American Colonial Colleges 273
civil war, and not feeling very generous. About £400 or
£500, however, were collected; most of it went to pay debts
contracted for the college building, some was laid out in
books, pewter, dishes and table linen; and £162 6s. 4d. was
applied to scholarships. It is interesting to note that in the
absence of investment securities, the only way for the Col-
lege to get an income from this fund was to lend it to the
Colony, which paid a moderate interest on it to the College.
This earliest American college scholarship came from a
wealthy Puritan widow, Lady Mowlson. Thomas Weld, the
Harvard endowment agent, who secured this contribution,
tried to divert a bit of it for his own family. He induced
Dame Mowlson to request the Harvard authorities that
“John Weld now a scholler in the said colledge shall haue the
said stipend till he attaine the degree of Master of Arts.”
Unfortunately John did not last long as a “scholler in the
said coiledge.” In company with another minister’s son he
was caught burglarizing a Cambridge house, “publickly
whipped” in the college hall by President Dunster, and ex-
pelled.
For teaching fellowships to relieve President Dunster of
the entire burden of instruction, money was raised by what
was called the “Colledge Corne.” Every family in New Eng-
land was asked to contribute annually a quarter-bushel of
wheat, or a shilling in money, “for the mayntenance of poore
Schollersn ; and although not everyone did so, enough wheat
flowed in from all parts of New England to maintain for
eight years two or three graduate teaching fellows, and sev-
eral undergraduate scholars. The frontier contributed as
well as the coast towns ; a remarkable demonstration of the
value that the New England Puritans placed on higher edu-
cation. And it is interesting to note that £3 worth of wheat,
undoubtedly the largest per capita contribution, came from