Charles Nisbet (January 21, 1736 – January 18, 1804) was a Scottish-American academic and churchman, and the first Principal of

Dickinson College , mottoeng = Freedom is made safe through character and learning , established = , type = Private liberal arts college , endowment = $645.5 million (2022) , president = J ...

Life

Charles Nisbet was born in Haddington, Scotland on January 21, 1736, the son of William Nisbet (physician) and Alison Hepburn. His father was a schoolteacher at Long Yester near Haddington,

East Lothian East Lothian (; sco, East Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In 1975, the histo ...

, Scotland. By 1754, Charles Nisbet had completed studies at both the High School and the University of Edinburgh and had entered Divinity Hall to prepare for the ministry. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Edinburgh on September 24, 1760. On May 17, 1764, he was ordained to the parish church of Montrose.Rev. Charles Nisbet, First President of Dickinson College, by Rev. Charles Collins 1853 Nisbet was an outspoken

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

and sympathiser with the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

. Anti-Catholic in his view, he was questioned after the

Gordon Riots The Gordon Riots of 1780 were several days of rioting in London motivated by anti-Catholic sentiment. They began with a large and orderly protest against the Papists Act 1778, which was intended to reduce official discrimination against British ...

. Nisbet's old friend

John Witherspoon John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense reali ...

was the head of

Princeton College Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

; and the college in 1783 awarded Nisbet the honorary degree of

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ran ...

. This caused the Trustees of Dickinson College to turn their attention to him for the new institution in

Carlisle, Pennsylvania Carlisle is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 United States census, ...

. Persuaded by

Benjamin Rush Benjamin Rush (April 19, 1813) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father of the United States who signed the United States Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, ...

and

John Dickinson John Dickinson (November 13 Julian_calendar">/nowiki>Julian_calendar_November_2.html" ;"title="Julian_calendar.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Julian calendar">/nowiki>Julian calendar November 2">Julian_calendar.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Julian calendar" ...

, Nisbet accepted the position and sailed from

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...

with his family on April 23, 1785. They arrived in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

on June 9, and in Carlisle on July 4, where the town greeted them. In the height of a humid Pennsylvania summer, the entire family fell ill with a fever. Given Carlisle's muddy frontier appearance and weather, Nisbet seriously considered returning to Scotland, but was persuaded to remain. Nisbet was unanimously re-elected as principal on May 9, 1786. For the following eighteen years, his efforts to build the new institution were untiring. On New Year's Day, 1804 he contracted a cold, which progressed to pneumonia. Charles Nisbet died in Carlisle two and a half weeks later on January 18, 1804. At the funeral a sermon was preached and a Latin ode to his memory was given. A monument was erected to his memory by his son Alexander.The American quarterly register, Volume 14, American Education Society, page 332

Family

In 1766, Nisbet married Anne Tweedie. The Nisbets had four children: Thomas, Mary, Alison (1773) and Alexander (1777). His son

Alexander Nisbet Alexander Nisbet (bapt. 23 March 1657; died 7 Dec. 1725) was a Scottish lawyer and antiquarian. He is remembered for his works on the subject of heraldry, which are generally considered to be some of the most complete and authoritative ever pr ...

born 1777 was a founding member of th
St Andrews Society of Baltimore
in 1806.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nisbet, Charles 1736 births 1804 deaths 18th-century Scottish educators 18th-century Ministers of the Church of Scotland People from Haddington, East Lothian Scottish educators Scottish evangelicals