Theses, in Comitiis publicis Harvardini Collegii quod est Cantabrigiae Nov-Anglorum, defensae & pro viribus propugnatae a Juvenibus in Artibus initiatis, [1660-1753]

The bound volume holds handwritten transcriptions of selected Harvard Commencement Theses copied by Isaac Mansfield (Harvard AB 1742). The manuscript volume holds only the Theses chosen for public disputation. The volume includes Theses transcriptions for which no original broadsides are known to still exists.

1660 -- 1662 -- 1665 -- 1666 -- 1669 -- 1670 -- 1671 -- 1673 -- 1675 -- 1676 -- 1677 -- 1678 -- 1679 -- 1680 -- 1681 -- 1683 -- 1684 -- 1685 -- 1686 -- 1687 -- 1689 -- 1691 -- 1692 -- 1693 -- 1694 -- 1695 -- 1704 -- 1705 -- 1707 -- 1708 -- 1709 -- 1710 -- 1711 -- 1712 -- 1715 -- 1717 -- 1718 -- 1720 -- 1721 -- 1725 -- 1727 -- 1729 -- 1739 -- 1740 -- 1742 -- 1743 -- 1741 -- 1747 -- 1751 -- 1753 -- 1746.

"Isaac Mansfield's MS. The gift of Thaddeus Mason Harris DD of Dorchester. Withdrawn from the Corporation Papers for the College Library 1 June 1858"--bookplate inscription.

On the last page, the volume also contains an accounting of costs for copies of ship proceedings from May 2nd through October 5, 1776. The back inside cover lists the names and numbers: [M]archant Henry, Esq. 12, Pickering Esqr. 12, Caleb Jno, Esqr. 13, Derby Richd, Esqr. 14, SmithCapt. 14, Bradeth, 14, Noyes Esqr. 14, Osgood, Saml Esqr., 15, Hutchinson [Sprael] 16, Sewall Stephen 16, Gerry Thomas 16" with no accompanying clarification.

The second page of the table of contents and pages 17-18 holding transcriptions for the years 1696, 1699, 1700, 1702, and 1703 are missing.

Includes table of contents for years through 1723.

Manuscript.

Isaac Mansfield was born on March 6, 1719/20 in Marblehead, Massachusetts. He received an AB from Harvard in 1742, and an AM in 1745. He became a Justice of the Peace in 1761, and in 1777 was appointed a Justice of the Peace and Quorum for the revolutionary government. He later served as Clerk of the Maritime Court for the Middle District of Essex County, as a single-term member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and as a Selectman. He died on April 12, 1792. His son, also named Isaac, graduated from Harvard in 1767.

The Theses culminated Harvard's Bachelor’s degree program with propositions, written in Latin, that graduating students were expected to be able to defend upon request on Commencement day. Ranging between approximately 50 and 250 propositions in most years, certain prompts were selected for defense by specific students. Printed at the expense of the graduating class, they were created by the students on the basis of their undergraduate study and posted in advance as broadsides. Sibley's Harvard Graduates explains, "Apparently he [Mansfield] found in the library of his wife's [Ruth Cheever] grandfather, Joseph Gerrish (A.B. 1669), a file of Thesis and Quaestio sheets on which the parts actually performed over a period of many years were marked. He copied off the Quaestiones and the Theses which were presented, preserving information which otherwise would have been lost" (Volume XI, 1741-1745, p. 158).

A similar volume of Quaestiones transcriptions created by Mansfield is also held in the Harvard University Archives. The volume was separated from the Commencement Theses, Quaestiones, and Order of Exercises collection in April 2010. Formerly classified as HUC 6642.2.