I ll paraphrase the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan in saying Professor Cheyney is entitled to his own opinion but he is not entitled to his own facts In my previous paragraph in this Talk thread I attempted to show why every one of the points he cites is factually incorrect I ll try it again in list form 1 Cheyney says With the exception of Columbia University the majority of the American Colonial Colleges do not have clear cut dates of foundation That is not true Every one of the nine colonial colleges has a clear legal charter date The College of William Mary probably has the murkiest early history but the events which led to the foundation of the other eight are well documented by each of these colleges 2 Cheyney says As well Princeton claims its founding date as 1746the date of its first charter However the exact words of the charter are unknown the number and names of the trustees in the charter are unknown and no known original is extant That is not true I cited above the number and exact name of each of Princeton s first board of trustees I quoted some passages from the original text and directed you to a source for the remainder of the text Note that I am not using Wertenbaker s book for anything other than the primary source material found in his appendix I am not citing any opinion of his regarding the founding date of Penn Princeton or Columbia Indeed as far as I know Wertenbaker does not have an opinion on the matter Cheyney says Harvard s founding date is also the year in which the Massachusetts General Court resolved to establish a fund in a year s time for a School or College That is not true although to be fair to Professor Cheyney it s mostly a matter of semantics In 1636 the Massachusetts did in fact budget the sum of 400 pounds sterling for the creation of an unnamed college at Newtowne as Cambridge was then known No actual construction took place until 1638 when English minister John Harvard passed away donating half of his estate to the educational effort which then honored him by adopting his name So of the three historical points which Professor Cheyney cites each is demonstrably false The one concerning Harvard is as I said merely a matter of semantics On the other hand it has nothing to do with Penn s founding date so I don t know why Cheyney would bring it up I think that Cheyney is trying to make a case that the roots of the colonial colleges are unclear so choosing a founding date is a matter of opinion of which he and you are certainly entitled to hold your personal preference But as Daniel Patrick Moynihan neither Cheyney you or I are entitled to our own facts By the way you are correct that I twice incorrectly referred to him as Potts instead of Cheyney but I assure you that his first name is Edward not Edgar