At a General Court, held at Guilford, June 28, 1652, it was “voted, the matter about a College at New Haven for us of this jurisdiction to undergo alone; especially considering the unsettled state of New Haven Town; being publicly declared…to be a place of no comfortable subsistence for the present inhabitants there. But if Connecticut do join, the planters are generally willing to bear their just proportions for erecting and maintaining a College there”.
In October 1701, the Legislature, granted a charter, constituting “Trustees of a Collegiate School in his Majesty’s Colony of Connecticut; and invested them with all the powers which were supposed to be necessary for the complete execution of their trust. The following November, they chose one of their number, Mr. Pierson, rector of the school, and determined that it should be fixed for the present at Saybrook”.
“In the year 1702, the first commencement was held at Saybrook, at which five young gentlemen received the degree of A. M. From this time many debates arose concerning the place where the school should finally be established and continued to agitate the community.” October 17, 1716, with the community still disunited, four of the nine trustees strongly voted against moving the school to New Haven. “The trustees, nerveless, proceeded to hold the commencement, the following year, at New Haven, and to order a college to be erected. It was accordingly raised in October 1717 and finished the following year.” The building, enabled through a number of considerable donations, “was built of wood, one hundred and seventy feet long, twenty-two feet wide, and cost about £1000 sterling. Before it was erected, the students were scattered in various places, as Milford, Killingworth, Guilford, Saybrook, Wethersfield, &c. Soon afterwards, they all removed to New Haven. The number of the students was about 40, the course of education was pursued with spirit, the benefactions increased in number and value, from this time the institution began to flourish.”
Connecticut Historical Collections, History and Antiquities of Every Town in Connecticut. John Warner Barber 1836 p. 146
