"Sundry Gentlemen at Oxford"

Some early '^Friends''' ofthe Columbia Libraries

ALICE H. BONNELL

11 //"^UNDRY Gentlemen at Oxford gave books whose names
are in them." So reads the Matricida of King's College
in recording gifts to the College of the Province of New
York in the City of New York, or King's as Columbia was known
in Pre-Revolutionary days. Founded by Royal Charter from
George II of England in 1754, the only institution of collegiate
rank to be established in the Province of New York, rhe College
opened on July 17th of that year in Trinity Schoolhouse with
eight students taught by Dr. Samuel Johnson, President of the
College. Dr. Johnson, a clergyman of rhe Church of England,
has been called the first American philosopher. His requirements
for admission to King's College and the philosophy of the educa¬
tion to be offered therein are contained in the following "Adver¬
tisement" in the New York Gazette and Weekly Post Boy of
June 3, 1754:

The lowest Qualifications they have judged requisite in order to
Admission into the said College, are as follows, viz. That they be able
to read well, and write a good legible Hand; and that they be well
versed in the Five first Rules in Arithmetic, i.e. as far as Division and
Reduction; And as to Latin and Greek, That they have a good Knowl¬
edge in the Grammars, and be able to make grammatical Latin, and
both in construing and parsing, to give a good Account of two or three
of the first select Orations of Tully, and of the fir.st Books of Virgil's
JEneid, and some of the first Chapter of the Gospel of St. John, in
Greek. In these Books therefore they may expect to be examined; but
higher Qualifications must hereafter be expected; and if there be any
of the higher Classes in any College, or under private Instruction, that