Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from On Some Social Distinctions at Harvard and Yale: Before the Revolution
It is, of course, impossible at this distance of time to recover and estimate in their due proportions all the con siderations determining the arrangement of class-lists formed on a scheme of social rank; my hope is merely to bring out some of the general principles Which guided the action of the college authorities, and incidentally to gather some information on social grades in the community.
It seems to have been the duty of the President or Rector, as he was commonly styled at Yale until after 1745, - or of the President in conjunction with the resident Fel lows or Tutors as a Faculty, to arrange the list of each class, soon after entrance into college. The earliest formal record at Harvard of this sort, begins with the beginning of the first volume of the Records of the Faculty in 1725, where under date of December is the entry Twenty and seven Scholars were admitted into the College this year. They were placed or disposed in the Class by the President and Fellows, as follows. The list of names of the class as it was afterwards graduated in 1729 is then given, and similar entries occur annually thenceforth. With the class of 1732 the residence of each member is added, and his age by years. Instead of the last item, in the class of 1741, the exact date of birth is substituted, and in this form the record continues until the custom expires. The period of the academic year when the list was thus made out varied from September until J une, being most frequently in March or one of the adjoining months.
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