RENAMING PRINCIPLES | Harvard's Questions

Old Harvard Law School arms,
with Royall badges,
wheat sheaves or garbs.

 July 26, 2021—The "Rhodes Must Fall" initiative has provoked discussion at Oxford. A parallel debate is taking place in other universities.

The Harvard Law School, for example, before 2016 had wheat sheaves or "garbs" in its coat of arms (Azure three garbs or a chief of Gules three open books argent garnished or the word VE-RI-TAS sable) because of its association with Isaac Royall, Jr., who endowed the first Harvard Law School professorship. 

The Royall wealth was based in part on the family's engagement in the slave trade. Worse, Royall's father "treated his slaves with extreme cruelty, including burning 77 people to death," according to a Law School statement. Martha Minow, dean of the Law School, formed a special committee to study the use of the arms to represent the school and make recommendations.

An early history of the issue is on a heraldry blog [http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2015/12/heraldic-controversy-in-cambridge.html] a that references Steve Annear, Boston Globe, December 7, 2015. [http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/12/01/harvard-law-school-forms-committee-examine-use-crest-tied-slave-ownership/1JR7OwiLIsPc3BxRUiH6yH/story.html].

The student initiative at the Harvard Law School, called Royall Must Fall, urged the Law School to change the seal. It arose from decisions in some southern states to remove the Confederate battle flag from certain public venues because of its use by those opposed to equal rights for Blacks in  since the 1960s.

The three wheat sheaves ("garbs") are the arms of Isaac Royall, Jr. as found on a baptismal basin donated by him to St. Michael’s Church in Bristol, Rhode Island; on his bookplate; on a two-handled cup in the possession of the First [Congregational] Church of Medford, Massachusett; and on the tomb of Isaac Royall and his father, William Royall, in Dorchester, Massachusetts (Bolton’s American Armory, Charles Knowles Bolton, The F.W. Faxon Company, Boston, 1927, pp. 142-143). [Bolton’s work, which heraldic scholars have noted has many errors in it, is the only work in which Annear found these arms.] The Royall family owned slaves on a plantation in Antigua and Barbuda as well as their house in Medford. 

After a months-long deliberative process, a Law School committee recommended in March 2016 that Harvard change the seal. Later that month, the Corporation—the University’s highest governing body— accepted the proposal to remove the Royall badges [incorrectly called "crests," which are the adornments above the helmet in a full achievement of a coat of arms] from the Law School’s official seal. At the time, Law School spokesperson Robb London told The Crimson the school would select a new seal by 2017, in time for the school’s bicentennial celebration.

Two years later, a Crimson article by Aidan F. Ryan (aidan.ryan@thecrimson.com. Twitter @AidanRyanNH) reported on the status of the removal. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/4/24/hls-continues-no-seal/ 

At the end of that celebration, but the school remained seal-less. In an interview in 2018, Law School Dean John F. Manning ’82 said administrators have focused on the school’s capital campaign and the bicentennial and will adopt a new seal later. “It’s been a very busy year,” Manning said. “We want to think about what is a fair and effective process for identifying a new seal.”

Tthe Law School worked quickly to remove the Royall badges from campus and from Law School websites. The endeavor was mostly successful, but the seal was still visible at some locations on the Law School campus in 2017. The three wheatsheaves of the Royall coat of arms remained in at least one location on campus—the door of a Harvard-owned property at 10 Mt. Auburn St.

“As soon as the Corporation accepted the recommendation to retire the shield, the School undertook an effort to remove all known instances of it from campus locations, print materials, licensed products and web content," said Matthew Gruber, Dean of Administration. 

Amanda M. Lee, former president of the Law School student government, wrote in an email that the absence of an official seal has not generated much concern among the student body, but some students “had concerns that the diploma might have a blank seal.” Manning confirmed diplomas will bear the University’s “Veritas” seal.

The university in 2021 has meanwhile created an alumni focus group to assist The University's Committee to Articulate Principles Involved in Renaming, chaired by Drew Faust. Here are the Committee's questions in July 2021:

- How do buildings, landmarks, and other named entities factor into your personal experience and sense of belonging at Harvard? Please offer examples.

- What factors and University values are most important to consider when deciding whether to rename an entity on campus? How should we take account of and balance both a namesake’s positive contributions and their failures and flaws? How do we understand these in light of the era in which the namesake lived? In light of the era in which a name was bestowed?

- How should we ensure that renaming does not result in erasing past history? What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of removing a name versus contextualizing the history of the namesake? What factors would you consider in determining whether to do one or the other?

LORD DUNMORE | Oct. 24 – Attacks Norfolk, Stirs Up Fear

John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore
Knew what he was fighting for.
His threats made Patriots incensed.
(He knew less what he fought against.)

Clerihew by JT Marlin. Portrait attributed by
Google to Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792).

October 24, 2017 – This day in 1775, Virginia's last royal governor, John Murray (4th Earl of Dunmore), ordered six British Navy ships to sail up the James River, attack Patriot troops and destroy the town of Norfolk, Virginia.

This and related actions during his short term as Governor  contributed to the momentum of the American Revolution.

He helped create in Virginia a climate of fear of British rule, encouraged by Virginia Whigs (Patriots). This made them responsive to rebellions in New England.

Lord Dunmore was born in 1732, son of William Murray, the third Earl. He succeeded his father to the earldom in 1756 and took his place in the House of Lords in 1761-1774 and 1776-1790. 

As a reward for involvement in British politics, he was named British Governor of the Province of New York from 1770 to 1771. When the Governor of Virginia died, Dunmore was named to replace him. During 1774-1776, he became the last Royal Governor of Virginia.  He made a mighty contribution to the American rebel cause, although that might not have been so clear at the time.

Dunmore began his governorship well, from the perspective of both Virginians and the British Government. He successfully launched an attack on threatening Shawnee Indians. However, he was concerned about the independence of the Virginia militias and on April 20, 1775 he removed gunpowder from the colonial Virginia capital of Williamsburg, taking the powder to British ships anchored offshore. He also brought his family from the governor's Palace to the ships. 

Local Whig (Patriot) citizens were concerned that removing the gunpowder was not merely an attempt to reserve power to the King George, but removing their ability to respond to violence from their slaves, whom Dunmore saw as a possible ally.

Dunmore's reaction to this Whig criticism was to announce that any attack on the Governor's troops would force him to pursue the option of freeing his own slaves and arming them to fight against the rebels.

The Virginia planters, collectively owning about 180,000 slaves, were shocked. They began sympathizing with the New England Yankees, who had been calling for revolt. 

By June, Lord Dunmore retreated to the HMS Fowey, a British warship in the James River. (His family returned to Scotland.) He began to assemble a small fleet to strike back at the rebels and advertised that runaways that were able to make their way to his fleet would be welcomed. 

Those were fighting words. The rebels – the Whigs now increasingly joined by Tories – responded by increasing slave patrols and threatening extreme punishment for slaves that tried to escape to the HMS Fowey. Slaves that were caught were given lashes and worse.

As ordered, Captain Matthew Squire led the six British ships into Hampton Creek and began bombarding Norfolk with artillery and cannon fire, while a second contingent of British troops sailed ashore to begin engaging the Patriots.

The British Navy expected the Patriots and local militia to come charging out and engaging in open combat. They were surprised that the Patriots knew a thing or two about "secret war" – i.e., guerrilla warfare – from George Washington's tutelage years before under General Braddock in the French and Indian War. Lord Dunmore should also have known better because the Murray and Douglas families in Scotland perfected secret warfare against Edwards I-III.

The British came under fire from expert Patriot riflemen, and Virginia’s local militia leader, Colonel William Woodford, marched an additional 100 members to defend Norfolk. With reinforcements in place, the Patriots pushed the British back to their ships, where riflemen again picked off British troops on their decks. 

Seeing defeat ahead at the hands of the local militia, Captain Squire ordered a full retreat, during which two of the six British ships ran aground and were captured. The Patriots did not suffer a single fatality.


Dunmore's response was to declare martial law on November 14, 1775. He issued a proclamation that freed

all indented Servants, Negroes, or others … that are able and willing to bear Arms.

He made no distinction between Patriot or Loyalist property. George Washington, commander of Patriot forces, was deeply worried. He said that Dunmore must be crushed, or slave defections would become like a rolling "snow ball." (Washington to Reed, December 15, 1775, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, Vol. 2, 553.)

Dunmore returned home to Scotland in 1776. The position of Royal Governor of Virginia was never filled again.

Other Posts on Related Topics: Lord Dunmore's Battles.