Little Ivies

This is a substantial portion of the will of the Francis West [Wast] of North Kingstown, Rhode Island. A copy of the will is currently owned by the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence. Francis was the son of Francis West [Wast] and Susanna Soule, and the grandson of Pilgrim George Soule. Francis names his children Peter West, John West, and Susannah West, Sarah West, Mary West, Francis West, and Thomas West, and wife, Sarah West. Several boilerplate and redundant passages have been omitted.

In the Name of god...Day of June 1712 Francis Wast of Kingstown in ye Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England. I being very sick and weak in body but by the mercy of God am at this present of perfect and sound mind and memory thanks be given to almighty God therefore But falling to [mind] the uncertainty of this [Francis in my] life and knowing not how soon it may [be for] God to take me out of this world....From my Will...bequeth to my two eldest sons, Peter Wast and John Wast to them and their Heirs for ever my farm that I now Dwell on which I bought and purchased of the committee appointed by the Colony of Rhoad Island for the disposing of the vacant lands to be equally divided between my two [Sr] sons when they shall attain the age of twenty-one years only if it is to be understood that my son Peter Wast shall have and enjoy that part on which my house stands on with the house or housing there on. From my Will is that Sarah Wast my wife shall have and enjoy all my movable estate and stock of creatures to be for her subsistence and for the bringing up of my children my will is also that my wife shall have and enjoy the use and benefit of my dwelling house with my son Peter Wast during her widowhood but if my wife should happen to marry then my said son Peter after he attaines to the age of twenty one years shall have and enjoy my [sr] house or housing holy to him...I give unto my Eldest daughter Susannah Wast fourty shilling in [the] money of this Colony to be paid to her when she shall attaine to eighteen years of age or Day of her marriage which shall first happen...I give to my Duaghter Sarah West fourty shillings in the currency money...I also give unto my Daughter Mary Wast fourty shillings...I give unto my son Francis Wast five pounds in current money of this colony...I give unto my son Thomas West five pounds...In witness whereof the [Sr] Francis Wast have there [unto]

Francis West
his marker


Signed sealed published and Decleared to be the last will and testament of Francis Wast in the presence of [God]
Witnesses
John Jones
Margaret Jones
Samll Jones

Samll Jones one of the witnesses to the above written will of Francis Wast appeared before the Commee of North Kings Town the 13th day of October 1724 and on this solemn engagement declared...

...Recorded November 1724...

20 Comments:

At 9:55 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Would a Little Ivies newsletter published between the schools be possible?

 
At 9:08 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey, what about barnard?

 
At 11:00 PM, Blogger Administrator said...

Even though Barnard is indeed a small, prestigious, liberal arts college, Barnard is typically classified as one of the "Seven Sisters" colleges.

 
At 4:50 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

How about College of the Holy cross?

 
At 7:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey, why isn't suffolk a little ivy?

 
At 10:20 PM, Blogger Administrator said...

While its true that the College of the Holy Cross and Suffolk University are both prestigious New England institutions, they are not part of the NESCAC sports league, and Suffolk has always been a fairly large university and not a liberal arts college.

 
At 9:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why the term "Little Ivy" to refer to elite liberal arts colleges? Universities like MIT, Stanford, Duke, Chicago, Cal Tech, Northwestern and Johns Hopkins -- none of which are among the eight schools that make up the athletic conference known as the Ivy League – don’t call themselves "non-Ivy League Ivies"; they're just damn fine schools.

Even if the term "Little Ivy" made sense, it's too easily abused. There are only five or ten liberal arts colleges that are comparably selective to any one Ivy League university, but the term "Little Ivy" (like the similarly ridiculous “Public Ivy”) seems to be applied very liberally.

It can certainly be argued that Williams and Pomona (to name but two examples) merit the Ivy League comparison, but to be blunt about it, some colleges aren't "Little Ivies" because the "Ivy" label implies some equivalence to at least one of the eight Ivy League schools. Calling a school with an average SAT score around 1250 an “Ivy” is simply innacurate. Even top liberal arts schools like Trinity, Conn College and Holy Cross are notably less selective than a “lower-end” Ivy like Cornell.

To my mind, the "Little Ivy" label -- even when applied to schools which are reasonably compared to the eight Ivy League universities -- smacks of insecurity. Is it not good enough merely to have graduated from a fantastic undergraduate college like Amherst or Middlebury? Personally, I’d rather not ride anybody else’s coattails. Give me NESCAC over Ivy any day of the week.

 
At 2:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The term "Little Ivies" would indeed work because schools like Amherst, Bowdoin, and Tufts all have SAT avgs in the lower 700's (each test) - comparitive to the larger ivies. To boot, their admission processes are very similar, as is the quality of academia and ability to find jobs afterwords.

 
At 12:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's what I said above: "[T]here are only five or ten liberal arts colleges that are comparably selective to any one Ivy League university." That group includes both Amherst and Bowdoin. It does not include some other schools to which the "Little Ivy" label is often applied.

And this doesn't address my second point, which was that this term sounds insecure. As I said above: "Is it not good enough merely to have graduated from a fantastic undergraduate college like Amherst or Middlebury? Personally, I’d rather not ride anybody else’s coattails. Give me NESCAC over Ivy any day of the week."

As for Tufts: It enrolls 4,900 undergraduates, which is more than Dartmouth (4,000), Columbia College (4,100) and Princeton (4,600). And it has a total enrollment of 8,500, making it bigger than Brown (7,500). How can Tufts be a "little Ivy" if it's bigger than several of the "big Ivies"? Tufts is a great school, but it's not a "little" anything.

 
At 6:07 PM, Blogger Administrator said...

First of all, the term Little Ivies on this site is self defined. Furthermore, it may not be a perfect analogy to the Ivy League but basically these schools are to liberal arts colleges what what the Ivies are to large research universities...among the most prestigious schools of their type in the northeast. It may be a bit of a pretentious term, but it is commonly used in the region and it a bit more descriptive than "NESCAC."

 
At 5:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

While there certainly are colleges and universities who rank at or above many of the larger "Ivies", (Stanford, Chicago, Duke etc.) and may warrant recognition comparable to the Ivies, as a group the highly selective group of NESCAC schools is closest in make-up to the larger Ivies as a whole.

 
At 12:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

NESCAC is indeed an unfortunate name for the conference. But for reasons I've already noted above, "Little Ivies" isn't any better.

One of the problems with the term "Little Ivies" is that it's totally "self-defined," as you put it. And as you've defined the term, it's both over- and underinclusive.

It's overinclusive in the sense that the NESCAC includes one school which is as large as several of the actual Ivies, and several schools which arguably fall well below any of the actual Ivies in terms of reputation, etc.

And it's underinclusive in the sense that the NESCAC doesn't include several schools (Swat, Pomona, Carleton, Haverford) to which the label "Little Ivies" has traditionally been applied. So using it to refer exclusively to the NESCAC schools is just confusing.

Stanford, Duke, Chicago & Co. don't need to attach the word "Ivy" to their names to convey academic excellence; why should the top liberal arts schools?

 
At 5:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

While I can see the points that the previous Anonymous posters are making, I think they're belaboring a rather insignificant detail. It IS just a name that someone chose to use.... deal with it and move on. Or better yet, make another web site where you can advertise your OWN classification of schools (liberal arts or not).

 
At 7:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I sincerely hope the poster commenting that Suffolk should be considered little ivy was joking.

According to the princeton review:
Suffolk University average SAT: 1090
Trinity College (lowest on the list)=1303

A 213 point difference on SAT's is faily significant. I have also never heard of Suffolk's undergrad program being considered prestitious.

 
At 7:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

fyi... there's a site associated with these schools that is dedicated to news about these schools... NESCACNation... http://www.nescacnation.com

 
At 5:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brown? I always considered Brown among the, "Little Ivies."

 
At 10:50 PM, Blogger Administrator said...

Brown is an "Ivy"...a member of the Ivy League (a sport league).

 
At 7:52 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Get over yourselves..............

 
At 11:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fight fight fight fight
Fight on for Bates....

It's a socioeconomic deal folks...

Suffolk isn't in that league at all.

Frankly, Amherst, Williams and Wesleyan have always been the REAL little Ivies....toughest to get into.

Bowdoin as well.

Holding my nose high and looking silly.

 
At 9:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

what about Occidental?

 

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