Part 62

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Footnote 252:

Since the above was written, more satisfactory information has been obtained on the subject. The agency of information, to which Dr. Rittenhouse was appointed (together with the Rev. Dr. Smith and Mr. Findley,) in May, 1791, was unconnected with the appointment respecting the turnpike road. It appears, that on the 10th of October, 1791, David Rittenhouse, Esq. the Rev. Dr. John Ewing, and Mr. John Nancarrow, were appointed by Governor Mifflin, Commissioners to view and mark out a road, from the middle ferry on Schuylkill to the borough of Lancaster, by courses and distances, as near to a straight line as the nature of the ground and other circumstances would admit; and also to view and lay out, in a general plan, the great road at that time leading from the city of Philadelphia to the same borough, (and now called the old road:) with topographical observations thereon, having reference to the practicability and comparative circumstances necessary to making turnpikes on the then existing and proposed roads; in which, expense and materials were to be attended to; together with the plans of the surveys, in profile, of the said road or roads: agreeably to a resolution of the general assembly, passed on the 30th of September, in the same year. Under commissions thus designating their duties, these gentlemen, assisted by surveyors and the necessary attendants, proceeded on this service, and established that great and important public highway, known by the name of the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road: their compensation for this service, was consequently drawn from the treasury of Pennsylvania.

The author was favoured with this information by John Hall, Esq. who acted as one of the surveyors on the occasion.

Footnote 253:

These particulars, respecting Dr. Rittenhouse’s connection with the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike-Company, were obligingly furnished to the Memorialist by Mr. William Govett, secretary to the board of managers of that company.

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It has been before noticed, that, on the elevation of the College of Philadelphia to the grade of an University, by an act of assembly passed in November, 1779, Dr. Rittenhouse was one of the trustees of the new institution, created by that law. On the 30th of September, 1791, almost twelve years afterwards, a compromise was effected between the respective advocates of the old and the new institution; a law of the state being then passed, “to unite the University of the state of Pennsylvania, and the College, Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia, &c.” By this act, the then existing trustees of each institution were to elect twelve trustees; and the twenty-four persons who should be thus chosen, together with the governor of the state for the time being, as president of the board, were to be the trustees of this united seminary, under the denomination of “The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.”

On this occasion, Dr. Rittenhouse was again chosen a member of the corporation, on the part of the University, the election having been made the 3d of November, 1791; at which time, Bishop White was president of the board of the College trustees, and Dr. M‘Kean, late governor of Pennsylvania, of that of the University. By an act of assembly, passed the 6th of March, 1789, so much of the act erecting the University, as affected the charters, franchises and estates of the College of Philadelphia, had been repealed, and the powers of the former trustees revived: but by the act of 1791, all the estates of the two institutions were vested in this one, composed of both.

The union of the separate interests of those seminaries, it may be reasonably expected, will eventually prove a fortunate circumstance: because, by its extinguishing the jealousies and rivalship that heretofore subsisted between the friends of each, which must, too, have continued to operate, had they remained separate; and, by consolidating their estates and pecuniary resources into one fund, greatly encreasing the sphere of their usefulness, beyond the ratio in which they could have been enjoyed separately; the important interests of literature might be expected to be proportionably advanced. A doubt can not be entertained, that this was an object very desirable by the benevolent Rittenhouse, as well as by the trustees, generally, of these conjoint institutions.

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Footnote 254:

By the legislative act of the 27th of November, 1779, the charter granted to the Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia, by the Proprietaries, on the 30th of July, 1753, together with the one granted to the College on the 14th of May, 1755, were declared void, and David Rittenhouse, Esq. was one of the twenty-five trustees of the University, then appointed. Twelve of these twenty-five newly-appointed trustees, were such ex officio. Dr. Franklin, who was one of them, never qualified under this act; and some of the others afterwards withdrew.

By the law of the 30th of September, 1791, the old College and the new University were incorporated: twelve trustees were to be appointed by each of these institutions, and reported to the governor before the 1st of December succeeding, which was accordingly done; and thus the union of the two institutions was happily completed.

Footnote 255:

Between the years 1762 and 1774, there were collected for the use of the College, chiefly by the agency and zealous exertions of the Provost, between fifty and sixty thousand dollars; the much greater part of which amount was obtained from contributors in Great-Britain and Ireland.

It is not precisely known to the writer, what is the present condition of the University of Pennsylvania, with which the original College of Philadelphia and its appendages are incorporated; but it is believed to be prosperous: its medical department is, certainly, in a most flourishing state.

The persons who may be considered as the Founders of the College, when the original institution was incorporated by the name of “The Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia,” were Benjamin Franklin, James Logan, Thomas Lawrence, William Allen, John Inglis, Tench Francis, William Masters, Lloyd Zachary, Samuel M‘Call, junior, Joseph Turner, Thomas Leech, William Shippen, Robert Strettel, Philip Syng, Charles Willing, Phineas Bond, Richard Peters, Abraham Taylor, Thomas Bond, Thomas Hopkinson, William Plumsted, Joshua Maddox, Thomas White and William Coleman. The names of these respectable men, (the meritorious promoters of that institution which fostered the genius of a Rittenhouse, and with which his name and talents were associated,) were deemed deserving of record, as early patrons of learning in Pennsylvania. Of this College, the Alma Mater of the memorialist, he trusts it will not be thought presumptuous to speak in the language, and with the grateful feelings, of one of her Sons, in an early period of his life:

“Blest Institution! Nurse of Liberty! My heart, my grateful heart shall burn for thee. No common pride I boast, no common joy, That thy instructions did my youth employ: Tho’ not the first, among thy sons, I prove; Yet well I feel, I’m not the last in love. O may’st thou still in wealth and pow’r encrease, And may thy sacred influence never cease!”

Footnote 255a:

The late Francis Hopkinson, Esq. See his Poem entitled, Science; inscribed to the Trustees, Provost, Vice-Provost, and Professors of the College of Philadelphia, A. D. 1762.

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It has been already noticed, that the first academic honour conferred on Dr. Rittenhouse, was obtained from the College of Philadelphia: he might therefore consider it as being his Alma Mater; and his attachment to that seminary must have been strengthened, by the circumstance of one of his (only two) Orreries having been acquired by it, and its being deposited in the college-edifice. But, besides these considerations, he officiated, for some time, as Vice-provost and a professor in the institution, after it became an University. To the first of these stations, he was elected on the 8th of February, 1780; having been unanimously appointed professer of astronomy, the 16th of December preceding: a salary of one hundred pounds per annum was annexed to the vice-provostship, and three hundred pounds per annum to the professor’s chair. These places Dr. Rittenhouse resigned, the 18th of April 1782.

Thus attached to, and connected with, this very respectable seminary of learning, as Dr. Rittenhouse was, the following occurrences in the history of its origin and advancement, will not be deemed uninteresting, by the reader.

The Academy and Charitable School, of Philadelphia, originated in the year 1749. This institution, which was opened in that year, was projected by a few private gentlemen; and many others, of the first respectability, gave their countenance to it, as soon as it became known: some of them were, on its first establishment, appointed trustees of the infant seminary.

The persons on whom the charge of arranging and digesting the preparatory measures for this important undertaking, were Thomas Hopkinson, Tench Francis, Richard Peters and Benjamin Franklin, Esquires. The last mentioned of these distinguished and patriotic gentleman draughted and published the original proposals; and on the opening of the Academy, another of them, Mr. Peters, (afterwards D. D. and rector of Christ’s-Church and St. Peter’s in Philadelphia,) who long officiated as provincial secretary, preached an appropriate sermon—on the 7th of January, 1751—from these words (St. John, viii. 32.) “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”—“This reverend and worthy gentleman” said Dr. Smith, in his account of this institution, first published among his works in the year 1762 “(who, amid all the labours of his public station, as well as the private labours in which his benevolence continually engaged him, has still made it his care to devote some part of his time to classical learning, and the study of divinity, to which he was originally bred,) took occasion, from these words of our blessed Saviour, to shew the intimate connexion between truth and freedom,—between knowledge of every kind, and the preservation of civil and religious liberty.”

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Footnote 256: