Brown University

Main article: History of Brown University Foundation and charter Petitioner Ezra Stiles later became the seventh president of Yale College . Petitioner William Ellery signed the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. In 1761, three residents of Newport, Rhode Island , drafted a petition to the colony's General Assembly : [ 29 ] That your Petitioners propose to open a literary institution or School for instructing young Gentlemen in the Languages, Mathematics, Geography & History, & such other branches of Knowledge as shall be desired. That for this End ... it will be necessary ... to erect a public Building or Buildings for the boarding of the youth & the Residence of the Professors. The three petitioners were Ezra Stiles , pastor of Newport's Second Congregational Church and future president of Yale University ; William Ellery Jr. , future signer of the United States Declaration of Independence ; and Josias Lyndon , future governor of the colony. Stiles and Ellery later served as co-authors of the college's charter two years later. The editor of Stiles's papers observes, "This draft of a petition connects itself with other evidence of Dr. Stiles's project for a Collegiate Institution in Rhode Island, before the charter of what became Brown University." [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 13 ] The Philadelphia Baptist Association was also interested in establishing a college in Rhode Island, which was founded as a Baptist colony in America, including the mother-church of all American Baptists : the First Baptist Church in America . At the time, the Baptists were unrepresented among the colonial colleges; the Congregationalists had Harvard University and Yale University, the Presbyterians had the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton University , and the Episcopalians had the College of William & Mary and King's College, which later became Columbia University .

The local University of Pennsylvania in their native Philadelphia was founded by Benjamin Franklin without direct association with any particular denomination. [ 31 ] Isaac Backus , the Baptist minister and historian of the New England Baptists, who was an inaugural trustee of Brown University, wrote of the October 1762 resolution taken at Philadelphia: [ 13 ] The Philadelphia Association obtained such an acquaintance with our affairs, as to bring them to an apprehension that it was practicable and expedient to erect a college in the Colony of Rhode-Island, under the chief direction of the Baptists; ... Mr. James Manning , who took his first degree in New-Jersey college in September, 1762, was esteemed a suitable leader in this important work. James Manning arrived at Newport in July 1763 and was introduced to Stiles, who agreed to write the charter for the college. Stiles' first draft was read to the General Assembly in August 1763, and rejected by Baptist members who worried that their denomination would be underrepresented in the College Board of Fellows. A revised charter written by Stiles and Ellery was adopted by the Rhode Island General Assembly on March 3, 1764, in East Greenwich . [ 32 ] Brown's first president, minister James Manning The Ezra Stiles copy of Brown's 1764 charter In September 1764, the inaugural meeting of the corporation—the college's governing body—was held in Newport's Old Colony House . Governor Stephen Hopkins was chosen chancellor, former and future governor Samuel Ward vice chancellor, John Tillinghast treasurer, and Thomas Eyres secretary. The charter stipulated that the board of trustees should be composed of 22 Baptists, 5 Quakers , 5 Episcopalians, and 4 Congregationalists. Of the 12 Fellows, 8 should be Baptists—including the college president—"and the rest indifferently of any or all Denominations." [ 13 ] At the time of its creation, Brown's charter was a uniquely progressive document.

[ 33 ] Other colleges had curricular strictures against opposing doctrines, while Brown's charter asserted, "Sectarian differences of opinions, shall not make any Part of the Public and Classical Instruction." The document additionally "recognized more broadly and fundamentally than any other [university charter] the principle of denominational cooperation." [ 13 ] The oft-repeated statement that Brown's charter alone prohibited a religious test for College membership is inaccurate; other college charters were similarly liberal in that particular. [ 34 ] This 1792 engraving is the first published image of Brown. University Hall stands on the right while the President's House sits on the left. The college was founded as Rhode Island College, at the site of the First Baptist Church in Warren, Rhode Island. [ 35 ] Manning was sworn in as the college's first president in 1765 and remained in the role until 1791. In 1766, the college authorized Morgan Edwards to travel to Europe to "solicit Benefactions for this Institution". [ 34 ] During his year-and-a-half stay in the British Isles , Edwards secured funding from benefactors including Thomas Penn and Benjamin Franklin . [ 34 ] In 1770, the college moved from Warren to Providence. To establish a campus, John and Moses Brown purchased a four-acre lot on the crest of College Hill on behalf of the school. The majority of the property fell within the bounds of the original home lot of Chad Brown , an ancestor of the Browns and one of the original proprietors of Providence Plantations . [ 36 ] After the college was relocated to the city, work began on constructing its first building. A building committee, organized by the corporation, developed plans for the college's first purpose-built edifice, finalizing a design on February 9, 1770. The subsequent structure, referred to as "The College Edifice" and later as University Hall , may have been modeled on Nassau Hall , built 14 years prior at the College of New Jersey .

President Manning, an active member of the building process, was educated at Princeton and might have suggested that Brown's first building resemble that of his alma mater . [ 37 ] Brown family Following the gift of Nicholas Brown Jr. (Class of 1786), the university was renamed in his honor. Nicholas Brown , John Brown , Joseph Brown , and Moses Brown were instrumental in moving the college to Providence, constructing its first building, and securing its endowment. Joseph became a professor of natural philosophy at the college; John served as its treasurer from 1775 to 1796; and Nicholas Sr's son Nicholas Brown Jr. succeeded his uncle as treasurer from 1796 to 1825. [ 38 ] On September 8, 1803, the corporation voted, "That the donation of $5,000, if made to this College within one Year from the late Commencement, shall entitle the donor to name the College." The following year, the appeal was answered by College Treasurer Nicholas Brown Jr. In a letter dated September 6, 1804, Brown committed "a donation of Five Thousand Dollars to Rhode Island College, to remain in perpetuity as a fund for the establishment of a Professorship of Oratory and Belles Letters." In recognition of the gift, the corporation on the same day voted, "That this College be called and known in all future time by the Name of Brown University." [ 39 ] Over the years, the benefactions of Nicholas Brown Jr., totaled nearly $160,000 and included funds for building Hope College (1821–22) and Manning Hall (1834–35). In 1904, the John Carter Brown Library was established as an independently funded research library on Brown's campus; the library's collection was founded on that of John Carter Brown , son of Nicholas Brown Jr. The Brown family was involved in various business ventures in Rhode Island, and accrued wealth both directly and indirectly from the transatlantic slave trade . The family was divided on the issue of slavery. John Brown had defended slavery, while Moses and Nicholas Brown Jr.