Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/37

Rh course of twelve years from the first establishment of the academy, the amount derived was not less than seven thousand pounds sterling; and if to this be added the profits of tuition, and benefactions from the proprietors in money and land, to the value of at least three thousand pounds, received during the same period, there will appear to have been no deficiency of funds for carrying the designs of the founders of the seminary into full effect Of the donations from the proprietors, five hundred pounds accompanied their grant of the first charter, and nearly three thousand acres of land, situated in Bucks county, being the fourth part of the manor of Perkasie, were conveyed to the trustees by Thos. Penn, on the condition that, if the institution should fail of success, the land should revert to himself or his heirs. The fee simple of this land was, at a subsequent period, vested in the trustees, and the farms into which it was divided were sold upon mortgage; but as the conditions of the sale were not complied with, the greater number of them have reverted to the institution, and now constitute a part of the real estate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Though the resources of the college were amply sufficient to meet all the immediate demands upon them, and, at the end of twelve years, a considerable surplus remained in the hands of the trustees, beside the clear possession of the college ground and buildings, yet, as the interest accruing from this surplus, even with the addition of the receipts for tuition, would by no means be adequate to the proper support of the school, which would, therefore, still be left dependent upon the precarious supplies of private contributions and lotteries, it was thought advisable to look about for some means of