Manning, James, 1738-1791

<ul><b>RACES</b>
<li>12/31/1785 RI Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1784 RI Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>00/00/1764 Brown University President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
</ul>

<p>James Manning (October 22, 1738 – July 29, 1791) was an American Baptist minister, educator and legislator from Providence, Rhode Island. He was the first president of Brown University and one of its most involved founders, and served as minister of the First Baptist Church in America.</p>

<p>Manning was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. At the age of 18, he attended the Hopewell Academy in Hopewell, New Jersey under the direction of Reverend Isaac Eaton in preparation for his religious studies. In 1762, he graduated from the College of New Jersey, which would later become Princeton University. At Princeton, Manning studied under president Samuel Finley who served under a board of trustees that declared, "Our idea is to send into the World good Scholars and useful members of Society." One of the 130 graduates Finley sent out during his five-year presidency was, notably, the Rev. James Manning. He married Margaret Stites in the year of his graduation from Princeton and a few weeks after the marriage he was publicly ordained by the Scotch Plains, New Jersey Baptist Church.</p>

<p>In 1764, Manning was sent by the Philadelphia Baptist Association to found a college in Rhode Island, the cradle of American Baptists. Along with prominent Rhode Islanders, Manning was one of the founders of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (now Brown University) during the British colonial period. Manning served as Brown's first president from 1765 to 1791. He first ran the university at his parsonage and the Baptist meeting house in Warren, Rhode Island. The University moved to Providence in 1770 and during his tenure built its first buildings on college hill, with the help of the Brown family. While serving as Brown's first president, Rev. James Manning "arrived in Rhode Island accompanied by a personal slave".</p>

MANNING, James, a Delegate from Rhode Island; born in Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth), N.J., October 22, 1738; attended Hopewell Academy and was graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1762; studied theology and entered the Baptist ministry in 1763; moved to Warren, R.I., in 1764, and was one of the founders and first president of Rhode Island College (now Brown University); moved to Providence with the college in May 1770; served as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Providence from July 1771, until his resignation in April 1791; also resigned the college presidency the same year; Member of the Continental Congress in 1786; died in Providence, R.I., July 29, 1791; interment in North Burial Ground.