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A Distinguished Class of Yale Freshmen

A rare printed roster of the Yale College freshmen class of 1782, i.e. the future graduates of 1786. The students listed here were part of a generation coming of age during the American Revolution. 

According to Shipton & Mooney this broadside roster was printed by New Haven printers Thomas and Samuel Green.

Manuscript note in Latin in left margin which incorporates classical literary allusions based on Homer's Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid, referencing the classical gates of horn and ivory, used to distinguish true dreams from false:

Quorum nominibus L assigiter i souitatis linonianae sunt sed iis fratrum sictatis sunt, quorum nominibus B praesigitur. (Sunt geminae somni portae; quarum attera futur. Cornea; qua veris facilisdatur existus umbris:) Altaque candenti perfectum nitore iacebat / Sed falsa ad caelum mittunt insomnia Manes Virg: AEnid 6. L. 893-96...

Those whose names are marked L are assigned to the Linonian society, but they are marked for Brothers whose names are indicated by B. (There are twin gates of dreams; one of which is of the future, made of horn, through which it is easiest to give form to true visions.) And high there lay a perfect elephant with shining brightness, but false shades sent deceptive dreams to the sky. Virgil's Aeneid, Book 6, lines 893-896...

A neat L or B, written next to each student's name in an early manuscript hand, denotes membership in the Linonian Society or Brothers in Unity, respectively. By the late eighteenth century all incoming Yale freshmen became members of one of these two literary societies on campus: Linonia (founded in 1753) or its rival, Brothers in Unity (founded 1768). In the present class Brothers slightly outnumbered Linonia in popularity, 38 to 25. Yale's main library, Sterling Memorial Library, has a large reading room named in honor of these two early societies.

Many of the 66 Yale students listed herein would go on to notable careers in politics, law, and medicine, for example:

• Thomas Ruggles Gold. Congressman from New York.
• Stanley Griswold. Democratic-Republican politician. Appointed by Thomas Jefferson as first secretary of Michigan Territory. Served as a Senator from Ohio.
• Henry Livingston. Scion of the Livingston family. Congressman from New York.
• Isaac Maltby. Massachusetts politician. Served in the Massachusetts militia during the War of 1812.
• Abner Mosely. Physician. Served in the militia during the American Revolution. 
• Elias Perkins. Connecticut politician and member of Congress.
• Samuel Burr Sherwood. Congressman from Connecticut.
• Elihu Hubbard Smith. Author and physician. One of the Connecticut Wits. Entered Yale College at age 11; when he received his BA degree in 1786 he was the youngest Yale graduate up to that time.
• Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer. Lawyer and Federalist politician from New York. Commanded troops defending New York City during the War of 1812.
• Frederick Wolcott. Prominent Connecticut judge. Son of Gov. Oliver Wolcott, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Rarity

This 18th-century roster of Yale students is very rare in the market. Seven copies noted in OCLC, and we can add another example at Yale, which is bound up with similar broadsides from other years.