Yale University Tercentennial to Salute Town of Branford, Connecticut

The media is invited to participate in a special ceremony to commemorate the town’s place in the founding of the “Collegiate School” in 1701, which eventually became Yale University.

Janet Lindner, director of Yale’s Tercentennial Office, will make the proclamation to Branford First Selectman Anthony “Unk” DaRos and the townspeople of Branford.

Date:Saturday, June 16, 2001
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Place:Branford Town Green, Branford festival main stage

(The text of the proclamation is provided below.)

Yale University

The Trustees, Officers and Faculties of Yale University

Send Greetings to the Citizens of BRANFORD, CONNECTICUT

On the Occasion of the 300th Anniversary of the Founding of Yale

In 1701, a group of founding ministers of Yale met in Branford and is reported to have brought a number of books and, laying them on the table, to have said, “I give these books for the founding of a College in this Colony.”

In October 1701, the Connecticut Colony Genera Assembly passed “An Act of Liberty to Erect a Collegiate School, wherein Youth may be instructed in the Arts & Sciences who through the Blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Publick Employment both in Church and Civil State.”

Yale University sends its Greetings and Gratitude to Branford, Connecticut for the role it played in the founding of Yale.

Given in Branford, Connecticut, under the seal of Yale University, this sixteenth day of June in the year two thousand one.