A History of the University of Pennsylvania from Its Foundation to A. D. 1770/Chapter 20
The Trustees lost no time in looking for a supply to the vacancy caused by Mr. Martin's death. Twenty-one of their number were present at the meeting on 11 December, 1751 including the new Trustee Dr. Cadwalader, "to consider of some Person to supply" Mr. Martin's place in the Latin School, and it being said that Mr. Allison, a gentleman of good Learning in Chester County had lately expressed some Inclination to be employed in that School, Mr. Francis was desired to write to him, to know whether he was yet so inclined, and upon what Terms he would undertake the charge thereof.
At a Meeting held on 28 December it was reported by Mr. Allen that Mr. Francis Alison had been in Town, and that himself, and some others of the Trustees have had some Conversation with him, and though he seemed diffident of undertaking the charge of the Latin School, he had promised however to be in Town again by the 7th of January next, and attend School for a month upon Trial.
He entered upon his duties at the time named, and fulfilled the promise of his reputation, and remained; his salary at the March meeting being set at £200 per annum, the same as his predecessor's was. His former pupil, Charles Thomson, must have been the source of the Trustees' information regarding this celebrated teacher; and his name being submitted when Dr. Cadwalader was present, the latter could speak intelligently of the man who had been tutor in the family of his sister Dickinson. Mr. Alison's diffidence, referred to in the Minutes, continued many months, and his final assumption of the Rectorship cannot be determined. In his letter of 2 July, 1752 to Rev. Dr. Johnson, Franklin speaking of the Academy, says:
Our Academy, which you so kindly inquire after, goes on well. Since Mr. Martin's death the Latin and Greek School has been under the care of Mr. Alison, a Dissenting minister, well skilled in those languages and long practiced in teaching. But he refused the Rectorship, or to have anything to do with the government of the other schools. So that remains vacant, and obliges the Trustees to more frequent visits. We have now several young gentlemen desirous of entering on the study of Philosophy, and Lectures are to be opened this week. Mr. Alison undertakes Logic and Ethics, making your work his text to comment and lecture upon. Mr. Peters and some other gentlemen undertake the other branches, till we shall be provided with a Rector capable of the whole, who may attend wholly to the instructions of youth in the higher parts of learning as they come out fitted from the lower schools.
Francis Alison was born in the parish of Lac, County Donegal, in the year 1705. He received an excellent education at an academy under the particular inspection of the Bishop of Raphoe, and was subsequently a student for some years at the University of Glasgow. He came to America in 1735, and his first educational work was as tutor in the family of Samuel Dickinson of Talbot County, Maryland. Whether he remained there long enough to have any training of the young John Dickinson is doubtful. In 1737 he was ordained by the New Castle Presbytery, Delaware, and installed pastor of the New London congregation, Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he continued fifteen years. At this latter place he opened an Academy in 1743. Upon this school of his creation, the Synod of Philadelphia in 1744 engrafted the grammar school which they took measures to establish on a permanent foundation, with special reference to training young men for the ministry. Mr. Alison was made Principal, and it became a justly celebrated institution, and served not only the purposes of the Synod in preparing well qualified ministers, but furnished the State with trained civilians; among these were Charles Thomson, Dr. Ewing, Hugh Williamson, and James Latta, and of Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas McKean, George Read and James Smith. This Academy was eventually removed to Newark, Delaware, and became the foundation of Delaware College.[1] When Mr. Martin the Rector of the new Academy died, he was attracted to Philadelphia and was asked to take his place, but this caused the severance from his pastoral charge and his school and in an irregular way, which however the Presbytery condoned as in a great measure excusable on account of the pressing circumstances in which he was placed at New London, it being almost impracticable for him to apply for the consent of the Presbytery or the Synod in the usual way. He ramained in the faithful charge of his duties, and under the charter of 1755 creating the College, he became Vice-Provost.
It was at the meeting of 10 December, 1754, that he joined with William Smith, then Professor of "Logick, Rhetorick, Ethicks, and Natural Philosophy" in submitting the thought of a College:
It being represented by Mr. Alison and Mr. Smith that it would probably be a Means of advancing the Reputation of the Academy, if the Professors had a Power of conferring Degrees upon such Students as had made a suitable proficiency in Learning to merit that Distinction; and that several ingenious young Men, not finding that Testimony of their Acquirements to be had here had left the Academy on that Account: The Trustees considering that such honorary Distinctions might be an Incitement to Learning, and having Reason to believe the Governor, if applied to, would readily grant the Power of conferring them, desired Mr. Alison and Mr. Smith to draw up a Clause to be added to the Charter for that Purpose, and lay it before the Trustees at their next meeting.
This was done; but the subsequent steps in securing the Charter of 1755 will be narrated in future pages. On 13 April, 1756, a minute records he was appointed Professor of the higher classics, Logic, Metaphysicks and Geography, and that he teach any of the other Arts and Sciences that he may judge himself qualified to teach, as the circumstances of the Philosophy Schools may require; but if it so happen that Mr. Smith can spare time from his Employment in the other Branches of Literature to teach any of these Branches, then and in that case Mr. Alison shall employ the overplus of his Time as usual in the Grammar School in the Capacity of Chief Master.
Besides his duties at the Academy, he continued his clerical work as assistant minister of the First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. Yale College in 1755, two years after Franklin had received his degree, and Princeton in 1756 conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts, and in 1758 the University of Glasgow made him Doctor of Divinity. Dr. Sprague says, "so highly was this latter honour then appreciated, that the Synod to which Mr. Alison belonged, made a formal acknowledgment of it to the University." In 1765 his former congregation at New London, who had remained without a Pastor since he left them, asked him to return and resume his labors among them; but this he declined. He was then three score years of age, and preferred ending his life in the performance of his present engagements. He died 28 November, 1779, two months after the hostile Legislature had abrogated the charter of his College and Academy. Had his energies and life been spared, his influential connection with the Institution would have disarmed the political enemies of the institution of much of the force of their attack, and indeed might have stayed the thought of abrogation until calmer and juster thoughts would have found their sway.
It was in 1755 that Dr. Alison made a journey to New England, John Bartram being his fellow traveler. Franklin had written 1 September, 1755, a letter[2] introducing them to his friend Jared Eliot:
I wrote to you yesterday, and now I write again. You will say, It can't rain, but it pours; for I not only send you manuscript, but living letters. The former may be short, but the latter will be longer and yet more agreeable. Mr. Bartram I believe you will find to be at least twenty folio pages, large paper well filled, on the subjects of botany, fossils, husbandry, and the first creation. This Mr. Alison is as many or more on agriculture, philosophy, your own Catholic divinity, and various other points of learning equally useful and engaging. Read them both. It will take you at least a week; and then answer, by sending me two of the like kind, or by coming yourself.
The testimonies of two of his pupils show him to have been a remarkable man in natural powers and trained gifts, and his influence in the College and Academy was greatly felt in its development, and in the faculty he was second only to William Smith in learning and force. The University owes very much in its early nurture to its second Rector, the faithful and diligent Presbyterian divine, Francis Alison. Dr. Ewing, in his funeral sermon, says of him:
Blessed with a clear understanding and an extensive liberal education, thirsting for knowledge, and indefatigable in study, through the whole of his useful life, he acquired an unusual fund of learning and knowledge, which rendered his conversation remarkably instructive, and abundantly qualified him for the sacred work of the ministry, and the faithful instruction of youth in the College. * * * All who knew him acknowledge that he was frank, open and ingenuous in his natural temper; warm and zealous in his friendships; catholic and enlarged in his sentiments; a friend to civil and religious liberty; * * * he has left behind him a lasting testimony of the extensive benevolence of his heart in planning, erecting and nursing, with constant attention and tenderness, the charitable scheme of the widows' fund, by which many helpless orphans and destitute widows have been seasonably relieved and supported, and will, we trust, continue to be relieved and supported, so long as the Synod of New York and Philadelphia shall exist.
Bishop White, in briefer phrase, gives a picture of his old professor:
Dr. Alison was a man of unquestionable ability in his department, of real and rational piety, of a liberal mind;—his failing was a proneness to anger; but it was forgotten,—for he was placable and affable.[3]
In his journey to New England in 1755, he visited Professor Stiles at Newport, who says of him:
He is the greatest classical Scholar in America, especially in Greek—not great in Mathematics, Philosophy and Astronomy, but in Ethics, History and general reading, is a great literary character.
Provost Smith in his account of the College and Academy in the American Magazine for October, 1758, says he has long been employed in the education of youth in this province, and many of those who now make a considerable figure in it have been bred under him. He was one of the first persons in this country, who, foreseeing the ignorance into which it was like to fall, set up a regular school of education in it; and so sensible were that learned and respectable body, the University of Glasgow, of his pious and faithful labour for the propagation of useful knowledge in these untutored parts, that they lately honored him with the degree of Doctor of Divinity sent him without any solicitation on his part, and even without his knowledge.