SECTION II.-GROWTH OF THE COLLEGIATE SCHOOL (1718-1745.) THE UNITED COLLEGE. When college came together, after the vacation, the new building was occupied for the first time. It was wooden, three stories high, had a steep-roofed attie with dormer windows, and is said to have cost £1,000. There were three entries, a room for dining hall and chapel, a library, twenty-two studies, with adjacent bedrooms for two or three students, and a one-story kitchen. It stood till the Revolution and was rather imposing, with "an air of grandeur."" As a compliment to the upper house, it was invited to use the library for its next session, and did so. At this time an act was passed to put an end to all quarrels about the college. It provides that the state grant shall be distributed proportionally among the teachers as before; that Wethersfield graduates are to have their diplomas from Yale College, and the undergraduates there are to be admitted to the same standing at New Haven; that Hartford is to have £500 for a statehouse to solace her, and Saybrook £50 for her school; the governor and council are to provide for bringing the library to New Haven; and "the scholars at Wethersfield" are to "come down" thither. To show that union was restored, £50, given by Hon. Jahleel Brenton, of Newport, R. L., for a college at Hartford, were received by the Yale trustees "by the hand of one of the Hartford gentlemen."3 The next task was to get the library from Saybrook, and the council, on October 28, sent an order to Mr. Daniel Buckingham, son of the former pastor there, "to deliver to the rector, or his order, the books and papers belonging to that college," which were left in his house when the said college was moved to New Haven." In pursuance of this the trustees demanded the books and were refused them, Buck. ingham declaring "he did not know that he had any books belonging to Yale College [seeming to deny the new name], but when he did and should receive authentick orders he would deliver them." The sheriff was ordered to bring Mr. Buckingham before the council, which was done the next day, December 3, but he was obstinate, and finally they made him give bond to answer to the legislature for his conduct. The sheriff further was directed "to demand the said books and, upon his refusal, to enter into the house and deliver them to the rector, or to Mr. Samuel Russell, of Branford, or Mr. Thomas Ruggles, of Guilford."8 He went at once, but was threatened that if he entered "it should be 7 'It should be remembered that Yale College was strictly only the name of the building till the new charter, in 1745. upon his peril," and so went back for advice. At last he entered the house by force, found the books, and got an order authorizing him to impress men and carts and oxen to carry the books to Guilford and deliver them at Capt. Janna Meigs's house to Rev. Thomas Ruggles. The council further issued a proclamation that all having books belonging to the collegiate school should return them at once. So high ran feeling in Saybrook on this matter that bridges on the route were destroyed, carts broken down, oxen turned loose, and other attacks made, so that two hundred and sixty volumes and some valuable papers were lost, though over one thousand volumes reached New Haven.3 In December all the Wethersfield students came to New Haven, but the next month went back, alleging Tutor Johnson's insufficiency. RECTOR TIMOTHY CUTLER (1719–1722). In view of this the governor summoned the council and trustees to meet at New Haven in March. The Hartford trustees refused to come, saying they "had not advised the scholars in their going to or coming from New Haven," and others were detained by sickness, etc., so that only four or five were there. The council deliberated for three or four days. The trustees told them that Mr. Johnson "was well known as a gentleman of sufficient learning, and that they can not but look upon it as a very unworthy part in them if any of those that have deserted the college have endeavored to scandalize a gentleman in such a manner." Moreover, they "had been endeavoring to procure a rector to reside at the college, but unsuccessfully," and were of the opinion that it was "highly necessary to procure, immediately, some gentleman to be resident there, as a rector pro tempore."5 The council agreed with them, and advised them to do so at once. The trustees present then stated "they had considered that matter and resolved that the Rev. Mr. Timothy Cutler, minister of Stratford, was a person of those qualifications; that they could not but think him very proper to take charge of the tuition and government of the students in Yale College." The council approved of this, and said: It would prove an expedient universally acceptable to the colony and to all persons who have been under any uneasiness respecting the state of that college and prove a good means to put an end to the contentions which are unhappily arisen for want of such a person residing there." Rev. Mr. Cutler was Rector Andrew's son-in-law, so the change was not unpleasant to him. Born in Massachusetts, he was graduated from Harvard in 1701 at the age of 17 and, eight years later, had been called to Stratford. It is probable he was already uneasy in a pastorate, and therefore glad to escape to the college. He was not unpleasing to the Hartford men, so the disaffected students returned in June and the J Connecticut Records, VI, 96. 2 Connecticut Records, VI, 97. 3Trumbull's Conn., II, 32; Yale Annals, 200. 4 Connecticut Records, VI, 99. trustees the same month voted him a salary of £140. At commencement his temporary appointment was made permanent by formal vote.1 A month later the legislature freed him from all taxes, while holding his office. President Stiles says of him: "He was an excellent linguist, he was a great Hebrician and Orientalist." He was " a fine Arabic scholar, a good logician, geographer, and rhetorician; in the philosophy and metaphysics and ethics of his day he was great; he was a noble Latin orator; he was of commanding presence and dignity in government; he was a man of extensive reading in the academical sciences, divinity, and ecclesiastical history; he was of a high, lofty, and despotic mien; he made a grand figure as the head of a college." With this paragon at its head, the career of the college seemed destined to be prosperous. To satisfy his old parishoners the college bought from him his house and home lot there and gave them to the people.3 For his accommodation, the college went to work to build a "rector's house;" after several unsuccessful attempts obtained a "brief," authorizing the collection of money from the legislature; raised about £100 thereby, and in October, 1721, got an act passed that "what shall be gained by the impost on rum for two years next coming shall be applied to the building of a rector's house for Yale College." Lest this should not be enoughand it eventually brought in about £300-"two articles of debt to the colony" were given in the next May. With this aid the house was built on Rev. Mr. Hooke's lot, where now the College Street Church stands. This lot was given by Mr. Hooke to the church and by it sold to the college for £43. The house cost about £600,8 "bills of credit," and was finished in the summer of 1722.9 It was sold in 1801 and taken down in 1834.10 THE GROWING COLLEGE. In May, 1719, just after Cutler's election, the general court granted £300 from the sale of lands to be paid to the college, £40 annually for seven years: "Provided no other income that may happen to appertain to said college be sufficient for the encouragement of said college, before the seven years be expired." "11 This same year room rent is fixed at 20 shillings; graduates are to pay the same amount for diplomas; the weekly charge for diet, sweeping, and making beds is 4 shillings and 1 Yale Annals, 202–203. Trumbull's Conn., II, 32. Connecticut Records, VI, 159. 2 Yale Annals, 272. 3 Trumbull's Conn., II, 33. The price paid was £80 sterling. Connecticut Records, 11, 256, 260, 267. "Yale Annals, 237. 6 Connecticut Records, II, 283. 'Connecticut Records, VI, 325-337. These amounted to £99; whether anything was realized from them is unknown. Equal to £260 sterling. 9 Yale Annals, 259. 10 Yale Book, 1, 463 et seq. 11 Connecticut Records, II, 125, 130, 214. 4 pence. There are now about 40 students. One of these is Jonathan Edwards. He writes this summer, "I take very great content under my present tuition, as all the rest of the scholars seem to do." He graduated in 1720 at the head of his class, preached, became tutor, pastor at Northampton, and later at Stockbridge, Mass., was chosen president of the college of New Jersey, and died there 1758. He was the most eminent graduate of the college, the greatest theologian of his century, the ablest metaphysician of the period between Leibnitz and Kant. Sir James Mackintosh said of him: His power of subtle argument, perhaps unmatched, certainly unsurpassed among men, was joined, as in some of the ancient mystics, with a character which raised his piety to fervor.2 From a letter of his we learn the interesting fact that mathematics3 was studied from the far-famed text-books of Alsted's Geometry and Gassendus's Astronomy." On Sundays the students, for many years, attended services in the Congregational Church, having seats reserved them in the gallery and paying a shilling a year apiece for them. All seemed pleasant; but a thunder storm was at hand.5 THE FACULTY'S CHANGE OF FAITH. The early settlers of Connecticut were all Congregationalists, with a few stray Quakers or Rogerenes. But about the beginning of the eighteenth century the Episcopal Church began to effect a lodgment in the colony, and established a small church at Stratford, the town whence Rector Cutler went to take charge of the college. Before he left, as he stated later, "he had been many years of this persuasion, and, therefore, he was the more uneasy in performing the acts of his ministry at Stratford, and the more readily accepted the call to a college improvement at New Haven." But to announce such beliefs was too serious a step to be taken at once, and for years he kept them secret. On May 28, 1722, came the first rumors of the events to follow. Then Rev. Mr. Joseph Morgan, who had been traveling in Connecticut, wrote to Cotton Mather: I hear some in Connecticut complain that Arminian books are cried up in Yale College for eloquence and learning and Calvinists despised for the contrary." 1A copy of Locke in the college library is said to have turned his attention to philosophy. Locke was used as a text-book at Yale 1717-1825, when Dugald Stewart's Elements succeeded it. Edwards, on "The Will," was used at Yale eight years after it appeared. (Yale Book, 1, 387. N. Porter, Yale Annals, 213.) 2 Yale Annals, 218-226. 3 These studies were increased in amount when Dr, S. Johnson was tutor (Woolsey). Yale Book, 11. 4 Yale Annals, 203. 5 Yale Annals, 214. 6 Yale Annals, 270. 7 Yale Annals, 260. A short while later, on August 20, Rev. Mr. Pigott, a Church of England missionary, wrote to England of a conference with Rector Cutler and five clergymen, who "are determined to declare themselves professors of the Church of England as soon as they understand they will be supported at home." On September 12, commencement day, all the notables of the colony were assembled, and the day after the rector, one of the two tutors, Mr. Browne, and five of the neighboring clergymen presented themselves before the trustees and stated that "some of us doubt the validity and the rest are more fully persuaded of the invalidity of the Presbyterian ordination, in opposition to the Episcopal;" and, on being asked for a formal written statement of this, drew one up. This event produced the greatest sensation in the colony, and, indeed, throughout New England. President Woolsey compared the alarm to that which would be caused now "if the theological faculty of the college were to declare for the Church of Rome, avow their belief in transubstantiation, and pray to the Virgin Mary."3 A Connecticut pastor, and one of the trustees, writing to Cotton Mather, says: 2 I apprehend the axe is hereby laid to the root of our civil and sacred employments and a doleful gap opened for trouble and confusion in our churches.* In Massachusetts Judge Sewall writes in his diary: Dr. I. Mather prayed; much bewailed the Connecticut apostasie; that Mr. Cutler and others should say there was no minister in New England." The trustees, however, without doing anything at once, adjourned for a month to give the ministers time to reconsider. At this October meeting, Governor Saltonstall presided "very genteelly," and a discussion was carried on till it became bitter, when he put an end to it. The result was that Rector Cutler, who had been the leader in the conferences which they had held in deciding on their course, Tutor Browne, and two of the ministers' stood firm, and later sailed to Europe to take orders. The other three clergymen were convinced and remained Congregationalists. One outcome of the affair was inevitable, Rector Cutler could no longer remain in his position and the trustees voted that they "do excuse the Rev. Mr. Cutler from all further services as rector of Yale College, that the trustees accept of the resignation which Mr. Brown hath made as tutor." They also voted that all officers in future must assent to the confession of faith in the Saybrook platform and "particularly give satisfaction of the soundness of their faith in opposition to Arminian and prelatical corruptions." 10 It is, however, a very noticeable fact that none of the graduates who changed their 1Conn. Ch. Doc., 1, 57. 2 Beardsley's Ch. in Conn., 1, 38. 6 Yale Annals, 270. 7 Messrs. Johnson and Wetmore. 10 Trumbull's Connecticut, Vol. II, 34. |