Colonial colleges
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The colonial colleges are nine institutions of higher education chartered in the American Colonies before the American Revolution (1775–1783). These nine have long been considered together, notably in the survey of their origins in the 1907 Cambridge History of English and American Literature. Although today most of these institutions refer to themselves as "universities", they are called "colonial colleges" partly because, at the time of the revolution, only Penn called itself a "university". Each had assumed the power to grant academic degrees, a power in Europe only held by universities; several were offering some graduate instruction. (See college for more on American usage of that word.)
The nine colonial colleges are listed below in order of antiquity under the name by which they were known for the bulk of the colonial period. Also listed are the religious groups that were instrumental in each college's foundation and early history. In most cases the listed religious links, although often strong, were de facto rather than official. (At any rate, all have long since affirmed their secularity.) In addition to the religious/secular boundary, the line between state and private control was also far blurrier than today: as the distinction crystalized over time, some schools became fully independent and others part of their state's higher-education system.
Seven of the nine colonial colleges are part of the Ivy League athletic conference: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Brown, and Dartmouth. (The eighth member of the Ivy League, Cornell University, was founded in 1865.) The two colonial colleges not in the Ivy League are both public universities—the College of William and Mary (in the Colonial Athletic Association) and Rutgers University, the state university of New Jersey (in the Big East Conference).
Notes:
Template:Fnb The institution, though founded in 1636, did not receive its name until 1638. It was nameless for its first two years.
Template:Fnb William and Mary sometimes asserts a connection with an attempt to found a "University of Henrico" at Henricopolis (also known as Henricus) in the Colony of Virginia, which received a charter in 1618; but only a small school for Native Americans had begun operation by 1622, when the town was destroyed in a Native American raid. A page on their website says "The College of William & Mary [...] was the first college planned for the United States. Its roots go back to the College proposed at Henrico in 1619." However, it immediately proceeds to note that "The College is second only to Harvard University in actual operation."[1] Since William and Mary describes itself as "America's second-oldest college" and gives its year of founding as 1693, it does not seem to be very serious about suggesting institutional continuity with the University of Henrico.[2]
Template:Fnb There is some disagreement about Penn's date of founding. The University of Pennsylvania was established in 1749 as the Academy of Philadelphia (instruction began in 1751), assuming the educational mandate of the Academy and Charitable School in the Province of Pennsylvania. This was part of a 1740 project that had been planned to comprise both a church and school, though due to insufficient funding only the church was built. The church building was conveyed to the Academy of Philadelphia in 1750. Since 1899, Penn has used 1740 as its official date of founding. See also *[3], [4] (Penn) and [5] (Princeton) for carefully phrased and nuanced details. To complicate the picture, Princeton can point to the Log College operated by a Presbyterian minister in Bucks County, Pennsylvania from 1726 until 1746. Although it has been suggested that there is some connection between this school and the College of New Jersey that would enable Princeton to claim a founding date of 1726, Princeton does not officially do so and a Princeton historian says that the "facts do not warrant" such a claim.
Template:FnbThe question of Penn's founding date leads to a corresponding question about its original religious affiliations. Brown University refers to Penn's origin as "Episcopalian"[6]). Penn's website, like other sources, makes an important point of Penn's educational heritage being nonsectarian (and associated with Benjamin Franklin and the Academy of Philadelphia's nonsectarian board of trustees). Penn's official 1740 founding date is based on an assumption of institutional continuity with George Whitefield's church building and planned charity school. Whitefield was a firebrand Methodist associated with The Great Awakening; since the Methodists did not formally break from the Church of England until 1784, Whitefield in 1740 would be labelled Episcopalian. Thus, a founding date of 1740 would seem to give Penn an Episcopalian founding, while insistence on a "nonsectarian" heritage would seem to place the origin of that heritage no earlier than 1749. The discrepancy could be reconciled by regarding the 1740 charity school as connected with Penn's "founding" but not with its "educational heritage."
Template:FnbBrown's website characterizes it as "the Baptist answer to Congregationalist Yale and Harvard; Presbyterian Princeton; and Episcopalian Penn and Columbia," but adds that at the time it was "the only one that welcomed students of all religious persuasions."[7] Brown's charter stated that "into this liberal and catholic institution shall never be admitted any religious tests, but on the contrary, all the members hereof shall forever enjoy full, free, absolute, and uninterrupted liberty of conscience." The charter called for twenty-two of the thirty-six trustees to be Baptists, but required that the remainder be comprised of "five Friends, four Congregationalists, and five Episcopalians"[8]
Other colonial-era foundations
Several other colleges and universities can be traced to colonial-era "academies" or "schools", but are not considered Colonial Colleges because they were not chartered as "colleges" with the power to grant degrees (and in fact did not grant degrees) until after the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. There were nine colleges in the colonies in 1770; all of them still exist, meaning that the colleges listed below are no older, whatever their origins as grammar schools. There is also the case of Queen's College, in the town of Charlotte, North Carolina, which was granted a charter by the Colonial Legislature in December, 1770. However, this charter was repealed by royal proclamation (because of the school's ties to Presbyterians) and the institution ultimately failed.
| Institution (present name, where different) | Colony | Founded | Chartered | Religious Influence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| King William's School, Annapolis (St. John's College) | Province of Maryland | 1696 | 1784 | many Christian sects |
| Moravian College | Province of Pennsylvania | 1742 | 1863 | Moravian Church |
| Free School (University of Delaware) | Delaware Colony | 1743 | 1833 | Non-sectarian |
| Augusta Academy (Washington and Lee University) | Colony and Dominion of Virginia | 1749 | 1782 | Non-sectarian |
| College of Charleston | Province of South Carolina | 1770 | 1785 | Non-sectarian |
| Salem College | Province of North Carolina | 1772 | 1866 | Moravian Church |
| Dickinson College | Pennsylvania | 1773 | 1783 | Presbyterian Church |
| Hampden-Sydney College | Colony and Dominion of Virginia | 1775 | 1783 | Presbyterian |