Journal of the Meetings of the President and Masters of William and Mary College, 1768 Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections Project ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net *********************************************************************** Journal of the Meetings of the President and Masters of William and Mary College William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Apr., 1897), pp. 224-229. JOURNAL OF THE MEETINGS OF THE PRESIDENT AND MASTERS OF WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE. (Continued). The Committee this Day presented a Letter to the chancellor, which was read & approved. A True Copy. Test. EMMANUEL JONES, Clk. of the Society. [153] July 22d, 1768. At a Meeting of the President & Masters of Wm & Mary College, Present, The Revd Mr James Horrocks, President, Mr Camm, E Jones, & Mr Johnson. The following Letter to the Chancellor was this Day read and unanimously agreed to: MY LORD, The great attention Your Lordship has been pleas'd to shew to the Concerns of William & Mary College, plainly express'd in the Letters of the President has had so many Opportunites of layng, as his Duty requir'd him, before the Visitors, which contain'd the strongest Remonstrances against every Attempt of our Superiors to exercise an unlawful Power over us, demands our warmest Acknowledgements; But particularly so Your Lordship's Answer to the Letter of the Visitors, which, tho' by no means agreeable to their Inclinations, has operated so powerfully in our Favour, that we have been induced to entertain the pleasing Hopes that the Affairs of our College would at last be put upon a tolerable Footing, from an apparent Con- viction in the Visitors of their own improper [154] Conduct, & their Resolution, in Consequence thereof, to do every thing in their Power for the true Interest of the College. Your Lord- ship's Recommendation to our Governors to compose all past Differences has produced this great Condescension in them that they have call'd upon us to lay before them (what we have long wish'd for the Opportunity of doing) a Representation of all our Grievances & what Alterations in the Statutes, &c., we judg'd necessary for the Support of good Order & Dis- cipline, and the Advancement of Education & Learning. Such a Representation, or Memorial, my Lord, we present'd to the Visitors in May last. Upon this they form'd a few Resolves, and directed a Com- Page 225. mittee to draw up an Anser to Your Lordship's Letter, containing at the same time an Account of their Determinations on this Subject. Tho' the Visitors have not thought proper to trans- mit our Memorial to Your Lordship, we cannot be persuaded that the partial Representation they have given of the same can be satisfactory, or enable Your Lordship to form a just and peoper Opinion of it. We have, therefore, judged it necessary that the whole Transaction of this Affair should apepar before our chancellor, that he may see how it stands without being oblig'd to attend [155] to any Comment of theirs or our own upon it, as we are neither afraid of giving him Offence by putting him to the Trouble of perusing what we presume to think he would have expected to have receiv'd from one of the Parties, nor of submitting to his Decision whether we have been unreasonable in making such Demands upon the Visitors, or they themselves in rejecting them. We have therefore, My Lord, sent our Memorial with the Resolves of the Visitors, faithfully copied from their Journal, & do beg leave to make the following Remarks, and then refer the whole to the Opinion & Judgement of our Right Reverend & Worthy Chancellor. As we were desirous that the Sense of the Debates of the Visitors upon every Subject should appear, which may shew their general Disposition, Your Lordship will observe that we are not able to produce proper Vouchers for some of the following Particulars, they not being recorded by the Visitors, & therefore must rest solely on the Testimony of the President, who is at present at their Meetings, and who is persuaded that what is thus related is done with that Moderation that the Visitors themselves would acknowledge the same to be true. The Preamble to this Memorial gave Offence to [156] several of the Visitors, as it seem'd with too much Arrogance to point out to them the Line of their Duty. We can only say to this, that as we look upon one great Deficiency in the Charter to be that of not exactly defining the Powers of the Parties concern'd, and far from being explicit in some essential Points, we presum'd to think it desirable that something of this Sort should be settled. Probably to some it would not appear insolent in us to suppose ourselves capable of judging what is their Duty and our own as well as they are of both the same themselves. Upon the first Article it did not seem agreeable to them to determine any thing, but certain Members said they thought it a proper Term enough, that of a Delegated Power, being such as Page 226. they cou'd give or withdraw by making Statutes for that Purpose in what Manner they thought best, and this appear'd to be in general the Sense of that Visitation. The Comparison at the End of this Article was made some time ago by the Gentleman who is suppos'd to have wrote this Letter to Your Lordship, in a Correspondence with the President, as as that Gentleman is a leading Member of the Visitation, we though to take this Notice of it. However, we must do some of them the [157] Justice to declare they pronouc'd that we were not their Servants. The 2d, tho' we cannot help looking [upon] this as one of great Importance, yet the only Part we can find assented to was the latter Clause, "that in all such Trials whatever, they shall be allowed, at all Times they may think proper, to appear with their Council before the Visitation", &c. We humbly apprehend that there is little Security for us, if acting agreeably to their Statutes is not sufficient, and all that they ought to call us to account for; neither can we see of what use Council can be to us, if a proper Knowledge of our Charter & Statutes will not enable such to defend us upon any Occasion whatever. 3d. The former Part of this seem'd not to meet with their Approbation. As to the Disposal of the Scholarships, they have answer'd this in their Letter to your Lordships. With Regard to those Foundations which flow form the Piety and charity, &c. they say, "to have put these in the Hands of the President & Masters would have been Impiety to the Dead, and Injustice to the Living". We are at a Loss to discover how that would be Impiety & Injustice in us which is not so in themselves. Are we alone to be for ever [158] suppos'd as acting without Con- science in these Matters? May it not be presum'd that we should at all proper Times have supply'd to the Heirs of such Benefactors & desired them to appoint Successors to the respective Vacancies, which if they had neglected to have done, we might then fairly have taken upon our- selves? But after all, would it be in our Power to appoint otherwise than those our Benefactors chose we should do by their express wills provided for these Purposes? As to the Foundations upon the Duty granted by the Assembly, we do not see how it could be deemed a Resignation or Breach of Trust to have invested us with the Power of appointing even to these Scholarships. The Act, as far as we learn, directs indeed the Visitors to found the Scholarships, which we apprehend is far from forbidding our Page 227. Society to fill them up when so Found with proper Students. But we would not imagine that Body to act so capriciously as that they would withdraw their bounty, when they should see we were going to make a proper use of it, nor indeed shou'd we be so afraid of incurring the Displeasure of the General Assembly, if such a Conduct would expose us to it, as the Visitors themselves seem to be. [159] But the Visitors seem not to have consider'd this Proposition right; our Requisition is not that they would resign these Appointments to us, and that in- stantly; but that they would join us in an Application to the Assembly to have this Donation put upon the same Footing with the other Revenues of the College. We will not presume to say they did not choose to consider this in the Manner it was designed to be understood, but we clearly see it is not their Intention to join us in an Application of this Sort. The Appointment of our Officers and Servants ultimately was disallow'd & their Control over this & every thing else asserted. The 4th rejected as appears in their Letter to Your Lordship. The 5th subject to their controul, &c. 6thly. On their second Meeting the Visitors mentioned their taking Offence at the Paragraph mark'd by inverted Commas, as they thought it contain'd a Reflection upon their Visitation, and express'd their Desire it might be with- drawn; they asked the President to consult the Society if it would be agreeable to do so. He immediately withdrew for this Purpose, and return'd with an Answer [160] to this Effect, "that as that Sentence had given Offence to the Visitors, & it was not our Intention to give any just Reason for taking such, we were unanimously agreed to withdraw the Paragraph, tho' we presum'd to think it was builded upon Fact". 7thly. In Answer to this the Visitors readily assur'd us that they were willing to join us in any probable Plan for this Purpose, whenever we were prepar'd to lay such before them. We now beg Leave to assure Your Lordship that the whole of this Affair is laid before You with great Fidelity & Truth. We are very desirous that it should be so, as we observe the Visitors talk so largely of what they have done for us. We are of Opinion that the many Speeches, however handsome they might be, that were made by them on this Occasion, are of little avail to us, and upon them Nothing can be fairly or securely built. Their Statutes and their recorded Determinations are to be the Rules of our Action in our several Departments, which out to be obligatory upon both Page 228. Parties for the Observance of them. As for the former they may be forgot or chang'd at any subsequent Meeting, and we know from past Experience that according to the Temper with which different [161] Visitors, or the different Dispositions with which the same Visitors meet, nothing is so uncertain & variable as their Language on these Subjects. We humbly refer the whole of this Transaction to Your Lordship's Judgement, and entreat your Opinion & Advise - Your Opinion whether the Visitors have made such Concessions or Grants as are agreeable to your Wishes, & such as we might reasonably have expected; And your Lordship's Advice what Conduct would be proper for, and become us in Consequence of these Proceedings; at the same time that we assure Your Lordship that both will have a just Weight with us. After requesting your Lordship's Opinion on so interesting a Subject, we humbly beg Leave to submit our own to your Lordship's Consideration, being loth to take any Step of Consequence without your Concurrence & Approbation. As the Visitors, in their Debates, when they allow the ordinary Government of the College to be in our Hands, still insist on their Right of Controul, by which, we Know from dear-bought Experience, they mean a Power to deprive the Professors, if they think proper, for expelling a Student, or removing a Servant; as when they seem willing to allow us an open Trial before them by the Laws of the College, and to bring our [162] Counsel with us, if we think proper, to plead for us, they at the same time talk of Cases which may arise, wherein it may be necessary that a Professor, or Professors, should not come off with Impunity, tho' no Breach of any Law can be made to appear agains them, by which it seems to us that they are desirous of judging us by Law when that will answer their Design of punishing, but, when it will not, of judging us without Law; as they seem willing to retain the Power of disposing, in Effect, of the Revenues of the College in as full and ample a Manner as if no Transfer of the Revenues had ever been executed by them to the President and Masters; as they objected to a passage in our Memorial because it contain'd, in their Opinion, an Imputation on their Conduct, and after we had agreed to withdraw it (tho' we still maintain it to be founded upon Facts), that we might not give them Offence, & that the rest of the Memorial might gain a Place in the Minutes, they first order'd it to appear on their Journal that we had agreed to expunge the said Passage, & then finally order'd that neither that nor any Part of our Memorial should appear in their Journal; and Page 229. as they seem willing, on Occasion, to enter what, in their Judgement, make against a Professor or Professors, but cautious of entering what may set them in a favourable Light. From these Premises [163] it seems impossible for us, notwithstanding fair Words, to make any other Conclusion but that the Visitors mean to keep the grant Points of Power, on which the practical Utility of a College must turn, unsettled and in Confusion, and to leave us without the Authority which is necessary for obtaining that Discipline & Regularity which the Visitors are desirous should be enforced, provided that it can be done by us without any of these Powers, of which, wheterh granted to them, or assum'd by them, they are tenacious and resolved to continue in the Exercise. It is plain, we think, from this last Experiment, as well as many others, that the Remedy for the Disorders of which both the Visitors & we complain must come from some higher Power, to which both they & we are bound to submit, whether that shall take its Rise from a Petition to the King for a new Charter, or from an Appeal to His Majesty as supreme Visitor of the College, which we suppose him to be, as most of the standing Revenues of the College are Grants from the Crown. We are confident it is with equal Truth to that which our Superiors have express'd on the same Occasion, when we beg Leave to conclude by requesting the Continuance of Your Lordship's Patronage and Protection of our College. [164] We have the Honour to be, My Lord, Your Lorship's Most Dutiful & Most obedient, Humble Servants, JAMES HORROCKS, JOHN CAMM, EMANUEL JONES, A True Copy. JOSIAH JOHNSON. JAMES HORROCKS, P.