studts.”[1] From the same source we find that “Jonathan Gatliffe, aged about sixteen years,” deposed in 1685 that “he was invited by Mr. Wainwright [class of 1686] to eating a turkye in his chamber, and it was after supper time in Colledge…Also he sayth that the next morning after it was reported the missing of Mrs. Danforth’s turkeys. Gen. Greele’s boy told him that he saw feathers both of turkies & geese in Mr. Wainwright’s Chamber.”[2] In 1723 the Overseers reported the distressing fact that “freshmen, as well as others, are seen in great numbers going into town [that is, Harvard Square] on Sabbath mornings to provide breakfasts.” Seven years later a new form of evasion is revealed by the vote: “‘None shall receive their [dinner] Commons out of Hall, except in case of sickness or some weighty occasion.”[3]
Before the middle of the eighteenth century a fresh phase of the difficulty was presented by the overgrown state of the College. The “Laws” of 1734 accordingly allowed undergraduates who were lucky enough to have
- ↑ See Paige, History of Cambridge, 226 n. For Gibson, see post, p. 268.
- ↑ Early Court Files, Case No. 2331. Clerk’s Office, Supreme Judicial Court, Boston.
- ↑ Dr. John Venn, the accomplished President of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, remarks with much acuteness: “If it is desired to ascertain what the early student actually did, enquire what he was ordered not to do. …Legislation is not made at random, and it is seldom thought worth while to forbid a practice until it has become tolerably frequent.” Early Collegiate Life, 112.
