test? However this may be, a man's rank is among those, with whom he lives and acts; and it is related of Dr. Mather, that "he was the father of the NewEngland clergy, and that his name and character were held in veneration, not only by those who knew him, but by succeeding generations.

His publications were numerous, and were greatly esteemed. With the exception of a few, they were upon religious subjects. He wrote some tracts in favor of inoculation for the small-pox, which, but a year or two before his decease, was, on the suggestion of his son, Cotton Mather, introduced into the new world by Dr. Zabdiel Boylston of Boston, with the support of the clergy of Massachusetts, but in opposition to most of the physicians and of the multitude.

2

It has been above observed (page 64) that during the presidency of Dr. Mather, the College was enriched by the hand of munificence. Among the donations, the following may be mentioned. "

Mr. Robert Thorner of Baddesly, in the county of Southampton, bequeathed to Harvard College £500 sterling; the greater part, and probably the whole of which was received.

The fund for Exhibitions was increased by a legacy, in 1687, from Mr. William Brown, Sen., of £100, "to be improved for the bringing up of poor scholars"; and by a grant, in 1696, from the Hon. Samuel Sewall, of a farm at Petaquamscot in the Narraganset country, containing 500 acres more or less, for the support of indigent students, "especially such as shall be sent

1 Eliot's Biographical Dictionary, Art. Incr. Mather.

2 Mass. Mag. for 1779, p. 777.

3 Donation Book, II.

from Petaquamscot aforesaid, English or Indians, if any such there be. "1

The Society for Propagating the Gospel in NewEngland, having obtained from the estate of its late president, the Hon. Robert Boyle, a charity of £90 sterling per annum, ordered in 1697, that one half of it should be transmitted to the President and Fellows of Harvard College and to their successors, to be applied for the support of two ministers employed in teaching the natives the Christian religion.

Mr. Eliakim Hutchinson gave to the College £10, New-England money, in 1698; with a promise to give the same sum annually, "as long as the government there should be such as he approved of." This annuity was paid during his life, from 1698 to 1717, inclusive, making twenty years.

Mr. Nathaniel Hulton of London bequeathed £100 sterling, being £130, Massachusetts currency; and Mr. Thomas Gunston of Stock-Newington gave £50 sterling.

The Rev. Edmund Brown of Sudbury bequeathed £100 to the College. This legacy was sued for in 1693; an execution was levied on seventeen acres of pasture land in Cambridge belonging to Mr. Samuel Goffe, executor; but the College does not appear to have been ever benefited by it

But by far the greatest benefaction during this Presdency was from Lieut. Gov. Stoughton, who, at an expense of £1000, erected, in 1699, an edifice of brick called in honor of him, Stoughton Hall. "It contained sixteen chambers for students, but no public apartments. Its length was one hundred, and its breadth

1 Donation Book, I.

twenty feet. Being originally an unsubstantial piece of masonry, it grew weak by age, and was finally taken down in 1780." It is said to have been injured by the great earthquake in 1755.1

The following inscription was on the front of old Stoughton-Hall:

DEO OPT. MAX. BONISQ. LITERIS S.

GULIELMUS STOUGHTON ARMIGER PROVINCIE

MASSACHUSET. NOV-ANGLORUM VICE-GUBERNATOR COLLEGII HARVARDINI OLIM ALUMNUS

SEMPER PATRONUS FECIT

ANNO DOMINI 1699. 2

1 See further particulars in the Columbian Magazine, for 1788, p. 673. For a description of Harvard Hall, burnt in 1764, see the same Article.

[The Editor has been informed by a near relative, now deceased, and who was in college at the time, that the walls of Stoughton Hall had then begun to settle and lean considerably; and that the shock of the earthquake restored them to their perpendicular direction.]

2 Donation Book, I.

CHAPTER VIII.

On the very day that President Mather quitted the superintendence of the College, the Rev. Samuel Willard of Boston entered upon it under the title of VicePresident.

The father of this distinguished clergyman was Mr. Simon Willard, a gentleman of respectable standing both in civil and military life. Samuel was graduated at Harvard College in 1659. He was afterwards settled in the ministry at Groton ; but the ravages of Philip's war, which destroyed that place and scattered his flock, drove him to Boston about the year 1676.

"The providence," says Dr. Pemberton, "that occasioned his removal to this place, was an awful judgment upon the whole land; yet it was eventually a mercy in this respect, that it made way for the translation of this bright star to a more conspicuous orb; where his influence was more extensive and beneficial; and in this it was a great blessing to this congregation, to this town, nay, to all New-England." " Great indeed, in the estimation of his contemporaries, must have been that merit, which could authorize one of the wisest of them to intimate, that his removal to Boston was any compensation for the disasters of that terrible Indian War! He was settled as a colleague with Mr. Thacher, the first minister of the Old South Church,

1 Pemberton's Sermons, p. 137.

1

April 10th, 1678, (March 31st, old style);1 and in 1700 Mr. Ebenezer Pemberton was chosen his assistant.

Notwithstanding the order that had been recently passed, his connexion with the church in Boston appears to have been continued after his appointment to the charge of the College; and this circumstance will probably account for his having the title of Vice-President; and never having been inaugurated. He officiated as President six years, when he was removed by death, September 12th, 1707, in the 68th year of his age.3

The sermon, preached on the death of this eminent person, by his colleague Mr. Pemberton, is referred to by some distinguished writers, as containing "his just character." The following passage is a brief summary of it: "In him bountiful Heaven was pleased to cause a concurrence of all those natural and acquired, moral and spiritual excellencies, which are necessary to constitute a great man, a profound divine, a very considerable scholar, and an heavenly Christian. In the light and influence of these perfections he appeared as a star of the first magnitude in the orb of the church.” To all these talents and accomplishments, if, indeed, not included in them, he added “a natural genius and spirit, which seemed superior to all narrow and selfish interests," and "a native modesty, which might seem to some to veil the brightness of some of his public appearances; though in the opinion of others it was but a

1 Mass. Hist. Coll. IX. p. 193, First Series.

2 [At this place Mr. Peirce has made the following note, in pencil, on the margin of his Manuscript: "Enquire further about this."― EDIT.] 3 Eliot's Biographical Dictionary, art. S. Willard. "He was taken at dinner in his study, so that he quickly grew delirious." — Chief Justice Sewall's MS. Diary, under date of April 9th, 1707.

4 Dr. Sewall, Mr. Prince, Dr. Chauncy.