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Part III: The New Century. 1700-1727.

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Chapter XI: Education.

THE new century brought no changes into the educational work carried on at Cambridge. The growing liberality of the Harvard theology caused certain of the conservatives in the colonies to become disaffected and resulted in a contest for the control of the college in which the liberals were victorious;¹ but the contest, although it affected the political life of the community, seems to have made little if any change in the value of the instruction given to the students. The old system continued under the same men, or under men similarly trained; and it was not until the end of the period under consideration that the benefactions of Thomas Hollis, and especially the establishment by him of two professorships, one of Divinity and one of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, gave the college a new impetus.²

If, during these years, no change in educational methods took place, at least increased opportunity for education was offered through the establishment of a new college in Connecticut in the very first year of the century. The “Collegiate School” at Saybrook, later moved to New Haven and re-named “Yale College,” was modeled after Harvard, the founders and teachers being Harvard graduates. The young college benefited by the support of the Mathers, Judge Sewall, and others who, disliking the liberal tendencies at Harvard, turned to the younger school as the last refuge of New England orthodoxy. They enlisted the aid of their friends in England with such success that Yale soon had a fair endowment and a library which, if not as large as

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Harvard’s, was well chosen and contained a larger proportion of current literature.³

The education given in the new college seems to have been equivalent to that at Harvard. The graduates were fitted to hold high positions in the community, and two members of early classes were honored by recognition by the English Universities. Samuel Johnson, of the class of 1714, was given the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1723 by both Cambridge and Oxford, and was made a Doctor of Divinity by the latter in 1743.⁴ Jonathan Arnold, of the class of 1723, was granted the honorary Master’s degree at Oxford in 1736.⁵

Outside of the formal education of the college there was a growing interest in science. Thomas and William Brattle, Cotton Mather, Paul Dudley, Thomas Robie, and the younger John Winthrop were all members or correspondents of the Royal Society, and nearly all had papers published in the Society’s Transactions.⁶ Others, like Dr. William Douglass,⁷ were making observations and keeping in touch with contemporary science. Increasing intercourse with England, and the temporary residence in Boston of Englishmen who came over to take part in the government of the colonies, were further educational and liberalizing influences.

Thus we find in the colonies, by the end of the first century of colonial life, a large and steadily growing body of educated men. The proportion of college men has never been as great as it was during the first years of the colonies, when conditions were abnormal,⁸ but it was much greater in the third period than in the second, when the college as well as the colonies showed the most provinciality, and it had developed

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under more liberal surroundings.⁹ That this growth in numbers and the changing environment resulted in an increasing literary productivity will be shown below.¹⁰

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