The following article on "Early Honorary Degrees from Harvard" is reprinted from the current issue of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin.

So far as can be determined, Harvard College never specifically received by charter the authority to grant honorary degrees. There is a long-standing statute of the University itself which says that "honorary degrees are conferred by vote of the Corporation with the consent of the Overseers." It is true also that the so-called "Charter of 1692" contained the following provision.

"And whereas it is a laudable Custom in Universities whereby Learning has been encouraged & advanced to confer Academical Degrees or Titles on those who be their Proficiency as to Knowledge in Theology, Law, Physick, Mathematicks or Philosophy have been judged worthy thereof. It is hereby Enacted and Ordained That ye President and Fellows of the said Collidge shall have power from time to time to grant and admit to Academical Degrees as in the Universities in England such as in respect of Learning and Good Manners they shall find worthy to be promoted thereunto."

Never Went Into Force

The charter of 1692, however, never went into force. It was one of several new Harvard charters passed by both branches of the Colonial Legislature during the early years of the College but not sanctioned by the King or the Governor. The charter of 1650, therefore, was never superseded, and that document contained no reference to the granting of honorary degrees.

But the College authorities evidently took it for granted that the charter of 1692, having been adopted by the Legislature, would become effective, and for four years they acted under it. In 1696 they received word that it had failed to obtain the approval of the King. In the meantime, almost as soon as the charter of 1692 had gone through the Legislature and been signed by the Colonial governor, the Harvard Corporation proceeded to grant honorary degrees, as the following extract from "College Book IV" shows:

"At a meeting of ye Corporation at ye Collidge in Cambridge, Sept. 5o 1692.

"Voted. 1. That the Reverend President be desired to accept Gradum Doctoratus in Theologia, and that a Diploma be drawn up by the Corporation & presented to him.

"Voted. 2. That Mr. Jno Leverett and Mr. Wm Brattle be by ye President admitted ad gradum Baccalaureatus in Theologia, they first making each of them a Sermon in Latin in ye College Hall & responding to a Theological Question."

First Honorary Degrees

The three honorary degrees recorded above were the first ever bestowed by Harvard College. The "Reverend President" mentioned in the vote of September, 1692, was Increase Mather, A.B. 1656, the first American-born president of the College; he was a Fellow of the College from 1675 to 1685, acting president from 1685 to 1686, rector from 1686 to 1692, and president from 1692 to 1701. John Leverett and William Brattle were members of the class of 1680 and both, it appears, were Fellows of the College from 1685 to 1700, although there semes to be some doubt about the beginning of Brattle's term. Brattle also was treasurer from 1713 to 1715.

The first honorary A.M. granted by Harvard was conferred in 1703 on Thomas Wells. The Massachusetts Historical Society is authority for the following extract from Sewall's Diary under the date of July 7, 1703 (Commencement Day): "In the afternoon Mr. Wells of Almsbury is made a Master of Art. Mr. Belcher of Newbury Testified his Education under Mr. Andros at Ipswich, that he was a good Latin and Greek Scholar."

Harvard conferred a single honorary A.M. in each of the years 1709, 1710, and 1712. These notations bring the record up to 1714, when Harvard adopted the custom of granting on the application of graduates of other colleges the same degree they had received from their own Alma Mater, and such applicants made up most of the recipients of honorary Harvard degrees for almost a century. This list of honorary degrees granted ad eundem gradum includes the names of many notable persons, but the College authorities gradually came to the conclusion that the practice was not a worthy one and it was abandoned early in the nineteenth century. From 1724 until 1753 all of the honorary degrees bestowed in Cambridge were ad eundem, but in the latter year Benjamin Franklin received the degree of A.M., not because of an earlier connection with another college but because of his distinguished career.

Winthrop Made LL.D.

The first recipient of the Harvard degree of LL.D. was John Winthrop of the class of 1732, Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy from 1738 to 1779, a Fellow from 1765 to 1779, and acting president during the year 1773-74. He received the honorary degree in 1773. His name is perpetuated in one of the new Harvard Houses. Three years later, in 1776, the same degree was conferred on George Washington, and in 1779 it was bestowed on General Gates who had defeated Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga. In 1781 the degree of LL.D. was given to Anne Cesar de La Luzerne, French Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States, to John Adams, of the class of 1755, and to Arthur Lee, United States Minister to France from 1776 to 1779.