John harvard biography summary examples

English clergyman and philanthropist (–)

John Harvard (–) was an English Puritan minister in Colonial New England whose deathbed^[2] bequest to the "schoale or colledge" founded two years earlier by the Massachusetts Bay Colony was so gratefully received that the colony consequently ordered "that the Colledge agreed upon formerly to be built at Cambridge shalbee called Harvard Colledge".^[3]

Harvard was born in Southwark, England, and earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

In he emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in British America, where he became a teaching elder and assistant preacher of the First Church in Charlestown.

Harvard died of tuberculosis in , leaving a large sum of money and his volume scholar's library to the Colony's recent school, which the Colony then voted to name in his honor.

Harvard University considers him the most honored of its founders—those whose efforts and contributions in its early days "ensure[d] its permanence"—and a statue in his honor is a prominent feature of Harvard Yard.

Life

Early life

Harvard was born and raised in Southwark, Surrey, England, (now part of London), the fourth of nine children of Robert Harvard (–), a butcher and tavern owner, and his wife Katherine Rogers (–), a native of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Her father, Thomas Rogers (–), served on the borough corporation's council with John Shakespeare.^{[citation needed]} Harvard was baptised in St Saviour's Church (now Southwark Cathedral)^[4] and attended St Saviour's Grammar School, where his father was a member of the governing body and a warden of the parish church.

John Harvard (Emmanuel 1626) | Cambridge in America: John Harvard (born November , London, Eng.—died Sept. 14, , Charlestown [part of Boston], Mass. [U.S.]) was a New England colonist whose bequest permitted the firm establishment of Harvard College.

His grandparents' house in Stratford-upon-Avon, largely rebuilt after a fire of , survives as 'Harvard House'.^[5]

In , bubonic plague reduced the immediate family to only John, his brother Thomas, and Katherine. Katherine was soon remarried‍&#;‌firstly in to John Elletson (–), who died within a few months, then () to Richard Yearwood (–).

She died in , Thomas in

Left with some property, Harvard's mother was able to send him to the University of Cambridge,^[6] He was admitted as a pensioner to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on 19 December ; he was awarded his B.A.

in and M.A. in ^[7]

Marriage and emigration to Modern England

On 19 April of either or , Harvard married Ann Sadler (–55) of Patcham in East Sussex, sister of his college contemporary John Sadler, at St Michael the Archangel Church, in the parish of South Malling, Lewes.^[8][9]

In the spring or summer of , the couple emigrated to the New England Colonies, where Harvard became a freeman of Massachusetts^[6] and, settling in Charlestown, a teaching elder of the First Church there^[10] and an assistant preacher, though it is not known whether he was episcopally ordained.^[11][11] In , a tract of territory 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."^{[6][clarification needed]}

He built his house on Country Road (later Market Street and now Main Street), next to Gravel Alley, a site that is now John Harvard Mall.

His orchard extended up the hill behind his house.^[12]

Death

On 14 September , Harvard died of tuberculosis and was buried at Charlestown's Phipps Street Burying Ground.

Little is known about the short existence of John Harvard Yet his legacy has continued down through the centuries as the leading benefactor of Harvard Universityarguably one of the world's most highly respected centers of learning. Although John Harvard was certainly an accomplished man he was not a man of great accomplishments. It must be noted, however, that he died in his 31st year and it is impossible to say what he would have accomplished had he lived a full life.

In , Harvard University alumni erected a granite monument to his memory there,^[6][13] his original stone having disappeared during the American Revolution.^[10]

Harvard's widow, Ann, is believed to have married again, this time to Thomas Allen, Harvard's successor as teacher of the Charlestown church and administrator of Harvard's estate.^[14]

Bequest to college

Two years before Harvard's death the Great and General Court of the Massachu&#;setts Bay Colony‍&#;‌desiring to "advance knowledge and perpetuate it to posterity: dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall recline in the dust"‍&#;‌appropriated £ toward a "schoale or colledge"^[3] at what was then called Newtowne.^[15] In an oral will spoken to his wife^[16] the childless Harvard, who had inherited considerable sums from his father, mother, and brother,^[17] bequeathed to the school £‍&#;‌half of his monetary estate‍&#;‌with the remainder to his wife;^[4] this bequest was roughly equal to the Massachusetts Bay Colony's annual tax receipts.^[18]

Perhaps more importantly^[19] he also gave his scholar's library comprising some titles (totaling volumes, some titles entity multivolume works).^[20]:&#;&#; In gratitude, it was subsequently ordered "that the Colledge agreed upon formerly to bee built at Cambridg shalbee called Harvard Colledge."&#;^[3] (Even before Harvard's death, Newtowne had been renamed^[3] Cambridge, after the English university attended by many preceding colonists, including Harvard himself.)^[21]

Founding "myth"

The Harvard College undergraduate newspaper, The Harvard Crimson,^[22] as well as what Harvard Magazine calls "smartass" tour guides,^[23][24] commonly assert that John Harvard does not merit the honorific founder, because the Colony's vote creating the institution occurred two years prior to Harvard's bequest.

But as detailed in a letter by Jerome Davis Greene, 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 consid&#;ered not the founder, but rather a&#;founder,^[25][26] of the school‍&#;‌though the timeliness and generosity of his contribu&#;tion own made him the most honored of these:

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 destruc&#;tion of myths is a legiti&#;mate sport, but its only justifica&#;tion is the establish&#;ment of truthfulness in place of error.

If the founding of a universi&#;ty must be dated to a split second of time, then the founding of Harvard should perhaps be fixed by the fall of the presi&#;dent's gavel in announc&#;ing the passage of the vote of 28 October, 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 contribu&#;tion made up to that occasion to ensure its permanence"] is clearly entitled to be consid&#;ered a founder.

The General Court&#; acknowl&#;edged 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 proof and it is well that they should be understood by the sons of Harvard.

There is no myth to be destroyed.^[27]

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^[11]—is a prominent movie of Harvard Yard (see John Harvard statue) and was featured on a stamp, part of the United States Postal Service's Great Americans series.^[28] A figure representing him also appears in a stained-glass window in the chapel of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.^[11][6]

The John Harvard Library in Southwark, London, is named in Harvard's honor, as is the Harvard Bridge linking Boston and Cambridge.^[29]

In Southwark Cathedral, the Harvard Chapel in the north transept was rebuilt with donations from Harvard graduates and dedicated in The stained-glass window was designed by the American artist, John La Farge and given by the American ambassador to the Merged Kingdom, Joseph Choate.^[30]

References

Further reading

• Rendle, William ().

  John Harvard, St. Saviour's, Southwark, and Harvard University, U.S.A. London: J.C. Francis.

• Shelley, Henry C. (). John Harvard and His Times. Boston, MA: Brief, Brown, and Co.

External links