Encyclopedia Brunoniana

1769

  • The American Philosophical Society has numbered among its members the following individuals connected with Brown, elected to membership in the years indicated: Stephen Hopkins in 1769; Benjamin Waterhouse in 1791; Francis Wayland in 1838; John E. Holbrook 1815 in 1839; Alpheus S. Packard in 1878; George Dana Boardman 1852 in 1880; Henry S. Frieze 1841 in 1884; William Williams Keen 1859 in 1884; James Macalister 1856 in 1886; James Burrill Angell 1849 in 1889; Lester Frank Ward in 1889; Richard Olney 1856 in 1897; Stephen F. Peckham 1862 in 1897; John Hay 1858 in 1898; Robert H. Thurston 1859 in 1902; Carl Barus in 1903; Hermon Carey Bumpus 1884 in 1909; Charles E. Bennett 1878 in 1913; Winthrop John Vanleuven Osterhout 1893 in 1917; John Franklin Jameson in 1920; Charles Evans Hughes 1881 in 1926; Arthur F. Buddington ’12 in 1931; John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 1897 in 1931; Ernest E. Tyzzer 1897 in 1931; Gilbert Chinard in 1932; George E. Coghill 1896 in 1935; Harvey N. Davis ’01 in 1935; George Grafton Wilson 1886 in 1936; Frederick G. Keyes ’09 Ph.D. in 1938; Charles August Kraus in 1939; Walter S. Hunter in 1941; Leonard Carmichael in 1942; Zechariah Chafee ’07 in 1946; Robert Cushman Murphy ’11 in 1946; Otto E. Neugebauer in 1947; William A. Noyes in 1947; George Boas ’13 in 1950; Carl Bridenbaugh in 1950; Clarence Saunders Brigham 1899 in 1955; Clarence H. Graham in 1956; John Imbrie in 1956; Lars Onsager in 1959; John Wilder Tukey ’36 in 1962; Edmund Sears Morgan in 1964; Carl Pfaffmann ’33 in 1964; Vartan Gregorian in 1965; Barnaby C. Keeney in 1965; Donald F. Hornig in 1967; Floyd Ratliff ’50 Ph.D. in 1972; Leon N. Cooper in 1973; David E. Pingree in 1975; George F. Carrier in 1976; Eliot Stellar ’47 Ph.D. in 1977; Brooke Hindle ’40 in 1982; Thomas J. Watson, Jr. ’37 in 1984; Barbara K. Lewalski in 1986.American Philosophical Society
  • William Rogers 1769 was chairman and a fund was started to provide medals for contests in declamation and composition.Associated Alumni
  • There is no record that he did so, but the College later received from Joseph Brown a Gregorian reflecting telescope of 4-inch aperture and 24-inch focal length, made by Watkins and Smith of London, and purchased by him for $500 for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus on June 3, 1769.Astronomy
  • Rev. Morgan Edwards may be said to have delivered the first baccalaureate sermon when he preached to the graduates in the evening of the first Commencement day in 1769.Baccalaureate
  • ... Its astronomical history dates back to the transit of Venus in 1769, observed by Prof. Benjamin West.Brown University Glacier
  • In April 1791 at the age of twenty-one Tristam Burges entered the academy run by William Williams 1769 in Wrentham, Massachusetts.Burges, Tristam
  • Nov. Anglorum, ab Anno 1769, ad Annum 1772, alicujus Gradus Laurea donati sunt," which was a list of baccalaureate and honorary graduates.Catalogues
  • This valuable work contained the names of the faculty from the beginning of the college listed by rank and then in order of appointment, and lists of graduates for the classes of 1769 through 1894, with biographical sketches.Catalogues
  • Commencement was first held on September 7, 1769 at the Baptist Church in Warren.Commencement
  • At the first Commencement in 1769 the subject of the "Disputatio forensica" was "Whether, British America can under her present Circumstances consistent with good Policy, effect to become an independent State?"Debating
  • Degrees were conferred for the first time in 1769, when seven Bachelor of Arts degrees were granted to students who had completed the prescribed course, along with twenty-one honorary Master of Arts degrees.Degrees
  • In 1772 six of the seven graduates of 1769 were awarded Master of Arts degrees.Degrees
  • Solomon Drowne began his studies in 1769 with Charles Thompson 1769, and according to his diary was examined for entrance to Rhode Island College on June 30, 1770.Drowne, Solomon
  • Among the inhabitants was James Mitchell Varnum 1769, who died during the first year there.Drowne, Solomon
  • Morgan Edwards's wife, formerly Mary Nunn of Cork, Ireland, died in 1769.Edwards, Morgan
  • A "matriculation roll" in the hand of James Manning lists 29 students who arrived between 1765 and 1769.Enrollment
  • Charles Thompson 1769 received fourteen pounds from a legacy left by the widow of John Hobbs of the Philadelphia Association for the education of pious youths for the ministry.Financial aid
  • Hezekiah Smith was sent to the South in 1769 and 1770 and collected about $1,700.Fund-raising
  • Honorary degrees were awarded at the first Commencement in 1769 "at their own request" to ten gentlemen graduated at other colleges and to eleven others who were recommended for literary merit.Honorary degrees
  • In 1769 David Howell was appointed professor of mathematics and natural philosophy.Howell, David
  • In 1776, when the British arrived in Newport and the College Edifice was needed for barracks, all the books in the College Library were removed to Wrentham, Massachusetts, to the home of William Williams 1769.Library
  • The Williams Table Collection is the name of the reassembled library of the College at the time of the Revolutionary War, and takes its name from the table which William Williams 1769 used as a student and in which he later stored some of the books in the college library which were sent to his home in Wrentham, Massachusetts, for safekeeping during the Revolution.Library
  • In 1769, when a building for the College was considered, Warren was first agreed upon as the location.Location
  • The next contender as a site for the College was East Greenwich, but only a few days after its application, Moses Brown wrote to his brothers on October 23, 1769, that a conversation with Governor Darius Sessions had convinced him of the advantages of Providence as a site.Location
  • At the Corporation meeting, November 15, 1769, John Cole, Moses Brown, and Hezekiah Smith presented a memorial on behalf of the principal inhabitants of Providence to have the college located there.Location
  • David Howell, a graduate of the College of New Jersey was engaged as a tutor and was appointed professor of natural philosophy in 1769.Manning, James
  • In September 1769 the first Commencement was held.Manning, James
  • Asa Messer (1769-1836), third president of Brown University, was born in Methuen, Massachusetts on May 31, 1769.Messer, Asa
  • French was first taught by David Howell, who came as a tutor in 1769 and remained until the College was closed by the Revolutionary War.Modern Languages
  • One of the exercises at the first Commencement in 1769 was "a Syllogistic Dispute ... on this Thesis, "‘Materia cogitare non potest.’"" Notes taken by Solomon Drowne 1773 in his junior year reveal that President Manning’s lectures in philosophy touched briefly upon psychology, intellectual and moral philosophy, ontology, and natural philosophy, and this instruction was completed in only a few days more than a month.Philosophy
  • Four of the seven graduates in the first class to graduate in 1769 served during the Revolution.Revolutionary War
  • James Mitchell Varnum, whose part in the Commencement dispute in 1769 had been that America could not subsist independent of Britain, became Colonel of the "Kentish Guards" of East Greenwich, and later Colonel of the First Rhode Island Infantry and Colonel of the Ninth Continental Infantry.Revolutionary War
  • While the College was closed, the College Library was sent for safe-keeping to the home of William Williams 1769 in Wrentham, Massachusetts.Revolutionary War
  • At the first Commencement in 1769 William Rogers delivered an "oration on benevolence."Rogers, William
  • When a new seal was designed, President Manning wrote in January 1784 to William Rogers 1769 of Philadelphia, "Inclosed you have the Device of the College Seal, which you are requested to procure engraved in the best Manner, & and at the lowest Price, by the famous Engraver, who executes for the Public their curious Devices ... as you know the Poverty of the College we rely on you to obtain it on the best Terms."Seal
  • From October 1769 to June 1770 Hezekiah Smith made a trip to South Carolina and Georgia, preaching and receiving subscriptions for Rhode Island College.Smith, Hezekiah
  • Hart was the son of Reverend Oliver Hart, who had been awarded an honorary degree at the first Commencement in 1769.Student conduct
  • The latter committee, composed of Stephen Hopkins, Joseph Brown, and John Davis, in a report on September 8, 1769, recommended that "the building do not exceed sixty-six feet long, and thirty-six feet wide, and three stories high; – that it be a plain building, the walls of best bricks and lime, the door and window frames of red cedar; – that there be a cupola for a bell; – that the first building be so situated as to be one wing of the whole College edifice, when completed."University Hall
  • With Joseph Brown Benjamin West observed the transit of Venus on June 3, 1769, from a platform on an East Side street later named Transit Street.West, Benjamin
  • The publication by West of "An Account of the Observation of Venus upon the Sun the Third Day of June 1769" and his observation of a comet in July of 1770 established his reputation, and he received honorary master of arts degrees from both Harvard and Rhode Island College (Brown) in that year.West, Benjamin
  • William Williams graduated with the first class of seven members in September 1769.Williams, William