Colonial colleges

Map of the nine colonial colleges

The colonial colleges are nine institutions of higher education founded in the Thirteen Colonies, predating the United States. As the only American universities old enough to have alumni that participated in the American Revolution and the founding of the United States, these schools have been identified as a group for their influence on U.S. history.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

While all nine colonial colleges were founded as private institutions, two later became public universities: the College of William & Mary in 1906, and Rutgers University in 1945. The remaining seven are all members of the Ivy League and remain private Template:As of: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Penn, Brown, and Dartmouth.

Nine colonial colleges

Seven of the nine colonial colleges began their histories as institutions of higher learning. The other two developed out of existing preparatory schools. The University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, began operating in 1751 as the Academy of Philadelphia, a secondary school founded by Benjamin Franklin, and later added an institution of higher education in 1755 following the granting of a charter to the College of Philadelphia. Dartmouth College, an Ivy League college in Hanover, New Hampshire, began operating in 1768 as the collegiate department of Moor's Charity School, a secondary school founded in 1754 by Eleazar Wheelock, the college's founder. Dartmouth considers its founding date to be 1769, when it was granted a collegiate charter.

Image	Colonial college (present name, if different)	Colony	Founded	Chartered	First instruction	First degrees	Primary religious influence	Ivy League
	Harvard CollegeTemplate:Refn (Harvard University)	Massachusetts Bay Colony	1636	1650<ref>Template:Cite web May was referred to as the third month because the year began on March 25.</ref>	1642	1642	Congregationalist	Yes
	College of William & Mary	Colony of Virginia	1693Template:Refn	1693<ref>Template:Cite web The first year of William III and Mary II's reign began on February 13, 1689 (N.S.).</ref>	1694<ref>Hall, David D., Cultures of Print: Essays in the History of the Book, Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1996, p. 131</ref>	1694	Church of England, later EpiscopalianTemplate:Refn	No
	Collegiate School (Yale University)	Connecticut Colony	1701	1701<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	1702	1702 honorary MA 1703 BA<ref>Dexter, Franklin Bowditch, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College: with annals of the college history, Holt, 1885, Volume 1, pp. 6, 9, 13. Nathaniel Chauncey, a Harvard BA Graduate, was awarded an honorary MA in 1702 (p. 9); John Hart was awarded an earned BA as "the first actual student in the College" (p. 13).</ref>	Congregationalist	Yes
	College of New Jersey (Princeton University)	Province of New Jersey	1746	1746<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	1747	1748	Presbyterian, but officially nonsectarian	Yes
	King's College (Columbia University)	Province of New York	1754	1754<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	1754	1758<ref>Johnson, Samuel, Samuel Johnson, President of King's College; His Career and Writings, edited by Herbert and Carol Schneider, New York: Columbia University Press, 1929, Volume 4, pp. 244, 246 Nine students matriculated this year.</ref>	Church of England, but with a commitment to "religious liberty."<ref>A Brief History of Columbia, Columbia University. Referenced 05.10.2011</ref>	Yes
	College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania)	Province of Pennsylvania	1740 (college)Template:Refn	1755<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	1755	1757	Church of England, but officially nonsectarian <ref>Template:Cite book pp. 314–315, " "The Anglicans who founded the University of Pennsylvania, however, were evidently anxious not to alienate Philadelphia's Quakers, and they made their new college officially nonsectarian."</ref>Template:Refn	Yes
	College of Rhode Island<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (Brown University)	Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations	1764	1764<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	1765<ref>Hoeveler, David J., Creating the American Mind: Intellect and Politics in the Colonial Colleges, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, p. 192</ref>	1765	Baptist, but no religious requirement for admissionsTemplate:Refn	Yes
	Queen's College (Rutgers University)	Province of New Jersey	1766	1766<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	1771	1774	Dutch Reformed	No
	Dartmouth College	Province of New Hampshire	1769	1769<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	1768	1771Template:Refn	Congregationalist	Yes

Other colonial-era colleges and universities

Several other colleges and universities trace their founding to colonial-era academies or schools, but are not considered colonial colleges because they were not formally chartered as colleges with degree-granting powers until after the nation's founding in 1776. These include:

Institution (present name, where different)	Colony or state	Founded	Chartered	Religious influence
King William's School (absorbed by St. John's College when the latter was founded)	Province of Maryland	1696	1784	Church of England
Kent County Free School (absorbed by Washington College when the latter was founded)	Province of Maryland	1723	1782	Nonsectarian
Bethlehem Female Seminary (Moravian University)	Province of Pennsylvania	1742	1863	Moravian Church
Newark Academy (University of Delaware)	Delaware Colony	1743	1833	Presbyterian, but officially nonsectarian after 1769
Augusta Academy (Washington and Lee University)	Colony of Virginia	1749	1782	Presbyterian, but officially non-sectarian
College of Charleston	Province of South Carolina	1770	1785	Church of England
Pittsburgh Academy (University of Pittsburgh)	Province of PennsylvaniaTemplate:Refn	1770?<ref name="Pitt1770"/>	1787	Nonsectarian
Little Girls' School (Salem College)	Province of North Carolina	1772	1866	Moravian Church
Dickinson College	Province of Pennsylvania	1773	1783	Presbyterian
Hampden–Sydney College	Colony of Virginia	1775	1783	Presbyterian

See also

• First university in the United States
• List of oldest universities in continuous operation
• Ancient universities, oldest universities in Great Britain and Ireland
• Ancient universities of Scotland, oldest universities in Scotland
• Imperial Universities, oldest universities founded during the Empire of Japan
• Sandstone universities, oldest universities in Australia