Sect. III.] United States of America. 205 



by some gentlemen of literary character and 

 liberal views, of the same religious commmiion*. 

 The charter was obtained, and the college com- 

 menced its labours in Elizabeth Town, New Jer- 

 sey, in the year above mentioned, under the pre- 

 sidency of the rev. Jonathan Dickinson, who was 

 then pastor of the presbyterian church in that 

 town. Mr. Dickinson dying the next year, the 

 college was removed to New Ark, in the same 

 province, and the rev. Mr. Burr elected to the 

 office of president; from which place it was finally 

 removed in 17«57 to Princeton, which had been 



a son of Harvard college, a man of respectable abilities and in- 

 formation. He was, at this time, pastor of the presbyterian 

 church in the city of New York, from which he removed to Bos- 

 ton, and died, many years afterwards, minister of a church in 

 that town. 



* The most distinguished of the lay gentlemen who aided in 

 the erection of this college, by their councils, property, and in- 

 fluence, were the three following: 1. William Smith, esq., a na- 

 tive of England, who came to America about the year 1715, and 

 received a liberal education in Yale college. He was bred a 

 lawyer ; attained great eminence at the bar, both for erudition 

 and eloquence, and was afterwards one of the judges of the supreme 

 court of the province. 2. Pet«r Vanbrugh Livingston, esq., a 

 native of New York, and descended from one of the oldest and 

 most respectable families who migrated thither from Great Bri- 

 tain. He also received his education at Yale college, and was 

 long distinguished as a judicious, well informed, and public-spi- 

 rited man. 3. William Peartree Smith, esq., also a native of New 

 York, a man of considerable talents and reading. It is believed 

 he was an alumnus of the same college. At the period of which 

 we are speaking he resided in New York, but afterwards re^ 

 moved to New Jersey, where, after sustaining a number of public 

 honours, he died a few years ago. Beside these, some other 

 laymen might be mentioned who were animated with a lite- 

 rary spirit, and embarked with zeal in the same caus? ; but our 

 limits forbid more minute details. 



