Editing Ezra Stiles (section)

===Foundation of Brown University===
During his residence in Newport, Stiles played a major role in the establishment of [[Brown University]] (then Rhode Island College).

According to Edmund Morgan, in Rhode Island's religious diversity Stiles "saw an opportunity to join with Christians of other denominations in a project which would exemplify their common faith in free inquiry.... a college in which the major religious groups of the colony should unite in the pursuit of knowledge."<ref name=":2" /> In 1761, Stiles, along with [[William Ellery|William Ellery Jr.]] and [[Josias Lyndon]], drafted a petition to the [[Rhode Island General Assembly]] to establish a "literary institution".<ref name=":8">{{Cite book|last=Stiles|first=Ezra|url=http://archive.org/details/cu31924030935765|title=Extracts From the Itineraries and Other Miscellanies of Ezra Stiles, D. D., Ll. D., 1755-1794: With a Selection From His Correspondence|date=1916|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|editor-last=Dexter|editor-first=Franklin Bowditch|location=[[New Haven, Connecticut]]|pages=25}}</ref> The editor of Stiles's papers observes, "This draft of a petition connects itself with other evidence of Dr. Stiles's project for a Collegiate Institution in Rhode Island, before the charter of what became Brown University."<ref name=":8" /><ref>[[Brown University#Dexter|Dexter (1916)]], p. 25.</ref>

There is further documentary evidence that Stiles was making plans for a college in 1762. On January 20, Chauncey Whittelsey, pastor of the First Church of New Haven, answered a letter from Stiles:<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Bronson|first=Walter Cochrane|url=http://archive.org/details/historyofbrownun0000bron|title=The History of Brown University, 1764-1914|date=1914|publisher=Providence, The University|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-405-03697-2|pages=346–347}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=The week before last I sent you the Copy of Yale College Charter ... Should you make any Progress in the Affair of a Colledge, I should be glad to hear of it; I heartily wish you Success therein.}}Stiles agreed to write the Charter for the college, submitting a first draft to the General Assembly in August 1763. A revised version of the Charter written by Stiles and Ellery was adopted by the Rhode Island General Assembly on March 3, 1764, in [[East Greenwich, Rhode Island|East Greenwich]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Encyclopedia Brunoniana {{!}} Charter|url=https://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=C0350|access-date=2021-04-10|website=www.brown.edu}}</ref> In drafting the document, Stiles combined broad-minded public statements defining Rhode Island College as a "liberal and catholic institution" in which "shall never be admitted a religious test" with private partisanship: his draft charter packed the board of trustees and the fellows of the college with his fellow Congregationalists.

Baptist members of the Rhode Island General Assembly, to Stiles' dismay, amended the charter to allow Baptists control of both branches of the College's Corporation.<ref>Hoeveler, David J., ''Creating the American Mind: Intellect and Politics in the Colonial Colleges'', Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, p. 191</ref> Stiles declined a seat on the College's Corporation, writing that Baptists had seized "the whole Power and Government of the College and thus by the Immutability of the numbers establishing it a Party College." Stiles continued to work towards his vision of a non-sectarian institution after the establishment of Rhode Island College, presenting in 1770 a petition for the establishment of another college in Newport.<ref name=":2" />