John Harvard (clergyman)
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John Harvard | |
---|---|
Born | Southwark, England |
26 November 1607
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Charlestown, Massachusetts Bay Colony |
Cause of death | Tuberculosis |
Alma mater | Emmanuel College, Cambridge |
Occupation | Pastor |
Known for | Founder of Harvard College |
Spouse(s) | Ann Sadler |
Children | None |
Signature | |
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]
Contents
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—
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]
He built his house on Country Road (later Market and now Main Street) next to Gravel Lane, a site that is now Harvard Mall. Harvard's orchard extended up the hill behind his house.[9]
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][10] his original stone having disappeared during the American Revolution.[8]
Founder of Harvard College
Two years before Harvard's death the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony—
Founding "myth"
"Smartass" tourguides[16]:{{{3}}}[17]:{{{3}}} and the Harvard College undergraduate newspaper[18]:{{{3}}} frequently assert that John Harvard does not merit the honorific founder, because the Colony's vote had come two years prior to Harvard's bequest. But as detailed in a 1934 letter by the secretary of the Harvard Corporation, the founding of Harvard College was not the act of one but the work of many; John Harvard is therefore considered not the founder, but rather a founder,[19]:{{{3}}}[20]:{{{3}}} of the school, though the timeliness and generosity of his contribution have made him the most honored of these:
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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.[21]:{{{3}}}
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.[22] 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.[23]
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."
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Charter of the President and Fellows of Harvard College
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Emmanuel College: John Harvard Retrieved 2012-05-01
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Charlestown Historical Society: Full Historic Timeline
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 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
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Alfred C. Potter, "The College Library." Harvard Illustrated Magazine, vol. IV no. 6, March 1903, pp. 105–112.
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Excerpted from Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. ("Don't quibble, Sybil" is a line from Noël Coward's 1930 Private Lives.)
- ↑ usstampgallery.com: John Harvard
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Further reading
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External links
Wikisource has the text of an 1879 American Cyclopædia article about John Harvard. |
Wikisource has the text of a 1905 New International Encyclopedia article about John Harvard. |
- Harvard House The home of Katherine Rogers in Stratford-Upon-Avon
- Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from Appleton's Cyclopedia
- Use dmy dates from June 2012
- Biography with signature
- Articles with hCards
- Articles with unsourced statements from November 2014
- Wikipedia articles needing clarification from March 2012
- 1607 births
- 1638 deaths
- 17th-century English clergy
- Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
- English Dissenters
- English philanthropists
- Harvard University
- People educated at St Saviour's Grammar School
- People from Southwark
- Burials in Boston, Massachusetts