[Final resolve of the provincial legislature, declaring the college charter of 1650 not repealed, and directing the president and fellows of the college to exercise the powers granted by it.] Anno Regni Annæ Reginæ Sexto. At a great or general court or assembly for Her Majesty's province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England, begun and held at Boston, upon Wednesday, the twenty-eighth of May, 1707, and continued by several prorogations unto Wednesday, the twenty-ninth of October following, being the third session. In council, Thursday, December 4, 1707. The governor and council, having accepted and approved the choice made by the fellows of Harvard College, in Cambridge, of Mr. John Leverett to be present president of the said college, to fill up that vacancy— Propose that the house of representatives consider of and grant a suitable salary to be paid to the said president annually out of the public treasury, for his encouragement and support during his continuance in said office, residing at Cambridge, and discharging the proper duties to a president belonging, and entirely devoting himself to that service. And inasmuch as the first foundation and establishment of that house and the government thereof hath its original from an act of the general court, made and passed in the year one thousand six hundred and fifty, which has not been repealed or nulled; The president and fellows of the said college are directed from time to time to regnlate themselves according to the rules of the constitution by the said act prescribed, and to exercise the powers and authority thereby granted for the government of that house and support thereof. Voted. Sent down for concurrence. ISA. ADDINGTON, Secretary. In the house of representatives, December 5, 1707. Read, and concurred, and voted, that the sum for salary be one hundred and fifty pounds. Agreed to in the council, December 6, 1707. JOHN BURRILL, Speaker. ISA. ADDINGTON, Secretary. J. DUDLEY.' The following provisions, found in the provincial charter of Massachusetts Bay, bearing date October 7, 1691, were inserted, it is sup posed, in the interest of Harvard College. Their insertion in that document is a striking proof of the position that the college then held in the life of the colony. Increase Mather, who was president of Harvard at the time, according to President Quincy, was chiefly instrumental in procuring the new charter, and in persuading the people of the colony to accept it.2 These provisions are believed to be the only mention of schools, colleges, education, or learning in the royal charters constituting or recog nizing the American colonies. The antique spelling is preserved: Provided neverthelesse and Wee doe for Vs Our Heires and Successors Grant and ordeyne that all and every such Lands Tenements and Hereditaments and all other estates which any person or persons or Bodyes-Politique or Corporate Townes Villages Colledges or Schooles doe hold and enjoy or ought to hold and enjoy within the bounds aforesaid by or vnder any Grant or estate duely made or granted by any 1 See Quincy, History of Harvard University, Vol. I, pp. 611, 612. Generall Court formerly held or by virtue of the Letters Patents herein before recited or by any other lawfull Right or Title whatsoever shall be by such person and persons Bodyes Politique and Corporate Townes Villages Colledges or Schooles their respective Heires Successors and Assignes for ever hereafter held and enjoyed according to the purport and Intent of such respective Grant vnder and Subject neverthelesse to the Rents and Services thereby reserved or made payable any matter or thing whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding. . . . . It being Our further Will and Pleasure that no Grants or Conveyances of any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments to any Townes Colledges Schooles of Learning or to any private person or persons shall be judged or taken to be avoided or prejudiced for or by reason of any want or defect of Form but that the same stand and remaine in force and be mainteyned adjudged and have effect in the same manner as the same should or ought before the time of the said recited Judgment according to the Laws and Rules then and there vsually practised and allowed.1 2. COMMON SCHOOLS. ORDINANCE OF JUNE 14, 1642. This court, taking into consideration the great neglect of many parents and masters in training up their children in learning and labor, and other employments which may be profitable to the common wealth, do hereupon order and decree that in every town the chosen men appointed for managing the prudential affairs of the same shall henceforth stand charged with the care of the redress of this evil, so as they shall be sufficiently punished by fines for the neglect thereof upon presentment of the grand jury, or any other information or complaint in any court within this jurisdiction; and for this end they, or the greater number of them, shall have the power to take account from time to time of all parents and masters, and of their children, concerning their calling and employment of their children, especially of their ability to read and understand the principles of religion and the capital laws of this country, and to impose fines upon such as shall refuse to render such accounts to them when they shall be required; and they shall have power, with consent of any court or the magistrate, to put forth apprentices the children of such as they shall [find] not to be able and fit to employ and bring them up. They shall take employing them themselves; and they are up, nor shall take course to dispose of # to take care of such as are set to keep cattle be set to some other employment withal, as spinning upon the rock, knitting, weaving tape, &c., and that boys and girls be not suffered to converse together, so as may occasion any wanton, dishonest, or immodest behaviour. And for their better performance of this trust committed to them, they may divide the town amongst them, appointing to every of the said townsmen a certain number of families to have special oversight of. They are also to provide that a sufficient quantity of materials, as hemp, flax, etc., may be raised in their several townes, and tools and implements provided for working ont the same; and for their assistance in this so needful and beneficial employment, if they meet with any difficulty or opposition which they cannot well master by their own power, they may have recourse to some of the magistrates, who shall take such course for their help and encouragement as the occasion shall require according to justice; and the said townsmen, at the next court in those limits, after the end of their year, shall give a brief account in writing of their proceedings herein, provided that they have been so required by some court or magistrate a month at least before, and this order to continue for two years, and till the court shall take further order.' 1 Poore, Vol. I, p. 948. 2 Mass. Coll. Records, Vol. II, pp. 6-9. ORDINANCE OF 1647. The following ordinance was adopted November 11, 1647: It being one of the chief projects of that old deluder Satan to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading from the use of tongues, that so at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded by false gloss is of saint-seeming deceivers, that learning may not be buried in the grave of our fathers in the church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors: It is therefore ordered, That every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major part of those that order the prudentials of the town shall appoint: Provided, Those that send their children be not oppressed by paying much more than they can have them taught for in other towns; and It is further ordered, That where any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth, so far as they may be fitted, for the university: Provided, That if any town neglect the performance hereof above one year, that every such town shall pay five pounds to the next school until they shall perform this order.1 It is not quite certain which of the two foregoing statutes Lord Macaulay had in mind when he pronounced his famous eulogy upon Massachusetts in the House of Commons in 1847: Assuredly if there be any class of men whom the Protestant nonconformists of England respect more highly than another, if any whose memory they hold in deeper veneration, it is that class of men, of high spirit and unconquerable principles, who in the days of Archbishop Laud preferred leaving their native country and living in the savage solitudes of a wilderness rather than to live in a land of prosperity and plenty where they could not enjoy the privilege of worshiping their Maker freely according to the dictates of their conscience. Those men, illustrious forever in history, were the founders of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. But though their love of freedom of conscience was illimitable and indestructible, they could see nothing servile or degrading in the principle that the State should take upon itself the charge of the education of the people. In the year 1612 they passed their first legislative enactment on this subject, in the preamble of which they distinctly pledged themselves to this principle, that education was a matter of the deepest possible importance and greatest possible interest to all nations and to all communities, and that, as such, it was in an eminent degree deserving of the peculiar attention of the State.2 [At the second session of the general court, held at Boston, the 19th of October, 1652.] A declaration concerning the advancement of learning in New England by the general court. If it should be granted that learning, namely, skill in the tongues and liberal arts, is not absolutely necessary for the being of a Commonwealth and churches, yet we conceive that, in the judgment of the godly wise, it is beyond all question not only laudable, but necessary for the well-being of the same; and although New England (blessed be God) is completely furnished (for this present age) with men in place, and upon occasion of death or otherwise, to make supply of magistrates, associates in courts, physicians, and officers in the Commonwealth, and of teaching elders in 'Mass. Coll. Records, Vol. II, p. 203. 2 Speeches, Vol. II, pp. 333, 334, New York, 1852. the churches, yet for the better discharge of our trust for the next generation, and so to posterity, seeing the first founders do wear away apace, and that it grows more and more difficult to fill places of most eminence as they are empty or wanting; and this court, finding by manifest experience that though the number of scholars at our college doth increase, yet as soon as they grow up ready for public use they leave the country, and seek for and accept of employment elsewhere, so that if timely provision be not made it will tend much to the disparagement, if not to the ruin, of this Commonwealth: It is therefore ordered and hereby enacted by this court, that a voluntary collection be commended to the inhabitants of this jurisdiction for the raising of such a sum as may be employed for the maintenance of the president, certain fellows, and poor scholars in Harvard College, and for that purpose do further order, that every town of this jurisdiction do choose one meet person to take the voluntary subscriptions of such as shall underwrite any sum or sums of money for that purpose, and to make return thereof to the next court; and forasmuch as all the colonies are concerned therein, this court doth order the secretary to signify to the governor of the several colonies our endeavors herein, and to commend the same unto them for their help and furtherance in so good a work.1 [At a general court of election, held at Boston, the 3rd of the 3rd month (May 3), 1654.] Ordered, Forasmuch as it greatly concerns the welfare of this country that the youth thereof be educated not only in good literature, but sound doctrine, this court doth therefore commend it to the serious consideration and special care of the overseers of the college and the selectmen in the several towns not to admit or suffer any such to be continued in the office or place of teaching, educating, or instructing of youth, or child, in the college or schools that have manifested themselves unsound in the faith or scandalous in their lives, and not giving due satisfaction according to the rules of Christ. [At a general court for elections, held at Boston, the 31st of May, 1671.] Whereas the law requires every town, consisting of one hundred families or upward, to set up a grammar school, and appoint a master thereof, able to instruct youth so as to fit them for the college, and upon neglect thereof the said town is to pay five pounds per annum to the next Latin school until they shall perform that order, the court, upon weighty reasons, judge meet to declare and order, that every town of one hundred families and upwards that shall neglect or omit to keep a grammar school, as is provided in that law, such town shall pay ten pounds per annum unto the next town school that is set according to that law. Whereas in the law, title Townships, the several towns and selectmen of the said towns have power to impose penalties as the law directs; and whereas many constables question whether it be their duty to serve warrants from the selectmen for persons to appear before them and to levy fines for the removal of such doubts, and, as an addition to the said law, this court doeth order and require that all constables respectively shall serve all warrants from the selectmen, and levy all such fines as shall be imposed by the said towns or selectmen: It is ordered by this court, and the authority thereof, That all gifts and legacies given and bequeathed to the college, schools of learning, or any other public use, shall be truly and faithfully disposed of according to the true and declared intent of the donors; and all and every person or persons intrusted to receive or improve any such gift or legacies shall be liable from time to time to give account of their disposal and management thereof to the county court of that shire where they dwell and where such estate shall lie, who are hereby empowered to require the same, where need shall be, to appoint feoffees of trust to settle and manage the same according to the will of the donors. "The Records of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England, Vol. IV, Part I, pp. 100, 101. Ibid., pp. 182, 183. Ibid., Part II, pp. 486, 488. ED 93-78 [At the second session of the general court, held at Boston, October 10, 1683.] As an addition to the law title Schools, This court does order and enact, That every town consisting of more than five hundred families or householders shall set up and maintain two grammar schools and two writing schools, the masters whereof shall.be fit and able to instruct youth as said law directs. And whereas the said law makes the penalty for such towns as provide not schools as the law directs to pay to the next school ten pounds: This court hereby enacts that the penalty shall be twenty pounds when there are two hundred families or householders. The law requiring every person above the age of 16 years duly to attend all military exercise and service, as training, watching, warding, under penalty of 5 shillings for every fault, excepted from its operation the president, fellows, students, and officers of Harvard College, and professed schoolmasters. AN ACT to provide for the instruction of youth and for the promotion of good education (1789). Whereas the constitution of this Commonwealth hath declared it to be the duty of the general court to provide for the education of youth; and whereas a general dissemination of knowledge and virtue is necessary to the prosperity of every State and the very existence of a Commonwealth: Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives in general court assembled, and.by the authority of the same, That every town or district within this Commonwealth, containing fifty families or householders, shall be provided with a schoolmaster or schoolmasters of good morals, to teach children to read and write and to instruct them in the English language, as well as in arithmetic, orthography, and decent behavior, for such term of time as shall be equivalent to six months for one school in each year. And every town or district, containing one hundred families or householders, shall be provided with such schoolmaster or schoolmasters for such term of time as shall be equivalent to twelve months for one school in each year. And every town or district, containing one hundred and fifty families or householders, shall be provided with such schoolmaster or schoolmasters for such term of time as shall be equivalent to six months in each year; and shall, in addition thereto, be provided with a schoolmaster or schoolmasters, as above described, to instruct children in the English language for such term of time as shall be equivalent to twelve months for one school in each year. And every town or district, containing two hundred families or householders, shall be provided with a grammar schoolmaster of good morals, well instructed in the Latin, Greek, and English languages, and shall, in addition thereto, be provided with a schoolmaster or schoolmasters, as above described, to instruct children in the English language, for such term of time as shall be equivalent to twelve months for each of said schools in each year; and Whereas by means of the dispersed situation of the inhabitants of several towns and districts in this Commonwealth the children and youth can not be collected in any one place for their instruction, and it has thence become expedient that the towns and districts in the circumstances aforesaid should be divided into separate districts for the purpose aforesaid: Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the several towns and districts in this Commonwealth be, and they are hereby, authorized and impowered, in town meeting, to be called for that purpose, to determine and define the limits of school districts within their towns and districts respectively. And to the end that grammar schoolmasters may not be prevented in their endeavors to discharge their trust in the most useful manner Be it further enacted, That no youth shall be sent to such grammar schools unless they shall have learned in some other school or in some other way to read the Eng |