Misconduct of Mr. Batchelor. 189 ter, but in three years he removed from them. In 1631, he had been settled at Lynn; he was dismissed thence, after he " was gray and aged," being discharged from his arrest by the magistrates on his promise to leave the town in three months. The following lines were addressed to him by a cotemporary. "Through ocean large, Christ brought thee for to feed While the poet thus tenderly hints at his disgrace for his contentious and obstinate spirit, the impartial historian* declares, that after his sedition at Lynn, he, in New Hampshire, assaulted the chastity of his neighbour's wife, when he was eighty years of age, and had a comely wife of his own, that he obstinately denied it to the church, as he had told the woman he would; that he proceeded to accuse the injured family to the magistrates as slanderers; but soon after, while administering the Lord's Supper, his horror of conscience extorted a voluntary confession from him, upon which they proceeded to excommunicate him, his repentance appearing very wavering. Continuing in the town, he put himself at the head of a faction and quarrelled with the Rev. Mr. Dalton, the teacher of the church. Repeatedly ministers and magistrates met to quiet their minds, Gov. WINTHROP 190 Rev. Mr. Dalton. but all was vain. They then advised Mr. Batchelor to leave the place. A party at Exeter invited him to settle there, but the government of Massachusetts, to which they then belonged, sent word to prevent the measure, because Mr. Batchelor had been in three places before, where the churches fell into such divisions as could not be healed till he was dismissed. The Rev. Mr. Dalton died in 1661, leaving a donation to the people for the support of public worship. During a part of his ministry he had the assistance of the Rev. John Wheelwright, a brother and disciple of the famous Mrs. Hutchinson. He was literally a wandering star. At Boston, at Quincy, at Exeter, at Salisbury, and at Wells, difficulties pursued him. From this last place he wrote to the government of Massachusetts, whence he had been banished for heresy, a very humble confession, which was accepted, and he had liberty to return. In his confession he says, "it is the grief of my soul, that I used such vehement and censorious speeches. I repent me that I did adhere to persons of corrupt judgments, to the countenancing and encouraging them in any of their errors or evil practices." His difficulties taught him wisdom. After his confession and restoration he lived nearly forty years "a valued servant of the church." The Rev. Seaborn Cotton succeeded Mr. Dalton. Ten years after his decease, his son, John Cotton, was ordained pas Harvard College founded. 191 tor of the church. His successor was the Rev. Daniel Gookin, who was ordained in 1710. Their next minister was the Rev. Ward Cotton. He was removed in 1765, and the Rev. Ebenezer Thayer succeeded him within a year, who died in September, 1792. His successor, their present pastor, is the Rev. Jesse Appleton. The next year (1639) the college of Cambridge was founded. As soon as our pious and enlightened ancestors, the first settlers of New England, had erected for themselves comfortable dwellings, provided necessaries for their support, reared convenient places for the worship of God, and settled the civil government, their next object was to establish an institution of science for the benefit of their "posterity, dreading an illiterate ministry," when the learned ministers they then enjoyed should sleep in the dust.* Two years before, in 1636, the general court had voted £400 for the establishment of a public school; but this year the Reverend JOHN HARVARD, a worthy minister of Charlestown, died and bequeathed one half of his estate, amounting to above 1800 dollars, to this infant seminary. Thus endowed, the school was erected into a College, and assumed the name of its principal benefactor, HARVARD; and Newtown, in compliment to the college, and in memory of the place where many of our fathers received their education, was called CAMBRIDGE.† In * New England's First Fruits. † Rev. Mr. HOLMES's History of Cambridge. 192 Harvard College. 1640, the legislature granted the income ofCharlestown ferry, as a perpetual revenue to the college, and the same year the Rev. Henry Dunster was appointed the first president, a preceptor or professor having previously had the instruction of the youth. The first commencement was attended two years after, when nine students took the degree of bachelor of arts. Most of the legislature were present, dined in the college with the scholars, for their encouragement, which gave content to all.* The next year, the general court, which had previously committed the government of the college to all the magistrates, and the ministers of the three nearest churches, with the president, passed an act by which all the magistrates and the teaching elders of the six nearest towns, with the president were appointed forever the governors of that seminary. They met for the first time, in December, and chose a treasurer. In 1650, the college received its first charter from the general court, appointing a corporation consisting of seven persons, a president, five fellows, and a treasurer, to have a perpetual succession by election to their offices. Their stile is The President and Fellows of Harvard College. To this body was committed all the estate of the college; they have the care of all donations; the * WINTHROP Harvard College. 193 board of overseers continue a distinct branch; united they form the legislature of the college. In 1665, when the hearts of good men were roused to seek the spiritual welfare of their pagan neighbours, a brick edifice, thirty feet long, and twenty wide, was erected at Cambridge for an Indian college. Numbers began to prepare for college in the school, several entered, but death and other events interposed, so that only one ever attained academical honours. The design was prudent and noble, but Providence frowned on the execution. The executive government consists of the president, three professors, four tutors, a librarian and regent. The divinity professorship was founded in 1722, and the mathematical professorship four years after, both by the noble generosity of Mr. THOMAS HOLLIS, of London, merchant. The professorship of Hebrew, and other oriental languages, was founded in 1765, by the Honourable THOMAS HANCOCK, Esq. These professors deliver public lectures to all the students assembled, beside giving more private instructions to each class separately. Happy would it be for all the colleges had they such professorships. Foundations are laid in part for three other professorships in this university, not yet in operation, one of rhetoric and oratory, by the late NICHOLAS BOYLSTON, Esq. of Boston, one of natural religion, moral philosophy, and civil polity, from the estate of the late R |