James Manning

1738-1791. Founder and first president of Brown University. Graduating from the College of New Jersey (Princeton University) in 1762, he had by 1765 finally secured a charter for Rhode Island College and founded a Baptist church in Warren, Rhode Island. He was appointed president of the college in 1765 and held the position of professor of language until 1791. The school was moved from Warren to Providence, where he also served as pastor of the First Baptist Church from 1771 to 1791. In 1786 he represented Rhode Island in the Congress on the Confederation, and in the summer of 1791 he wrote a report that suggested the creation of the state's present free public school system.