Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/56

 

Chapter VII.

 

Establishment of the University.

 

The enmity which had thus triumphed over the authorities of the college, was not extended to the objects for which it had been established. On the contrary, having transferred the rights and property vested in the former trustees into more friendly hands, the legislature took the institution into favour, endowed it with lands out of the confiscated estates to the annual value of fifteen hundred pounds, and by the right of adoption, conferred upon it the new and more lofty title of University of Pennsylvania. The board appointed by the act of assembly consisted of three distinct sets of individuals. The first was composed of certain members of the government who possessed a seat at the board in virtue of their several offices; the second, of the "senior ministers in standing" of the six principal sects in Philadelphia; and the third, of individuals selected for their attachment to the revolution, which, in most of them, was evinced by the possession of high public stations in the commonwealth.^[1] By

1. The following is a list of the members of the board:—

   Of the first division—those, namely, who held their places by virtue of their offices under the commonwealth, were

   1. The president of the supreme executive council—Joseph Reed;
   2. The vice-president of the council—William Moore;
   3. The speaker of the general assembly—John Bayard;
   4. The chief justice of the supreme court—Thomas McKean;
   5. The judge of the admiralty—Francis Hopkinson;