Once sanctioned, it took five years before Queen’s College was open for business. The Dutch Reformed church had no control over the affairs of Queen’s College, but insisted that the president be a member of the church. It was 20 years before the school appointed its first president, Jacob Rusten Hardenbergh, who had played a pivotal role in obtaining the 1766 charter.

The trustees of Queen’s College met in 1771 to determine the academy’s location. With the reversal of just two votes, Rutgers University might well be located in Hackensack today. Rev. John H. Goetschius had begun a grammar school in Hackensack and argued that municipality was a logical location for Queen’s College because of its large Dutch population. But another grammar school, the precursor to Rutgers Preparatory School, was established in 1768, convincing enough trustees to go with New Brunswick. They voted to locate Queen’s College in that city by a vote of 10 to seven. 

Frederick Frelinghuysen was Queen’s College first tutor, or professor. In November of 1771, he began instruction for the first students of the college at the “Sign of the Red Lion,” a former tavern located in New Brunswick at Albany and Neilson streets. Enrollment grew, and three years later more than 20 students were enrolled.

The Revolutionary War saw students, tutors and trustees join in the fight for independence from England. Frelinghuysen served as major of the Minute Men and colonel in the Continental Army. John Taylor, who taught at the school starting in 1773, served as a colonel in the militia. He also held class with a half-dozen students in an abandoned church while New Brunswick was occupied. The college was located in Millstone for about a year until the tutors and students were able to return to New Brunswick in 1781. 

Budget hardships plagued the school in the 18th century. By 1789, the college had run a deficit and was unable to fulfill salaries of the president or tutors. Times were so hard that the trustees considered merging Queen’s with the College of New Jersey (Princeton). That didn’t happen, but the college did shut its doors from 1795 to 1807. The efforts of Andrew Kirkpatrick, Chief Justice of New Jersey, and Rev. Ira Condict, the college’s third president, renewed interest in the college and helped secure money and land to re-establish the college and construct a new building on a five-acre plot of land bounded by Somerset and George streets – what we know today as Old Queen’s campus.