According to archival history, being a faculty member during Rutgers’ early days meant meeting in abandoned churches to hide from British occupiers, or spending sabbaticals fighting with the Continental Army. Budget constraints in the late 1790s didn’t mean teaching larger course sections, it meant forgoing salaries.
Rutgers celebrates its 240th birthday Friday, November 10. On that day in 1766, the son of Benjamin Franklin and the Royal Governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, granted a charter for Queen’s College.
The university has come a long way since then, when the signing of the charter signaled the culmination of a nearly 20-year struggle by a group of Dutch Reformed clerics fighting to sever their dependence from the church in the Netherlands. Although the relationship between New Jersey and Rutgers clearly dates to colonial times, this year also marks the 50th anniversary of the designation of Rutgers as The State University of New Jersey.
“Our status as New Jersey’s state university provides our unique mission to serve the nearly 9 million people who live in every corner of this state. It also has transformed Rutgers into one of the nation’s most powerful engines of knowledge, scholarship and opportunity,” said Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick. “No other educational institution in New Jersey has our mission.”
University archivist Thomas Frusciano has a good historical grasp of the circumstances surrounding the founding of Rutgers, but not many details are known about many of the actual founders. His Queen’s Charter Project is an effort to explore the backgrounds of the men who came together to found Queen’s College.
The charter celebrated each November 10 at Rutgers is nowhere to be found. “Extensive searches have been conducted in London, Amsterdam, and Trenton by members of the university community, including the late Richard P. McCormick, but to no avail,” said Frusciano. “In 1770, Governor Franklin issued a new charter, a printed copy of which was not obtained by Rutgers until 1906. In that year Rutgers College librarian George Osborn purchased the 1770 charter (pictured above) from a book dealer for $50.” Even in 1906, $50 was a bargain, Frusciano said.
The following information about the founders comes from “A Historical Sketch of Rutgers University,” written by Frusciano and located on the web site of Special Collections and University Archives.
Men including Theodore Frelinghuysen and Jacob Rutsen
Hardenbergh traveled between New York and Europe in an effort to “plant a
university or seminary for young men destined for study in the learned
languages and liberal arts.” Before Queen’s College, men aspiring to be
ministers had to travel across the Atlantic to Amsterdam for their training.