The Nine Colonial Colleges
Seven of the nine colonial colleges began their histories as institutions of higher learning de novo (i.e., with no predecessor parent organization). Dartmouth College began operating in 1768 as the collegiate department of Moor's Charity School, a secondary school started in 1754 by Dartmouth founder Eleazar Wheelock. Dartmouth considers its founding date to be 1769, when it was granted a collegiate charter. The University of Pennsylvania began operating in 1751 as a secondary school, the Academy of Philadelphia, and added an institution of higher education in 1755 with the granting of a charter to the College of Philadelphia.
| Institution (present name, where different) | Colony | Founded | Chartered | First instruction (degrees) | Primary religious influence | Ivy League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New College (Harvard University) |
Massachusetts Bay Colony | 1636 | 1650 | 1642 (1642) | Puritan (Congregational) | Yes |
| The College of William & Mary | Colony and Dominion of Virginia | 1693 | 1693 | Church of England | No | |
| Collegiate School (Yale University) |
Connecticut Colony | 1701 | 1701 | Puritan (Congregational) | Yes | |
| College of New Jersey (Princeton University) |
Province of New Jersey | 1746 | 1746 | 1747 (1748) | Presbyterian but officially nonsectarian | Yes |
| College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania) |
Province of Pennsylvania | 1740 | 1755 | 1755 (1757) | Church of England but officially nonsectarian | Yes |
| King's College (Columbia University in the City of New York) |
Province of New York | 1754 | 1754 | Church of England with a policy of commitment to "religious liberty." | Yes | |
| Rhode Island College (chartered as the College or University in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, in America) (Brown University) |
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations | 1764 | 1764 | Baptist (no religious requirement for admissions) | Yes | |
| Queen's College (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey) |
Province of New Jersey | 1766 | 1766 | 1771 (1774) | Dutch Reformed | No |
| Dartmouth College | Province of New Hampshire | 1769 | 1769 | 1768 (1771) | Puritan (Congregational) | Yes |
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Famous quotes containing the words colonial and/or colleges:
“The North will at least preserve your flesh for you; Northerners are pale for good and all. There’s very little difference between a dead Swede and a young man who’s had a bad night. But the Colonial is full of maggots the day after he gets off the boat.”
—Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894–1961)
“If the factory people outside the colleges live under the discipline of narrow means, the people inside live under almost every other kind of discipline except that of narrow means—from the fruity austerities of learning, through the iron rations of English gentlemanhood, down to the modest disadvantages of occupying cold stone buildings without central heating and having to cross two or three quadrangles to take a bath.”
—Margaret Halsey (b. 1910)