Harvard family

John Harvard (1607-1638) was an English clergyman who settled in the American colonies, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1637. John Harvard left half his estate and library to the newly founded college at Newtown (which later became Cambridge, Massachusetts). The Massachusetts General Court named the college in his honor in 1639. The college became Harvard University in 1780. Other members of the Harvard family who had a Harvard University connection were Lionel de Jersey Harvard (1893-1918) and Peter John de Jersey Harvard (b. 1916).