Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/182

178   sent an Order on their Receiver General for the Payment of Five Hundred Pounds to the Trustees of the Academy as soon as the Charter should be executed; and the said Order was accordingly deliver' d to the President.

And it was then Resolved, That an Address of Thanks be made to the Proprietors for this great Favour and noble Benefaction; and Mr. Allen, Mr. Francis and Mr. Franklin are desired to prepare a Draft of the same, to be laid before the Trustees at their next meeting.

At the meeting of 13 July, seventeen Trustees being present, though the President was absent from the city on his tour to the Eastward on his post office duties, Mr. Peters informed the Trustees that the Governor was now at his House, ready to pass the Charter, which had been fairly engrossed for that Purpose; Whereupon the Trustees in a Body waited on the Governor, who accordingly signed the same with a Warrant for affixing the Provincial Seal thereto, and delivered it to the Trustees, expressing his good wishes to their Undertaking and that the charter now granted them might contribute to its Success. Mr. Francis then, in Behalf of the Trustees, returned the Governor their most hearty Thanks, and assured him they would likewise dutifully address the Proprietors in Acknowledgment of so great a Favour, and of their late noble Benefaction to the Academy. Mr. Francis was then desired to get the great seal affixed thereto pursuant to the Governor's Warrant, and cause it to be recorded in the Rolls office in Philadelphia.

Thus was chartered.

The gratification in receiving a Charter extended beyond the Trustees to the Pupils, and these were afforded an early opportunity to make declamations on the pleasing topic. Original papers by Francis Hopkinson, Josiah Martin, John Morris, and William Masters (who did not graduate), are preserved among the Penn Papers in the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. These were cared for by the thoughtful Peters and forwarded to the Proprietaries as evidences of the proficiency attained in the Academy, which they had now clothed