I have related this story to shew the danger of admitting a wife to give evidence against her husband, according to the Blue Laws; and to caution all readers against crediting too much the historians of New-England, who, either from motives of fear or emolument, have in numberless instances designedly disguised or concealed the truth. Such persons whose stubborn principles would not bend to this yoke, were not suffered to search the colonial records; and those who have dared to intimate that all was not right among the first settlers, have been compelled to leave the country with the double loss of character and property.
To Newhaven now belongs Yale College, of which I have promised my readers a particular account. It was originally, as already mentioned, a School, established
by the Rev. Thomas Peters at Saybrook, who left it his library at his death. It soon acquired the distinguished appellation of “Schola Illustris,” and about 1700 was honoured by the General Assembly with a charter of incorporation, converting it into a college, under the denomination of Yale College, in compliment to a gentleman of that name, governor of one of the West India Islands, and its greatest benefactor. The charter constitutes a president, three tutors, twelve overseers, and a treasurer; and exempts it from any visitation of the Governor or Assembly, in order to secure it against the control of a King’s Governor, in case one should ever be appointed. I have already observed that a power of conferring Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees was granted by the charter, and that the corporation have thought proper to assume that of conferring Doctors’ degrees. By the economical regulations of the College, there are a professor of divinity, mathematics, and natural philosophy; and four classes of students, which were at first attended by the president and the three tutors; but the president has long been excused that laborious task, and a fourth tutor appointed in his stead. Each class has its proper tutor. Once a week the president examines them all in the public hall, superintends their disputations and scientific demonstrations, and, if any student appears to be negligent, orders him under the care of a special tutor—a stigma which seldom fails of producing its intended effect. Greek, Latin, geography, history, and logic, are well taught in this seminary; but it suffers for want of tutors to teach the Hebrew, French, and Spanish languages. Oratory, music, and politeness, are equally
neglected here and in the colony. The students attend prayers every morning and evening, at six o’clock. The president, professor, and one of the tutors, reads and expounds a chapter, then a psalm is sung, after which follows a prayer. The hours of study are notified by the College bell, and every scholar seen out of his room is liable to a fine, which is seldom excused. The amusements for the evenings are not cards, dancing, or music, but reading and composition. They are allowed two hours’ play with foot-ball every day. Thus cooped up for four years, they understand books better than men or manners. They then are admitted to their Bachelor’s degree, having undergone a public examination in the arts and sciences. Three years afterwards they are admitted to their Master’s degree, provided they have supported moral characters. The ceremony used by the president upon these occasions is to deliver a book to the intended Master in Arts, saying: “Admitto te ad secundum Gradum in Artibus, pro more Acadæmiarum in Anglia; tradoque tibi hunc librum, una cum protestate publici prælegendi quoties cunque ad hoc munus evocatus fueris.” For Bachelors the same, mutatis mutandis. A diploma in vellum, with the seal of the College, is given to each Master, and signed by the president and six fellows or overseers. The first degrees of Masters were given in 1702. The students in late years have amounted to about 180. They dine in the common hall at four tables, and the tutors and graduates at a fifth. The number of the whole is about 200.
Yale College is built with wood, and painted a sky colour; it is 160 feet long and three stories high, besides
garrets. In 1754, another building of brick, 100 feet long and three stories high, exclusive of garrets, with double rooms, and a double front, was added, and called Connecticut Hall. About 1760, a very elegant chapel and library was erected, with brick, under one roof. But it cannot be supposed the latter is to be compared with the Vatican or the Bodleian. It consists of eight or ten thousand volumes in all branches of literature, but wants modern books; though there is a tolerable sufficiency, if the corporation would permit what they call Bishops’ and Arminian books to be read. Ames’ Medulla is allowed, while Grotius de Veritate Religionis is denied. It was lately presented with a new and valuable apparatus for experimental philosophy. The whole library and apparatus was given by various persons, chiefly English.
The General Assembly have endowed this College with large tracts of land, which, duly cultivated, will soon support the ample establishment of an university; but, even at present, I may truly say, Yale College exceeds the number, and perhaps the learning, of its scholars all over British America. This seminary was in 1717 removed from Saybrook to Newhaven; the extraordinary cause of its transition I shall here lay before the reader.
Saybrook Dominion had been settled by Puritans of some moderation and decency. They had not joined with Massachusets-Bay, Hertford, and Newhaven, in sending home agents to assist in the murder of Charles I. and the subversion of the Lords and Bishops; they had received Hooker’s heretics, and sheltered the apostate from Davenport’s millenarian system; they had
shewn an inclination to be dependent on the Mother Country, and had not wholly anathematized the Church of England. In short, the people of Hertford and Newhaven suspected that Saybrook was not truly protestant; that it had a passion for the leeks and onions of Egypt; and that the youth belonging to them in the “Schola Illustris” were in great danger of imbibing its lukewarmness.
A vote therefore passed at Hertford, to remove the College to Weathersfield, where the leeks and onions of Egypt would not be thought of; and another at Newhaven, that it should be removed to that town, where Christ had established his dominion from sea to sea, and where he was to begin his millenarian reign. About 1715 Hertford, in order to carry its vote into execution, prepared teams, boats, and a mob, and privately set off for Saybrook, and seized upon the College apparatus, library, and students, and carried all to Weathersfield. This redoubled the jealousy of the saints at Newhaven, who thereupon determined to fulfil their vote; and, accordingly, having collected a mob sufficient for the enterprise, they sat out for Weathersfield, where they seized by surprise the students, library, &c. &c. But, on the road to Newhaven, they were overtaken by the Hertford mob, who, however, after an unhappy battle, were obliged to retire with only a part of the library and part of the students. Hence sprung two colleges out of one. The quarrel increased daily, everybody expecting a war more bloody than that of Sassacus; and no doubt such would have been the case, had not the peacemakers of Massachusets-Bay interposed with their usual friendship, and advised their dear