Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/63

final passage of the law, they met at the house of Dr. Franklin, who was the oldest member of the board, and the only survivor of the original founders of the institution. The infirmities of the venerable patriot confined him chiefly if not altogether within doors, and at his request the meetings continued to be held at his dwelling till the middle of summer, when the increasing severity of his disorder rendered him totally unable to attend to public duties. Of the twenty-four trustees who constituted the board at the period of its dissolution, about ten years before this time, only fourteen remained; the rest having either died in the interval, or deserted the country during the revolution. Their first measures were to obtain possession of the college buildings, to organize the different departments of the seminary according to the former plan, to fill up vacancies in the various professorships, and to supply the deficiency in their own number by the election of new members.^[1] Of the professors in the department of the arts, Dr. Smith and James Davidson were the only survivors. The former, as a matter of course, took the place of provost; and the latter, who, as was previously mentioned, had been employed in the university, accepted

1. Benjamin Franklin, one of the				Samuel Powell, chosen		"	1773
   founders, in the year		"	1749	Right Rev. William White,			1774
   Benjamin Chew, chosen		"	1757	Robert Morris,	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	"	1777
   Edward Shippen,	"	"	1758	Francis Hopkinson,
   Thomas Willing,	"	"	1760	George Clymer,	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	"	1778
   Dr. John Redman,	"	"	1763	James Wilson,
   John Lawrence,	"	"	1765	Alexander Wilcocks,
   Thomas Mifflin,	"	"	1773

   The vacancies were supplied by the choice of the following gentlemen: Thomas Fitzsimmons, Henry Hill, Robert Blackwell, Samuel Miles, William Bingham, William Lewis, John Nixon, Robert Hare, Dr. Caspar Wistar, and Richard Peters. Edward Burd and David H. Conyngham were afterwards chosen to supply vacancies which occurred in the board. Dr. Franklin was made president, and after his death, was succeeded by Bishop White.

8