Last summer we held a small exhibition focused on the diplomas awarded by King’s College, as Columbia was known before the Revolutionary War. The tradition of handing out diplomas at Commencement was started by King’s College’s second president, Myles Cooper, in 1763. We had in our holdings examples from 1763 to 1774. So what happened in 1775? Thanks to a recent gift from the Stand Columbia Society, we now have a fuller version of events and a more complete collection.
The City newspapers of the day used to include a notice of King’s College’s annual Commencement. Since the same text appears in the different papers, the notice was probably written by someone from the College and then sent to the editors. In 1775, the notice published in the weekly newspapers states: “On Tuesday last [May 16], being the day appointed for the annual Commencement in this city, the following Gentlemen, educated at King’s College, were admitted to their respective degrees…” But from the Matricula or King’s College matriculation book, we know that in 1775, there was actually no public Commencement ceremony “on account of the absence of Dr. Cooper.”
Cooper was certainly “absent” from the College but not from New York City. According to Myles Cooper biographer Clarence Vance, the College president was one of the few New Yorkers to receive the Three Millions letter, dated April 24, 1775. This letter told Loyalists of the recent events in the battles of Lexington and Concord. Cooper was advised to save his life by fleeing to the British warship Kingfisher, anchored in the harbor. A few days later, Cooper left the ship and returned to his College duties. But on May 10, around midnight, a mob came looking for Cooper and he was forced again to flee to the warship. Three King’s College students came to his rescue: Alexander Hamilton and Robert Troup held back the mob on the college steps while Nicholas Ogden “assisted Cooper in escaping out through the back door and gate of the college in his night-clothes.” Cooper remained aboard the Kingfisher until May 20, when he was transferred to the Exeter. He was finally able to sail for England on May 25, 1775, never to return to America.
Our newest acquisition is John William Livingston’s 1775 AB diploma, which gives us some more insights into the very busy days at the College in May 1775. The diploma includes Myles Cooper’s signature on the bottom band. This means that the diplomas were completed by the engrosser and returned to the College in time for Copper to sign them before his hasty departure. (Maybe in between his two stays aboard the Kingfisher?) If Cooper’s safety was in doubt, so was Livingston’s graduation. He was very behind on his school work. In the Black Book or Book of Misdemeanors’s entry for April 11, 1775, Livingston is ordered to “translate daily into English, elegantly and correctly, one Chapter of Livy, beginning at C.39 of B.4. till the Second Tuesday in May (over and above all regular Duties).” The deadline here was May 16, 1775 or Commencement Day. Three weeks later, in the Trustees’ minutes for May 2, 1775, the Trustees (which included Livingston’s own father) ordered that Livingston’s degree “be suspended unless he complete[d] his course by the day of Commencement.” Now he only had two weeks to complete his course. So did he finish his work on time? We may never know.
The notice was sent to the papers, the diplomas were inscribed and signed, and then the mob came on the 10th, Cooper fled on the 11th, and the ceremony on the 16th never took place. Yet, somehow, John William Livingston’s diploma survived.
We are immensely grateful to the Stand Columbia Society for their generosity, allowing this small piece of Columbia history to finally return “home” to Columbia and the University Archives.