Mr. Edwards, to whom reference is made in the foregoing, was the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, to which he had recently been recommended by the Rev. Dr. Gill, and others, of London. He was a native of Wales, and an ardent admirer of his fellow-countryman, Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island. Possessing superior abilities, united with uncommon perseverance and zeal, he became a leader in various literary and benevolent undertakings, freely devoting to them his talents and his time, and thereby rendering essential service to the denomination to which he was attached. He was the prime mover in the enterprise of establishing the college, and in 1767 he went back to England and secured the first funds for its endowment. With him were associated the Rev. Samuel Jones, to whom in 1791 was offered the presidency; Oliver Hart and Francis Pelot, of South Carolina; John Hart, of Hopewell, the signer of the Declaration of Independence; John Stites, the mayor of Elizabethtown; Hezekiah Smith, Samuel Stillman, John Gano, and others connected with the two associations named, of kindred zeal and spirit. The final success of the movement, however, may justly be ascribed to the life-long labors of him who was appointed the first President, James Manning, D.D., of New Jersey. His "Life, Times, and Correspondence," making a large duodecimo volume of five hundred and twenty-three pages, was published by the late Gould & Lincoln, of Boston, in 1864.
In the summer of 1763, Mr. Manning, to whom the enterprise had been entrusted, visited Newport for the purpose of arranging for the establishment of the college in Rhode Island. He was accompanied by his friend and fellow townsman, the Rev. John Sutton. They at once called on Col. John Gardner, a man venerable in years and prominent in society, being Deputy Governor of the Colony, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. To him, Manning unfolded his plans. He heard them with attention, and appointed a meeting of the leading Baptists in town at his own house the day following. At this meeting Hon. Josias Lyndon and Col. Job Bennet were appointed a committee to petition the General Assembly for an act of incorporation. After unexpected difficulties and delays, in consequence of the determined opposition of those who were unfriendly to the movement, a charter was finally granted, in February, 1764, for a "College or University in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England in America."
This charter, which has long been regarded as one of the best college charters in New England, while it secures ample privileges by its several clear and explicit provisions, recognizes throughout the grand Rhode Island principle of civil and religious freedom. By it the Corporation is made to consist of two branches, namely, that of the Trustees, and that of the Fellows, "with distinct, separate and respective powers." The Trustees are thirty-six in number, of whom twenty-two must be Baptists or Antipædobaptists, five Quakers or Friends, five Episcopalians, and four Congregationalists. Since 1874 vacancies in this Board, have been filled in accordance with nominations made by the Alumni of the University. The number of the Fellows, including the President, who, in the language of the charter, "must always be a Fellow," is twelve. Of these, eight "are forever to be elected of the denomination called Baptist or Antipædobaptists, and the rest indifferently of any or all denominations." "The President must forever be of the denomination called Baptists."
But though Rhode Island had been selected for its home by the original projectors of the institution, and a liberal and ample charter had thus been secured, the college itself was still in embryo. Without funds, without students, and with no present prospect of support, a beginning must be made where the president could be the pastor of a church, and thus obtain an adequate compensation for his services. Warren, then as now, a delightful and flourishing inland town, situated ten miles from Providence, seemed to meet the requisite requirements; and thither, accordingly, Manning removed with his family in the spring of 1764. He at once commenced a Latin school, as the first step preparatory to the work of college instruction. Before the close of the year a church was organized, over which he was duly installed as pastor. The following year, at the second annual meeting of the corporation, held in Newport, Wednesday, September 3, he was formally elected, in the language of the records, "President of the College, Professor of Languages and other branches of learning, with full power to act in these capacities at Warren or elsewhere." On that same day, as appears from an original paper, now on file in the archives of the library, the president matriculated his first student, William Rogers,[C] a lad of fourteen, the son of Captain William Rogers of Newport. Not only was this lad the first student, but he was also the first freshman class. Indeed, for a period of nine months and seventeen days, as appears from the paper already referred to, he constituted the entire body of students. From such feeble beginnings has the university sprung.
The first commencement of the college was held in the meeting-house at Warren on the seventh day of September, 1769, at which seven students took their Bachelor's degree. They were all of them young men of promise. Some of them afterwards filled conspicuous places in the struggle for national independence, while others became leaders in the church, and distinguished educators of youth. Probably no class that has gone forth from the college or university in her palmiest days of prosperity has exerted so widely extended and so beneficial an influence, the times and circumstances taken into account, as this first class that graduated at Warren. The occasion drew together a large concourse of people from all parts of the Colony, inaugurating, says Arnold, the earliest State holiday in the history of Rhode Island. A contemporary account preserves the interesting facts that both the President and the candidates for degrees were dressed in clothing of American manufacture, and that the audience, composed of many of the first ladies and gentlemen of the Colony, "behaved with great decorum."
Up to this date, "the Seminary," says Morgan Edwards, "was, for the most part, friendless and moneyless, and therefore forlorn, insomuch that a college edifice was hardly thought of." But the interest manifested in the exercises of Commencement, and the frequent remittances from England, "led some to hope, and many to fear, that the Institution would come to something and stand. Then a building and the place of it were talked of, which well-nigh ruined all. Warren was at first agreed on as a proper situation, where a small wing was to be erected, in the spring of 1770, and about eight hundred pounds, lawful money, was raised towards erecting it. But soon afterwards, some who were unwilling it should be there, and some who were unwilling it should be anywhere, did so far agree as to lay aside the said location, and propose that the county which should raise the most money should have the college." Subscriptions were immediately set on foot in four counties, but the claimants for the honor were finally reduced to two, viz., Providence and Newport. The question was finally settled, at a special meeting of the Corporation held in Warren, February 7, 1770. "The people of Newport had raised," says Manning, in his account of this meeting, "four thousand pounds, lawful money, taking in their unconditional subscription. But Providence presented four thousand, two hundred and eighty pounds, lawful money, and advantages superior to Newport in other respects." The dispute, he adds, lasted from ten o'clock Wednesday morning until the same hour Thursday night, and was decided, in the presence of a large congregation, in favor of Providence, by a vote of twenty-one to fourteen.
Soon after this decision, the President and Professor Howell, with their pupils, removed to Providence, occupying for a time the upper part of the brick school-house on Meeting Street, for prayers and recitations. On the fourteenth day of May, 1770, the foundations of the first college building, now called University Hall, were laid; John Brown, one of the "Four Brothers," and the famous leader in the destruction of the Gaspee two years later, placing the corner stone. It was modelled after "Nassau Hall" in Princeton, where President Manning and Professor Howell were graduated. The spot selected for it was the crest of a hill, which then commanded a view of the bay, the river, with the town on its banks, and a broad reach of country on all sides. The land comprised about eight acres, and included a portion of the original "home lot" of Chadd Brown, the associate and friend of Roger Williams, and the "first Baptist Elder in Rhode Island." Now that the buildings of the city have crept up the hill, and, gathering round the college grounds, have stretched out far beyond them, thus shutting out the nearer prospect, the eye can still take in from the top of the building the same varied and beautiful landscape, which once constituted one of the chief attractions of the site.