The interest felt at that time, however, was merely that of sympathy and of general concern. After the settlement of Dr. Cutler in Boston they began to entertain fears for their own safety; and they found themselves called upon to make a vigorous effort, to guard their sacred inclosure against the intrusion of Episcopacy.

Early in the year 1727, the Lieutenant-Governor informed the Overseers, that application had been made to him by the Rev. Dr. Cutler, to be notified to be present at their meeting. The question, whether he be notified, was debated in that body, and decided in the negative, "the Board apprehending that he is not entitled thereunto."

Not satisfied with this, he then made a motion to the Overseers, in writing, respecting his being entitled to be present at their meeting, which, in one instance, he had, in fact, been notified by the clerk to attend. The Board having maturely considered this motion, together with their constitution, voted, that they were of opinion, that the Rev. Dr. Timothy Cutler has not, nor ever had by the said constitution, a right to sit as an Overseer of Harvard College." A similar vote was passed upon the application of another Episcopal minister, the Rev. Samuel Myles, "that he might be notified, as formerly, to sit at the meeting of the Overseers of Harvard College."

But these gentlemen were not to be diverted from their purpose by an opinion of the Overseers. They prosecuted the affair like men who were in earnest, and, so far as appears, with no lack of diplomacy and management. There is some indication of this in a request they made to the Overseers for the names of the members present at the meeting when the above

vote, of which they had been furnished with a copy by the clerk, was passed, -a request which the Overseers, who appear to have been quite a match for their opponents throughout, refused to grant, "it not having been usual for the clerk in giving copies of the Overseers' votes to affix their names.'

In the mean time "three petitions from the Clergy and others of the Church of England, in divers parts of New England," were presented to the General Court, "praying that Timothy Cutler, Doctor of Divinity, and Samuel Myles, Master of Arts, as they are the present incumbents of Christ Church and his Majestie's Chappel in Boston, within the County of Suffolk, may be deemed members of the Overseers of Harvard Colledge in Cambridge, and be restored to the rights of Overseers, and may, agreeably to custom, &c., be again notified and have seats at the meetings of the Overseers of Harvard Colledge, for the reasons therein mentioned." 1

These petitions were referred to the next Fall Session; Mr. Secretary was directed to serve the Clerk of the Overseers with a copy, &c. This was August 25th, 1727. An answer was prepared by a Committee of the Overseers, and was probably from the pen of that zealous and efficient friend of the College, the Rev. Dr. Colman; for his biographer, Mr. Turell relates, that "when above twenty years ago some Reverend Episcopal gentlemen endeavoured to push themselves into the oversight and government of it, he strenuously opposed them, and wrote a judicious and nervous answer to the memorial presented by them, which is found among his papers." The sub

1 Journal of the House of Representatives, 1727, p. 106. 3 Life of Colman, pp. 53, 54.

2 Ibid.

ject was accordingly brought forward at that session,'and was debated December 27th, 1727, when the House, after duly considering the petition, the answer of the Overseers, and the reply of the petitioners to this answer, decided that it was not "within the intent and meaning of the Charter granted to the said College, that the Reverend memorialists ought to be deemed as members of the Board of Overseers thereof." 1

The House seem to have discovered that they had made a mistake, and referred to the wrong act; for on the 13th of January following, the vote, with the petitions, &c. which had been sent up to the Honorable Board for concurrence, were sent for; and it was voted, "that it was not within the meaning of the Act, &c., of 1642, that the Reverend memorialists should be deemed members of the Board of Overseers."

Not yet disposed to relinquish his pretensions, Dr. Cutler renewed his application to the Overseers, in a memorial dated June 11th, 1730; but, "inasmuch as the affair referred to in this memorial has been once and again maturely considered by this Board, and afterwards by the General Court upon his own appeal to them, and at length by them determined," the Overseers "voted that the said Memorial be dismissed," and "that a copy of the above vote be given by the Clerk to Dr. Cutler." 2

Thus terminated an affair which had occasioned no small excitement in the community; and thenceforward the ecclesiastical part of the Board of Overseers was confined to ministers of the Congregational de

1 Journal of the House of Representatives, p. 49.

2 Overseers' Records.

- Did they find they had made a mistake in the first order? Was the above vote of the General Court the first decision of the question?

nomination, whose exclusive right to that privilege was afterwards fully recognised in the Constitution of the State of Massachusetts.

Dr. Cutler was educated at Harvard College in the time of President Mather, and ranks high among those of its sons that have conferred honor upon it by their talents and learning. He continued Rector of Christ Church till his death, which took place in 1765. According to the late Dr. Eliot, who, when a boy, must have often seen him, "he was haughty and overbearing in his manners; and to a stranger, in the pulpit, appeared as a man fraught with pride. He never could win the rising generation, because he found it so difficult to be condescending; nor had he intimates of his own age and flock. But people of every denomination looked upon him with a kind of veneration, and his extensive learning excited esteem and respect, where there was nothing to move, or hold the affections of the heart." 1

1 Eliot's Biog. Dict. p. 144.

CHAPTER XVIII.

It remains to give some account of the man who was at the head of the College, while these occurrences were taking place.

President Wadsworth's father was Capt. Samuel Wadsworth, who, with others, was killed in a battle with the Indians in 1676, at Sudbury, and to whom the filial piety of this son erected a monument, which is now standing, on or near the spot where the event happened. Benjamin was the seventh son,—a circumstance of more importance, probably, at that time, than it would be accounted now. He was born at Milton in Massachusetts in 1669; was educated in this College, where he took his first degree in 1690; was ordained, in 1696, as colleague pastor, with the Rev. James Allen of the first Church in Boston, where he had been preaching as a candidate since he took his degree of Master of Arts, in 1693; and in 1725, he acceded to the presidency of the College in the manner before related.

From his youth, he appears to have possessed the best disposition, and to have been one of those favored beings, so beautifully depicted by the pure and pious muse of Cowper:

"Some minds are tempered happily, and mixed
With such ingredients of good sense and taste

Of what is excellent in man, they thirst
With such a zeal to be what they approve,