Civility: William Smith and his Circle

The three branches of the institution—the College, Academy, and Charity School—were tiny by modern standards, though comparable to its closet peer, New York’s Kings College (Columbia). The Academy and Charity Schools had enrollments ranging from 60 to over 100, but the first College graduating class, in 1757, consisted of only 6 boys. Nevertheless, the educational projects undertaken in the upper divisions, the “Philosophy School,” were ambitious. Led by Provost Rev. William Smith and Vice-Provost Rev. Francis Alison, the lecture-based curriculum featured a range of ancient and modern literary and philosophical authors, with an unusual focus upon the teaching of modern science (natural philosophy).

“View of the Philosophy-Schools” and “The Whole in One View”

In the College, a dynamic intellectual culture, Anglocentric and genteel in its aspirations, coalesced In the College, a dynamic intellectual culture, Anglocentric and genteel in its aspirations, coalesced around Smith’s leadership. A kind of Enlightenment salon, the group produced music, poetry, dramatic performances, and art. Annual Commencement ceremonies featured students’ original compositions in oratory, music, and poetry. These were also political exercises, often panegyrics for British monarchy and empire.

Prominent students in this elite circle included Francis Hopkinson, a talented musician and essayist; Benjamin West, the future painter, who studied at the College but did not graduate; and Jacob Duché, later chaplain to the Continental Congress. Others included Thomas Godfrey, Jr., creator of The Prince of Parthia, the first American-authored play, and Nathaniel Evans, a poet. Smith’s circle also included female writers, like the poet Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson; Francis Hopkinson’s sister Mary (Polly), who would marry the physician John Morgan; and Smith’s future wife Rebecca Moore Smith, daughter of a political ally.

“George the Second in the Third still Lives”

Hopkinson regularly prepared music for the College after his own student years, likely collaborating with his mentor Smith on this 1761 allegory marking the death of George II. This is a proof copy with some editorial corrections.

“Blest Institution! Nurse of Liberty!”

Hopkinson’s poem of praise to his college takes the form of an extended personification of the figure of Science, suggesting the prominence that Smith and Alison accorded to lectures on modern developments in astronomy, natural history, and mathematics.

Colonial conflicts were never distant from the College. In this graduation ode, Evans triumphantly celebrates the end of the global Seven Years War as a victory for the British empire. Evans’s manuscript along with the printed version are both on display.

Music, Performance, and Sociability at the College

Francis Hopkinson, member of both the first Academy class and the first graduating class of the College (1757), was a talented musician and one of the central figures of the intellectual circle around William Smith. As a kind of “gentleman amateur,” Hopkinson wrote music for both civic and religious occasions, including many of the annual College commencement exercises. He also copied and collected the music of important European composers. Also participating in some public events was his sister Mary (Polly), who would later marry Hopkinson’s classmate and medical school founder John Morgan.

This drawing shows Hopkinson with Elizabeth Graeme, who led a literary salon at Graeme Park, her family estate near Philadelphia. Graeme, a poet, was close to many in Smith’s circle, including Hopkinson, Smith’s wife Rebecca, painter Benjamin West, poet Nathaniel Evans, and writer and minister Jacob Duché. She and her husband Henry, accused of Loyalism, lost influence and property during the Revolution.^[1]

1. On Graeme and the salon: Ousterhout, The Most Learned Woman in America; on Graeme, Hopkinson and music, see Cypess, Women and Musical Salons in the Enlightenment, 279–323. ↑