Thus, after the lapse of about three and a half years, the office of Rector again became vacant.

The loss of Dr. Cutler must have been severely felt, as both his contemporaries, and subsequent writers, who differed from him in religious creed, have borne honorable testimony to his talents and virtues.

The writer extracts the following sketch of his character from the appendix to Doctor Holmes' life of President Stiles, p. 387.

"Doctor Cutler was educated at Harvard College, in Cambridge, and graduated there in 1701. In the year 1710, he was ordained over a church at Stratford, according to the constitution of the Churches in Connecticut. After his removal from the Rectorate, he went to England, and took Episcopal orders, and received the degree of Doctor in Divinity, from both the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He was afterwards Rector of Christ's Church in Boston, and died there in August, 1765. He was a gentleman of superior natural powers and learning; and entertained a high opinion of the constitution of the Church of England, and was zealously attached to it.* He was an excellent linguist; a great Hebrician and Orientalist. He had more knowledge of the Arabic, in Doctor Stiles' judgment, than any man in New England before him, except President Chauncy, and his disciple, the first Mr. Thatcher. He was a good logician,

* President Clap.

geographer and rhetorician. In the philosophy, and metaphysics, and ethics, of his day, he was great. He spoke Latin with great fluency and dignity, and with great propriety of pronunciation. He was a man of extensive reading in the academic sciences, Divinity, and Ecclesiastical History: and of a commanding presence and dignity in government. He was of a lofty and despotic mien, and made a grand figure at the head of a College."*

Doctor Dwight states, in his Statistical Account of New Haven, that Doctor Cutler was a native of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and that he died in Boston in 1765, being eighty two years of age.

After Mr. Cutler's removal, there was no permanent resident Rector, for nearly four years. During this period, the Trustees, in turns, of about a month each, resided at the College, with the authority of Rector. Mr. Andrew presided, and conferred degrees, at the Commencements, in the years 1724, 1725, and 1726.

It was soon ascertained that this mode of government, would not answer the wishes of the Trustees; that ill habits formerly contracted by the Students, were not easily eradicated; and before the Vice Rector had time to learn by experience how to execute his office to advantage, he resigned his post.

* President Stiles' Literary Diary.

During this period, but little occurred affecting the interest of the College, that it is deemed worthy of record, except the following.

In the year 1723, the Trustees sent to Mr. Daniel Turner, of London, a diploma, creating him Doctor of Physic. This honor appears to have been the first of the kind bestowed by the College, and in this instance, to have been "conferred in token of their sense of his liberality, in sending to the Library sundry volumes of his own works, on Physic and Chirurgery; and a collection of other valuable books, principally on the same subject.*

On the 10th October, 1723, the General Assembly passed an act, explanatory of and additional to the Charter, in which it was declared, "That any Trustee might resign his office when he should see cause. That seven Trustees convened at any meeting, properly warned, should be a quorum; and have power to act by a majority then present: and to appoint a clerk to register their acts. That a minister of thirty years of age, might be chosen a Trustee; and that the Rector should be a Trustee ex officio.

* Clap, p. 34.

CHAPTER IV.

Rectorship of the Rev. Elisha Williams.

THE evils resulting from the loose and irresponsible system of government, necessarily growing out of monthly changes of Trustees, acting as Vice Rectors; and probably also, a want of uniformity in Collegiate instruction, arising from the same cause, at length convinced the Trustees, that the reins of executive authority should be confided to a single hand.

Accordingly, on the 29th September, 1725, they chose the Rev. Elisha Williams, minister of Newington, a parish of Wethersfield, to be Rector of the College, and appointed Mr. Woodbridge, Mr. Buckingham and Mr. Whitman, to obtain his acceptance thereof.*

On this occasion, the same equitable spirit, that had been manifested by the Trustees, when they solicited the services of Doctor Cutler, governed their conduct. They applied to the General Assembly, requesting them to make satisfaction to the parish of Newington, on account of their minister's removal, and the Assembly accordingly released the parish from their County tax for three years.

* Clap, p. 35.

At the Commencement in 1726, Mr. Andrew still presided, but on the succeeding day, Rector Williams was duly installed in the following man

ner:

In the Library-room, in the presence of the Trustees, he gave his assent to the Confession of Faith and rules of Church discipline, agreed upon by the Churches of the Colony, in 1708. After dinner he delivered a public oration in the Hall, and the Trustees successively came and saluted him as Rector.

Soon after the installation of Rector Williams, the condition of the College under his energetic and wise government, began to improve. He suppressed the vice and disorder that had so long prevailed, introduced many salutary and beneficial rules, and cultivated, among the graver studies, that had before almost exclusively occupied the attention of the Students, who were principally destined for the ministry, a taste for useful and polite literature. During the administration of Rector Williams, many distinguished men were educated at the institution. Among them, may be mentioned, as better known to fame, of the Clergy, Eleazer Wheelock, S. T. D. President and Founder of Dartmouth College; Rev. Aaron Burr, President of Nassau College; Joseph Bellamy, S. T. D. of Connecticut. Of Civilians, Chief Justice Eliphalet Dyer of Connecticut; Philip Livingston, of New York, one of the committee appointed to draft the Declaration of American Independence, and William Livingston Governor of New Jersey.