- John Harvard (clergyman)
John Harvard (
November 26 ,1607 –September 14 ,1638 ) was an Englishclergy man after whomHarvard University is named.Biography
Harvard was born and raised in
London , in the borough of Southwark, the fourth of nine children, the son of Robert Harvard (1562-1625), abutcher andtavern owner, and his wife, Katherine Rogers (1584-1635), a native ofStratford-on-Avon whose father, Thomas Rogers (1540-1611), is sometimes thought to have been an associate ofWilliam Shakespeare (1564-1616). John Harvard was educated atSt Saviour's Grammar School in Southwark, where his father Robert was a governor.In 1625, his father, a stepsister, and two brothers died of the plague. Of his immediate family, only his mother and one brother, Thomas, remained. She remarried to John Elletson (1580-1626) who died within months of their marriage, and then to Richard Yearwood (1580-1632) in 1627. Harvard entered
Emmanuel College, Cambridge , then aPuritan stronghold, in December 1627 and received his B.A. in 1632. Katherine died in 1635 and Thomas in the spring of 1637. John married Ann Sadler (1614-1655), ofRingmer ,Sussex , in April, 1636, daughter of the Rev. John Sadler and sister of Harvard's contemporary, John Sadler, thelawyer andorientalist .In May 1637 he emigrated with his wife to
New England and settled inCharlestown, Massachusetts , where many of his classmates had arrived before him. Charlestown made him the minister of the Church, but within the following year he contractedtuberculosis and died on September 14, 1638. He is buried at the Phipps Street Cemetery in Charlestown.Childless, Harvard bequeathed £779 (half of his estate) and his library of around 400 volumes to the New College at nearby Cambridge, which had been founded on
September 8 ,1636 , and to his friend, the firstschoolmaster of this college,Nathaniel Eaton . Eaton's Records indicate that the building of the new college began immediately in 1638 with the assistance of the carpenter Thomas Meakins and/or his son, Thomas Meakins, Jr. of Charlestown. It was completely constructed of wood, with a stone foundation and cellar, had its own apple orchard, and was apparently equipped with live-in accommodations for some 30 students, as there were at least that many attendant within the first year.The school renamed itself "Harvard College" on
March 13 ,1639 , and Harvard was first referred to as a "university " rather than a "college " by the newMassachusetts constitution of 1780.No records or illustrations remain of the earliest college, which burnt to the ground in 1674 along with all but one of Harvard's original 400 volume donation.
tatue
A statue of John Harvard, sculpted by
Daniel Chester French , sits inHarvard Yard at Harvard University. Despite its name, the statue does not depict the true likeness of John Harvard, as the sculptor had no accurate image to work from. [http://www.hno.harvard.edu/guide/to_do/to_do2.html Landmarks at Harvard] Access date March 2, 2008] The statue, known by Harvard tour guides as "the statue of three lies," claims that it depicts "John Harvard, Founder, 1638," but in reality Harvard was merely a contributor, not the founder; the institution was founded in 1636; and the statue is actually a likeness of someone else. French used a student as a model. [ [http://www.news.harvard.edu/tour/4_high.html John Harvard Statue] Access date March 2, 2008] [ [http://strangene.com/landmarks/3lies.htm Harvard's Statue of 3 Lies] Access date March 2, 2008]The statue is depicted on a 1986
United States Postal Service 56 centpostage stamp , as part of theGreat Americans series . [Scott catalog # 2191.]References
External links
* [http://www.news.harvard.edu/tour/images/1_jh.jpgJohn Harvard as depicted on a cigar label from the early part of the 20th Century]
* [http://www.stratford-upon-avon.co.uk/images/harvard_house_400_1136.jpgHarvard House] The home of Katherine Rogers in Stratford-Upon-Avon
* [http://www.stsaviours.inter-base.net/index.php St. Saviour's & St. Olave's School]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.