22
October 1746 A.D. King
George II Grants Charter for College of New Jersey
Graves,
Dan. “Charter for College of New Jersey.”
Christianity.com. Jul 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1701-1800/charter-for-college-of-new-jersey-11630249.html. Accessed 4 Jun 2014.
When William Tennent landed in
Pennsylvania in 1716, after his long voyage from Scotland, he had no great
plans for making a lasting impact on his new homeland. He was just a simple
minister of the gospel. Yet, William Tennent's influence would be greater than
he himself ever imagined.
William served as a pastor of
churches in New York and Pennsylvania. In 1726, he founded a
"seminary" at Neshaminy, New Jersey to train his sons and others for
a gospel ministry. Critics derisively called the school the "Log College"
because of its frontier-like facilities, but the young men trained under
Tennent became pastors of powerful influence.
One of William's sons, Gilbert
Tennent, became pastor of a Presbyterian church in New Brunswick. There he
became friends with the Dutch Reformed pastor Theodore Frelinghuysen, who had
been influenced by European pietists. Both pastors stressed the importance of
the personal conversion to Christianity and life of
holiness which should characterize each Christian. Gilbert Tennent especially
spoke strongly against the lifeless profession of Christianity found in much of
the church. He was annoyed with church members who equated a belief in the
Bible with the conversion and saving faith of a Christian. Tennent believed
that false doctrine and a denial of the faith were not the greatest danger at
this time in the churches. More dangerous was the false security many had of
professing Christianity, but never recognizing a personal need for redemption
and deliverance from the terrors of judgment.
Under the teaching of Tennent
and others from the Log College, a revival spread throughout the middle
colonies. This was part of an international Protestant revival in the early
eighteenth century which became known in America as the Great Awakening. When
the famed English evangelist George Whitefield visited the Tennents and their
Log College, he compared the school to an Old Testament school of the prophets
where young men were trained to boldly speak the Word of God.
One of the men who had joined
the Tennents in promoting revival was Jonathan Dickenson of Massachusetts. He
became a pastor at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where he ministered to both the
spiritual and physical needs of his congregation, since he was also a medical
doctor. When the New Jersey Presbyterian churches separated from the Synod of
Philadelphia, Dickenson took advantage of the situation to apply for a charter
for a College of New Jersey. On this day, October 22, 1746, the charter for the College of New Jersey was granted in the name of
King George II. The school was unique in the colonies, as it accepted students
of any religious denomination.
Dickenson became its first
President, and many Log College men were on the Board of Trustees. Classes
opened in Elizabethtown the next year, but Dickenson died within five months of
the school's opening. The Rev. Aaron Burr became the second President and the
true founder of the college. Under his presidency, the college was moved to
Princeton, and Nassau Hall built.
For its first two decades, the
new college had difficulty keeping Presidents. Aaron Burr died in 1757. When
Jonathan Edward succeeded him, he died within a few months from a smallpox
inoculation. The next President, Samuel Davies, died within two years. Finally,
in 1768, the Rev. John Witherspoon of Scotland was chosen as President.
Recognized for scholarship in both Britain and America, Witherspoon led
Princeton (as the college became known) to a place of prominence in the new
American nation.
Bibliography:
2. Mills, W. Jay. Glimpses of Colonial Society and the Life at
Princeton College 1766-1773. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1903.
3. "Princeton's History." Parent's Handbook 2002-2003. http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/ph/02/03.htm
Last updated July,
2007.
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