St John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland

In 1696 “King William's School” opened as a free school at Annapolis “to instruct youth in Arithmetick, Navigation and all useful learning, but chiefly for the fitting such as are disposed to study divinity.” Governor Nicholson gave the land for a school building which was completed in 1701. In Nov. 1784 the Maryland legislature passed a bill with the following title: “An act for founding a college on the Western Shore of this state and constituting the same, together with Washington College on the Eastern Shore, into one university by the name of the University of Maryland.” The first meeting of the Board of Governors of St. John's College was held on Feb. 28, 1786. One member of the Board of Governors was the Rev. Thomas John Claggett, later the first Bishop of Maryland. On Mar. 2, 1786, King William's School was amalgamated with the proposed St. John's College, which opened on Nov. 11, 1789. St. John's College is no longer affiliated with the Episcopal Church.