John Harvard, a British Protestant cleric who lived between 1607 and 1638, lost his family to the plague, becoming the sole heir to their estate and passing away at an early age.
Graduating from Emmanuel College at Cambridge University, he emigrated to New England in 1637, spending only 13 months on American soil. He donated half of his fortune and 400 books from his library to found a college in 1636, which was named after him in 1639, and eventually became Harvard University in 1780, the oldest and most prestigious university in the United States.
Early Life and Upbringing
John Harvard was born in London in 1607 and baptized on November 29 at St. Savior’s Cathedral (now Southwark Cathedral). He was the second son of Robert, a butcher and religious activist, and Katherine Rogers, a cattle merchant’s daughter and local council member, with five other siblings from his father.
Raised in an English Christian family adhering to Puritanism from the middle class and hailing from Stratford-upon-Avon, his mother maintained a house known today as “Harvard House” on High Street.
In 1625, the plague ravaged London, claiming John’s family, leaving only his brother Thomas and his twice-widowed mother, through whom the family estate grew again.
In July 1635, John became wealthy from inherited properties after his mother’s death. A year later, he was the only surviving family member following his brother’s death, inheriting possessions worth over £1,600.
He married “Ann Sadler” on April 19, 1636, and sailed to New England in search of a new society with greater freedom for his “Puritan” beliefs.
Settling in Charles Town in American colonies in August 1637, he lived there only 13 months before dying at age 31, childless.
Some contemporaries described him as a scholarly man fond of assisting his fellow scholars. Edward Everett, a former politician and governor of Massachusetts, dubbed him “an unforgettable benefactor of education and religion in America.”
Reverend Thomas Shepard, in his famous pamphlet “The First Fruits of New England,” said of Harvard, “He was a scholar and pious in his life.”
Education and Scientific Formation
John attended school in his hometown, with his formal education ending after secondary school. It’s believed he pursued a practical trade, as one of his brothers worked in the cloth industry.
At age 20, thanks to the support of a family friend, the dean of St. Savior’s Church, he was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge on December 19, 1627, a conservative Calvinistic area.
He studied at the college, established at the site of a 13th-century Dominican monastery for clergy training, for over seven years, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1632 and a master’s in 1635, a significant achievement for the Harvard family.
The grave of John Harvard in Phips Street Cemetery in Charlestown (Reuters)
Professional Life
Historians have noted that many legal documents in England list John as a clerk. After migrating to Charles Town, he and his wife became church members, with John assuming an assistant pastor’s role in November 1637, though it’s unclear if he was ever ordained a bishop.
He also invested in cattle breeding and designated about 120 acres for this purpose, partially continuing his father’s butchering trade, as noted by Harvard University historian Samuel Eliot Morison.
The Historic Donor
After settling in Charles Town, Harvard donated half his inheritance (£780 sterling) to the college, which began as a religious institution with the intention of training pastors, for the colony to which Protestant European immigrants had fled in northeastern United States.
The neighborhood where the university’s core was established in “New Town” was renamed “Cambridge,” then expanded into a city bearing the same name, honoring the British university where John had studied in England.
On March 13, 1639, the Massachusetts General Court decreed that the college be renamed “Harvard,” acknowledging its first major benefactor, whose donations equaled the colony’s annual tax revenue based on historical studies.
Believed to have been ill and on his deathbed, John could not write a will; instead, he verbally bequeathed his donations, including his 329-titled library (400 volumes in total), of which the university archives hold the first printed catalog since 1723.
John’s library formed the initial collection, consisting of dictionaries, grammar books, and classics, some in original languages and others renowned translations.
The college began with 12 students, complemented by charitable donations of books in addition to John’s financial and library contributions. From this humble beginning, Harvard University has evolved over three centuries, with its endowment assets becoming a benchmark for presidential candidates’ evaluation based on their ability to secure new endowments for the university.
On January 24, 1764, a fire at Harvard Hall destroyed the entire library collection, sparing only one volume from John’s original collection, reportedly because it was overdue for return by a borrower.
The Statue
In 1883, Boston philanthropist Samuel James Bridge, interested in American history and saving neglected figures, wrote to Harvard University graduates, offering to pay for a bronze statue of John Harvard, costing over $20,000.
During Harvard University’s tricentennial celebration, on October 15, 1884, a memorial to John Harvard designed by French sculptor “Daniel Chester French” was unveiled.
Part of the historic building of Harvard University (Shutterstock)
The monument depicts a thin young man with long hair, seated in his academic robe with an open book on his right thigh and more books under his chair. Engraved on the granite base beneath the statue is “John Harvard – Founder – 1638”.
Initially placed in front of the Memorial Hall and moved to the yard 25 years later in 1924, the statue represents an “ideal embodiment” of Harvard University values and is closely associated with it.
The statue has become a symbol of Harvard University and a focal point in the oldest part of its yard, being not an actual representation of John Harvard, as Charles Eliot Norton, the first art history professor at the university, notes.
Death
John Harvard died on September 14, 1638, at age 31 due to tuberculosis, two years after the founding of the university that bears his name.
He was buried in Phips Street Cemetery in Charlestown, and when the original burial marker disappeared during the American Revolution, Harvard University graduates erected another memorial in 1828 at the cemetery.
