Protestantism

» pink101 - King's College

In response to King's College posted by rogerws76:

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Roger wrote, "[Dr. Samuel Johnson] actually retired in 1763 due to a fear of smallpox in New York and because his wife had just passed away."
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I would be interested in reading your source material on this. Mine is Professor Allen Guelzo, PhD, Luce Professor of Civil War Era Studies, Gettysburg College. His claim is that Johnson was forced into retirement.
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-- posted by pink101

» Roger Saunders - King's College

In response to King's College posted by pink101:

His fear of Smallpox was motivation for him to avoid the appointment to Kings College as well as his reluctance to hold the post. It was his wife's death in 1763 that was the final straw.

Here is an excerpt from a biographical sketch from the Columbiia College Website which sites these two sources:

Herbert and Carol Schneider, Samuel Johnson, President of King's College: His Career and Writings (4 vols., 1929);

Joseph J. Ellis, The New England Mind in Transition: Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, 1696-1772 (Yale UP, 1973)

"Johnson endured as president of King's College for eight years, although for sizable periods he vacated himself from the City to lessen the risk of smallpox. He first shared teaching responsibilities with his son, William, in 1755, who died the next year of smallpox while in England seeking holy orders), then with Leonard Cutting (1756-1762), and then with the College's first professor, Daniel Treadwell (1757-60). Johnson assigned his own Elementa Philosophica (1731) to the senior class.

The death of his wife of 34 years in 1759, from, wouldn't you know, smallpox and general tiredness prompted Johnson to begin looking about for a successor. In 1762, unbeknownst to Johnson, but at the urging of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Governors of King's College selected the twenty-six year old, Oxford-trained Anglican minister Myles Cooper (1737-1785) as tutor and president-designate. The presidential succession took place at the College's fifth commencement, the third to be held in the new College Hall, in 1763."

The web address is:

http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/kingsv...

» pink101 - King's College

In response to King's College posted by rogerws76:

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I see where you are coming from.
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I'm going to have to do some more research. I must be misinterpreting Goelzo's claims. Perhaps both sources are correct? There often can be more than one reason a person makes any decision.
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-- posted by pink101