Founding of Princeton University
Dickinson had long been interested in starting a new college to serve the middle colonies. When he saw that the existing colleges in New England were hostile to the "New Siders", he returned to the project of establishing a college. Dickinson and three other pastors (Ebenezer Pemberton, Aaron Burr, Sr., and John Pierson) enlisted the support of three laymen (William Smith, Peter Van Brugh Livingston, and William Peartree Smith). Led by Dickinson, this group of seven applied to Governor Lewis Morris for a charter. However, the governor rejected their application because he was an Anglican who opposed the Great Awakening. Following the death of Morris, they re-applied to Acting Governor John Hamilton, who granted a charter on October 22, 1746.
The first trustees, including five Log College adherents enlisted by Dickinson and Pemberton, announced Dickinson's appointment as the first President of Princeton University in April 1747. Classes began the fourth week in May in the parsonage of Dickinson's church in Elizabethtown, with a student body of eight or ten members. Less than five months later, on October 7, 1747, Jonathan Dickinson died suddenly, due to complications related to smallpox.
Read more about this topic: Jonathan Dickinson (New Jersey)
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