| Harvard University |
Established by vote of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony. |
1636 |
| College of William and Mary |
Chartered
by King William III and Queen Mary II |
1693 |
| St. John's College |
King
William’s Free School was founded in accordance with a petitionary act of the
General Assembly of the Colony of Maryland. In 1784, after seven failed
attempts, the state of Maryland chartered a college. Although some might debate
if there was any legal succession between King William’s School and St John’s,
the General Assembly did give permission to the School to contribute money and
by a separate act, transferred property, funds, masters, and students of the
School to the College. George Washington’s step-grandson and two nephews
attended. |
1696 |
| Yale University |
Ten
Connecticut Congregational clergymen met in Branford, each with a gift of books
for the "founding of a College in this colony." After several false starts,
received a charter in the fall of 1701. |
1701 |
| University of Pennsylvania |
A group
of working-class citizens decided to erect a great preaching hall that would
also serve as a charity school. A deed of trust was formed, but funding fell
through for both the building and the school. In 1749, Benjamin Franklin named a
board of trustees, with himself as president. The Academy opened in 1751 and was
chartered in 1755. Mark Lloyd, University Archivist, calls the 1740 date "a
triumph of law over common sense." |
1740 |
| Moravian College |
Countess
Benigna von Zinzendorf founded a girls’ boarding school. (George Washington
petitioned the headmaster for the admission of his two great nieces!). Later
became the Bethlehem Female Seminary and was chartered in 1863. Concurrently, a
boys’ school was also established in 1742 in both Bethlehem and Nazareth. The
boys’ schools later merged (1759) to form Nazareth Hall. In 1807, Moravian
College and Seminary, an extension of Nazareth Hall, moved to Bethlehem and was
chartered in 1863 to grant baccalaureate degrees. The women’s and men’s
institutions merged in 1954. |
1742 |
| University of Delaware |
Free
School opened in New London. In 1769, it moved to Delaware and was chartered as
the Academy of Newark. The American Revolution prevented it from becoming
chartered as a college. In 1833, the state legislature came to the rescue and
construction began for a college, with classes starting in 1834. |
1743 |
| Princeton University |
Chartered
as the College of New Jersey. |
1746 |
| Washington and Lee University |
Augusta
Academy opened. College-level curriculum announced in 1776, charter applied for
immediately after Yorktown. Chartered by the Commonwealth in 1782. (see the
Chronology) |
1749 |
| Columbia University |
|
1754 |
| Brown University |
|
1764 |
| Rutgers University |
|
1766 |
| Dartmouth College |
|
1769 |
| College of Charleston |
|
1770 |
| Salem College |
|
1772 |
| Dickinson College |
|
1773 |
| Hampden-Sydney College |
|
1776 |
| Transylvania University |
|
1780 |
| Washington and Jefferson College |
|
1781 |
| Washington College |
|
1782 |
| University of Georgia |
|
1785 |
| Castleton State College |
|
1787 |
| Franklin and Marshall College |
|
1787 |
| University of Pittsburgh |
|
1787 |
| York College of Pennsylvania |
|
1787 |
