Laws and statutes of Harvard

The Harvard laws, first compiled in 1642, and revised periodically thereafter, defined appropriate student conduct and detailed the requirements for admitted students; later laws included regulations for the library, the steward and butler, and governors and officers of the College. Many of the College Laws focused on student behavior, religion, and academics, and attempted to confine students within the College Yard. The early laws were written in both English and Latin and recorded in Harvard’s College Book, but additional manuscript copies were made for use by the President, and also copied by students. The earliest published laws appeared in "Rules, and Precepts that are observed in the Colledge" in the 1643 tract, New Englands First Fruits.

The Harvard College Charter of 1650 assigned the authority to make “orders & Bylawes for the better ordering & carying on the worke of the Colledge as they shall thinck fitt” to the Harvard Corporation. The 1655 College laws, enacted during President Charles Chauncy’s tenure, and known as the Chaunceian Code, were the first laws created by the Corporation. The 1655 code expanded on early laws to include rules on admission, student life, absences, expenses, academic courses, and punishments.

Through the end of the 17th century, both the Overseers and Corporation added rules and amendments to the College Laws. Notable revisions and additions included the 1667 establishment by the Overseers of rules pertaining to the Library and the Library keeper, the Dudley Code of 1686 (recorded in College Book IV), and the Mather Code of 1692 (extant only in Cotton Mather's Magnalia).

As early as 1719, the Corporation began discussing a large-scale review of the College Laws, and in 1734 a new code was approved. The 1734 code encompassed eight chapters and addressed all aspects of student life: I. About admission into the College; II. Concerning a religious, virtuous life; III. Concerning scholastical exercises; IV. Concerning penal laws; V. Concerning the scholar’s commons; VI. About academical degrees; VII. About the Steward, Cook, and Butler; and VIII. Concerning miscellaneous matters.

The 1734 code declared that, “every candidate for Admission shall procure and keep by him a true Copy of the College Laws respecting his Duty and Priviledges, which being signed by the President and Major Part of the Tutors shall be his Admission into College.” Through the 1767 revision of the College Laws, this signed copy of the Laws was known as the “Admittatur." In 1767, the “Admittatur” evolved into a certificate approved by the Steward and signed by the President indicating that the student was aware of his responsibility to pay his College debts.

Many 18th century Harvard freshmen not only copied the College Laws, but also heard the College Customs read aloud to them by a Sophomore soon after they began college. The College Customs were a set of nineteen rules reflecting the social hierarchy of the different undergraduate classes, including the wearing of hats and errand-running by freshmen for upperclassmen. While the original date of the Customs is unknown, the Corporation's acknowledgment of them extended into the late 1700s. Only in 1786 did the Corporation vote to prohibit freshmen errands.

In 1765, Harvard administrators began planning an expansive revision of the College laws, and in 1767, a ten-chapter code was distributed that expanded on the rules related to the Library as well as to the officers of the College. On May 14, 1790, the Corporation voted, for the first time, to publish a printed edition of the College Laws. The laws of the 18th century remained in effect until June 1825, when the Corporation and Overseers published a new code with one hundred and fifty-three laws in thirteen chapters.