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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
The College of New Jersey (as Princeton was first called) was opened at Elizabeth in 1747 as the result of a movement, begun in 1739 by the Synod of Philadelphia, to meet a need for Presbyterian educators. The original faculty consisted of one man, President Jonathan Dickinson, who was assisted by a tutor in instructing the six students. Upon the death of Dickinson, the college was moved to the Newark parsonage of the new president, the Rev. Aaron Burr (father of the Vice President). There the first commencement was held November 9, 1748.
The account book of Samuel Livermore, class of 1752, preserved in the
library, gives a picture of student life. For his trip from Boston to New York, 19 days, he carried:
Mr. Livermore's wardrobe included, among other things, 13 shirts and 7 pairs of stockings, but only r pair of breeches. For his studies he carried a
Bible, Latin and Greek testaments and grammars, a Latin dictionary and lexicon, Ward's Introduction to Mathematics, Gordon's Geography, and 2 copy each of Virgil and Cicero.
Seeking a new site, the trustees favored Princeton as the halfway point between New York and Philadelphia. The larger town of New Brunswick, however, was first given an opportunity to provide land and money; neither condition was met, and Princeton's grant was thereupon accepted in 1752. Four years later the college was moved to the newly completed Nassau Hall, "the largest stone building in the Colonies."
Money raising was a serious problem. The stern Presbyterian fathers saw nothing irregular, however, in obtaining funds from lotteries. Five of the seven authorized by the legislature brought not only money but also disputes with the winners, and the last two were abandoned.
A growing spirit of revolt against English authority crystallized when the Rev. John Witherspoon, who had been brought from his native Scotland in 1768 to direct the college, urged the Colonies to declare themselves free. "We are not only ripe [for independence]," he thundered, "but rotting." The students promptly organized a militia company, and for almost eight years the college existed precariously. Nassau Hall was alternately occupied by both armies, yet all commencements except that of 1777 took place on schedule.
Witherspoon accomplished the long, uphill task of reorganizing and rebuilding building the college after the war. Upon his death in 1794 Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith, his son-in-law, became president and the college passed into what has been called the "reign of terror." Although Presbyterian leaders criticized Dr. Smith for his "liberality," he established such strict rules for student conduct that the undergraduates beat their tutors and discharged huge cannon crackers. The burning of Nassau Hall in 1802 was laid to students ; half a dozen young men were expelled.
Dr. Smith's successor, the Rev. Ashbel Green, devised an even more tyrannical discipline that led to the "rebellion of 1817." Shortly after midnight on a January morning the students locked up their tutors and set fire to the outbuildings. When townspeople came to the aid of the college authorities, the rebels barricaded themselves in Old North and held it for a day by virture of cutlasses and pistols. The disturbance was finally quelled, but until Dr. Green resigned in 1822 he continued to make rules and to put all of his remarkable powers at work to enforce them.
While these administrators were partly occupied in limiting student freedom, they were also instituting liberal educational reforms. The establishment of professorships in natural history and chemistry during Smith's administration was the first provision for regular study of these subjects in an American college, outside of medical curricula.
5 quarts of West Ind. Rum
£1 7s 6d
1/4 tb. Tea @ 48s 12s
Canister 6s
1 doz. Fowls £2 8s
2 lb. loaf sugar @ 8s 16s
1 doz. & 8 lemons £1 9s
3 lbs. butter 12s
box 5s
Total £7 15s 6d
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