At a meeting of the corportion, in May, a communication was received from the trustees, expressing sentiments of cordiality toward the Hampton Proprietary School, and proposing the appointment by the proprietors, of a permanent board of trustees, authorized, in a manner similar to the usages of other literary institutions, to solicit and receive in trust donations to aid in establishing and perpetuating an Academy in this town.

The proprietors, pleased with the suggestion of the trustees, requested Rev. Jonathan French to nominate a number of persons, in his opinion suitable for a permanent board; and, at a subsequent meeting, voted that a new choice of trustees be organized as a permanent board, "with power to fill their own vacancies, and so perpetuate their own body."

Having elected a board of thirteen trustees, [See list at close of this chapter.] the proprietors immediately set about transferring to them all the "rights, interests, privileges and immunities" of the corporation, to be held by them in trust, for the use and benefit of the institution, "and for the promotion of education therein;" the transfer to take effect, when it should receive the signatures of the owners of seven-eighths of all the shares in the corporation; which signatures were at once affixed, and the transfer concluded.

The same day, August 8, 1821, the new board adopted a constitution, previously drawn up by Rev. Messrs. Webster and French, and Timothy Farrar, Esq., of which the following is an abstract: [See next section.]