Rutgers University. Office of the President.

While Queen's College received a charter in 1766, financial hardships and political divisions challenged the new school, and the first student did not graduate until 1774. The Dutch Reformed Church was divided over Queen?s College and the planned Theological Seminary, between educating students locally, or continuing to send students to Holland for education. During most of the early life of Queen?s College, church powers and college officials attempted to recruit Dutch-educated John Henry Livingston to be President whose appointment promised the support of Dutch officials. Livingston's refusal to assume the presidency resulted in two acting presidents, Reverend William Linn (1791-1795), and later Reverend Ira Condict (1795-1810). The college's financial hardship continued, and from 1795 until 1808 only theological instruction and the grammar school continued to operate. In 1810, with Condict's illness, Livingston became president. Livingston's prestige added to the strength of the seminary, but the college continued to struggle, and in 1816 closed for a second time. With Livingston?s death in 1825, Philip Milledoler (1825-1840) assumed the presidency. Under Milledoler, Queen's College was renamed Rutgers College in honor of the prominent Revolutionary War veteran, Colonel Henry Rutgers.

The administration of Abraham Bruyn Hasbrouck (1840-1850), marked a secular shift in the college as Hasbrouck was the first lay leader of the college. Following Hasbrouck's resignation in 1850, Theodore Frelinghuysen came to Rutgers College with family ties to the first tutor at Queen's College, and substantial personal experience in politics. By the end of Frelinghuysen's presidency, he fired the entire faculty (except the recently hired George H. Cook), established a separate Theological Hall, furthering the separation of the Seminary from the College. Frelinghuysen produced notable expansions in enrollments, although the outbreak of the Civil War upset this trend just before his death in 1862.

Following Frelinghuysen's death, Rutgers College endowment began to grow, but the institution still failed to offset operational costs. Reverend William H. Campbell (1862-1882) embarked on several major fundraising efforts, and acquired land grant funding for. Retiring due to ill health in 1882, his successor, Merrill Edward Gates (1882-1890) brought in substantive state funding for Rutgers, resulting in scholarships and expanding the campus. Gates oversaw several pieces of the transformation to a modern university, adopting professors with doctoral degrees and increasing enrollment from 70 students to 300 students. He left Rutgers for the presidency of Amherst College in 1890.