Editing Thomas Clap (section)

{{Short description|American academic and Congregational minister (1703–1767)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = [[The Reverend]]
| name        = Thomas Clap
| image       =
| order    = 5th
| title       = [[List of Presidents of Yale University|President]] of [[Yale University]]
| term_start  = 1745
| term_end    = 1766
| predecessor = [[Elisha Williams]]<br>{{small|''as rector''}}
| successor   = [[Naphtali Daggett]]<br>{{small|as ''pro tempore''}}
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1703|6|26}}
| birth_place = [[Scituate, Massachusetts|Scituate]], [[Massachusetts]]
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1767|1|7|1703|6|26}}
| death_place = [[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]], [[Connecticut]]
| alma_mater  = [[Harvard University|Harvard College]]
}}
'''Thomas Clap''' or '''Thomas Clapp''' (June 26, 1703 – January 7, 1767) was an American academic and educator, a [[Congregational church|Congregational]] minister, and college administrator. He was both the fifth [[Rector (academia)|rector]] and the earliest official to be called "[[List of Presidents of Yale University|president]]" of [[Yale College]] (1740–1766).<ref>Welch, Lewis ''et al.'' (1899). [https://books.google.com/books?id=V8wWAAAAIAAJ&dq=Yale+and+Noah+Porter&pg=PA301 ''Yale, Her Campus, Class-rooms, and Athletics,'' p. 445.]</ref> He is best known for his successful reform of Yale in the 1740s, partnering with [[Samuel Johnson (American educator)|the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson]] to restructure the forty-year-old institution along more modern lines. He convinced the Connecticut Assembly to exempt Yale from paying taxes. He opened a second college house and doubled the size of the college.<ref name="same91"/>

Yale graduated more students than [[Harvard University|Harvard]] beginning in 1756.<ref name="same91">Kimball, Bruce A., ''The True Professional Ideal in America: A History'', Rowman & Littlefield, 1996; Appendix 2</ref> He introduced Enlightenment math and science and Johnson's moral philosophy into the curriculum, while retaining its Puritan theology. He also helped found the [[Linonian Society]] in 1753, a literary and debating society and one of Yale's oldest secret societies. He personally built the first [[Orrery]] in America, a milestone of American science, and awarded his friend [[Benjamin Franklin]] an honorary degree.

His educational accomplishments were marred by many political, theological, and polity conflicts, with first the [[Old and New Light|New Light]] faction in Connecticut, then the [[Anglicanism|Anglicans]], then the [[Old and New Light|Old Light]] faction. He fought with the Connecticut Assembly, the Yale board, and finally, with his own tutors and students. He was forced to resign as president of Yale in 1766 and died soon after.