As history geeks we are always fascinated with new historical finds, so we were very excited to obtain a copy of the Princeton University General Catalogue 1757-1906, a book published by the University in 1908. Modern day catalogs issued by schools list all the available courses. This book does not. It lists everyone affiliated with the university for a period of 150 years. It lists every undergraduate and graduate student, faculty members, trustees and more. It was the unusual items in the book that caught our attention and we will describe them below.

All the usual famous suspects are present in the catalogue:

- Aaron Burr as president between 1748 and 1957, and as trustee between 1746-1748

- John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, served as president between 1768 and 1794

- James Madison is listed as a graduating student in 1771

- James McCosh served as president between 1868 and 1888

- Woodrow Wilson is listed as the current president when the book was published. He served between 1902 and 1910

- Grover Cleveland served as the Stafford Lecturer on Public Affairs in 1899 and began serving as a trustee in 1901

Nassau Hall

During the 18th century for all intents and purposes, Princeton was Nassau Hall. The students lived there, their recitation rooms were there, as well as the library and the school's chapel. In addition to housing the College of New Jersey as Princeton was then known, local grammar school students used the basement of Nassau Hall to study.

Sean Wilentz the Dayton-Stockton professor of history at Nassau Hall wrote the following about Nassau Hall:

"Befitting the college's primary function as a trainer of clergy, the original Nassau Hall was a place of devotion as well as of instruction. After entering the central doorway, one passed into a hallway that led straight to the Prayer Hall, flanked on either side by classrooms. Here, in the unheated north end of what is now the Faculty Room, students would be summoned by the cupola bell at the crack of dawn for morning worship - an exercise (especially during winter) of bone-chilling piety that did not sit well with later, more secular generations of undergraduates. Below, in the basement, were the kitchen, dining room, and steward's quarters. On the second floor, in a single room, was the library, above which were two rooms probably used for recitations. The building's wings consisted of small suites, most of which included a bedroom and two tiny studies. In 1762, an increase in student enrollment necessitated the completion of student chambers in the basement - gloomy, damp rooms that housed the unluckiest of the first-year pupils. Like an Anglo-American cloister, the early Nassau Hall almost completely enclosed college life. Here, the college's tutors as well as its students slept, ate, prayed, and attended class."

18th Century Professors

Although we are using the term professors as plural, when the college began John Blair served as the only professor for three plus years. In the early 1770s there were only two or three professors. Quite a difference from today's 950 faculty count. As Wilentz noted, the school's focus in the early years was very much on religion.

1767-1769 John Blair, Theology and Moral Philosophy

1769-1783 John Witherspoon, Theology

1771-1783 William Churchill Houston, Mathematics and Natural Philosophy

1779-1812 Samuel Stanhope Smith, Moral Philosophy and Theology

1783-1787 Ashbel Green, Mathematics and Natural Philosophy

1787-1796 Walter Minto, Mathematics and Natural Philosophy

1793-1804 John Maclean, Chemistry, Mathematics and Natural Philosophy

Tutors

The book lists tutors between 1747 and 1892. After 1892 the position of tutor disappears. What exactly was a tutor in 18th century Princeton? A fascinating early account of being a student at Princeton gives some insight. Journal at Nassau Hall: The Diary of John Rhea Smith, 1786 by Ruth L. Woodward goes into some detail about the experience. Woodward writes that one of the duties of a tutor was to keep order in the dining hall. From reading through John Smith's diary it seems like a tutor is somewhat akin to today's teaching assistant or lecturer with added duties such as supervising meals and making sure students studied during their allotted study times. This seems like a logical explanation of the role, except that the catalogue also lists Instructors, Lecturers and Assistants beginning in 1804, and most of the tutors have an A.M. designation listed after them name, latin for Artium Magister, or a Master of Arts degree. It seems like it was an apprenticeship position that could lead to becoming a professor.

Early Princeton tutors are listed below:

1747-1748 Caleb Smith

1749-1752 John Maltby

1750-1752 Samuel Sherwood

1752-1755 John Badger

1752-1754 Alexander Gordon

1754-1756 George Duffield

1755-1756 William Thomson

1756-1757 Benjamin Youngs Prime

1756-1758 John Ewing

1757-1758 Isaac Smith

1757-1767 Jeremiah Halsey

1758-1760 Joseph Treat

1760-1762 Jacob Ker

1761-1764 Samuel Blair

1762-1770 James Thomson

1765-1766 Joseph Periam

1766-1769 Jonathan Edwards

Stewards of Nassau Hall

A fascinating discovery in the book is a category called "Stewards." To list them on a par with professors, trustees and students elevates the role to something meaningful. Except they lived in the basement of Nassau Hall and prepared meals and kept the building functioning. Two of the stewards, including the first one have the A.M. designation.

Patrick Speeding's blog gives a great general description of the steward's role, "The ostensible task of the Steward was to maintain the college dining hall but other duties included collecting bills, tuition, fees, and room and pew rents. The Steward also sold textbooks, cleaned chimneys, guarded the belfry and bell-rope, hired and fired servants and purchased college furniture. Originally, the Steward's quarters were in the basement of Nassau Hall, along with the kitchen and dining rooms, known collectively as the refectory."

Note that the stewart Elias Woodruff must have had his hands full in 1783 when the Continental Congress used Nassau Hall as its meeting place.

1756(?)-1773 Jonathan Baldwin, A.M.

1773-1776 Elias Woodruff, Commissary of Military Store New Jersey Militia, Revolutionary War

1776-1780 Aaron Mattison

1781-1782 Jonathan Baldwin, A.M.

1782-1784 Elias Woodruff

1784-1786 John Lane

1786-1788 Elias Woodruff

1788-1803 Daniel Agnew

1803-1804 Jacob Ten Eyck

1804-1805 William Ross

1805-1808 Ralph Sansbury

1808-1808 Peter Hollinshead

1808-1816 Ralph Sansbury

1816-1845 Henry Clow

1845-1846 Daniel B. Wagner

1846-1848 Henry Clow

1848-1854 Charles W. Neale

Princeton's First 100 Graduates

Ruth Woodward's book gives fascinating insight into student life in 1786. Students were awakened by a bell at 5:00 am and mandatory prayers began at 5:30 am, in a very cold environment as Wilentz notes. Mornings were dedicated to study and afternoons were for walks and other recreation. Evening prayers were at 5:00 pm and dinner at 6:00 pm.

Woodward recounts food that by modern standards seems fit for only a prison, "Supper usually consisted of bread of biscuit, or porridge or gruel, with either coffee, tea or milk."  Although Smith mentioned eating pot pies and boiling eggs in his room. For their meals the students paid the college steward 12 shilling a week.

The first 100 graduates of Princeton, receiving Bachelors of Arts degrees (actually it comes to 112, representing the first 10 graduating classes):

The Class of 1748

1. Enos Ayres

2. Benjamin Chestnut, A.M.

3. Hugh Henry

4. Israel Read, A.M.

5. Richard Stockton

6. Daniel Thane

The Class of 1749

7. John Brown

8. William Burnet

9. John Hoge

10. Thomas Kennedy

11. John Moffat

12. John Todd

13. Eleazar Whittlesey

The Class of 1750

14. Hugh Bay

15. James Beard

16. Alexander Clinton

17. Daniel Farrand

18. James Frelinghuysen

19. Simeon Mitchell

The Class of 1751

20. James Badger

21. Samuel Clark

22. Alexander Gordon

23. Robert Henry

24. Samuel McClintock

25. Henry Martin

26. Benjamin Youngs Prime

27. Robert Ross

28. Nathaniel Scudder

29. David Thurston

The Class of 1752

30. George Duffield

31. Jeremiah Halsey

32. Samuel Livermore

33. Cornelius Low

34. Nathaniel Whitaker

35. John Wright

The Class of 1753

36. Daniel Isaac Brown

37. Israel Canfield

38. John Harris

38. Robert Harris

39. John Houston

40. David Jamison

41. Hugh McAden

42. Lewis Ogden

43. Nathaniel Potter

44. Nathaniel Sherman

45. Joseph Shippen, Jr.

46. Elijah Williams

47. Benjamin Woodruff

48. Joseph Woodruff

The Class of 1754

49. Moses Barrett

50. Benjamin Chapman

51. John Ewing

52. Benjamin Hait

53. Ezra Horton

54. Samuel Kennedy

55. Hugh Knox

56. David Mathews

57. Jonathan Odell

58. Sylvanus Osborn

59. David Purviance

60. William Ramsey

61. James Reeves

62. Benaiah Root

63. Josiah Sherman

64. William Shippen, Jr.

65. Thomas Smith

66. William Thomson

67. Noah Wadhams

The Class of 1755

68. Jonathan Baldwin

69. Benoni Bradner

70. Thaddeus Burr

71. Wheeler Case

72. Benjamin Conklin

73. William  Crawford

74. John Hanna

75. Gerhardus Leydekker

76. Joseph Montgomery

77. Isaac Smith

78. Smith Stratton

79. Isaac Townsend

The Class of 1756

80. Stephen Camp

81. David Hull

82. Isaac Livermore

83. William Livermore

84. Alexander Martin

85. William Mills

86. Josiah Ogden

87. Geoffrey Smith

88. Jesse Root

89. Azel Roe

90. Joseph Peck

The Class of 1757

91. Moses Baldwin

92. Caleb Barnum

93. Nicholas Bayard

94. Noah Benedict

95. John Boyd

96. Abner Brush

97. Caleb Curtis

98. Timothy Edwards

99. Peter Faneuil

100. Elnathan Gregory

101. William Kirkpatrick

102. Alexander Macwhorter

103. Samuel Parkhurst

104. Joseph Reed

105. Stephen Sayre

106. David Smith

107. James Smith

108. John Strain

109. Samuel Taylor

110. Joseph Treat

111. Abner Wells

112. Henry Wells

For those interested in more detail the book Princeton College during the eighteen century, written by Samuel Davies Alexander, and published in 1872 offers a biographical sketch for all the early Princeton graduates. 

Sources and Notes

1. WOODWARD, RUTH L. “Journal at Nassau Hall: The Diary of John Rhea Smith, 1786.” The Princeton University Library Chronicle 46, no. 3 (1985): 269–91. https://doi.org/10.2307/26403756.

2. https://www.princetonianamuseum.org/artifact/9443...

3. Nassau Hall, Princeton by Sean Wilentz, Dayton-Stockton professor of history at Nassau Hall https://www.princeton.edu/~paw/web_exclusives/more...

4. Princeton Alumni Weekly from October 17, 1930 gives a detailed account of early life in Nassau Hall.

5. http://patrickspedding.blogspot.com/2010/06/eliza...