The King's College Tract is a area of forested land in the vicinity of the present towns of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and

Johnson Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...

in the U.S. state of

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. The tract was granted in 1764 by Lieutenant Governor Cadwallader Colden of the New York crown colony, in the name of

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

to the board of governors (trustees) of King's College – the predecessor of today's

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and the Canadian

University of King's College The University of King's College, established in 1789, is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.Roper, Henry. "Aspects of the History of a Loyalist College: King's College, Windsor, and Nova Scotian Higher Education in the Nineteenth Century." Anglic ...

. The grant was intended for the eventual expansion of the college. The emergence of the

Vermont Republic The Vermont Republic ( French: ''République du Vermont''), officially known at the time as the State of Vermont ( French: ''État du Vermont''), was an independent state in New England that existed from January 15, 1777, to March 4, 1791. The ...

in 1777 forestalled claim of the grant, and Vermont's

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presby ...

made a grant of the same land in 1785 to

William Samuel Johnson William Samuel Johnson (October 7, 1727 – November 14, 1819) was an American Founding Father and statesman. Before the Revolutionary War, he served as a militia lieutenant before being relieved following his rejection of his election to the Fi ...

, an American founding father and jurist who informally represented Vermont before the

Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...

and argued for its eventual admission to the federal union. By coincidence the association with King's College (Columbia University) continued, as Johnson became president of then Columbia College in 1787. Though Columbia University never moved to King's College Tract, eventually a college was located there. In 1828 John Chesamore founded the Lamoille Academy, predecessor to today's

Johnson State College Johnson State College was a public liberal arts college in Johnson, Vermont. Founded in 1828 by John Chesamore, in 2018 it was merged with the former Lyndon State College to create Northern Vermont University. History and governance Both t ...

(now part of

Northern Vermont University Northern Vermont University (NVU) is a public university in Johnson and Lyndon, Vermont. Established in 2018 by the unification of the former Johnson State College and Lyndon State College, the university offers over 50 Bachelor's degree pro ...

References and further reading

* Graff, Nancy Price. ''Visible Layers of Time: A Perspective on the History and Architecture of Johnson, Vermont.'' The University of Vermont, Historic Preservation Program: 1990. * Raymond, Kenneth. ''The History of Johnson State College: 1828-1984.'' Johnson State College: 1985. * Swift, Esther Monroe. ''Vermont Place Names: Footprints of History.'' The Stephen Greene Press: 1996 . Pre-statehood history of Vermont Lamoille County, Vermont Cambridge, Vermont Johnson, Vermont Vermont State Colleges Columbia University {{Vermont-geo-stub