Up for auction "Brown University" Francis Wayland Clipped Signature.

ES-4632

Francis

Wayland (March 11, 1796 –

September 30, 1865), American Baptist educator and economist, was born in New York City, New York. He was president of Brown University and pastor of the First Baptist Church in

America in Providence, Rhode Island. In Washington, D.C., Wayland Seminary was established in 1867, primarily to

educate former slaves, and was named in his honor. (In 1899, Wayland Seminary

merged with another school to become the current Virginia Union University,

at Richmond, Virginia.) Francis

Wayland's father was an Englishman of the same name, who was also a Baptist pastor. Born in New York City in 1796, Wayland

graduated from Union College in 1813

and studied medicine in Troy, under Dr. Ely Burritt. Dr. Burritt, a son of the

Rev. Blackleach Burritt,

graduated from Williams College, class of

1800 and was licensed to practice medicine at Troy, New York, on March 29,

1802, and quickly gained recognition for his medical skills. Dr. Wayland said

the following about his former teacher: "Dr. Ely Burritt was a man of

remarkable logical powers of enthusiastic love of his profession, and of great and

deserved confidence in his own judgment. He stood at the head of his profession

in Troy, and in the neighboring region, and was a person of high moral

character." Dr. Wayland also studied medicine in New York City, but in

1816 entered Andover Theological

Seminary, where he was greatly influenced by Moses Stuart. He was too poor to conclude his course in theology, and in 1817-1821 was a tutor at Union College, to

which, after five years as pastor of the First Baptist Church of

Boston, he returned in 1826 as professor of natural philosophy. He was

one of the founders of Newton Theological

Institution in 1825. He

was an early advocate of the temperance and anti-slavery causes, for many years was "inspector of the

state prison and Providence county jail," president of the Prison

Discipline Society, and active in prison reform and local charities.

He was one of the "law and order" leaders during the "Dorr Rebellion" of 1842, and was called "the first

citizen of Rhode Island." One of

the individuals that he supported, trained and encouraged was Leonard Black, author of The Life and Sufferings of

Leonard Black, a Fugitive from Slavery who became a Baptist minister.

Wayland worked hard to prevent the local Baptist denominations from

splitting into pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions, but ultimately failed in

this attempt.

Wayland was elected a member of the American Antiquarian

Society in 1851. In

1827 he became president of Brown University. In the twenty-eight years of his

administration he gradually built up the college, improving academic

discipline, formed a library and gave scientific studies a more prominent

place. He also worked for higher educational ideals outside the college,

writing text-books on ethics and economics, and promoting the free school system of Rhode Island and especially (1828) of Providence. His Thoughts

on the Present Collegiate System in the United States (1842) and

his Report to the Corporation of Brown University of 1850

pointed the way to educational reforms, particularly the introduction of

industrial courses, which were only partially adopted in his lifetime. Wayland's

attempts to reform Brown's medical school were met with antagonism and

resistance from the school's faculty and staff to the point where they

resigned, and the medical program was eliminated.

Wayland was vividly remembered by members of the Brown community,

including Charles T.

Congdon and James B. Angell, who are quoted in the Encyclopedia

Brunoniana.