Full Title:
The Charter of the President and Fellows of Harvard College under the seal of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay and bearing the date May 31st A.D.1650
Excerpt:
“It is therefore ordered and enacted by this Court and the authority thereof that for the furthering of so good a work and for the purposes aforesaid from henceforth that the said College in Cambridge in Middlesex in New England shall be a Corporation consisting of seven persons (to wit) a President five Fellows and a Treasurer or Bursar and that Henry Dunster shall be the first President Samuel Mather Samuel Danforth Masters of Arts Jonathan Mitchell Comfort Starr and Samuel Eaton Bachelors of Arts shall be the five Fellows and Thomas Danforth to be present Treasurer all of them being inhabitants in the Bay and shall be the first seven persons of which the said Corporation shall consist And that the said seven persons or the greater number of them procuring the presence of the Overseers of the College and by their counsel and consent shall have power and are hereby authorized at any time or times to elect a new President Fellows or Treasurer so oft and from time to time as any of the said person or persons shall die or be removed which said President and Fellows for the time being shall for ever hereafter in name and fact be one body politic and corporate in law to all intents and purposes and shall have perpetual succession And shall be called by the name of President and Fellows of Harvard College And shall from time to time be eligible as aforesaid.”
Source Citation:
Great and General Court of Massachusetts. 1650. Charter of Harvard University. By Henry Dunster. Harvard Library. https://guides.library.harvard.edu/c.php?g=880222&p=6323072