EDUCATION IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.—ACTION IN REGARD TO A COLLEGE.—TESTIMONIAL OF CONNECTICUT CLERGYMEN.—LEGISLATIVE GRANT TO MR. WHEELOCK. The importance of education to the welfare of any community, has been duly appreciated by the people of New Hampshire from the earliest periods of her history. Such an item as the following is worthy of notice: "At a publique Town Meeting held the 5: 2 mo. 58 [1658,] It is agreed that Twenty pounds per annum shall be yearly rayzed for the mayntenance of a School-master in the Town of Dover."[11] Harvard College being in need of a new building in 1669, the inhabitants of Portsmouth "subscribed sixty pounds, which sum they agreed to pay annually for seven years to the overseers of Harvard College. Dover gave thirty-two pounds, and Exeter ten pounds for the same purpose."[12] Very few towns at the present day are as liberal, in proportion to their ability. Classical schools were established in all the more populous towns, and these were furnished with competent teachers, who were graduates of Harvard College, or European universities. In 1758, in the midst of the din and tumult of the French war, we find the clergy—ever among the foremost in laudable enterprise—making an earnest effort for increased facilities for liberal education. We give official records: "The Convention of the Congregational Ministers in the Province of New Hampshire, being held at the house of the Rev. Mr. Pike in Somersworth on the 26th day of Sept. 1758: The Rev. Joseph Adams was chosen Moderator." After the sermon and transaction of some business: "The Convention then taking into consideration the great advantages which may arise, both to the Churches and State from the erecting [an] Academy or College in this Province, unanimously Voted that the following Petition shall be preferred to the Governor, desiring him to grant a Charter for said purpose: "To his Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esq., Capt.-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over his Majesty's Province of New Hampshire in New England. May it please your Excellency,— "We, the Ministers of the Congregational Churches in this Province of New Hampshire under your Excellency's Government now assembled in an Annual Convention in Somersworth, as has been our custom for several years past, the design of which is to pray together for his Majesty and Government, and to consult the interests of religion and virtue, for our mutual assistance and encouragement in our proper business: Beg leave to present a request to your Excellency in behalf of literature, which proceeds, not from any private or party views in us, but our desire to serve the Government and religion by laying a foundation for the best instruction of youth. We doubt not your Excellency is sensible of the great advantages of learning, and the difficulties which attend the education of youth in this Province, by reason of our distance from any of the seats of learning, the discredit of our medium, etc. We have reason to hope that by an interest among our people, and some favor from the Government, we may be able in a little time to raise a sufficient fund for erecting and carrying on an Academy or College within this Province, without prejudice to any other such seminary in neighboring Colonies, provided your Excellency will be pleased to grant to us, a number of us, or any other trustees, whom your Excellency shall think proper to appoint, a good and sufficient charter, by which they may be empowered to choose a President, Professors, Tutors, or other officers, and regulate all matters belonging to such a society. We therefore now humbly petition your Excellency to grant such a charter as may, in the best manner, answer such a design and intrust it with our Committee, viz.: Messrs. Joseph Adams, James Pike, John Moody, Ward Cotton, Nathaniel Gookin, Woodbridge Odlin, Samuel Langdon, and Samuel Haven, our brethren, whom we have now chosen to wait upon your Excellency with this our petition, that we may use our influence with our people to promote so good a design, by generous subscriptions, and that we may farther petition the General Court for such assistance, as they shall think necessary. We are persuaded, if your Excellency will first of all favor us with such a charter, we shall be able soon to make use of it for the public benefit; and that your Excellency's name will forever be remembered with honor. If, after trial, we cannot accomplish it, we promise to return the charter with all thankfulness for your Excellency's good disposition. It is our constant prayer that God would prosper your Excellency's administration, and we beg leave to subscribe ourselves your Excellency's most obedient servants. Joseph Adams, Moderator. "Proceedings attested by Samuel Haven, Clerk." "The Convention of Congregational Ministers in the Province of New Hampshire being held at the house of the Rev. Mr. Joseph Adams in Newington on the 25th of September, 1759, the Rev. Mr. Adams was chosen Moderator. We then went to the house of God. After prayer and a sermon: "A draught of a charter for a college in this Province being read: Voted, That the said charter is for substance agreeable to the mind of the Convention. Whereas a committee chosen last year to prefer a petition to his Excellency the Governor for a charter of a college in this Province have given a verbal account to this Convention of their proceedings and conversation with the Governor upon said affair, by which, notwithstanding the Governor manifests some unwillingness, at present, to grant a charter agreeable to the Convention, yet there remains some hope, that after maturer consideration and advice of Council, his Excellency will grant such a charter as will be agreeable to us and our people, therefore, Voted, that Rev. Messrs. Joseph Adams, James Pike, Ward Cotton, Samuel Parsons, Nathaniel Gookin, Samuel Langdon, and Samuel Haven, or a major part of them, be and hereby are a Committee of this Convention, to do everything which to them shall appear necessary, in the aforesaid affair, in behalf of this Convention; and, moreover, to consult upon any other measures for promoting the education of youth, and advancing good literature in the Province, and make report to the next Convention. Attested by Samuel Haven, Clerk." The Convention was holden at Portsmouth, September 30, 1760, and at the same place in September, 1761, but nothing appears in the proceedings of those years concerning the charter. But at the convention held at Portsmouth, September 28, 1762, the Rev. Mr. John Rogers having been chosen moderator, after prayer and sermon, the following testimonial was laid before the Convention: "Chelsea, Norwich, July 10, 1762. "We ministers of the gospel and pastors of churches hereafter mentioned with our names, having, for a number of years past, heard of or seen with pleasure the zeal, courage, and firm resolution of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock of Lebanon, to prosecute to effect a design of spreading the gospel among the natives in the wilds of our America, and especially his perseverance in it, amidst the many peculiar discouragements he had to encounter during the late years of the war here, and upon a plan which appears to us to have the greatest probability of success, namely, by a mission of their own sons; and as we are verily persuaded that the smiles of Divine Providence upon his school, and the success of his endeavors hitherto justly may, and ought, to encourage him and all to believe it to be of God, and that which he will own and succeed for the glory of his great name in the enlargement of the kingdom of our divine Redeemer, as well as for the great benefit of the crown of Great Britain, and especially of his Majesty's dominions in America; so we apprehend the present openings in Providence ought to invite Christians of every denomination to unite their endeavors and to lend a helping hand in carrying on so charitable a design; and we are heartily sorry if party spirit and party differences shall at all obstruct the progress of it; or the old leaven of this land ferment upon this occasion, and give a watchful adversary opportunity so to turn the course of endeavors into another channel as to defeat the design of spreading the gospel among the heathen. To prevent which, and encourage unanimity and zeal in prosecuting the design, we look upon it our duty as Christians, and especially as ministers of the gospel, to give our testimony that, as we verily believe, a disinterested regard to the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom and the good will of His Majesty's dominions in America, were the governing motives which at first induced the Rev. Mr. Wheelock to enter upon the great affair, and to risk his own private interest, as he has done since, in carrying it on; so we esteem his plan to be good, his measures to be prudently and well concerted, his endowments peculiar, his zeal fervent, his endeavors indefatigable, for the accomplishing this design, and we know no man, like minded, who will naturally care for their state. May God prolong his life, and make him extensively useful in the kingdom of Christ. We have also, some of us, at his desire examined his accounts, and we find that, besides giving in all his own labour and trouble in the affair, he has charged for the support, schooling, etc., of the youth, at the lowest rate it could be done for, as the price of things have been and still are among us; and we apprehend the generous donations already made have been and we are confident will be laid out in the most prudent manner, and with the best advice for the furtherance of the important design: and we pray God abundantly to reward the liberality of many upon this occasion. And we hope the generosity, especially of persons of distinction and note, will be a happy lead and inducement to still greater liberalities, and that in consequence thereof the wide-extended wilderness of America will blossom as the rose, habitations of cruelty become dwelling places of righteousness and the blessing of thousands ready to perish come upon all those whose love to Christ and charity to them has been shown upon this occasion. Which is the hearty prayer of your most sincere friends and humble servants: Ebenezer Rosetter Pastor of ye 1st Chh: in Stonington.
Joseph Fish Pastor of ye 2d Chh: in Stonington.
Nathl Whitaker Pastor of ye Chh: in Chelsea in Norwich.
Benja Pomeroy Pastor of ye 1st Chh: in Hebron.
Elijah Lothrop Pastor of ye Chh: of Gilead in Hebron.
Nathl Eells Pastor of a Chh: in Stonington.
Mather Byles Pastor of ye First Chh: in New London.
Jona. Barber Pastor of a Chh: in Groton.
Matt. Graves Missionary in New London.
Peter Powers Pastor of the Chh: at Newent in Norwich.
Daniel Kirtland Former Pastor of ye Chh: in Newent Norwich.
Asher Rosetter Pastor of ye 1st Chh: in Preston.
Jabez Wight Pastor of ye 4 Chh: in Norwich.
David Jewett Pastor of a Chh: in New London.
Benja Throop Pastor of a Chh: in Norwich.
Saml Moseley Pastor of a Chh: in Windham.
Stephen White Pastor of a Chh: in Windham.
Richard Salter Pastor of a Chh: in Mansfield.
Timothy Allen Pastor of ye Chh: in Ashford.
Ephraim Little Pastor of ye 1st Chh: in Colchester.
Hobart Estabrook Pastor of a Chh: in East Haddam.
Joseph Fowler Pastor of a Chh: in East Haddam.
Benja Boardman Pastor of a Chh: in Middletown.
John Norton Pastor of a Chh: of Christ in Middletown.
Benja Dunning Pastor of a Chh: of Christ in Marlborough." "Voted, the Rev. Messrs. Moody, Langdon, Haven, and Foster be a Committee of this Convention to consider and report on the above. Said committee laid the following draft before the Convention, which was unanimously voted and signed by the moderator: "We, a Convention of Congregational Ministers assembled at Portsmouth, September 28, 1762, having read and considered the foregoing attestation from a number of reverend gentlemen in Connecticut, taking into consideration the many obligations the Supreme Ruler has laid upon Christian churches to promote his cause and enlarge the borders of his kingdom in this land, the signal victories he has granted to our troops, the entire reduction of all Canada, so that a way is now open for the spreading of the light and purity of the gospel among distant savage tribes, and a large field, white unto the harvest, is presented before us; considering the infinite worth of the souls of men, the importance of the gospel to their present and everlasting happiness, and the hopeful prospect that the aboriginal natives will now listen to Christian instruction; considering also the great expense which must unavoidably attend the prosecution of this great design, think ourselves obliged to recommend, in the warmest manner, this subject to the serious consideration of our Christian brethren and the public. It is with gratitude to the Great Head of the Church, who has the hearts of all in his hands, that we observe some hopeful steps taken by the societies founded for the gospelizing the Indians, and the hearts of such numbers, both at home and in this land, have been disposed to bestow their liberalities to enable such useful societies to effect the great ends for which they are founded. But as we wish to see every probable method taken to forward so benevolent and Christian a design, we, therefore, rejoice to find that the Rev. Mr. Wheelock has such a number of Indian youths under his care and tuition; and in that abundant testimony which his brethren in the ministry have borne to his abilities for, and zeal and faithfulness in, this important undertaking. And we do hereby declare our hearty approbation of it, as far as we are capable of judging of an affair carried on at such a distance; and think it our duty to encourage and exhort all Christians to lend a helping hand towards so great and generous an undertaking. We would not, indeed, absolutely dictate this, or any other particular scheme, for civilizing and spreading the gospel among the Indians; but we are persuaded that God demands of the inhabitants of these colonies some returns of gratitude, in this way, for the remarkable success of our arms against Canada, and that peace and security which he has now given us; we must, therefore, rely on the wisdom and prudence of the civil authority to think of it as a matter in which our political interests as well as the glory of God are deeply concerned; and we refer to our churches and all private Christians as peculiarly called to promote the Redeemer's kingdom everywhere, to determine what will be the most effectual methods of forwarding so noble and pious a design, and to contribute, to the utmost of their power, either towards the execution of the plan which the Rev. Mr. Wheelock is pursuing, or that of the corporation erected in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, or any other which may be thought of here or elsewhere, for the same laudable purpose. John Rogers, Moderator." The first Legislative action in New Hampshire relative to Mr. Wheelock's work is also worthy of notice. The following is from the Journal of the House of Representatives: "June 17, 1762, Voted, that the Hon. Henry Sherburne and Mishech Weare, Esquires, Peter Gilman, Clement March, Esq., Capt. Thomas W. Waldron, and Capt. John Wentworth be a committee to consider of the subject-matter of Rev. Mr. Eleazar Wheelock's memorial for aid for his school." This committee made a favorable report, saying: "We think it incumbent on this province to do something towards promoting so good an undertaking," and recommending a grant of fifty pounds sterling per annum for five years. The action of the Legislature was in accordance with this report. Later records, however, indicate that the grant was not continued after the first, or possibly the second, year. Gov. Benning Wentworth, after careful investigation, gave his official sanction to the action of his associates, in aid of Mr. Wheelock.
|
  |
