Charter of Queen's College

Background. Two decades after the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) was founded in 1746, ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church sought a college in the Thirteen Colonies to train candidates for ministry, seeking autonomy in ecclesiastical affairs. Through several years of effort by Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen and Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh, later the college's first president, the charter was obtained.

The Charter. On November 10, 1766, Queen's College received its charter from William Franklin (1730–1813), New Jersey's last royal governor and son of Benjamin Franklin. The charter established the college under the corporate name the trustees of Queen's College, in New-Jersey, named in honor of Queen Charlotte, and created both the college and the Queen's College Grammar School as a preparatory school governed by the college.

William Franklin. William Franklin (22 February 1730 – 17 November 1813) was an American-born attorney, soldier, politician, and colonial administrator who served as the last colonial Governor of New Jersey from 1763 to 1776. During his governorship he signed the charter establishing the college, and he remained a steadfast British Empire Loyalist throughout the American Revolutionary War.

Significance. Chartered in 1766 and affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church, Queen's College became the eighth-oldest college in the United States, the second-oldest in New Jersey after Princeton, and one of nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. It was renamed Rutgers College in 1825 in honor of Colonel Henry Rutgers.