Charles Nisbet (January 21, 1736 – January 18, 1804) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

-American academic and churchman, and the first Principal of

Dickinson College Dickinson College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1773 as Carlisle Grammar School, Dickinson was chartered on September 9, 1783, ...

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 (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...

, 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, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

and sympathiser with the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

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

Gordon Riots The Gordon Riots of 1780 were several days' 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 real ...

was the head of

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

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

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (DD or DDiv; ) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity (academic discipline), divinity (i.e., Christian theology and Christian ministry, ministry or other theologies. The term is more common in the Englis ...

. 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 an American revolutionary, a Founding Father of the United States and signatory to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social refor ...

and

John Dickinson John Dickinson (November 13, O.S. November 2">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. November 21732Various sources indicate a birth date of November 8, 12 or 13, but his most recent biographer ...

, Nisbet accepted the position and sailed from

Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...

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

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

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 heraldry, which are considered to be some of the most complete and authoritative produced in the UK. Life Nisb ...

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 18th-century Scottish Presbyterian ministers People from Haddington, East Lothian Scottish evangelicals