History of the College of New Jersey (Volume 1); From Its Origin in 1746 to the Commencement of 1854 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE CHARTERS OF 1746 AND 1748. The first charter of the College passed the great seal of the Province on the 22d of October, 1746, and it was attested by John Hamilton, Esq., President of his Majesty's Council, and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of New Jersey, as appears from a memorandum made in Book C of Commissions and Charters, etc., page 137, in the office of the Secretary of State for New Jersey. The charter itself is not given in these records. By the parties to whom it was granted it is spoken of as a charter with full and ample privileges, and one by which equal liberties and privileges are secured to every denomination of Christians, any different religious sentiments notwithstanding. In an advertisement in the New York Gazette and Weekly Post Boy of February 2, 1746-47, it is mentioned that this charter was granted to Jonathan Dickinson, John Pierson, Ebenezer Pemberton, Aaron Burr, ministers of the gospel, and some other gentlemen, as Trustees of said College. According to a memorandum made by Mr. Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, of Princeton, the gentleman who gave to the College the land upon which Nassau Hall is erected, the whole number of Trustees under the first charter was twelve. This comprises all that is now positively known respecting this charter, of which neither the original nor any copy is to be found. In his biographical sketches of Presbyterian ministers in this country, the late Rev. Richard Webster mentions that the Rev. Thomas Arthur was one of the original Trustees of the College. This is by no means improbable; but on what authority, or with what understanding of its import, this statement is made, is not known. Mr. Arthur was the pastor of the Presbyterian church in New Brunswick, and a member not of th...