• The widow of the Honorable Symonds Epes.

• Some records indicate that Mary was maybe Symond’s second wife.

• Some records list her Date of Death as “20 Mar 1790”


[S:40]

• He was justice of the Court of Sessions and member of the Council.

• Edward was educated at North Grammar School, Boston, and then went directly to Harvard College.

• Edward “had had the distinction, as an undergraduate, of having more fines and black marks recorded against his name for breaches of discipline than any student of his day. But he had grown in time to be a good and wise man, pastor of the Marblehead congregation.”

• He graduated in 1705 at age 16, and gave the class Bachelor's Oration. In 1708 he received his A.M. from Harvard College.

• From 1709-1712 he was the Librarian at Harvard.

• Apr 1714, was chosen “a Fellow of the Corporation” (Harvard)

• During 1712-1716 he was a tutor (instructor), and the next year (1713 - 1716) he was a Fellow of the Corporation (1713).

• In 1714 he became a candidate for colleague pastor with Rev. Samuel Cheever of Marblehead, but the majority of the church favored another candidate (John Benard). The minority withdrew and formed a second church which Edward was ordained as pastor for this Second Church of Marblehead on April 25, 1716 and served the church for 21 years.

• HOLYOKE was approved by Governor Belcher as the choice as President of Harvard College, the General Court agreed to pay Marblehead Society 140 pounds "to encourage and facilitate the settlement of a minister there ..." thereby making Holyoke the 9th President of Harvard College (1737 - 1769), succeeding after Benjamin Wadsworth death.

• He first attracted attention by his election-day sermon delivered in 1736 before the Governor and General Court in which he boldly declared: “All forms of government originate from the people . . . As these forms have originated from the people, doubtless they may be changed whensoever the body of them choose, to make such and alteration.”

• Records of Holyoke's inauguration also provide the earliest evidence of the singing of Psalm 78 ("Give ear, my Children"), the now-traditional Commencement psalm, at Harvard.

• At the time there were about 100 students, taught by the president and four tutors. Essentially he was the chairman of the Harvard Corporation, which he is responsible to the the day-to-day running of the university and as well as teach. For 299 years (1672 to 1971) all the presidents of Harvard graduated from Harvard.

• The General Court granted him a salary of 200 pounds, plus rent of Massachusetts Hall.

• One of his first duty was to preside the removal of Issac Greenwood, the Hollis Professor of Mathematics.

• Holyoke's administration began during the religious revivals of the Great Awakening and lasted until the revolutionary controversy with England was entering its final phase.

• By 1744 he was not only the President, but he was also a Professor, Tutor and Hebrew Instructor.

• Holyoke liberalized and strengthened Harvard’s academic program … during his administration several reforms were undertaken to improve the intellectual climate at the College. The ancient system of each tutor taking a college class through all the subjects in a curriculum was ended. By 1767, tutors had become specialists instructing students in particular subjects. Moreover, merit, rather than solely birth and social standing, became the criteria for entrance to Harvard College. College history prizes were offered for scholarships, and the custom of flogging students for college offenses was abandoned.

• Holyoke encouraged broader intellectual exploration beyond curriculum and disciplinary changes. In 1755, the Dudleian Lecture was given for the first time by the College President. In 1756, in order to improve English oratory, a system of public exhibitions was introduced. Lasting for over a century, selected students participated in debates, orations, and dialogues in the English language. In 1761, John Winthrop, the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, arranged the first American astronomical expedition to observe Venus's transit over the Sun.

• Holyoke's presidency was not without some controversy. In the early 1740s, the revivalist George Whitefield came to Cambridge to preach. Although Holyoke at first welcomed Whitefield to Harvard College, he eventually turned against him because Holyoke perceived Whitefield's religious views as excessive, inspiring division among families and local churches. Moreover, Holyoke took exception to Whitefield's labeling of Harvard College as a house of impiety and sin. In 1744, Holyoke and other members of the faculty defended the college and warned the local churches against Whitefield's views in The Testimony of the President, Professors, Tutors and Hebrew Instructor of Harvard College, Cambridge, Against the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield, And His Conduct. This rebuttal to Whitefield sparked a yearlong pamphlet war between both sides. Despite Holyoke's differences with George Whitefield, when a fire destroyed the College's original library twenty years later in 1764, Whitefield came to the College's aid and donated books and money to help rebuild the library collection.

• “A liberal in politics, HOLYOKE was also an eloquent spokesman of new spirit of toleration that was softening the strict tenets of New England Calvinism. To minister or pastors, he had insisted on occasions, that governments “should have no hand in making any laws with regard to the spiritual affairs of their people . . . [and] have no right to impose their interpretations of the laws of Christ upon their flocks . . . Every Man therefore is to judge for himself in these things.”

• Edward’s term in office was the longest in Harvard's history until Charles Eliot began his record-setting, forty-year presidency a century later. Holyoke is still considered the oldest person to occupy the presidency of Harvard.

• Edward Holyoke was Harvard’s President during the years that many of the most notable Founders from Massachusetts attended. Holyoke’s influence on the American Founding is hard to understate, and that can quickly been seen with a brief look at his life and a review of the pupils who learned under his tutelage. Holyoke's administration began during the religious revivals of the Great Awakening and lasted until the revolutionary controversy with England was entering its final phase. What is particularly interesting about Edward Holyoke’s tenure as President of Harvard is that he was also expected to teach. His opinions on religion and government are particularly important. All but one Massachusetts Revolutionary leaders were students of Edward HOLYOKE; Samuel Adams (A.B. 1740), James Otis (A.B. 1743), Jonathan Mayhew (A.B. 1744), Thomas Cushing (A.B. 1744), James Bowdoin (A.B. 1745), John Hancock (A.B. 1754), John Adams (A.B. 1755), Joseph Warren (A.B. 1759) and Josiah Quincy Jr. (A.B. 1763). Other notable New England names were John Wentworth, Samuel Quincy, Moses Hemmenway, Charles Cushing, Nathan Webb, William Browne, Philip Livingston, David Sewall, Daniel Treadwell, Tristam Dalton.

• Samuel Adams - Class of 1740
Samuel Adams was the prototypical American rebel. Not particular good at business, Adams sure knew how to cause a scene. He used his education unite discontented Bostonians and start a revolution.
• James Otis - Class of 1743
James Otis joined Adams as one of the primary movers and shakers in the early days of rebellion. The reason for the Stamp Act Congress and often credited for coining the term ‘no taxation without representation.’
• Thomas Cushing - Class of 1744
Thomas Cushing would sign the Continental Association but refused to vote for independence. He was still a Patriot who helped organize the construction of ships for the Continental Navy as Commissioner of Marine Affairs. Later he would serve as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts.
• James Bowdoin - Class of 1745
James Bowdoin was the head of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress at the start of the Revolutionary War. He would become the second Governor of Massachusetts during which time he suppressed Shays’ Rebellion.
• John Hancock - Class of 1754
John Hancock used his education to run one of the largest merchant firms in the colony. He then went on to be President of the Continental Congress and first Governor of Massachusetts.
• John Adams - Class of 1755
John Adams went on to sign the Declaration of Independence, serve as first Vice President of the United States and then second President of the United States. But you knew that already.
• Joseph Warren - Class of 1759
Joseph Warren quickly ascended to the heights of what a Boston Physician could be. He was an important leader early in the revolution and died as a martyr at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
• “The Harvard that John Adams went to in 1750 was undergoing one of its periodic reformations, this time under the presidency of Edward HOLYOKE, class of 1705.” Throughout John Adams’ four years at Harvard the first Saturday “was given over to the study of theology under President HOLYOKE’s supervision.”

• “The fact that Harvard had moved a long way from the strict faith of the fathers, under HOLYOKE’s “catholic temper” all manner of heresies flourished, or if they were not encouraged, were not firmly suppressed. Yale was the only stronghold of orthodoxy.”

• While not considered an intellect by his contemporaries, Holyoke did strengthened Harvard’s academic program in mathematics and science, and during his tenure Harvard established the first laboratory for experimental physics in North America.

• “Much was said, both in approval and censure of the President’s “catholic temper,” which soon affected the intellectual climate of the college. He had, moreover, “a good spirit of government.” Kindly, he was at the same time a firm disciplinarian, a man “of a noble commanding presence.” In his company students must stand or uncover. His girth won him the irreverent student nickname of “guts.”

• Holyoke was President of Harvard College for thirty-two years, the longest in Harvard's history until Charles Eliot began his record-setting, forty-year presidency a century later, he is still considered the oldest person to occupy the presidency of Harvard..

• He was characterized as an honest man of sound judgment and zealous in the performance of his duties. Under his administration Harvard College prospered and flourished. The number of students increased, gifts and endowments were added to the treasury, and intellectual training was improved. During Holyoke's tenure the College itself also expanded. Holden Chapel (1744) and Hollis Hall (1763) were built. Furthermore, after Harvard Hall was destroyed by fire in 1764, it was rebuilt and completed in 1766.

• A man of learning with an ability to deal with a society of scholars, Holyoke's leadership led Harvard College through turbulent and changing times.

• Speaking from his deathbed, Holyoke uttered an insight that still resonates in the ears of his successors: “If any man wishes to be humbled and mortified, let him become President of Harvard College.”


[S:26], [S:24], [S:9], [S:26], [S:26], [S:27], [S:9], [S:26], [S:26], [S:26], [S:26], [S:26], [S:166], [S: 216, 217 & 21823 24 25], [S:24926}


Some Sidenotes …

The President's Chair (see Multimedia picture)
At Cambridge. Is kept in the College there.
Seems but little the worse for wear.
That's remarkable when I say
It was old in President Holyoke's day.

-Oliver Wendell Holmes … From "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table"

President Edward Holyoke bought the chair for the College. Where and how he got it, no one seems to know for sure. A late descendant of the great chairs once used by the masters of medieval households, Harvard's symbolic seat of authority seems to have inspired questions almost from the day it arrived. (Even in the usually calm, collected pages of an exhibition catalog, it is described as "bizarre.") Holyoke himself recalled at least 50 occasions when he had to explain to a curious questioner that he knew nothing definite about the chair's history. Historians of furniture believe that this "three-square turned chair" was made in England or Wales between 1550 and 1600. "However the chair was obtained for the college, it captured Holyoke's attention as an imposing, ancient, and curious throne, suitable to the authority of the president and establishing an iconographic link between Harvard College and its late medieval English prototypes, Oxford and Cambridge," as Robert Trent observes in "New England Begins: The Seventeenth Century," the catalog to a 1982 exhibition in which the chair was shown at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.

Holyoke gave the chair a personal Harvard touch by crowning the front posts with large, globular oak pommels of his own making. A 1976 microanalysis found that the rest of the chair is made of European ash (Fraxinus excelsior). Sitting for artist John Singleton Copley (ca. 1760), Holyoke became the first of several Harvard presidents (including Walker, Lowell, Conant, Pusey, Bok, and Rudenstine) to pose proudly - and uncomfortably - in the chair for an official oil portrait. Perhaps by striking their own precarious balance in this strange seat of authority, the successors of Edward Holyoke come to sense what the job is all about.