The Man, The Myth, The Legend

While all eyes are on John Harvard and the school that his legacy begot, Dr. Robert Harvard Davis will miss all of this week's fanfare. Back home in Cardiff, Wales, one of the few living descendants of 17th century minister plans to commemorate the 350th by drinking a simple toast to his now-famous ancestor.

"While it will be business as usual during the day, I shall be thinking of Harvard, and drinking a glass in John's honor in the evening," the professor of family medicine at the University of Wales says.

Meanwhile, some 40,000 people will frolic in Cambridge this week, posing before John Harvard's statue, shaking a John Harvard marionette's hand or sending letters affixed with John Harvard postage stamps.

John Harvard died at the age of 30 in 1638 of consumption, though no one is sure whether it really was tuberculosis. On his deathbed, the childless minister and graduate of Cambridge University in England bequeathed half of his estate and all of his books to a very small, very new school in Cambridge, Mass. That school, flattered and enriched by his gift, named itself after him.

Because John Harvard died childless, he has no direct descendants. However, a branch of the family, probably descended from John Harvard's cousin, Robert, still exists in England, and several members bear "Harvard" as either their first or last name.

But according to 350th organizers, none of these Harvard descendents will attend this week's festivities. Davis, who visited Harvard last May, says, "It makes me very proud to be related to John Harvard, and I would have liked to make my trip to the States coincide with the celebration--the program looks excellent."

One Harvard descendent, Peter Harvard, attended the tercentenary celebration in 1936.

Peter's father, Lionel de Jersey Harvard '15, was the only descendent of John Harvard ever to attend Harvard University, and was admitted to the University, but only with a little help from Massachusetts Hall.

Lionel, the only direct descendent of John Harvard's brother Thomas, hoped to attend university, but his family was unable to afford it. When Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell, Class of 1877, learned that a descendent of John Harvard was interested in attending the school, he decided to try to help.

Although Lionel failed his entrance examinations the first time, he tried again and passed. One year later, in 1911, he entered Harvard. The University gave him free tuition, and alumni collected enough money to pay for his expenses.

Lionel lived in Weld 12 his freshman year, and belonged to the Signet Society and the Hasty Pudding Club. After graduating from Harvard, he returned to England, and shortly thereafter was killed in the First World War. Lionel Hall and the de Jersey Fellowship were both named in Lionel Harvard '15's honor.

While Lionel got in with a little help from President Lowell, not too long ago another Harvard family member was not so lucky. Davis's daughter, a graduate of Cambridge University, applied to the Business School and was turned down.

One other notable Harvard graduated from Harvard, only he was no relation to the original Harvard. Nonetheless, John T. Harvard '69's enrollment caused quite a stir, mostly in the Admissions Office, which conducted a thorough check of his name.

Although Lionel's Harvard stint received substantial media attention, Harvard administrators did what they could to help Harvard '69 avoid publicity. The Crimson and the local media left him alone, even when during his sophomore year he dated a Simmons College woman whose last name was Radcliffe. Harvard now lives in Peru.

So who was the real John Harvard?

While the school's namesake is certainly well known today, his fame is almost entirely posthumous. Andrew McFarland Davis says in his book, "John Harvard's Life in America," that "had there been issued in the summer of 1638 an edition of 'Who's Who in America,' Harvard's name would not have appeared in it. He had published nothing. He had done nothing to make himself conspicuous."

Contrary to popular opinion, John Harvard was not the founder of Harvard College--in fact, he was still in England when the Great and General Court of Massachusetts in 1636 appropriated 400 1636 appropriated 400 pounds for theestablishment of a "schoale or colledge."

Nor did John Harvard lead a particularlyextraordinary life. While he was a respectedminister, he was not one of the most prominentmembers of his community of Charlestown. In fact,all he did of note was bequeath about 800 poundssterling and his 329-book library to the newcollege in Massachusetts. The gift was unusual,for in the seven-teenth century, the tradition wasfor such donations to go to the church.

Today, with Harvard's endownment it thebillions, such a gift would hardly cause anyone toblink. But in 1638, the school's operating budgetwas marginal, and officials were so pleased thatthey decided to name the fledgling school inHarvard's honor.

Born in 1607 to a middle-class, property-owningBritish family, John grew up in Southwark, which,according to one historian, was the "roughest andbawdiest part of London," complete with numerousbrothels, prisons and alehouses.

John's father owned a tavern--the Queen'sHead--and was a butcher by trade; indeed theHarvard family had been a family of butchers formany generations. The Harvards were moderatePuritans--devout but not all that concerned withceremonies.

Very little is known about John's early life.He was the fourth of five children, and several ofhis brothers and sisters, as well as his father,died of the plague in 1625.

However, it was this family tragedy thatallowed John to attend university; otherwise, helikely would have gone on to be a butcher.

Indeed, it was highly unusual for someone likeJohn to attend university--his family had nouniversity connections, and they were middle-classrather than gentry, a barrier that was usuallyinsurmountable at the time.

But John Harvard got into Cambridge by usingsomething that innumerable students since haveused: the "old-boy network."

The rector of John's church, an educated mannamed Nicholas Morton, helped John get the propercredentials for college, and on December 19, 1627,at the unusually old age of 20, John Harvardenrolled in Emmanuel College in Cambridge,England.

Emmanuel College has no record of John Harvardother than his admission--his name never appearsin the 'book of punishments'.

After graduating, receiving a masters degree,and getting ordained as a Puritan minister, Johnmarried Ann Sadler, the sister of a classmate.Within months of his 1636 wedding, while John wasstill in England, the college that would beHarvard was founded.

One year later, John and Ann sailed to the NewWorld, and historians believe the couple was onthe same boat as Nathanial Eaton, who wouldsubsequently become Harvard's first president.

The Harvards settled in Charlestown, Mass., andJohn began preaching at his local church. Mosthistorians believe he was a teaching elder or aclergyman, although the only surviving document inCharlestown calls him a "Sometime Minister ofGod's word here."

After only one year in his new country, Johnbecame ill, and, though he did not have time tomake a formal will, on his deathbed he requestedthat half of his estate and all of his books gothe the new college. The other half went to hiswife.

Thus, the college received its first privategift: 779 pounds and 329 books, mostly Latintheological texts, and the school was renamed forits benefactor. Most of the money that Harvardreceived from John came from the sale of thetavern in England, the Queen's Head.

But historian Samuel E. Morison '08 said in hishistory of Harvard that he could only verify thatHarvard received about half of the money--375pounds. It is widely believed that PresidentNathanial Eaton squandered the rest of John'sgift. Eaton was fired the year after the Collegereceived Harvard's gift; students charged that hebeat them brutally and that his wife served themhasty pudding made with goat droppings.

Harvard did receive the books that Johnbequeathed in their entirety. Then in 1764 a firein Harvard Hall consumed all but one of the books.John Downame's folio, "Christian Warfare Againstthe Devil, World, and Flesh," was saved--because astudent had failed to return the book on time.

The Harvard University libraries have sincetried to replace the books that were destroyed.

Much about John Harvard still eludeshistorians--they have found only two of hissignatures, and neither a portrait by him nor aletter from him has ever been found. The statuebearing his name in front of University Hall isnot actually a likeness of the minister, though itis one of the most widely photographed statues inthe United States.

But in part it is the lack of information aboutJohn Harvard, as well as his lack of distinctionduring his lifetime, that makes him symbolicallyso important.

As Harvard President Charles W. Eliot, Class of1853, said in an elegy to John Harvard in 1884,"He will teach that one disinterested deed of hopeand faith may crown a brief and broken life withdeathless fame. He will teach that the good whichmen do lives after them, fructified and multipliedbeyond all power of measurement or computation. Hewill teach that from the seed which he planted inloneliness, weakness and sorrow, have sprung joy,strength and energy ever fresh, blooming yearafter year in the garden of learning."

Some of the information for this story comesfrom information and letters in the Harvardarchives, Samuel Eliot Morison's histories ofHarvard, and E. J. Kahn's "Harvard."Courtesy of Harvard University Archives