Page:The librarians of Harvard College 1667-1877.djvu/13

 THE LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.

1667- 1877.

BY ALFRED CLAGHORN POTTER AND CHARLES KNOWLES BOLTON.

1667-1672(?).

Solomon Stoddard, the first Librarian of Harvard, was born in Boston near the end of September, 1643. His baptism is thus recorded 1 October, 1643, on the records of the First Church, " Solomon of Anthony Stoddard aged about 4 days." His father was Anthony Stoddard, a linen-draper, a representative to the General Court, and for many years recorder of Boston. His mother, Mary Downing, was the first of Anthony Stoddard's five wives. Sibley, however, apparently following the News-Letter, says she was his second wife, and gives her name as Lucy ; but both the printed genealogies of the Stoddard family and Savage agree in giving her as the first wife and her name as Mary. Solomon Stoddard graduated from the College in 1662, and on taking his second degree in course three years later, sustained the affirmative on the question, " Utrum Deus puniat peccata necessitate naturae."

In November of the next year, he was made a tutor, and the following spring, by vote of the Corporation, "March. 27. 1667. Mr Solomon Stoddard was chosen Library keeper." This is the first record of the appointment of a Librarian at Harvard. While the Library had been in existence since John Harvard's bequest, nearly thirty years before, it is not probable that previously the care of it had been entrusted to any distinct officer. A code of laws defining the duties of the Librarian and regulating the use of the books was now adopted and entered on the Corporation Records.* How long Stoddard retained the office is uncer- tain ; his successor was not appointed until 1674 ; but two years before that he had accepted, 7 February, 1672, a call to the church at Northampton, where, moreover, he seems to have already preached at least occasionally for some two years.


 * See Appendix I.

As early as 4 March, 1670, the town had voted that they hoped to give him £100 annually, and a few days after this vote Stoddard married Esther, daughter of Rev. John Warham, and widow of Eleazar Mather, his predecessor in the Northampton pulpit. His ordination took place 11 September, 1672. He must, therefore, have left the Library as early as that year, and probably he left a year or two earlier. In an obituary notice, reprinted by Colman from the News -Letter, it is stated that "Growing out of Health by reason of too close an Application to his Studies he was prevail'd on to take a voyage to Barbados, with Governor Serle as his Chaplain, where he preach'd to the Dissenters on that Island. But his State of Health growing better, he return'd to his Native Country in about two Years." No date is assigned for Stoddard's residence there, and it is difficult to fix any. Daniel Searle was governor of Barbados from 1653 to 1660; it could, then, hardly have been during his term of office. Searle lived in Boston for some years later, returning finally to his estates in Barbados in 1669. He may, perhaps, have visited the island for a year or so during this period, and Stoddard may have then accompanied him. The most probable time for the latter 's stay there, which could not have lasted two full years, is between taking his A.M. in July, 1665, and his appointment as tutor in November, 1666.

Mr. Stoddard's pastorate of nearly sixty years was distinguished by five revivals, or " harvests," as he termed them, during which " the bigger Part of the young People in the Town, seemed to be mainly concerned for their eternal Salvation." For some years he was the oldest minister in the province, and it was said of him that " he possessed, probably, more influence than any other clergyman for a period of thirty years." For a long time he regularly attended Commencement,