Editing Royal charter (section)

====United States====
Several of the [[colonial colleges]] that predate the [[American Revolution]] are described as having been established by royal charter. Except for [[The College of William & Mary]], which received its charter from [[King William III]] and [[Queen Mary II]] in 1693 following a mission to London by college representatives, these were either provincial charters granted by local governors (acting in the name of the king) or charters granted by legislative acts from local assemblies.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ld3GnPT920QC&pg=PA192 |title=History of Universities: Volume XVII 2001–2002 |page=192 |editor=Mordechai Feingold |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 |chapter=Review Essay |isbn=9780199256365 |access-date=6 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822183345/https://books.google.com/books?id=ld3GnPT920QC&pg=PA192#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=22 August 2024}}</ref>

The first charters to be issued by a colonial governor on the consent of their council (rather than by an act of legislation) were those granted to [[Princeton University]] (as the College of New Jersey) in 1746 (from acting governor [[John Hamilton (New Jersey politician)|John Hamilton]]) and 1748 (from Governor [[Jonathan Belcher]]). There was concern as to whether a royal charter given by a governor in the King's name was valid without royal approval. An attempt to resolve this in London in 1754 ended inconclusively when [[Henry Pelham]], the prime minister, died. However, Princeton's charter was never challenged in court prior to its ratification by the state legislature in 1780, following the US Declaration of Independence.<ref>{{cite book |pages=76–79 |title=History of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton |author=[[John Maclean Jr.|John MacLean]] |date=1877 |publisher=Lippincott |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5rIcCdMpKkC&pg=PA76 |access-date=25 February 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822183249/https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5rIcCdMpKkC&pg=PA76#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=22 August 2024}}</ref>

[[Columbia University]] received its royal charter (as King's College) in 1754 from Lieutenant Governor [[James DeLancey]] of New York, who bypassed the assembly rather than risking it rejecting the charter.<ref>{{cite book |title=Stand, Columbia: A History of Columbia University |author=Robert McCaughey |publisher=Columbia University Press |date=2003 |page=21 |isbn=9780231503556 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bdBXMiac6l0C&pg=PA21 |access-date=6 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822183356/https://books.google.com/books?id=bdBXMiac6l0C&pg=PA21#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=22 August 2024}}</ref> [[Rutgers University]] received its (as Queen's College) in 1766 (and a second charter in 1770) from Governor [[William Franklin]] of New Jersey,<ref>{{cite web |title=A Historical Sketch of Rutgers University: Section 1 |author=Thomas J. Frusciano |at=The Founding of Queen's College |date=2006 |website=Rutgers University Libraries |url=https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/scua/rutgers-historical-sketch-part-1#Founding |access-date=6 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213213212/https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/scua/rutgers-historical-sketch-part-1#Founding |archive-date=13 December 2019}}</ref> and [[Dartmouth College]] received its in 1769 from Governor [[Sir John Wentworth, 1st Baronet|John Wentworth]] of New Hampshire.<ref>{{cite web |title=College Charter Granted |publisher=Dartmouth College |url=https://250.dartmouth.edu/highlights/college-charter-granted |access-date=6 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190830204856/https://250.dartmouth.edu/highlights/college-charter-granted |archive-date=30 August 2019}}</ref> The case of ''[[Dartmouth College v. Woodward]]'', heard before the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] in 1818, centred on the status of the college's royal charter.<ref>{{cite web |title=Dartmouth College Case Decided By the U.S. Supreme Court |date=13 October 2018 |publisher=Dartmouth College |url=https://250.dartmouth.edu/highlights/dartmouth-college-case-decided-us-supreme-court |access-date=6 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822183258/https://home.dartmouth.edu/about/dartmouth-milestones |archive-date=22 August 2024}}</ref> The court found in 1819 that the charter was a contract under the [[Contract Clause]] of the US Constitution, meaning that it could not be impaired by state legislation, and that it had not been dissolved by the revolution.<ref>{{cite web |title=Trustees of Dartmouth Coll. v. Woodward, 17 U.S. 518 (1819) |publisher=[[Justia]] |url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/17/518/ |access-date=6 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118134048/https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/17/518/ |archive-date=18 January 2021}}</ref>

The charter for the College of William and Mary specified it to be a "place of universal study, or perpetual college, for divinity, philosophy, languages and other good arts and sciences", but made no mention of the right to award degrees.<ref>{{cite book |pages=361–378 |title=Educational Legislation and Administration of the Colonial Governments |author=Elsie Worthington Clews Parsons |publisher=Macmillan |date=1899 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mZadAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA361 |access-date=17 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822183804/https://books.google.com/books?id=mZadAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA361#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=22 August 2024}}</ref> However, the Latin text of the charter uses ''[[studium generale]]'' – the technical term used in the Middle Ages for a university –where the English text has "place of universal study"; it has been argued that this granted William and Mary the rights and status of a university.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=William and Mary Law Review Online |title=A University in 1693: New Light on William & Mary's Claim to the Title 'Oldest University in the United States' |last1=McSweeney |first1=Thomas J. |last2=Ello |first2=Katharine |last3=O'Brien |first3=Elsbeth |year=2020 |volume=61 |page=4 |url=https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlronline/vol61/iss1/4/ |access-date=14 July 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822183808/https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlronline/vol61/iss1/4/ |archive-date=22 August 2024}}</ref>

The Princeton charter, however, specified that the college could "give and grant any such degree and degrees&nbsp;... as are usually granted in either of our universities or any other college in our realm of Great Britain".<ref>{{cite book |page=330 |title=Educational Legislation and Administration of the Colonial Governments |author=Elsie Worthington Clews Parsons |publisher=Macmillan |date=1899 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mZadAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA330 |access-date=17 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822183809/https://books.google.com/books?id=mZadAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA330#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=22 August 2024}}</ref> Columbia's charter used very similar language a few years later,<ref>{{cite book |page=269 |title=Educational Legislation and Administration of the Colonial Governments |author=Elsie Worthington Clews Parsons |publisher=Macmillan |date=1899 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mZadAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA269 |access-date=18 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822183811/https://books.google.com/books?id=mZadAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA269#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=22 August 2024}}</ref> as did Dartmouth's charter.<ref>{{cite book |page=182 |title=Educational Legislation and Administration of the Colonial Governments |author=Elsie Worthington Clews Parsons |publisher=Macmillan |date=1899 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mZadAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA182 |access-date=18 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822183925/https://books.google.com/books?id=mZadAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA182#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=22 August 2024}}</ref> The charter of Rutger uses quite different words, specifying that it may "confer all such honorary degrees as usually are granted and conferred in any of our colleges in any of our colonies in America".<ref>{{cite book |page=342 |title=Educational Legislation and Administration of the Colonial Governments |author=Elsie Worthington Clews Parsons |publisher=Macmillan |date=1899 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mZadAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA342 |access-date=18 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822183950/https://books.google.com/books?id=mZadAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA342#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=22 August 2024}}</ref>

Of the other colleges founded prior to the American Revolution, [[Harvard College]] was established in 1636 by Act of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and incorporated in 1650 by a charter from the same body,<ref>{{cite web |title=The Harvard Charter of 1650 |publisher=Harvard University |url=https://emeritus.library.harvard.edu/university-archives/using-the-collections/online-resources/charter-of-1650 |access-date=6 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209124307/https://emeritus.library.harvard.edu/university-archives/using-the-collections/online-resources/charter-of-1650 |archive-date=9 February 2019}}</ref> [[Yale University]] was established in 1701 by Act of the General Assembly of Connecticut,<ref>{{cite web |title=Governance Documents |date=5 August 2015 |publisher=Yale University |url=https://www.yale.edu/board-trustees/governance-documents |access-date=6 February 2019}}</ref> the [[University of Pennsylvania]] received a charter from the proprietors of the colony in 1753,<ref>{{cite book |page=300 |title=Educational Legislation and Administration of the Colonial Governments |author=Elsie Worthington Clews Parsons |publisher=Macmillan |date=1899 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mZadAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA300 |access-date=12 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822184330/https://books.google.com/books?id=mZadAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA300#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=22 August 2024}}</ref> [[Brown University]] was established in 1764 (as the College of Rhode Island) by an Act of the Governor and General Assembly of Rhode Island,<ref>{{cite web |title=March 1764: College Charter Granted |work=Brown University Timemline |url=https://www.brown.edu/about/history/timeline/college-charter-granted}}</ref> and [[Hampden-Sydney College]] was established privately in 1775 but not incorporated until 1783.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Hampden-Sydney College |publisher=Hampden-Sydney College |url=http://www.hsc.edu/documents/About%20H-SC/HistoryofHSC.pdf |access-date=6 February 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209124248/http://www.hsc.edu/documents/About%20H-SC/HistoryofHSC.pdf |archive-date=2019-02-09}}</ref>