Office of the President Records : Jonathan Dickinson to Harold W. Dodds Subgroup 1746-1999 (mostly 1830-1869)

• Series 8: Ashbel Green Records

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Series 8: Ashbel Green Records

17 folders

This collection is stored at Mudd Manuscript Library.

Requests will be delivered to Princeton University Archives, MUDD Reading Room .

Collection Creator: Princeton University. Office of the President..

Dates: 1782-1985.

Extent: 17 folders

Languages: English.

Access Restrictions

Materials generated by the office of the president are closed for 40 years from the date of their creation. Some records relating to personnel or students are closed for longer periods of time.

Description

Ashbel Green was born in 1762 in Hanover, New Jersey, the son of Jacob Green, a Presbyterian minister and a trustee of the College of New Jersey. Green studied under his father until the age of sixteen, before becoming a revolutionary soldier in 1778. He returned home in 1781 to prepare for college, and the following year he entered the junior class of the College of New Jersey. He graduated in 1783, delivering his class' valedictory before George Washington and other members of the Continental Congress. He remained at the College as a tutor and then as a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy until he received his license to preach in 1786, whereupon he assumed the role of junior pastor at the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. The year before he had married Elizabeth Stockton, a member of one of Princeton's most prominent families. In 1792 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by the University of Pennsylvania and was elected chaplain to the United States Congress. He was re-elected to this position several times until 1800, when Congress moved to Washington, D.C. Green returned to the College of New Jersey as its president in 1812 and held office until 1822, emphasizing religion and discipline. During his tenure, he was part of the planning committee for the Princeton Theological Seminary, and he remained closely associated with the Seminary until his death in 1848. He resigned the presidency in 1822 over differences with the Board of Trustees, returning to Philadelphia to become editor of the Christian Advocate.

This series is arranged topically and contains biographical information, writings, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and Green's valedictory oration. Among Green's records are a photocopy of his letter of resignation, an original letter of recommendation for one of his students, a document written during his own student days, an account of the student unrest that shook the College in 1817, and three original letters that were sent to Green in 1815 and 1816. The first is from a student, and the others are about students. Biographical information comes from a variety of publications, including the Princeton Alumni Weekly, the New York Observer, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, among others. Portraits of Green are also included in this series.

Preferred Citation

Series 8: Ashbel Green Records; 1782-1985; Office of the President Records : Jonathan Dickinson to Harold W. Dodds Subgroup, Princeton University Archives, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Request Checked Items

	Title	Date	Container
	Biographical Information	1917-1970	Box 4, Folder 16
	The College of New Jersey Years	1822-1931	Box 4, Folder 17
	Writings	1782-1848	Box 4, Folder 18
	Correspondence	1815-1982	Box 4, Folder 19
	Family Members	1864-1918	Box 4, Folder 20
	Gifts to Princeton University	1925-1985	Box 4, Folder 21
	Post Mortem	1848	Box 4, Folder 22
	The Christian Duty of Christian Women	1825	Box 253
	Charge to the Jury, in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania...versus Ashbel Green and Others	1839 March 26	Box 253
	Advice and Exhortation, Addressed to the People of the Second Presbyterian Congregation, in Philadelphia, on Resigning the Pastoral Charge of That Congregation	1812	Box 253
	A Report to the Trustees of the College of New Jersey; Relative to a Revival of Religion Among the Students of Said College	1815	Box 253
	Doing Good in Imitation of Christ	1822	Box 253
	Christ Crucified, the Characteristick of Apostolick Preaching	1825	Box 253
	Address at the Interment of Robert Ralston, Esquire	1836	Box 253
	An Address to the Students and Faculty of the College of New Jersey	1802	Box 253
	A Discourse, Delivered at the Opening, for Public Worship, of the Presbyterian Church, in the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia	1805	Box 253
	Letter to the Friends of the College of New-Jersey ... concerning the Riot of 1817	1817 February 20	Box 254