A History of the University of Pennsylvania from Its Foundation to A. D. 1770/Chapter 22
The vacancy occasioned by Mr. Dove's retirement, which was made necessary by his insistence on continuing his private school, was filled by the appointment of Ebenezer Kinnersley, at the meeting of 10 July, 1753. The story is best told in the Minutes:
Mr. Peters inform'd the Trustees, That in Pursuance of their Resolution of providing a new Master for the English School, Mr. Franklin had sometime since wrote to Mr. Ebenezer Kinnersly, then in the West Indies to know if that Place would be agreeable to him, and that Mr. Kinnersly was now come over and had signified his Willingness to accept thereof, if the Trustees approve of him. The Trustees present, having express' d their approbation of Mr. Kinnersly, thought proper to send for Mr. Dove and acquaint him that they had provided a new Master for the said School pursuant to their Intention signified to him some Months ago; who, thereupon, declared he would attend the School no longer. Mr. Kinnersly being then sent for, accepted the charge of the said School for one Year, his salary to be one Hundred and Fifty pounds per annum.
On 17 November following Mr. Kinnersley informed the Trustees "that there are no more than Fortyone scholars belonging to the English school," and they thought it unnecessary to keep two Ushers and Mr. Carroll, and Mr. Franklin was therefore desired to acquaint him that the Trustees have no further occasion for his services, but that they will nevertheless continue him in Pay for Three Months after the expiration of the current Quarter, unless he shall sooner get into some other employment.
Mr. Kinnersley so commended himself to the Trustees in his labors, that at a large meeting of the Trustees held on 11 July, 1755, with Franklin presiding, he was "unanimously chosen Professor of the English Tongue and of oratory." It was a month before his appointment as Master of the English School, that we find one of those fugitive notes in the local press which testify to the Trustees' recognition of the importance of keeping the attention of the community alive to the subject of education as exemplified by the rule of the Academy. "On Wednesday the 30th past, the Reverend Mr. Cradock, from Maryland, preached in the Academy Hall, a most excellent Sermon on the Advantages of Learning."[1] This may have had a deeper meaning than the mere notice of the sermon would convey. May it not have been that Franklin thought he would find in this trained scholar and successful teacher the man to take the place, which he had hoped at the outset of the Academy would be filled by the learned Samuel Johnson of Stratford, Connecticut, who became the head in 1754 of the New King's College, New York? There was no meeting of the Trustees in June 1753 for lack of a quorum; and the conjecture relating to Mr. Cradock in this connection has only the warrant of Franklin's special notice of his Academy Sermon on a Week Day, which he deemed important enough to apprise his readers of.
Ebenezer Kinnersley's name is so interwoven with the work of the first score of years of the Academy and College, that we naturally desire to know somewhat of the man who made for himself this distinction. He was born, the son of William Kinnersley a Baptist Minister, in Gloucester, England, 30 November, 1711. His father immigrated to America in 1714, and settled in Lower Dublin, near Philadelphia, where he officiated as minister to the Pennypack Baptist Church. He died in 1734; and the son afterwards united with the Pennypack Church, and on his marriage in 1739 removed to Philadelphia. His talents as a public speaker were soon manifest, and his desire was to enter the ministry but his health not being robust he was not ordained until 1743. He had in one of his lay sermons denounced Whitefield's teachings and so incurred the enmity of most of his co-religionists who were entranced by that wonderful preacher, that he was for a season under excommunication by his brethren, and for some time he attended Christ Church; but a reconciliation took place in 1746 when the Philadelphia Baptist Church was organized, of which he became one of the constituent members, and with this he remained in communion the remainder of his life.
It was in the year 1746 that in the indulgence of his well formed scientific tastes he became deeply interested in the investigation of electricity and its subtle and wonderful powers, and became closely associated with Franklin in his experiments and with others like minded. His pursuit of it was so engrossing as to overtax his health and he sought convalescence in Bermuda, whither he resorted at subsequent times for a like purpose; and it was while here that Franklin corresponded with him in the Spring of 1753 about taking charge of the English School, which resulted in his connection with the Academy. His powers as a speaker made successful the Lectures on Electricity which he undertook, and which brought his name more prominently before the different communities in which he exhibited his interesting experiments, than other congenial friends who had not the like need to turn their accomplishments to useful purposes. Franklin gave him a letter of introduction, 5 September, 1751, to James Bowdoin when he is about visiting Boston:[2]
As you are curious in electricity, I take the freedom of introducing to you, my friend Mr. Kinnersley, who visits Boston with a complete apparatus for experimental lectures on that subject. He has given great satisfaction to all that have heard him here, and I believe you will be pleased with his performance. He is quite a stranger in Boston; and as you will find him a sensible worthy man, I hope he will be favored with your countenance, and the encouragement which that must procure him among your friends.
In writing to Cadwallader Colden on 14 September, 1752, Franklin says[3]: "I am sorry you could not see Mr. Kinnersley's Lectures; they would have pleased you." Kinnersley's correspondence with Franklin was continued over many years, his last letter to Franklin which we have being written him to London 13 October, 1770; extracts from it have been given in the sketch of Franklin's life on a previous page, and all display the ardor of a learned enthusiast who in communicating his observations and experiments to an older friend appears to seek his concurrence if not approval in their results, who in turn responds with like eagerness to his friend whether from the quiet of his home or amid his public duties while abroad.
In 1757, Mr. Kinnersley received the degree of M.A. from his College, and in 1758 became a member of the American Philosophical Society. We shall see traces of his steps through his College duties, until his three score of years with a feeble constitution induced him to lay down his professorship, and he resigned it 17 October, 1772. The Minutes of the Trustees, 15 October, record that
Dr Redman and Dr Peters reported that Mr Kinnersley had desired them to inform the Board that on the 17th inst, he designed to resign his office and Professorship in this Institution, the present state of his health requiring that he should make a Voyage to a warmer climate during the approaching Winter; and that he hoped the Trustees would give him a proper Certificate of his good Behaviour during the last nineteen years in which he has been employed in their Service, and that they will allow Mrs Kinnersley to occupy the House in which he now lives, till next Spring, which was at once granted.
He passed the following winter in Barbadoes, thus again seeking strength under the restfulness of a tropical climate. On his return, he made his home in the country among the scenes of his early youth, and there died 4 July, 1778, and was buried at the Lower Dublin Baptist Church. It was as a graceful tribute to his memory that some of the Alumni and others erected a Window Memorial to Ebenezer Kinnersley[4] in College Hall; it is on the Eastern stairway, and all who pass and repass under its tinted light must be reminded of the faithful professor who found time to contribute to his fellow men some better knowledge of Electricity, and who thus supplemented the discoveries of the great Founder of the institution to which the latter had called him to be a professor.
Graydon in his Memoirs describes his tuition in grammar and recitation under Mr. Kinnersley, and speaks of him as "an Anabaptist clergyman, a large, venerable looking man, of no great general erudition, though a considerable proficient in electricity." Provost Smith's notice of him in the American Magazine for October, 1758, where he noticed Alison and Grew, already referred to, will be quoted later in a more fitting connection than here.
An opportunity presented itself shortly after Mr. Kinnersley's appointment, to securing a teacher for modern languages; on 16 December, the Trustees being inform'd that Mr. Creamer a gent'n from Germany is very capable of teaching the French and German Languages, and that he is now out of employment, Mr. Peters, Mr. Franklin and Dr. Bond are desired to enquire more particularly into his qualifications and to treat with him concerning his teaching those Languages in the Academy.
On 8 January, 1754, Dr. Thomas Bond reports that pursuant to the Request of the Trustees at their last Meeting Mr. Franklin and himself had made some Enquiry concerning Mr. Creamer and had been informed he was qualified for Teaching the French, Italian and German Languages, and besides was well skill'd in Musick and some Kinds of Painting. That they had also desired to know of him upon what Terms he would undertake to teach these Things, or such of them as the Trustees should require, in the Academy. That in Answer to this he proposed to give attendance four Hours in a Day for a Salary of Sixty Pounds per annum, provided he might have Liberty of using the School Room to teach in at other Times, in Case any Scholars, not of the Academy, offer'd. The Trustees considering that some Inconveniences might attend this Matter, chose rather to make him an offer of £ioo. per annum for his attendance all the School Hours, or Time equivalent, if other Hours should be found to suit them better; Wherewith Dr. Thomas Bond is desired to acquaint him.
But this arrangement proved irksome to the Trustees, it seems, for a minute of 11 July, 1755, implies they desired a severance of these relations.
A letter from Mr. Creamer to the Trustees was read, requesting to be continued Teacher of the French Tongue till April next. But the Trustees being of Opinion his being longer employ'd in the Academy was unnecessary, agreed he should be paid up to this Time, and to give him a quarters salary over.
The interests of the Charity School kept pace in the thoughts of the Trustees with that of the Academy. At the meeting of 17 November, 1753,
Mr. Franklin and Dr. Shippen are desired to treat with one Mrs. Holwell (who for some Time past has kept a school, and is said to be well qualified for that Business) to know upon what Terms she would undertake the charge of thirty Girls to teach them Reading, Sewing and Knitting.
At the next meeting, these Trustees reported an engagement with Mrs. Holwell, for which she is to be paid Thirty pounds per annum; and that at present she teaches in one of the upper Rooms in the Academy, till a more convenient place shall be provided.
On 13 August, 1754, it was ordered, That the Treasurer pay to Frances Holwell, Mistress of the Charity School, the Sum of Three Pounds, to be laid out in Books, Canvas, Cruels, and other Things necessary in the Instruction of the poor Children under her care.
What we of to-day term Fancy Work, the Trustees of old thought a necessary tuition to poor children; and the remembrance of ancient samplers is revived, the handiwork of the girls of the last century, which was fostered by the Fathers of our University. On 8 April, 1755, Mrs. Holwell was allowed "Fifteen pounds a year for an assistant, she taking charge of Fifty Girls, if the Trustees think fit to send so many."
- ↑ Pennsylvania Gazette, 7 June, 1753. The Rev. Thomas Cradock, incumbent of St. Thomas' Parish, Baltimore County, the older brother of John Cradock, who in 1772 became Archbishop of Dublin, was a very learned man, and in the Maryland Gazette 5 May 1747 had advertised to take young gentlemen in his family and teach them the Latin and Greek languages, which he did for many years, his school being patronized from the near southern counties of that Province. It is related of his son Thomas that under his tuition the lad at the age of twelve was able to repeat entire pages of Homer in the Greek. Rev. Ethan Allen in Sprague's Annals, p. 111. In 1753 he published a version of the Psalms, translated from the Hebrew original into uniform heroic verse. Miss H. W. Ridgely's Old Brick Churches of Maryland, p. 122. It is not mentioned by Allibone. Mr. Cradock died 7 May, 1770, aged 51 years.
- ↑ Sparks, v. 257. Bigelow, ii. 243.
- ↑ Sparks, vi. 123.
- ↑ "In Memoriam Rev. E. Kinnersley, A.M., Orat, et Litt. Angl. Prof. 1753–1772" is the legend on the window. It was erected in 1872.