John Harvard (clergyman): Difference between revisions

John Harvard
John Harvard
	John Harvard statue, Harvard Yard
Born	26 November 1607; Southwark, England
Died	14 September 1638 (aged 30); Charlestown, Massachusetts Bay Colony
Cause of death	Tuberculosis
Alma mater	Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Occupation	Pastor
Known for	Founder of Harvard College
Spouse	Ann Sadler
Children	None
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John Harvard (26 November 1607 – 14 September 1638) was an English minister in America, "a godly gentleman and a lover of learning",^[1] whose deathbed^[2] bequest to the "schoale or Colledge" recently undertaken by the Massachusetts Bay Colony was so gratefully received that it was consequently ordered "that the Colledge agreed upon formerly to bee built at Cambridg shalbee called Harvard Colledge." ^[3]

Life

Early life

Harvard was born and raised in Southwark, England, the fourth of nine children of Robert Harvard (1562–1625), a butcher and tavern owner, and his wife Katherine Rogers (1584–1635), a native of Stratford-upon-Avon whose father, Thomas Rogers (1540–1611), was an associate of Shakespeare's father, both serving on the borough corporation's council. He was baptised in the parish church of St Saviour's (now Southwark Cathedral)^[4] and attended St Saviour's Grammar School, where his father was a member of the governing body as being also a Warden of the Parish Church.

In 1625, the plague reduced the immediate family to only John, his brother Thomas, and their mother. Katherine was soon remarried‍—‌firstly in 1626 to John Elletson (1580–1626), who died within a few months, then (1627) to Richard Yearwood (1580–1632). She died in 1635, Thomas in 1637.

Education and ordination

Left with some property, Harvard's mother was able to send him to Emmanuel College, Cambridge,^[5] where he earned his B.A. in 1632^[6] and M.A. in 1635,^[7] and was subsequently ordained a dissenting minister.^[5]

Marriage and career

In 1636, he married Ann Sadler (1614–55) of Ringmer, sister of his college classmate John Sadler, at St Michael the Archangel Church, in the parish of South Malling, Lewes, East Sussex.^{[citation needed]}

In the spring or summer of 1637, the couple emigrated to New England, where Harvard became a freeman of Massachusetts and,^[5] settling in Charlestown, a teaching elder of the First Church there^[8] and an assistant preacher.^[7] In 1638, a tract of land was deeded^{[clarification needed]} to him there, and he was appointed that same year to a committee "to consider of some things tending toward a body of laws."^[5] ^{[clarification needed]}

Death

On 14 September 1638, he died of tuberculosis and was buried at Charlestown's Phipps Street Burying Ground. In 1828, Harvard University alumni erected a granite monument to his memory there,^[5]^[9] his original stone having disappeared during the American Revolution.^[8]

Founder of Harvard College

Tablets outside Harvard Yard's Johnston Gate

Two years before Harvard's death the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony‍—‌desiring to "advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity: dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust"‍—‌appropriated £400 toward a "schoale or colledge"^[3] at what was then called Newtowne.^[10] In an oral will spoken to his wife^[11] the childless Harvard, who had inherited considerable sums from his father, mother, and brother,^[12] bequeathed to the school £780 (half of his monetary estate, with the remainder to his wife)^[4] as well as—and perhaps more importantly^[13]—his 320-volume scholar's library.^[5] It was subsequently ordered "that the Colledge agreed upon formerly to bee built at Cambridg shalbee called Harvard Colledge." ^[3] (Even before Harvard's death, Newtowne had been renamed^[3] Cambridge, after the English university attended by many early colonists, including Harvard himself.)^[14]

Founding "myth"

"Smartass" tourguides^[15]^[16] and the Harvard College undergraduate newspaper^[17] frequently assert that John Harvard does not merit the honorific founder, because the Colony's vote had come two years prior to Harvard's death. But as detailed in a 1934 letter by the director of the school's then-upcoming Tercentenary Celebration, the founding of the College was not the act of one but the work of many. John Harvard is therefore considered not the founder, but rather a founder, of the school, though the timeliness and generosity of his contribution have made him the most honored of these:

The quibble over the question whether John Harvard was entitled to be called the Founder of Harvard College seems to me one of the least profitable. The destruction of myths is a legitimate sport, but its only justification is the establishment of truth in place of error.
If the founding of a university must be dated to a split second of time, then the founding of Harvard should perhaps be fixed by the fall of the president's gavel in announcing the passage of the vote of October 28, 1636. But if the founding is to be regarded as a process rather than as a single event [then John Harvard, by virtue of his bequest "at the very threshold of the College's existence and going further than any other contribution made up to that time to ensure its permanence"] is clearly entitled to be considered a founder. The General Court ... acknowledged the fact by bestowing his name on the College. This was almost two years before the first President took office and four years before the first students were graduated.
These are all familiar facts and it is well that they should be understood by the sons of Harvard. There is no myth to be destroyed.^[18]

Memorials and tributes

A statue in Harvard's honor—not, however, a likeness of him, there being nothing to indicate what he had looked like^[7]—is a prominent feature of Harvard Yard (see John Harvard statue) and was featured on a 1986 stamp, part of the United States Postal Service's Great Americans series.^[19] A figure representing him also appears in a stained-glass window in the chapel of Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge.^[7]

The John Harvard Library in Southwark, London, is named in Harvard's honor, as is the Harvard Bridge that connects Boston to Cambridge.^[20]

References

^ Samuel Eliot Morison, The founding of Harvard College (1936) Appendix D, and pp 304-5
^ Conrad Edick Wright, John Harvard: Brief life of a Puritan philanthropist Harvard Magazine. January–February, 2000. "By the time the Harvards settled in Charlestown John must already have been in failing health ... Consumption kills slowly. By the time Harvard died, he knew what he wanted to do with his estate."
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d The Charter of the President and Fellows of Harvard College^{[dead link]}
^ ^a ^b Rowston, Guy (2006). Southwark Cathedral – The authorised Guide.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1892). "Harvard, John" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
^ "Harvard, John (HRVT627J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Emmanuel College: John Harvard Retrieved 2012-05-01
^ ^a ^b Melnick, Arseny James. "Celebrating the Life and Times of JOHN HARVARD". Retrieved 20 September 2011.
^ Edward Everett (1850). Orations and speeches on various occasions. Vol. I. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown. pp. 185–189.
^ New England's First Fruits (1643). http://books.google.com/books?id=gXkFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA16
^ Callan, Richard L. 100 Dears of Solitude: John Harvard Finishes His First Century. The Harvard Crimson. April 28, 1984. Retrieved October 13, 2012
^ The Harvard Graduates' Magazine. Vol. 16. Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association. 1908. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
^ Alfred C. Potter, "The College Library." Harvard Illustrated Magazine, vol. IV no. 6, March 1903, pp. 105–112.
^ Degler, Carl Neumann (1984). Out of Our Pasts: The Forces That Shaped Modern America. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-131985-3. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
^ Shand-Tucci, Douglas (2001). The Campus Guide: Harvard University. Princeton Architectural Press. pp. 46–&#x200B, 51. ISBN 9781568982809.
^ Primus V (May–June 1999). "The College Pump. Toes Imperiled". Harvard Magazine.
^ "Memorial Society Honors Founder of College In the Name and Image of Two Other Men – College Founded By Grant of the Massachusetts General Court in the Year 1636". Harvard Crimson. 26 November 1934. When the members of the Memorial Society place a wreath on the statue of John Harvard today, expecting to honor the memory and the image of the founder of Harvard College, they will be honoring the likeness of another man and the name of a man who was not the legal founder of the college.
^ Excerpted from Greene, Jerome Davis (11 December 1934). "Don't Quibble Sybil — The Mail" (Letter to the editor)". Harvard Crimson. ("Don't quibble, Sybil" is a line from Noël Coward's 1930 Private Lives.)
^ usstampgallery.com: John Harvard
^ Alger, Alpheus B.; Matthews, Nathan Jr. (1892). Harvard Bridge: Boston to Cambridge, March 1892. Boston, Massachusetts: Rockwell and Churchill. p. 14. Retrieved 20 September 2011.

External links

Harvard House The home of Katherine Rogers in Stratford-Upon-Avon

Template:Persondata

[1] Samuel Eliot Morison, The founding of Harvard College (1936) Appendix D, and pp 304-5

[HMagJanFeb2000-2] Conrad Edick Wright, John Harvard: Brief life of a Puritan philanthropist Harvard Magazine. January–February, 2000. "By the time the Harvards settled in Charlestown John must already have been in failing health ... Consumption kills slowly. By the time Harvard died, he knew what he wanted to do with his estate."

[charter-3] The Charter of the President and Fellows of Harvard College^{[dead link]}

[guide-4] Rowston, Guy (2006). Southwark Cathedral – The authorised Guide.

[acab-5] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1892). "Harvard, John" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.

[6] "Harvard, John (HRVT627J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[emma-7] Emmanuel College: John Harvard Retrieved 2012-05-01

[melnick-8] Melnick, Arseny James. "Celebrating the Life and Times of JOHN HARVARD". Retrieved 20 September 2011.

[Everett-9] Edward Everett (1850). Orations and speeches on various occasions. Vol. I. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown. pp. 185–189.

[10] New England's First Fruits (1643). http://books.google.com/books?id=gXkFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA16

[Crimson1984-11] Callan, Richard L. 100 Dears of Solitude: John Harvard Finishes His First Century. The Harvard Crimson. April 28, 1984. Retrieved October 13, 2012

[12] The Harvard Graduates' Magazine. Vol. 16. Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association. 1908. Retrieved 12 May 2014.

[potter-13] Alfred C. Potter, "The College Library." Harvard Illustrated Magazine, vol. IV no. 6, March 1903, pp. 105–112.

[14] Degler, Carl Neumann (1984). Out of Our Pasts: The Forces That Shaped Modern America. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-131985-3. Retrieved 20 September 2011.

[ST-15] Shand-Tucci, Douglas (2001). The Campus Guide: Harvard University. Princeton Architectural Press. pp. 46–&#x200B, 51. ISBN 9781568982809.

[toes-16] Primus V (May–June 1999). "The College Pump. Toes Imperiled". Harvard Magazine.

[crime1934-17] "Memorial Society Honors Founder of College In the Name and Image of Two Other Men – College Founded By Grant of the Massachusetts General Court in the Year 1636". Harvard Crimson. 26 November 1934. When the members of the Memorial Society place a wreath on the statue of John Harvard today, expecting to honor the memory and the image of the founder of Harvard College, they will be honoring the likeness of another man and the name of a man who was not the legal founder of the college.

[greene-18] Excerpted from Greene, Jerome Davis (11 December 1934). "Don't Quibble Sybil — The Mail" (Letter to the editor)". Harvard Crimson. ("Don't quibble, Sybil" is a line from Noël Coward's 1930 Private Lives.)

[19] usstampgallery.com: John Harvard

[20] Alger, Alpheus B.; Matthews, Nathan Jr. (1892). Harvard Bridge: Boston to Cambridge, March 1892. Boston, Massachusetts: Rockwell and Churchill. p. 14. Retrieved 20 September 2011.

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@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 | death_place = [[Charlestown, Boston|Charlestown]], [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]]
 | occupation  = Pastor
-| known_for = Benefactor and namesake of [[Harvard College]]
+| known_for   = Founder of [[Harvard College]]
 | spouse      = Ann Sadler
 | children    = None
@@ Line 43: / Line 43: @@
 Harvard was born and raised in [[Southwark]], England, the fourth of nine children of Robert Harvard (1562–1625), a butcher and tavern owner, and his wife Katherine Rogers (1584–1635), a native of [[Stratford-upon-Avon]] whose father, Thomas Rogers (1540–1611), was an associate of [[William Skakespeare|Shakespeare's]] father, both serving on the borough corporation's council. He was baptised in the parish church of St Saviour's (now [[Southwark Cathedral]])<ref name=guide>{{cite book |title=Southwark Cathedral – The authorised Guide |first=Guy |last=Rowston |year=2006}}</ref> and attended [[St Saviour's Grammar School]], where his father was a member of the governing body as being also a Warden of the Parish Church.
-In 1625, the [[bubonic plague|plague]] reduced the immediate family to only John, his brother Thomas, and their mother.<!-- unclear how many of original nine died of plague vs earlier deaths --> Katherine was soon remarried—firstly in 1626 to John Elletson (1580–1626), who died within a few months, then (1627) to [[Richard Yarward|Richard Yearwood]]<!--what's with the two spellings? He spelled his own name both ways --> (1580–1632). She died in 1635, Thomas in 1637.
+In 1625, the [[bubonic plague|plague]] reduced the immediate family to only John, his brother Thomas, and their mother.<!-- unclear how many of original nine died of plague vs earlier deaths --> Katherine was soon remarried{{mdashb}}firstly in 1626 to John Elletson (1580–1626), who died within a few months, then (1627) to [[Richard Yarward|Richard Yearwood]]<!--what's with the two spellings? He spelled his own name both ways --> (1580–1632). She died in 1635, Thomas in 1637.
 ===Education and ordination===
@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 On 14 September 1638, he died of [[tuberculosis]] and was buried at Charlestown's [[Phipps Street Burying Ground]]. In 1828, Harvard University alumni erected a granite monument to his memory there,<ref name=acab/><ref name=Everett>{{Cite book|author=Edward Everett|title=Orations and speeches on various occasions|volume=I|location=Boston|publisher=Charles C. Little and James Brown|year=1850|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=St5DAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA185|pages=185–189}}</ref> his original stone having disappeared during the [[American Revolutionary War|American Revolution]].<ref name=melnick/>
-==Benefactor of Harvard College==
+==Founder of Harvard College==
 {{multiple image
 | footer = Tablets outside Harvard Yard's [[Johnston Gate]]
@@ Line 69: / Line 69: @@
 [[File:John Harvard on stained glass window, Emmanuel College.jpg|thumb|right|Emmanuel College window (1884) depicting John Harvard on left]]<!-- is there some way to join the tablet and window images over a single caption? -->
 {{clear left}}
-Two years before Harvard's death the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]]—desiring to "advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity: dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust"—appropriated [[Pound sterling|£]]400 toward a "schoale or colledge"<ref name=charter/> at what was then called Newtowne.<ref>''New England's First Fruits'' (1643). http://books.google.com/books?id=gXkFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA16</ref>
+Two years before Harvard's death the [[Massachusetts General Court|Great and General Court of the Massachu{{shy}}setts Bay Colony]]{{mdashb}}desiring to "advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity: dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust"{{mdashb}}appropriated [[Pound sterling|£]]400 toward a "schoale or colledge"<ref name=charter/> at what was then called Newtowne.<ref>''New England's First Fruits'' (1643). http://books.google.com/books?id=gXkFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA16</ref>
 In an oral will spoken to his wife<ref name=Crimson1984>Callan, Richard L. [http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1984/4/28/100-dears-of-solitude-pthe-john/ 100 Dears of Solitude: John Harvard Finishes His First Century]. ''The Harvard Crimson''. April 28, 1984. Retrieved October 13, 2012</ref> the childless Harvard, who had inherited considerable sums from his father, mother, and brother,<ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=BDFYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR5 <!--this issue has a series of articles celebrating JH's 300th birthday --> |title=The Harvard Graduates' Magazine |volume=16 |publisher=Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association |year=1908 |accessdate=2014-05-12 }}</ref>
 bequeathed to the school [[Pound sterling|£]]780 (half of his monetary estate, with the remainder to his wife)<ref name=guide/> as well as&mdash;and perhaps more importantly<ref name=potter>Alfred C. Potter, [http://books.google.com/books?id=yRsUAAAAIAAJ "The College Library."] ''Harvard Illustrated Magazine,'' vol. IV no. 6, March 1903, pp. 105&ndash;112.<!-- see also article at p.133ff --></ref>&mdash;his 320-volume scholar's library.<ref name=acab/>
@@ Line 82: / Line 82: @@
 (Even before Harvard's death, Newtowne had been renamed<ref name=charter/> Cambridge, after the English [[University of Cambridge|university]] attended by many early colonists, including Harvard himself.)<ref>{{cite book|last=Degler|first=Carl Neumann|title=Out of Our Pasts: The Forces That Shaped Modern America|publisher=HarperCollins|location=New York|year=1984|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NebLe1ueuGQC&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=cambridge+university+puritans+newtowne#v=onepage&q=&f=false|accessdate=20 September 2011 | isbn=978-0-06-131985-3}}</ref><!--[[Emmanuel College, Cambridge]] says 1/3 of first 100 university-educated men in America were from Emmanuel; one would expect about 1/2 of "U" colonists to be Cantabs (cf. Oxonians), but the concentration from Emmanuel is interesting-->
+===Founding "myth"===
+"Smartass" tourguides{{r|ST}}{{r|toes}} and the Harvard College undergraduate newspaper{{r|crime1934}}
+frequently assert that John Harvard does not merit the honorific ''founder'', because the Colony's vote had come two years prior to Harvard's death.
+But as detailed in a 1934 letter by the director of the school's then-upcoming [[wikt:tercentenary#English-adj 300yr|Tercenten{{shy}}ary]] Celebration, the founding of the College was not the act of one but the work of many.
+John Harvard is therefore consid{{shy}}ered not ''the'' founder, but rather ''a''{{nbsp}}founder, of the school, though the timeliness and generosity of his contribu{{shy}}tion have made him the most honored of these:
+{{imagequote|
+The quibble over the question whether John Harvard was entitled to be called the Founder of Harvard College seems to me one of the least profitable. The destruc{{shy}}tion of myths is a legiti{{shy}}mate sport, but its only justifica{{shy}}tion is the establish{{shy}}ment of truth in place of error.
+If the founding of a universi{{shy}}ty must be dated to a split second of time, then the founding of Harvard should perhaps be fixed by the fall of the presi{{shy}}dent's gavel in announc{{shy}}ing the passage of the vote of October 28, 1636. But if the founding is to be regarded as a process rather than as a single event [then John Harvard, by virtue of his bequest "at the very threshold of the College's existence and going further than any other contribu{{shy}}tion made up to that time to ensure its permanence"] is clearly entitled to be consid{{shy}}ered a founder. The General Court{{nbsp}}... acknowl{{shy}}edged the fact by bestowing his name on the College. This was almost two years before the first President took office and four years before the first students were graduated.
+These are all familiar facts and it is well that they should be understood by the sons of Harvard. There is no myth to be destroyed.{{r|greene}}
+}}
+==Memorials and tributes==
 A statue in Harvard's honor&mdash;not, however, a ''likeness'' of him, there being nothing to indicate what he had looked like<ref name=emma/>&mdash;is a prominent feature of [[Harvard Yard]] (see ''[[John Harvard (statue)|John Harvard statue]]'') and was featured on a 1986 stamp, part of the United States Postal Service's [[Great Americans series]].<ref>
 [http://usstampgallery.com/view.php?id=7e107de3fa1437e84bc766bf7c84641bcd258a7c usstampgallery.com: John Harvard]</ref> A figure representing him also appears in a stained-glass window in the chapel of [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge|Emmanuel College]], [[University of Cambridge]].<ref name=emma/>
@@ Line 91: / Line 106: @@
 == References ==
-{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
+{{reflist|colwidth=30em|refs=
+{{refn|name=toes|{{cite magazine
+|url=http://harvardmagazine.com/1999/05/pump.html|title=The College Pump. Toes Imperiled
+|work=Harvard Magazine|date=May{{ndash}}June 1999|author=Primus{{nbsp}}V
+}} {{open access}} }}
+{{refn|name=ST |{{cite book
+|last=Shand-Tucci|first=Douglas|title=The Campus Guide: Harvard Universi{{shy}}ty|pages=46{{ndash}}{{zwsp}}51
+|publisher=Princeton Architectural Press|year=2001|isbn=9781568982809|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3g6vmGl0UgwC}}
+}}
+{{refn|name=greene|
+Excerpted from {{cite news|first=Jerome Davis |last=Greene |authorlink=Jerome Davis Greene |url=http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/article/1934/12/11/dont-quibble-sybll-ped-note-the-crimson/ |title=Don't Quibble Sybil{{nbsp}}{{mdash}} The Mail" (Letter to the editor) |work=Harvard Crimson |date=December 11, 1934}} ("Don't quibble, Sybil" is a line from Noël Coward's 1930 ''[[Private Lives]]''.)
+}}
+{{refn|name=crime1934|{{cite news
+|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1934/11/26/memorial-society-honors-founder-of-college|work=Harvard Crimson|date=November 26, 1934
+|title=Memorial Society Honors Founder of College In the Name and Image of Two Other Men{{snd}}College Founded By Grant of the Massachu{{shy}}setts General Court in the Year 1636
+|quote=When the members of the Memorial Society place a wreath on the statue of John Harvard today, expecting to honor the memory and the image of the founder of Harvard College, they will be honoring the likeness of another man and the name of a man who was not the legal founder of the college.
+}} {{open access}} }}
+}}<!--<<end reflist-->
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