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.

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.