XXX.

CHAPTER Stock in Brattle's hands, amounted to £2,063; besides annuities and rents, in New England, valued at £128, and in England, at £23; that it claimed lands in Piscataqua, and Merriconeag, under grants from the General Court, and five hundred acres in the Narraganset country, being the gift of Samuel and Hannah Sewall.* From this statement of the financial affairs of the College, at the end of the seventeenth century, and from contemporary evidence, it satisfactorily appears, that the efficient funds of the College had been principally derived from private donations, and that no important, if any, part of them arose from donations of the General Court; the only direct source of income accruing from its bounty being the rent of the ferry between Charlestown and Boston, amounting to an average of £50 per year, which was applied to defray the current expenditures of the institution. Grants made by the General Court to the President were paid directly to him, and never entered the College treasury.

William
Brattle.

The third of these "registered papers" exhibits the estate of the College, increased between the year 1696 and 1712 to the sum of £2,952; the rents and annuities in New England then amounting to an annual income of £120, and those in England, and the unimproved lands in the Province, continuing the same as they were in 1696.

In the year 1713, Treasurer Brattle died, and his brother and executor, the Rev. William Brattle, retained the property of the College, at the request of the Corporation, and, although not formally elected, was by them empowered to act as Treasurer.

*See Vol. I. p. 407.

XXX.

John
White.

In August, 1715, William Brattle delivered to John CHAPTER White, who was then appointed Treasurer, the whole College estate; and a minute statement of all the bills, bonds, and mortgages, with his receipt, is placed on the records of the Corporation.

This

Hutchin

son.

At this time the College stock amounted to £3,767, and its revenue from rents and annuities to £114, including £72, the income from the ferry.* account by William Brattle, is the last which is transcribed at large on the records of the Corporation. No book nor any transcript of the accounts of Treasurer White remains. He held the office until his death, in 1721, when Edward Hutchinson was chosen Edward his successor. The first account of this Treasurer, found among the papers of the College, is dated January the 7th, 1746, by which it appears that the value of the property of the institution had then risen to £11,150, " in bonds and mortgages, &c." producing a yearly income, at six per cent., of £669, and having thus nearly trebled in amount since the last settlement of Mr. Brattle. This increase is readily traced in the College records, to the amount of donations received from the Hollises, the Saltonstalls, and numerous other benefactors of the College.

By this account it appears, that at this time the annual aggregate revenues of the College, from all sources, real and personal, including the income of the ferry and Pennoyer's legacy, amounted to £1,900, and the annual expenditure, including annual repairs and excluding the repairs of the ferry-way, to £1,781. Leaving an excess of income beyond the expenditure of £119. The repairs of the ferry-way that year, are stated at £300.

* College Book, Vol. III. pp. 56, 57.

CHAPTER

XXX.

Thomas
Hubbard.

Notwithstanding this apparent great increase of the College funds, Mr. Hutchinson's treasurership was a period, in which they sustained great diminution. In 1690 Massachusetts commenced the issuing of a paper currency, which in consequence of the public debt, incurred in 1711, by the expedition against Canada, she greatly increased. This currency depreciated with every new emission; and, although at the beginning of the century eight shillings in paper money were equal to an ounce of silver, in 1749 forty-five shillings were the equivalent. The College funds sunk proportionably in value.

Edward Hutchinson died in March, 1752, and was succeeded, in the ensuing April, by Thomas Hubbard ; who was distinguished alike by accuracy and judgIn stating his first account, in April, 1755,* in

ment.

* Four of his accounts are preserved in the archives of the College, which represent the progress of its funds during his administration of its finances.

By the first, settled in 1755, the entire College stock was
Of which were specifically appropriated by the donors,

Subject to the control of the Corporation,

Its annual income being £503; its annual expenditure, £ 508.

£ 1,769

By the second, settled in 1761, its entire stock was
Of which were specifically appropriated,

Subject to the control of the Corporation,

£ 6,230 3,364

£ 2,866

Of which were specifically appropriated,

Its annual income being £625; its annual expenditure, £ 538.

By the third, settled in 1769, its entire stock was

Subject to the control of the Corporation,

Its annual income being £1,448; its annual expenditure, £ 1,246.

£ 12,324

6,106

£ 6,218

Its annual income being £1,513; its annual expenditure, £ 1,251.

XXX.

order justly to represent the value of the College stock, CHAPTER he "put down all the capital sums at only one fifth part of the nominal sums originally given, in consequence of the College funds having sunk for a number of years antecedent to 1750, by the depreciation of the paper currency."

Thomas Hubbard died in July, 1773, and in the same month his executor delivered to the President of the College, bonds, notes, and Province Treasurer's certificates to the amount of £15,449 14s. 2d., which the President delivered to his successor, John cock. Hancock.

John Han

Storer.

On the removal of Mr. Hancock from the office of Ebenezer Treasurer, and the appointment of Ebenezer Storer, the Corporation delivered to him, in bonds, notes, and other securities, £16,443 11s. 10d., which may with sufficient accuracy be stated as the amount of the College funds, accumulated prior to the 4th of July, 1776, when Massachusetts ceased to be a Province.*

* See Treasurer Storer's statement, in Harvard College Journal, Vol. I. p. 8.

CHAPTER
ΧΧΧΙ.

Amount of

College funds in 1777.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Funds of Harvard College. - Effects of the Depreciation of Paper Currency. Salaries and Modes of Payment of Officers of the College.— Progress of Depreciation.— The Corporation endeavour to counteract its Effects. They memorialize the General Court for a permanent Provision for the President; without Success. Rev. Joseph Willard chosen President. - Grant to him by the General Court. His Instalment. Loss by Depreciation divided and equalized among the College Stocks. Professors' Salaries established and made equal. - General Court memorialized for the usual Grants. - President Willard states the Inadequacy of his Support, and remonstrates. - The Corporation make Loans to the College Officers, in Reliance upon the usual Grants. -Policy of the General Court in Relation to the College. - Its Finances in 1806.-The Corporation petition for a Reimbursement of their Loans to the College Officers, and are denied. They cancel the Obligations taken for these Loans. - Wise Management of their Finances. - Ebenezer Storer. James Bowdoin. - John Lowell. - New Principle adopted in selecting Members of the Corporation. Its happy Consequences. Prosperous State of the College Funds. - The Corporation restore, to all the College Foundations, the Amount of their original Capitals, by making good their Loss through Depreciation of the Currency.

On the 16th of July, 1777, Ebenezer Storer received the College funds, amounting, as stated in the preceding chapter, to £16,443 11s. 10d., on which sum the uncollected interest due was £3,627 8s. 2d., making an aggregate of £20,071.*

* Of this amount the donors had specifically appropriated £10,100 0 0 And there remained at the general disposal of the College

9,971 0 0

See Harvard College Journal, Vol. I. p. 25.

£20,071 0 0