By the end of March, 1750, the Trustees entertaining hopes of Samuel Johnson for the head of the institution, on the 29th, "Resolved that the Academy be opened as soon as possible by accepting the most suitable Person that can be procured for a Rector," or chief Professor and apparently having such in view it was "ordered that Mr. David Martin be acquainted with the above resolution and be requested to accept of the Rectorship and enter into it on the 13th of May next." No further Minute bears on appointment but the Treasurer's books show that Mr. Martin's remuneration began on 13 July in the sum of two hundred pounds per annum. This action confirms the statement that some higher functionary was desired besides the Rector, for when Mr. Martin's salary began it has been seen that negotiations were pending with Dr. Johnson, which the Trustees kept alive for more than a twelvemonth. The term Rector had been given at Yale at the outset to the head of the College, Rector or Master as some time alternatively used; the Rector and Fellows, i. e. Tutors, his Fellows in tuition, was the style of the early Faculty, which became in 1745 the President and Fellows which it remains to this day. It was during the administration of Rector Clap, Franklin's correspondent, that this change of name took place at Harvard; the head of the infant seminary Rev. Henry Dunster, took the office and was first stiled President in 1642, and the corporation under the charter of 1650 became the President and Fellows, the Overseers under the Act of 1642 remaining the governing body.
Before the scholars could find accommodations, the Rector was secured, who could give his time to the Trustees in furtherance of their plans. Franklin in his Narrative of these events written perhaps forty years later describes this stage of the proceedings.[1]
A house was hired, masters engaged, and the schools opened; I think in the same year, 1749. The scholars increasing fast, the house was
- ↑ Bigelow, i. 225.
