may be for the advancement and education of youth in all manner of good literature, arts, and sciences.

And, further, be it ordered by this Court and the authority thereof, that all the lands, tenements, or hereditaments, houses, or revenues, within this jurisdiction, to the aforesaid President or College appertaining, not exceeding the value of five hundred pounds per annum, shall from henceforth be freed from all civil impositions, taxes, and rates; all goods to the said Corporation, or to any scholars thereof, appertaining, shall be exempted from all manner of toll, customs, and excise whatsoever; and that the said President, Fellows, and scholars, together with the servants, and other necessary officers to the said President or College appertaining, not exceeding ten, viz., three to the President and seven to the College belonging, shall be exempted from all personal civil offices, military exercises or services, watchings and

wardings; and such of their estates, not exceeding one hundred pounds a man, shall be free from all country taxes or rates whatsoever, and none others.

In witness whereof, the Court hath caused the seal of the Colony to be hereunto affixed. Dated the one and thirtieth day of the third month, called May, anno 1650.

[L. S.]

THO: DUDLEY, Governor.

[The above is a copy of the original Charter engrossed on parchment, under the signature of Gov. Dudley, with the Colony seal appendant, in the custody of the President and Fellows of Harvard College. The Charter, varying slightly in phraseology, is also contained in the Records of the General Court, vol. iv. page 10.]

AN APPENDIX

III.

то THE COLLEGE CHARTER, GRANTED BY AN ACT OF THE GENERAL COURT OF THE COLONY PASSED A.D. 1657.

At a General Court held at Boston, the 14th of October, 1657.

IN answer to certain proposals presented to this Court by the Overseers of HARVARD

COLLEGE, as an appendix to the College Charter, it is ordered,

The Corporation shall have power, from time to time, to make such orders and bylaws, for the better ordering and carrying-on of the work of the College, as they shall see cause, without dependence upon the consent of the Overseers foregoing. Provided always, that the Corporation shall be responsible unto, and those orders and by-laws shall be alterable by, the Overseers, according to their discretion.

And when the Corporation shall hold a meeting, and agreeing with College servants, for making of orders and by-laws, for debating and concluding of affairs concerning the profits and revenues of any lands or gifts, and the disposing thereof (provided that all the said disposals be according to the will of the donors), for managing of all emergent occasions, for the procuring of a general meeting of the Overseers and Society in great

and difficult cases, and in cases of non-agreement, and for all other College affairs to them pertaining, in all these cases the conclusion shall be valid, being made by the major part of the Corporation, the President having a casting vote. Provided always, that, in these things also, they be responsible to the Overseers as aforesaid.

And in case the Corporation shall see cause to call a meeting of the Overseers, or the Overseers shall think good to meet of themselves, it shall be sufficient unto the validity of College acts, that notice be given to the Overseers in the six towns mentioned in the printed law, anno 1642, when the rest of the Overseers, by reason of the remoteness of their habitations, cannot conveniently be acquainted therewith.

[This Act is taken from the Records of the General Court, vol. iv. page 265.]

RODE

માધ

CONFIRMATION OF CHARTER.

33

IV.

EXTRACT FROM A RESOLVE OF THE PROVINCIAL GENERAL COURT, PASSED A.D. 1707, DECLARING THE COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1650 NOT REPEALED, AND DIRECTING THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF THE COLLEGE TO EXERCISE THE POWERS GRANTED BY IT.

At a Great and General Court for her Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay, begun and held at Boston upon the 28th of May, 1707, and continued by several prorogations unto the 29th of October following, being the third session.

IN COUNCIL.

Thursday, Dec. 4, 1707.

AND inasmuch as the first foundation and establishment of that House [Harvard College, in Cambridge], and the government thereof, had its original from an act of the General Court, made and passed in the year 1650, which has not been repealed or nulled,