Records related to the charges against and defense made by Nathan Prince

The Harvard College Board of Overseers was legally established by the General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1642. It is one of Harvard's two governing boards, the other being the President and Fellows of Harvard College (often referred to as "the Corporation"), and now consists of thirty members who are elected by alumni to serve 6-year terms. In addition, Harvard's President and Treasurer serve as ex officio members. Broadly speaking, the function of the Board of Overseers is to encourage the University to maintain the highest attainable standards as a place of learning. To do this, Overseers serve on various standing and visiting committees at the University, through which they conduct research on a range of topics and advise academic and administrative bodies on their strategic directions, priorities, and planning. The Overseers direct the visitation process by which Harvard's schools and departments are periodically reviewed and assessed, and they advise University leaders, including the President. In conjunction with the Corporation, the Overseers approve high-level teaching and administrative appointments. They are also charged with conferring degrees. The Board of Overseers as a whole typically meets five times during the academic year, including a meeting held each year at the time of Harvard's Commencement. At these meetings, the Board hears formal reports from various standing committees and senior University Administrators, including the President. In addition to these meetings of the Board as a whole, individual Overseers meet on separate occasions with the visiting committees and standing committees to which they belong.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Board of Overseers was involved in a wide range of decisions related to Harvard College, actively shaping its academic priorities and administrative decisions in conjunction with the Corporation. The Board's membership was decidedly different then than it is today, as it included (per the Massachusetts General Court's Act of 1642) the Governor, Deputy Governor and the magistrates of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, as well as "the teaching elders of the six next adjoining towns, viz. Cambridge, Watertown, Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury, and Dorchester." For decades following the American Revolution, the membership criteria changed only slightly and the Board included representatives from the government of the new Commonwealth of Massachusetts: the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Counselors, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, in addition to the aforementioned "teaching elders." Significant changes in the Board of Overseers' composition occurred in 1810, when it was decided that some of the Board's members should be elected, in order to draw upon the expertise and experience of those outside the Board's traditional constituency. An act was passed in March 1810 which declared that, although the core membership would remain the same, the Board of Overseers should also include "fifteen ministers of Congregational churches and fifteen laymen, all inhabitants within the state, to be elected." Although this change in the constitution of the Board of Overseers would prove somewhat controversial, and faced serious opposition in 1812 when it was temporarily repealed, by 1814 it had become the established criterion for the Board's membership. Not until the Massachusetts General Court's Act of April 28, 1865, which separated the Overseers from the control of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, would the membership of the Board of Overseers undergo another structural change.

Nathan Prince (1698-1748) led an adventurous and often tumultuous life. Although educated at Harvard College and employed as one of its Tutors for almost twenty years, he was ultimately forced out of that position because of alleged intemperance and slanderous remarks about his colleagues. After his departure from the College, Prince eventually accepted a position as missionary to the Miskito Indians on the island of Roatán. He died within a year of his arrival.

Nathan Prince was born to Samuel Prince and Mercy (Hinckley) Prince on November 30, 1698 in Sandwich, Massachusetts. He was their twelfth child. Prince attended Harvard College and graduated with the class of 1718; his brother, Thomas Prince, had graduated with the class of 1707. Immediately after graduation, he moved to Bristol, Rhode Island, where he kept school for a year. The following year Nathan kept school in Plymouth, Massachusetts. By the fall of 1720, though, Prince had returned to Cambridge, to renew his studies at Harvard. He received an A.M. from Harvard in 1721 and was recommended by the College's President, John Leverett, to preach at Westerly, Rhode Island. He preached at Westerly until April 1722, when he left to preach at Nantucket and Yarmouth.

In April of 1723, Prince was appointed a Tutor at Harvard College, a position to "be holden without Limitation of time." He taught at Harvard until his dismissal in 1742, and served as a Fellow from 1728 through 1742. Many of Prince's peers believed him to be a remarkable scholar of mathematics and natural philosophy, although he published only one scientific article (on the Aurora Borealis). John Eliot asserted in his Biographical Dictionary that Prince was "in mathematicks and natural philosophy superiour to any man in New England." Prince was also widely known, though, to be hot-tempered and unreliable, and these qualities were likely contributing factors to his being overlooked as a candidate for the Hollis Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. When John Winthrop was chosen for the position in 1738, following the resignation of Isaac Greenwood (due to intemperance), Prince was deeply disappointed. The rest of his years at Harvard were tumultuous.

From 1738 onwards, Harvard students and faculty appear to have become increasingly upset by Prince and his behavior. Complaints against him were filed regularly, but it was unclear which, if either, of Harvard's governing bodies – the Corporation and the Board of Overseers – had the authority to dismiss him. Ultimately the Board of Overseers filed the series of complaints against Prince which led to his dismissal. They accused him of intemperance, disturbing the peace, contemptuous speech towards the President and Fellows, stirring up strife, ridiculing his peers, and numerous other misdeeds. In February of 1741/2 the Overseers found Prince guilty of all these charges, and although he appealed their decision they refused his appeal. He then appealed to the General Court for assistance, publishing The Constitution and Government of Harvard-College in an effort to prove that his dismissal violated Harvard's constitution, but the Court also refused to hear his argument.

Following his dismissal, Prince fled to Boston, where after some difficulties establishing himself he was eventually allowed, in February 1742/3, to set up a school. The school was unsuccessful, and a year later Prince relocated once again, to Stratford, Connecticut, home of his brother Joseph. Prince taught in Stratford for several years before accepting a position as schoolmaster on the man-of-war Vigilant. He taught aboard the ship until it landed in Lisbon, Portugal in the summer of 1746, when he learned that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel wished to employ him as a missionary to the Miskito (then called Mosquito) Indians. Prince accepted their offer and traveled on to Portsmouth and London, England for further instructions.

On March 5, 1747/8, Prince sailed for the West Indies aboard the Duke of Bedford. Although the ship was damaged in a storm, it safely arrived in Jamaica in June 1748. The Governor instructed Prince to settle on the "Island of Rattan" (Roatán), which he apparently did in the last month of his life. Nathan Prince died in Roatán on July 25, 1748.