DUNSTER, HENRY
(1609 Bury, England-27 February 1659, Scituate, MA). Education: B.A., Magdalene College, Cambridge University, 1631, M.A., Magdalene College, 1634. Career: Schoolmaster and curate, Bury, England, 1634-40; president, Harvard College, 1640-54; minister, Scituate, MA, 1655-59.
The first president of Harvard, Henry Dunster was so effective in his work that he can be credited with making John Harvard's idea into a reality. The Puritan leaders generally agreed that New England should have a college to educate new generations of ministers. But when Dunster arrived in America four years after the "founding" of the college, it consisted of merely one building and three acres of land. There were no regular rules for admission and no set curriculum. Dunster provided these and more.
Dunster's reputation as a schoolmaster preceded him to Massachusetts, accounting for his appointment He established a curriculum following English universities, and including Greek, Latin, Hebrew, logic, metaphysics, and divinity. Most of the early graduates of Harvard were ministers, and the curriculum was designed to nourish the piety and religious knowledge of all graduates. Dunster held that the school must "lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning." In addition to leading Harvard as teacher and administrator, Dunster devoted his limited resources to the college, building the president's house with his own resources, and giving Harvard one hundred acres of land.
Early New England was a hotbed of religious ideas. In some cases, like the debate over the Half-Way Covenant, the leaders were open to both sides of a debate. In others, like the dispute with Anne Hutchinson*, no tolerance was allowed. Dunster discovered another boundary to Puritan tolerance when he preached one day against infant baptism, preferring the Baptist idea of believer's baptism. He was promptly dismissed from the presidency of Harvard, indicted for heresy before the grand jury, sentenced to public admonition, and required to post a bond for future good behavior. He was also persecuted for failing to baptize one of his own children. Only after considerable pleading was he allowed to stay for a few months in the house he had built. He then moved on to Scituate, in Plymouth, were he was appointed minister and lived out the remainder of his life.
The fate of Henry Dunster, who did so much to establish "fair Harvard," is a reminder of the religious intolerance that existed in the Congregational commonwealths.
Bibliography
B: AAP 1, 125-26; DAB 5, 524; DARB, 136-37; NCAB 6, 409-10; SH 4, 31; Jeremiah Chaplin, The Life of Henry Dunster (Boston, 1872); Samuel Dunster, Henry Dunster and His Descendants (Central Falls, R.I., 1876).
The first president of Harvard, Henry Dunster was so effective in his work that he can be credited with making John Harvard's idea into a reality. The Puritan leaders generally agreed that New England should have a college to educate new generations of ministers. But when Dunster arrived in America four years after the "founding" of the college, it consisted of merely one building and three acres of land. There were no regular rules for admission and no set curriculum. Dunster provided these and more.
Dunster's reputation as a schoolmaster preceded him to Massachusetts, accounting for his appointment He established a curriculum following English universities, and including Greek, Latin, Hebrew, logic, metaphysics, and divinity. Most of the early graduates of Harvard were ministers, and the curriculum was designed to nourish the piety and religious knowledge of all graduates. Dunster held that the school must "lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning." In addition to leading Harvard as teacher and administrator, Dunster devoted his limited resources to the college, building the president's house with his own resources, and giving Harvard one hundred acres of land.
Early New England was a hotbed of religious ideas. In some cases, like the debate over the Half-Way Covenant, the leaders were open to both sides of a debate. In others, like the dispute with Anne Hutchinson*, no tolerance was allowed. Dunster discovered another boundary to Puritan tolerance when he preached one day against infant baptism, preferring the Baptist idea of believer's baptism. He was promptly dismissed from the presidency of Harvard, indicted for heresy before the grand jury, sentenced to public admonition, and required to post a bond for future good behavior. He was also persecuted for failing to baptize one of his own children. Only after considerable pleading was he allowed to stay for a few months in the house he had built. He then moved on to Scituate, in Plymouth, were he was appointed minister and lived out the remainder of his life.
The fate of Henry Dunster, who did so much to establish "fair Harvard," is a reminder of the religious intolerance that existed in the Congregational commonwealths.
Bibliography
B: AAP 1, 125-26; DAB 5, 524; DARB, 136-37; NCAB 6, 409-10; SH 4, 31; Jeremiah Chaplin, The Life of Henry Dunster (Boston, 1872); Samuel Dunster, Henry Dunster and His Descendants (Central Falls, R.I., 1876).
