Dartmouth,
S. S. Smythe,
Samuel Roffey,
John Thornton,
Daniel West,
Charles Hardy,
Samuel Savage,
Jos. Robarts,
Robert Keen."
"Received August 10, 1769."
CHAPTER VI.
A COLLEGE CHARTER.
The long-protracted efforts of Mr. Wheelock,[21] to provide legal safeguards for donations in aid of his great work, now demand careful attention.
[21] It will be observed that the appropriate title, at the period under consideration, is given to the founder of the college here as elsewhere in this work.
The deed of Mr. Joshua More, conveying two acres of land with buildings attached, was dated July 17, 1755, a short time previous to his death. Mr. Wheelock now placed himself in confidential relations with two eminent lawyers in New York, William Smith, and his son William Smith, Jr., the latter of whom, perhaps, may be said to have left his impress upon the Constitution of the United States, through his distinguished pupil, Gouverneur Morris. The correspondence, at first, seems to have been chiefly with Mr. Smith, Senior. August 6, 1755, he writes to Mr. Wheelock: "The means for the accomplishment of so charitable a design seem at present very imperfect." He suggests, that there is "no incorporation" of Mr. Wheelock and the other gentlemen to whom Mr. More conveyed the property; that the deed contains "no consideration;" and that the estate is at most only "for life." He advises Mr. Wheelock, at least, to procure a better deed, which was afterwards executed by Mrs. More. The death of Mr. Wheelock's most influential and valuable associate trustee, ex-President Williams, only a few days after the conveyance by Mr. More, was a severe loss, and a temporary embarrassment to his associates. But Mr. Wheelock determined to proceed in his efforts for an incorporation, relying mainly upon the dictates of his own judgment for direction. After the lapse of some five years, in February, 1760, he gives the results to Mr. Smith, in language of which the following is the substance: "We sent home some years ago for the royal favor of a Charter. Lord Halifax approved the design, but [to save expense] advised, instead of a Charter, the establishment of the school by a law of Connecticut Colony, and promised that when sent there it should be ratified in Council, which he supposed would be as sufficient as any act there. Hereupon I attended our Assembly, in May, 1758, with a memorial, the prayer of which was granted by the House of Representatives; the Governor and Council negatived it, upon the ground that their action would not be valid, if ratified in England, beyond this Colony, and that a corporation within a corporation might be troublesome, as Yale College had sometimes been. I am since informed that the Earl of Dartmouth has promised, if the matter shall be put into a proper channel, to undertake and go through with it at his own expense."
Thus it appears that Lord Dartmouth was desirous of aiding Mr. Wheelock by his influence, and otherwise, long before being asked by him for pecuniary aid. In explanation of the governor's objections, it should be stated, that Mr. Wheelock desired such an incorporation as would enable him to locate his school in any of the American Colonies, and that there was just at that period an earnest contest between the corporation of Yale College, led by President Clap, and the Colonial government, in regard to the control of that institution.