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HISTORY OF THE
Chapter V.
Finances of the College.
Our view of the college would be incomplete, without some account of its financial concerns. The original fund with which the trustees ventured on their undertaking was the sum of two thousand pounds, payable in five annual instalments, subscribed by the individual members of the board. To this sum a very considerable addition was soon made by subscriptions, on the same terms, obtained among the inhabitants of the city; and the resources of the institution were afterwards augmented by donations[1] and legacies, by public collections in churches[2] and at the commencements, and by the proceeds of lotteries.[3] From these various sources, in the
- ↑ I observed in the minutes of the board, an acknowledgment of the receipt of one hundred pounds from "a company of comedians," being the profits of a play which they had represented for the benefit of the free school. The collection of so considerable a sum, on such an occasion, is a singular evidence either of the charity, or of the play-going propensities of those times. It seems that this mode of increasing their revenue did not meet with the unanimous approbation of the trustees, for it is stated in the minutes that a majority were in favour of receiving the donation.
- ↑ The sermons of Whitfield were most productive. One which he preached at the request of the trustees, for the benefit of the charity schools, and for which they returned him their "sincere and hearty thanks," yielded more than one hundred pounds.
- ↑ Considerable opposition was made to this mode of raising money; and, at one time, a law was passed prohibiting lotteries altogether: but it was
