A college officer was called an Officer of the House.

The steward shall be bound to give an account of the necessary disbursements which have been issued out to the steward himself, butler, cook, or any other officer of the House.—­Quincy’s Hist.  Harv.  Univ., Vol.  I. p. 582.

Neither shall the butler or cook suffer any scholar or scholars whatever, except the Fellows, Masters of Art, Fellow-Commoners or officers of the House, to come into the butteries, &c.—­Ibid., Vol.  I. p. 584.

Before the year 1708, the term Fellows of the House was applied, at Harvard College, both to the members of the Corporation, and to the instructors who did not belong to the Corporation.  The equivocal meaning of this title was noticed by President Leverett, for, in his duplicate record of the proceedings of the Corporation and the Overseers, he designated certain persons to whom he refers as “Fellows of the House, i.e. of the Corporation.”  Soon after this, an attempt was made to distinguish between these two classes of Fellows, and in 1711 the distinction was settled, when one Whiting, “who had been for several years known as Tutor and ‘Fellow of the House,’ but had never in consequence been deemed or pretended to be a member of the Corporation, was admitted to a seat in that board.”—­Quincy’s Hist.  Harv.  Univ., Vol.  I. pp. 278, 279.  See SCHOLAR OF THE HOUSE.

2.  An assembly for transacting business.

See CONGREGATION, CONVOCATION.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.  At Union College, the members of the Junior Class compose what is called the House of Representatives, a body organized after the manner of the national House, for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the forms and manner of legislation.  The following account has been furnished by a member of that College.

“At the end of the third term, Sophomore year, when the members of that class are looking forward to the honors awaiting them, comes off the initiation to the House.  The Friday of the tenth week is the day usually selected for the occasion.  On the afternoon of that day the Sophomores assemble in the Junior recitation-room, and, after organizing themselves by the appointment of a chairman, are waited upon by a committee of the House of Representatives of the Junior Class, who announce that they are ready to proceed with the initiation, and occasionally dilate upon the importance and responsibility of the future position of the Sophomores.

“The invitation thus given is accepted, and the class, headed by the committee, proceeds to the Representatives’ Hall.  On their arrival, the members of the House retire, and the incoming members, under the direction of the committee, arrange themselves around the platform of the Speaker, all in the room at the same time rising in their seats.  The Speaker of the House now addresses the Sophomores, announcing to them their election to the high position of Representatives, and exhorting them to discharge well all their duties to their constituents and their common country.  He closes, by stating it to be their first business to elect the officers of the House.