St Johns College - Yearbook (Annapolis, MD)

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History of Jt. john's College St. John 's College, the fourth oldest collegiate institution in the United States, traces its origin back to the year 1696, when an act was passed by the General Assembly, establishing King William's School. The purpose of this school was declared to be the propagation of the Gospel and the education of the youth of the Province in good letters and manners. Rev. Andrew Gaddes was sent out by the Bishop of London to take charge of the school, but as the school building was still incomplete, he was appointed a lay-reader in All Saints' Parish, Calvert County, Maryland. The earliest mention of an officiating master of the school is found in the records of St. Anne's Parish Church. They record, 'Died, November 9, 1713, Rev. Edward Butler, rector of St. Anne's, and master of the free school, Annapolis. Few of the names of the rectors of the school have come down to us, but about 1756, and for nine years after that date, Mr. Isaac Daken is men- tioned as master of the school. On the 17th of August, 1784, the Rev. Ralph Higgin- botham was appointed master of King William's School, and when at a latter date the school became incorporated with the college, we find him occupying the position of Professor of Languages in the newly-organized institution. , This school is noted in the annals of the State as the nursery of some of her greatest men, among others the dis- tinguished lawyer and statesman, William Pinkney. Information, however, regarding this seminary is but meager, although the Act of 1750 indicated that the school was not without influential friends and supporters. In the meantime, in 1732, as appears by a paper now lying in the executive department at Annapolis, proposals for founding a college at Annapolis were read in the Upper House of Assembly and recommended to the consideration of the Lower House, but no legisla- tive effect was given to these proposals. The project was again revived in 1763. A committee of the GeneralAssembly recommended that the house in the city of Annapolis which was intended for the Governor of the Province, be completely finished and used for the college proposed to be established, the money for the work to come out of the public treasury. The annual cost of the faculty, consisting of seven masters, with the five servants, was provided for. The measure, however, failed to pass the Upper House. Ten years later the intention of establishing a college in Annapolis was again manifested, as we learn from a letter written October 4, 1773, by William Eddis, surveyor of customs, at Annapolis, to a friend in England. In this letter he states that the Legislature has determined to found a college for the education of youth in every liberal and useful branch of science, which will preclude the necessity of crossing the Atlantic for the com- pletion of a classical and polite education. A building on the banks of the Severn, 19

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