feb25notes.htm
Institutional Histories & Imperial Bonds: The Case of King's College
EARLY AC HOMEPAGE | LECTURE NOTES
An institutional (as opposed to a family)
history of early America??
Family histories a 19thC creation -- FFVs/DARs/Plymouth Society
-- Historical societies...
What colonial institutions?
Churches -- The first institutions? Nearly
all single units; often with interrupted histories; breakups
(esp. during Great Awakening and later in 1830s); reorientations
in denominational identification (e.g., Congregational to
Unitarian)
First Congregational Church of Boston
King's Chapel
Trinity Church of NYC
Governments -- The crucial disruption brought on by the Revolution -- all colonial/provincial gov'ts formally acknowledged sovereignty of Crown; all with new constitutions in 1770s/80s;
Virginia House of Burgesses [1619]
Massachusetts General Court [1630]
New York Assembly [1664?]
Local governments -- town meetings -- 1630s on... in New
England
town records spanning the colonial/republican period --> town
studies
Courts -- and court records (mother lode for social historians...); folks in trouble/deviants...
Commercial enterprises?
Banks? Insurance companies? Factories? Shipyards? Stores?
Mercantile establishments? Publishers?
Plantations? Some 17thC records
Ships' logs/ captain-to-owner correspondence
Schools --
Boston Latin -- BF's alma mater -- continuous operation since
1636
Collegiate -- NYC's oldest -- 1690s -- ditto -- with lots of
moves
Colleges -- our principal institutional link
to the pre-revolutionary America
Nine founded -- all continue in operation; all celebrate their
inclusion among the "Colonial Nine"
(all have fancy web sites)
The chronological pattern of thir founding
3 in first century of settlement -- Harvard (1636); Wm &
Mary (1697); Yale (1701)
45 year pause
Then 6 in 22 years -- Princeton (1746); King's College/Columbia
(1754); Penn (1755); Brown (1764); Rutgers (1766); Dartmouth
(1769) -- [Newark Academy/Delaware??]
The stimuli --
1. Sectarian ruptures attending the Great Awakening;
2. Civic rivalries
3. Cultural maturation -- families with adolescents to spare...
4. Population growth and dispersion?
5. Professional needs of communities (e.g., an
educated/"orthodox" clergy; the rising legal
profession)
Harvard -- a native-trained clergy -- and eucated magistrates
Wm & Mary -- Cultural ornament?? Anglican of sorts
Yale -- In response to backsliding Harvard... provide for
Connecticut Valley/seashore
Princeton -- "New Light" Presbyterian opp'n to
"Old Light" Yale
Which brings us to King's College
NYC as 3rd urban area in colonies -- 15,000 -- just behind Boston
and Philadelphia (Chastn 4th)
Philadelphia about to pull ahead; Boston about to fall behind
(emergence of Baltimore)
The most ethnically and religiously intermixed
Dutch/French/English/ -- Calvinists/Presbyterians --Anglicans
Anglicans/Episcopalians/Church of England --
The King's Church (having been Henry VII in 1530s; Elizabeth's in
1590s; Henry II's in 1750s.)
Led by Crown and Anglican prelate (AB of Canterbury and other
bishops)
No hierachical equivalent in
Congregationalism/Presbyterianism/Quakerism
Growth of Anglican presence -- English officials -- defections
from Congregationalism/Presbyterianism in Mass and Conn; more
given to ritual; less given to plainness;
architecture/music/display -- socially prestigious
Yale in 1720s -- defection to Anglicanism led by 7
graduates/tutors/president
-- President Timothy Cutler/Graduate/ Tutor now Cong. minister
Samuel Johnson.... four to England for ordination
Johnson to Stratford -- for 3 decades of promoting the Anglican
cause in Connecticut
NYC Anglicans -- 10% of population? But better represented
among the leadership -- Governors and other Crown officials from
England always Anglicans -- favored them among his Council
Anglican churches in s.New York supported by provincial gov't --
ministers' salaries paid
(public support of clergy common in NE and South -- but usually
locally determined and not limited to one denomination)
Trinity Church -- the Anglican's church -- St. George's Chapels
Lots of powerful non-Anglican NYers -- Presbyrterians/Dutch Reformed -- Hudson Landowners; well represented in NY Assembly
Post-1745 NY interest in college -- rivalry with NJ -- College
of NJ
rivalry with Philadelphia -- plans underway to start a college --
Ben Franklin's Academy...
Public interest -- James Alexander -- 1746
NY Assembly 1746 -- authorized lottery
William Livingston 1749 --
1747-49 -- Early Anglican clergy involvement -- arguments
against locating college in NYC
1751 -- Establishment of Lottery Commission -- 4 TC vestrymen
1752 -- Trinity offers land for college -- then attaches some
conditions -- Anglican president; Anglican prayers
Brings out opposition in force
Wm. Livingston -- Independent Reflector (1753) -- oppose creation of an Anglican college -- challenge its claim to public support/public funding// oppose its seeking royal charter (NJ's from NJ Assembly)// oppose its links to Trinity
Opposition not enough to halt movement -- but to do so without receipt of public funding -- and being suspect in eyes of non-Anglicans
Opened in 1754 -- 8 students -- Wm. Livingston on...
Operated for 22 years --
2 presidents -- Samuel Johnson (1754-63) and Myles Cooper
(1763-75)
Half-dozen faculty
Curriculum after the Yale model -- a bit more mathematics and
science (a medical faculty in 1767)
One building -- College Hall -- 5 blocks north of TC
Forty or so governors [trustees]
Funding from tuitions (expensive); benefactions /Trinity land;
fundraising in England...
About 200 students (student body from 20-50)
< 100 graduates (5 a year)
John Jay/Alexander Hamilton/Gouvernor Morris
Some prominent Loyalists -- in England/Canada
Bulk of KC officials sided with England -- many left country during war -- some not to return