Harvard

The last name I expected to crop up when I went on a Tudor London guided walk earlier this evening was Harvard University, but it did come up when we stopped at Southwark Cathedral near London Bridge. John Harvard, the first benefactor of the famous university and after whom it is named, was born in Southwark in 1607. He had eight brothers and sisters but most died in a plague epidemic of 1625. His father was from Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace, so it is possible that Harvard and Shakespeare knew each other. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre is just a short distance from Southwark Cathedral (although Harvard probably disapproved of it, since he was a strict Puritan by all accounts). John Harvard emigrated to America, but he died young (in 1638 at the age of 30). He bequeathed his money and his extensive library of books to what had been called New College, but which was soon renamed Harvard College. There is a Harvard chapel in Southwark Cathedral now, its modern reconstruction having been paid for by staff and graduates of Harvard University.