpha-
betic Catalogue of the whole Library, divided into
Chapters, according to the Diversity of Subjects,
shall be printed & a Copy chain'd in each Window
of the Library. There shall also be an Account of
the Donors, open to every Ones inspection, to
begin with the Donors to the former Library.
4. A Print of the College Seal handsomly
engrav'd, with a Blank Space, to insert the Name
of the Donor, shall be pasted in the beginning or
End of Every Book.
5. There shall be a part of the Library kept dis-
tinct from the Rest as a smaller Library for the
more Coition Use of the College. When there are
two or more Setts of Books, the Best shall be de-
posited in the great Library, & the Others in the
great or small Library, at the Discretion of
the CoiTitee for piaceing the Books. This Coihtee
shall also lay apart. & w* the Assistance of the
Librarian prepare a Catalogue of such Books, as
They judge proper for the smaller Library.
6. All the Shelves of Books shall be cover'd
w01 either Brass-wire Netting or glass sashes, to
be lock'd upon 'em, & the Librarian to keep the
Keys.
7. For the Accomodation of Gentlemen who
may be desirous to peruse Books in the Library,
their shall be small Table & seat in each Alcove ;
also a pair of Steps.
Laws for the Library.
1. The Librarian shall be chosen for a Term
not exceeding three years subject nevertheless to
be remov'd, upon Misbehavr & on his Removal or
expiratio of his Term, he shall give up an Account
of the State of the Library to the Corporation ;
And the Corporation or Those Whom They shall
appoint, shall inspect the Library before another
Choice, & see that the Books are all in their Place
& Order, & if any Damage hath Come to the Li-
brary by the Neglect of the Librarian, or his In-
observance of the Laws of the Library, it shall be
made good, out of his Salary or otherwise. And as
his Trust & Work will be increased, by the Reg-
ulations & Laws now Made, He shall be allow'd
a Salary of Sixty Pounds a year.
2. The Librarian shall Constantly & stedily
attend the Duties of his Office ; but as he may be
sometimes necessarily hindred, Therefore to the
end that there may always be Access to the Li-
brary, he shall at his own Charge, appoint a Sub-
stitute, approv'd by the Presdt Profess" & Tutors
to act for him, when he shall not be able to give
his personal Attendance : Which Substitute shall
be oblig'd to the same Duty as the Librarian, and
the Librarian shall be responsible for the Conduct
of his Substitute'
3. No Book shall be borrow'd out of the Library
or return'd, without the knowledge & Presence of
the Librarian, or his Substitute who shall keep a
fair & Regular Account in a Book, of the Name
of the Person borrowing or returning, The time
of doing it, The Title Size & Number of the Pages
in ye Book itself, & its Place in the Library, which
Account shall be signd by the Borrower. The
Librarian shall also carefully regard, the State of
each Book when deliverd out & returned. And
every Book when lent out shall have a proper
cover on it, which shall be return'd undefac'd with
the Book.
4. No Person shall have a Riglit to borrow
Books out of the Library, but such as are in the
46
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
Governm' of the College, such Graduates as reside
at the College, or in the Town of Cambridge for the
sake of following their Studies, whose Names shall
at their desire be inserted in the Quarter Bills and
such Classes of undergraduates as are allow'd that
Privilege in ye next Law. Vid. pag. 161 *
5. Whereas by the former Laws, no Scholar
under a Senior-Sophister might borrow a Book
out of the Library, this Privilege is now extended
to the Junr Sophisters, who shall both, have Lib-
erty to borrow any Books out of the smaller
Library. Each Student in these two Classes may
also borrow Books out of the great Library, w01
the Advice or Approbation of their Instructors,
procuring an Order under the Hands of the Presdt
& any two of either Professors or Tutors to the
Librarian to deliver what Book they shall judge
proper for the perusal of such Student.
6. No person shall Lend to any other, a Book
w^ he hath borrow'd from the Library, nor let it
go from under his personal Custody, under the
Penalty of losing the Privilege of borrowing for a
year. Provided nevertheless, That if any Under-
graduate shall break this Law, he be either de-
barr'd the Privilege of Borrowing as above, or be
mulcted not exceeding six shillings, at the Discre-
tion of the Presdt & Tut™. And no Student Grad-
uate or Undergraduate shall carry a Book out of
Town, under the same Penalties, and all Books
borrowed by Undergraduates, shall be return'd the
Week before a Winter Vacation.
7. No Person shall write any Word in Book
except the Librarian or the Presdt or one by his
Direction, to record its Place in the Library or the
Donors Name ; Or by Order of the Corporation, to
assign the Name of the Author when the Book is
anonymous, or for some such valuable Purpose, &
then the Writing to be done with Accuracy.
8. No Scholar shall borrow a Book out of the
Library oftner than once in three Weeks, & the
Graduates the Senior & Junr Sophisters, shall
have, in their Order, their distinct Weeks for bor-
rowing. But the Librarian shall be oblig'd to
wait on any of the Gentlemen in the Instruction or
Governm4 of the College, whenever They have
Occasion to go into the Library.
9. No Person shall be allow'd to borrow from
the Library above three Voll8 at the same Time,
except the Profes™ & Tutrs as also the Pastor or
Teaching Elder of the first Chh in Cambridge
who shall be allow'd to borrow six & the Presdt
double that Number. And no Student Graduate or
Undergraduates, shall keep any Book belonging to
the Library above Six Weeks, nor any other Per-
son above three Months.
10. The stated Time for borrowing & returning
Books by Graduates & Undergraduates, shall be
Fryday on wch Day in each Week (Times of Va-
cation excepted) The Librarian, or in Case of
Necessity his Substitute shall attend in the Library
from Nine to Eleven before Noon ; and if that be
not sufficient, from three to five in the afternoon,
or so long as shall be necessary, to deliver & re-
* Under the date of 14 August, 1766 in the Records:
" Here followeth a Proviso which, belongs to the fourth Li-
brary Law. pag. 146 : wch was omitted, in the Transcribing.
Provided Nevertheless That such Gentlemen of Learning
as are Setled in the Town of Cambridge, may have special
Allowance from the Pres<" Profes" & Tutors, to borrow
Books out of the Library, not to exceed three Vol» at a Time,
nor to keep any of Them above three Mouths, such Allow-
ance to continue for a vear only, & to be renewed at the
Discretion of the Presdt Professors & Tutors."
ceive Books asked for & returned ; And he shall
permit the Scholars to enter the Library, only one
at a Time, and in their Order ; If any Others at
such Times shall attempt to intrude, the Librarian
or his Substitute shall make Complaint to the
Presdt Profess™ & Tut™ who may punish them by
Mulct not exceeding ten shillings or otherwise
according to the Circumstances of the Offence, at
their Discretion.
11. If any Book borrow'd out of the Library be
abus'd or defac'd by writing in it or any other Way
the Librarian shall make immediate Complaint of
it to the Presdt Profess™ & Tut™. And if the Bor-
rower be a Graduate or Undergraduate, They
shall oblige him to replace it as soon as possible
with one of equal Value, upon doing wch he may
take the defac'd one for himself; Or they
may punish him by Mulct or other Wise according
to the Nature & Circumstances of the Offences ;
And if the Voll. abus'd or defac'd be part of a Sett,
the Borrower shall be oblig'd to replace the whole
Sett, taking the defaced one for Himself, or Else
shall be punish'd as above ; And until this be done,
he shall not be allow'd to borrow any other Book :
Provided, That if a Scholar can prove to the Satis-
faction of the Presdt Professors & Tut™ That the
Damage of a Book borrowed by Him, was done by
some other Scholar, that other shall be oblig'd
to make it good, or Suffer Punishm4 as above. If
any other Person abuses or defaces a Library
Book, he shall be oblig'd to make it Good.
12. If any Person desires to borrow a Book wch
is lent out of the Library, he may leave his Name
and the Title of the Book with the Librarian, &
when the Book shall be returned, The Librarian
shall reserve it for the Person who desired it;
Provided he call for it within a Week.
13. If any Undergraduate shall detain a Book
beyond the limited Time, he shall not be allow'd
to borrow any other Book, till he hath return'd or
replac'd it, & shall Six pence a Week for each
Voll. so detain'd unless he can Offer an Excuse
for such Detention, to the Satisfaction of the
Presdt & Tut".
14. If any Graduate shall detain a Book beyond
the limited Time, he shall not be allow'd to borrow
any other Book, till he hath return'd or replac'd
it. And when any Graduate shall leave College,
without returning his borrowed Books, The Libra-
rian shall give iiTiediate Notice thereof to the
Presdt to be laid before the Corporation ; And the
Corporation if necessary, shall prosecute the De-
linquent for the Book or Books.
15. No Scholar shall be admitted to a first
Degree nor any resident Bachelr to a Second De-
gree, till he hath produc'd to the Presdt a Certifi-
cate from the Librarian, that he hath return'd in
good Order, or replac'd every Book that he hath
borrow'd ; Or in Default thereof hath paid to the
Librarian, double the Value of it in Money ; Or if
it be Part of a Sett, double the Value of ye Whole
Sett : Which Value shall be ascertain'd by the
Presdt Profes™ & Tut™.
16. As a Fund towards raising a Salary for the
Librarian, all Resident Graduates, & those Under-
graduates who are allow'd the use of the Library,
shall pay six Shillings a year each, wch shall be
charg'd in their Qtr Bills. And if any resident
Master neglects to pay quarterly, the Stewd shal
certify his Neglect, to the Presdt & Tut™ ; And the
said Master shall be debarr'd from the use of the
Library, till Paym* be made.
LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
47
17. No Person shall go into the Library, with-
out the Librarian or his Substitute ; And no other
Person, except the Presdt shall have a Key to the
Library, & this to be us'd only on extraordinary
Occasions at his Discretion. No academical Exer-
cises shall be allow'd in the Library ; Nor shall any
Candle or Lamp be ever carried into it.
18. Whereas some Books of great Value, are
proper to be consulted, only occasionally, Books
of this kind shall never be taken out of the great
Library, such for example are Biblia Polyglotta,
Thesauri Antiquitatum, Rymers Foedera, Views of
Ruines of antient Cities, as Athens, Palmyra &c,
Collections of Maps, or Pictures of natural History
or the like. And the Com188 for placing the Books
shall with the Assistance of the Librarian, prepare
a Catalogue of such Books as they Judge Proper
to place in this Class, wch Books shall have some
distinguishing Mark set upon Them.
19. To give Gentlemen an Oppor1? to consult
such Books as are never to be lent, or any Other,
The Librarian shall attend one Day in a Week,
viz Wednesday throughout the Months of May &
June, September and October, from Nine to
Twelve in the Morning, & from three to five in
the Afternoon. Gentlemen may also Study in the
Library, on those Daies in the other Months, when
a Fire is kept in the Library, as directed in the
next Law.
20. The Librarian shall take Care, That the
Library be well air'd one Day in a Week at least,
if the Weather permit ; That it be swept & dusted
once in a Month or oftner if necessary ; That a
Fire be made in it one Day in a Month, from the
last of October to the last of April, Vacation
Times alwaies excepted. The Librarian or his
Substitute shall constantly be present, while there
is a Fire, & shall see it thoroughly extinguish'd by
Day Light.
21. Every Person of whatever Rank or Degree,
shall return all his borrowed Books, every year, by
the last Day of June ; And in the first Week in
July, each Book shall be taken down & carefully
^dusted; And on the Tuesday or Wednesday next
following, There shall be annually a Visitation
& Inspection of the Library by a Com1*6 of the
Overseers & Corporation, to be chosen for that
Purpose, at the semiannual Meeting in May, & to
make Report at the next Semiannual Meeting.
And if there be any Books not then return'd, or
return'd defac'd or abus'd, by any Others, besides
resident Graduates or Undergraduates, The Libra-
rian shall inform this Com188 thereof, with the
Names of the Persons delingquent. And after this
Inspection, no Book shall be taken out of the
Library, till the Fryday after Comencem*. On
wch Day the Gentlemen in the Instruction &
Governm* of the College, & the resident Graduates
may take out Books. The said Com*88 shall at
the same Time, direct the Librarian, in placing
any Books that may have come, for the Library
in the Course of the Preceding year; Which
till then shall remain in the Custody of the Presdt
for the Time being. The said Com*88 also shall
determine, whether any of Them are such Books
as are not proper to be lent & shall mark them
accordingly
22. When there are more than two setts of a
Book, the Corporation shall have Power to ex-
change, all above two if they see Cause, for some
other Books of equal Value which are not in the
Library, inscribing in the latter the Names of the
Donors of the Former.
23. The Librarian at his Entrance upon his
Office shall promise & ingage under his Hand, to
observe all the Laws relating to the Library, under
the Penalties therein provided.
At this Meeting as mentiond. pag. 145. viz
Dec. 12. 1765 Vote 1 : That the forgoing Articles
being thirty in number, be the Laws, for the Regu-
lation of the New Library at Harvard-College.
Vote 2. That the above Vote be presented to
the Honble & Revd Overseers at their Meeting this
Day, for their Approbation
3. That Andrew Eliot junr M.A. be & hereby
is unanimously Chosen the Librarian of Harvard-
College for the Term of three years.
4. That the Presdt Mr Marsh & the Revd Mr
Eliot be chosen on the part of the Corporation to
join with those who shall be chosen by the Board
of Overseers, as a Com188 for placing the Books in
the Library, that are to be lent out to the Scholars.
At an Overseers Meeting Dec. 12 1765
1. That Mr Pemberton Dr Mayhew, Mr Eliot
Mr. Cooper & Mr. Adams wth such as shall
be join'd by the Corporation be a Com'88 to de-
termine w* Books are proper to be lent to the
Students, in the present State of the Library & put
them into some Suitable place for that Purpose.
College Book, no. VII. pp. 145-150.
RETURN TO: CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
198 Main Stacks
LOAN PERIOD 1
Home Use
2
3
4
5
6
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS.
Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date.
Books may be renewed by calling 642-3405.
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW.
JAN ' 6 ?nm
FORM NO. DD6 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
50M Berkeley, California 94720-6000
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