James Manning
Encyclopedia
James Manning was an American
Baptist
minister, educator and legislator from Providence
, Rhode Island
best known for being the first president of Brown University
and one of its most involved founders. He was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey
. At the age of 18 he attended the Hopewell Academy under the direction of Rev. Isaac Eaton in preparation for his religious studies. In 1762, he graduated from the College of New Jersey
, which later became Princeton University
. He married Margaret Stites in that year and a few weeks after the marriage he was publicly ordained by the Scotch Plains, New Jersey
Baptist Church.
, Samuel Ward, John Brown
, Nicholas Brown, Sr.
, Moses Brown
, the Reverend Isaac Backus
, the Reverend Samuel Stillman
, and the Reverend Hezekiah Smith, 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. The university charter was first drafted by Ezra Stiles, pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Newport, who attempted give the Congregationalists control of the college. When the Baptists saw what Stiles had done, the draft was withdrawn and rewritten to give the Baptists control. As punishment,the Congregationalist seats on the board of trustees were reduced to fewer than granted to the Anglicans. Stiles was bitter and refused to accept a seat even when it was offered to him.
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.
Reverend Manning gave the library of the College its first book, Valentin Schindler
's Lexicon Pentaglotton Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Talmudico-Rabbinicum & Arabicum, which was printed in Hanover, Germany
in 1612.http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/University_Library/libs/hay/history/hist2.htm
In February 1786, prominent Virginian Robert Carter III
of the Nomony Hall plantation in Virginia
, wrote to President Manning regarding his two sons George and John Tasker Carter who were to be enrolled at the college and board with Manning that: “they to be Sent from Boston immediately upon their Arrival there to your College in Providence. I beg leave to appoint you their Foster Father intimating that my desire is that both my Said Sons shd. be active Characters in Life ....”http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=M0100
Manning presided over Brown's first commencement in 1769, at which time seven students received the degree of Bachelor of Arts and 21 honorary degrees were conferred. During his tenure, 165 men earned degrees from the college including 43 clergymen, 29 lawyers, 19 physicians, 19 teachers, 12 judges, 12 business men, 6 professors, 6 congressmen, 2 college presidents, 2 United States ministers, 1 United States consul, 1 governor, and 1 librarian.http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=M0100
In 1774, Dr. Manning reportedly presented an argument in favor of religious freedom in an address at Carpenter's Hall to leading figures from Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other colonies:http://www.reformedreader.org/history/armitage/ch11.htm
In the course of the American Revolution
, Manning was serving as president of Brown in 1780 when French troops under the command of the Comte de Rochambeau, who led troops sent by King Louis XVI of France, landed in Newport
, Rhode Island
to aid American troops under the command of General George Washington
in the American Revolutionary War
. These allied troops were based in Rhode Island for a year before they embarked on a 600-mile (970 km) march in 1781
from Rhode Island to Virginia
, where they fought and defeated British forces sent by King George III of the United Kingdom on the Yorktown, Virginia
peninsula in the Siege of Yorktown
and the Battle of the Chesapeake
. During the year of preparation in Rhode Island and under the tenure of James Manning, the Brown campus was turned into an encampment site for soldiers, and the College Edifice at Brown (later renamed University Hall) was converted into a military hospital.http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2005-06/05-137.html
unanimously elected James Manning to serve as its delegate in the 7th Congress of the Confederation
. In that role, he served on the Grand Committee, which proposed fundamental amendments to the Articles of Confederation.
In A History of the Baptists, President Manning is reported to have played an inspirational role in persuading the Massachusetts
ratifying convention to adopt the United States Constitution
:http://www.pbministries.org/History/John%20T.%20Christian/vol1/history_21.htm
While serving as president of Brown, Manning was first the minister of the Baptist church in Warren, and then moved to become the minister of the First Baptist Church in America
in Providence for the period of July 1771 through April 1791. Like the college, in 1774-1775, Manning led the church in building. Its present building was dedicated to "publick worship" and for "holding commencement in" 1776. Manning's nephew Stephen Gano
became pastor in 1792.
Brown University's Encyclopedia Brunoniana offers a more detailed biography of Manning http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=M0100
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
minister, educator and legislator from Providence
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
best known for being the first president of Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
and one of its most involved founders. He was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. At the age of 18 he attended the Hopewell Academy under the direction of Rev. Isaac Eaton in preparation for his religious studies. In 1762, he graduated from the College of New Jersey
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, which later became Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. He married Margaret Stites in that year and a few weeks after the marriage he was publicly ordained by the Scotch Plains, New Jersey
Scotch Plains, New Jersey
Scotch Plains is a township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the township population increased to a record high of 23,510.-History:...
Baptist Church.
Brown University Presidency
In 1764, Manning was sent by the Philadelphia Baptist Association to found a college in Rhode Island, the cradle of American Baptists. Along with Stephen HopkinsStephen Hopkins (politician)
Stephen Hopkins was an American political leader from Rhode Island who signed the Declaration of Independence. He served as the Chief Justice and Governor of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and was a Delegate to the Colonial Congress in Albany in 1754 and to the...
, Samuel Ward, John Brown
John Brown (Rhode Island)
John Brown I was an American merchant, slave trader, and statesman from Providence, Rhode Island. In 1764, John Brown joined his brothers Nicholas Brown and Moses Brown as well as William Ellery, the Baptist Reverend James Manning, the Baptist Reverend Isaac Backus, the Congregationalist Reverend...
, Nicholas Brown, Sr.
Nicholas Brown (Brown University)
Nicholas Brown, Sr. was a Providence, Rhode Island merchant who co-founded the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which was renamed Brown University after Brown's son Nicholas Brown, Jr. in 1804...
, Moses Brown
Moses Brown
Moses Brown was a co-founder of Brown University and a New England abolitionist and industrialist, who funded the design and construction of some of the first factory houses for spinning machines during the American industrial revolution, including Slater Mill.-Early life:Brown was the son of...
, the Reverend Isaac Backus
Isaac Backus
Isaac Backus was a leading Baptist preacher during the era of the American Revolution who campaigned against state-established churches in New England....
, the Reverend Samuel Stillman
Samuel Stillman
Dr. Samuel Stillman was an American Baptist minister. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in South Carolina, he married Hannah Morgan and took a pastorate in South Carolina for several years....
, and the Reverend Hezekiah Smith, Manning was one of the founders of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (now Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
) during the British colonial period. The university charter was first drafted by Ezra Stiles, pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Newport, who attempted give the Congregationalists control of the college. When the Baptists saw what Stiles had done, the draft was withdrawn and rewritten to give the Baptists control. As punishment,the Congregationalist seats on the board of trustees were reduced to fewer than granted to the Anglicans. Stiles was bitter and refused to accept a seat even when it was offered to him.
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
Warren, Rhode Island
Warren is a town in Bristol County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 10,611 at the 2010 census.-History:Warren was the site of the Indian village of Sowams on the peninsula called Pokanoket , and was first explored by Europeans in 1621, by Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins...
. 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.
Valentin Schindler
Valentin Schindler was a Lutheran Hebraist and professor of the University of Wittenberg, where he was an important teacher of the Hebrew language. He moved by 1594 to Helmstedt....
's Lexicon Pentaglotton Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Talmudico-Rabbinicum & Arabicum, which was printed in Hanover, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1612.http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/University_Library/libs/hay/history/hist2.htm
In February 1786, prominent Virginian Robert Carter III
Robert Carter III
Robert "Councillor" Carter III was an American plantation owner, founding father and onetime British government official. After the death of his wife, Frances Ann Tasker Carter, in 1787, Carter embraced the Swedenborgian faith and freed almost 500 slaves from his Nomini Hall plantation and large...
of the Nomony Hall plantation in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, wrote to President Manning regarding his two sons George and John Tasker Carter who were to be enrolled at the college and board with Manning that: “they to be Sent from Boston immediately upon their Arrival there to your College in Providence. I beg leave to appoint you their Foster Father intimating that my desire is that both my Said Sons shd. be active Characters in Life ....”http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=M0100
Manning presided over Brown's first commencement in 1769, at which time seven students received the degree of Bachelor of Arts and 21 honorary degrees were conferred. During his tenure, 165 men earned degrees from the college including 43 clergymen, 29 lawyers, 19 physicians, 19 teachers, 12 judges, 12 business men, 6 professors, 6 congressmen, 2 college presidents, 2 United States ministers, 1 United States consul, 1 governor, and 1 librarian.http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=M0100
American Revolutionary Period
It has been said by a celebrated writer in politics, that but two things are worth contending for--Religion and Liberty. For the latter we are at present nobly exerting ourselves through all this extensive continent; and surely no one whose bosom feels the patriotic glow in behalf of civil liberty can remain torpid to the more ennobling flame of RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.
In the course of the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, Manning was serving as president of Brown in 1780 when French troops under the command of the Comte de Rochambeau, who led troops sent by King Louis XVI of France, landed in Newport
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
, Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
to aid American troops under the command of General George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
in the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. These allied troops were based in Rhode Island for a year before they embarked on a 600-mile (970 km) march in 1781
Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route
The Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route is a 680-mile -long series of encampments and roads used by U.S. Continental Army troops under George Washington and French troops under Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau during their march from Newport, Rhode Island to Yorktown, Virginia in 1781. The route...
from Rhode Island to Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, where they fought and defeated British forces sent by King George III of the United Kingdom on the Yorktown, Virginia
Yorktown, Virginia
Yorktown is a census-designated place in York County, Virginia, United States. The population was 220 in the 2000 census. It is the county seat of York County, one of the eight original shires formed in colonial Virginia in 1634....
peninsula in the Siege of Yorktown
Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, Battle of Yorktown, or Surrender of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis...
and the Battle of the Chesapeake
Battle of the Chesapeake
The Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes or simply the Battle of the Capes, was a crucial naval battle in the American War of Independence that took place near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay on 5 September 1781, between a British fleet led by Rear Admiral Sir Thomas...
. During the year of preparation in Rhode Island and under the tenure of James Manning, the Brown campus was turned into an encampment site for soldiers, and the College Edifice at Brown (later renamed University Hall) was converted into a military hospital.http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2005-06/05-137.html
Civic Leadership for Rhode Island in Congress
In 1786, the Rhode Island General AssemblyRhode Island General Assembly
The State of Rhode Island General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. A bicameral body, it is composed of the lower Rhode Island House of Representatives with 75 representatives, and the upper Rhode Island Senate with 38 senators...
unanimously elected James Manning to serve as its delegate in the 7th Congress of the Confederation
Congress of the Confederation
The Congress of the Confederation or the United States in Congress Assembled was the governing body of the United States of America that existed from March 1, 1781, to March 4, 1789. It comprised delegates appointed by the legislatures of the states. It was the immediate successor to the Second...
. In that role, he served on the Grand Committee, which proposed fundamental amendments to the Articles of Confederation.
In A History of the Baptists, President Manning is reported to have played an inspirational role in persuading the Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
ratifying convention to adopt the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
:http://www.pbministries.org/History/John%20T.%20Christian/vol1/history_21.htm
When the Constitution of the United States was presented to the States for ratification it was doubtful whether it would pass. Massachusetts and Virginia were the pivotal States. Massachusetts was evenly divided and it was only through the labors of Manning, StillmanSamuel StillmanDr. Samuel Stillman was an American Baptist minister. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in South Carolina, he married Hannah Morgan and took a pastorate in South Carolina for several years....
and BackusIsaac BackusIsaac Backus was a leading Baptist preacher during the era of the American Revolution who campaigned against state-established churches in New England....
that the Constitution was adopted by that State. The majority was nineteen votes. There were 187 yeas and 168 nays on the last day of the session, and "before the final question was taken, Governor HancockJohn HancockJohn Hancock was a merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts...
, the president, invited Dr. Manning to close the solemn invocation with prayer. The prayer was one of lofty patriotism and every heart was filled with reverence."
Baptist Ministry
First Baptist Church in America
The First Baptist Church in America is the First Baptist Church of Providence, Rhode Island, also known as First Baptist Meetinghouse. The oldest Baptist church congregation in the United States, it was founded by Roger Williams in Providence, Rhode Island in 1638...
in Providence for the period of July 1771 through April 1791. Like the college, in 1774-1775, Manning led the church in building. Its present building was dedicated to "publick worship" and for "holding commencement in" 1776. Manning's nephew Stephen Gano
Stephen Gano
Stephen Gano was a physician and early pastor of the First Baptist Church in America in Providence, Rhode Island.-Early life and Revolutionary War service:...
became pastor in 1792.
Brown University's Encyclopedia Brunoniana offers a more detailed biography of Manning http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=M0100
The President James Manning Medal
The Brown University Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life annually awards a medal in honor of Manning to a member of the graduating class based upon the award description described in the nomination form:
The President James Manning Medal is awarded to a [graduating senior] whose pursuit of excellence in the study and practice of religion is exemplary. This award is given in honor of Brown's first president, who exemplified the synthesis of intellectual precision and spiritual engagement. The academic study of religion enables students to become critical thinkers and move beyond personal piety into responsible leadersip achieving a balance between the particularity of respective faith tradtions and a sense of community and global responsibility." :http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Chaplains/News/0322011_awardsnominations2011.html
External links
- Biographic Sketch at U.S. Congress website
- Encyclopedia Brunoniana
- Brown University's John Hay Library
- Brown University President's Office
- Brown University Charter
- History of the Baptists by Armitage
- A History of the Baptists
- Meeting House of the First Baptist Church in America
- Meeting House History