In the Memoirs 3 of Joseph Priestley, it is related: "Soon after his settlement at Northumberland, many persons, with a view that his qualifications as an instructor of youth should not be wholly lost to the country, concnrred in a plan for the establishment of a college at Northumberland. To this scheme several subscribed from this motive alone. Many of the principal landowners, partly from the above and partly from motives of interest, contributed largely both in money and land, and there was a fair prospect, from the liberal principles upon which it was founded, that it would have been of very great advantage to the country. My father was requested to draw up a plan of the course of study he would recommend, as well as the rules for the internal management of the institution, and he was appointed President. He however declined receiving any emolument, and proposed giving such lectures as he was best qualified for, gratis; in the same manner as he had done at Hackney, and he meant to have given to the institution the use of his library and apparatus, until the students could have been furnished with them by means of the funds of the college. In consequence of the unexpected failure of some of the principal contributors, the scheme fell through at that time, and little more was done during my father's llfe time than to raise the shell of a convenient building."
On January 4, 1795, Priestley 15 wrote from Northumberland to John Vaughan: "I-hope you will not be unmindful of the business of the College that we talked of for this place. If this can be established Mr. Toulmin from Kentucky might join us, and other tutors might come from England. This would add much to my satisfaction." The referenceapparently is to Harry Toulmin who was president of Transylvania University from February, 1794 to April, 1796. The illustration shows a portion of this letter, and is used by courtesy of the American Philosophical Society from a paper in its Library Bulletin. 6z