Higher Education.— The Rev. William Smith, D.D., who had been head of the College of Philadelphia from the beginning, was forced by the British occupation of that city to remove to Chestertown, where he became rector of the Protestant Episcopal church. He also took the principalship of the Kent County school and so developed it that he secured a college charter for the institution under the name of Washington College in 1782. It was the first institution named for General Washington, and the first collegiate institution in Maryland. Its history has been full of vicissitudes, but the college has continued its work with fair measure of success, and is still the only institution con ferring degrees, situated upon the Eastern Shore. Since 1890, women have been admitted to its courses.
The Western Shore obtained its first institu tion of higher learning, when Saint John's Col lege was chartered at Annapolis in 1784. For its site, the State gave the unfinished governor's mansion and its grounds. According to its charter, it was united with the Washington Col lege into a University of Maryland, but this union was merely nominal. The State appro priation was withdrawn in 1805, and the college languished for a time. From 1837, for 20 years, Rev. Hector Humphreys, the principal, labored faithfully for its interests. The college was suspended and the buildings were used as a hospital during the Civil War. Reorganized by Henry Barnard, LL.D., Saint John s Col lege has been under the principalship of Thomas Fell, LL.D., since 1887. The students are organized in a cadet corps and receive military training. It has been recognized as the faculty of arts of the University of Mary land for the past few years.
The French Revolution drove from Europe a large number of ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic faith. The Right Rev. John Carroll, in his desire to provide educational oppoftunities for the youth of Maryland, especially for those of his Church, invited some of these teachers to settle in Maryland. Consequently, the Sul picians began instruction in Baltimore in 1791. Their institution was called Saint Mary's Col lege, and its title was afterward changed to Saint Mary's University. It gave regular academic instruction until 1852, when the col lege was closed, in order that the clergy might devote their entire attention to the theological training of young men for the priesthood in Saint Mary's Seminary of Saint Sulpice, which had been maintained by them as a part of their institution from its beginning, and which is the oldest Roman Catholic theological school in the United States. Cardinal Gibbons is its
most distinguished graduate. In 1808, near Emmittsburg, in Frederick County, Rev. John Dubois, a Sulpician priest, founded Mount Saint Mary's College. This institution is now governed by the secular clergy, and in addition to the preparatory and collegiate courses, main tains a seminary preparatory to the priesthood. A third institution, which owes its origin to the Sulpicians, and which is still controlled by them, is Saint Charles' College founded in 1830, and endowed by Charles Carroll of Carrollton. It was formerly situated in Howard County, but is now located near Catonsville in Baltimore County. It gives the collegiate courses prepara tory to Saint Mary's Seminary. In 1802 Dr. John B. Davidge opened a medical class in Baltimore, from which developed the Col lege of Medicine of Maryland, chartered in 1807, and the University of Maryland, char tered in 1812. The university was planned to contain four faculties. That of medicine has always been the strongest, and is the only one which has enjoyed a continuous exist ence, always maintaining a course of medical instruction which ranked well among similar institutions. It has recently united to itself the College of Physicians and Surgeons (founded in 1872 and which had itself absorbed the Washington Medical College) and the Baltimore Medical College ( founded in 1883) and is ful filling the instructional requirements of the American Medical Association. The Maryland College of Pharmacy (founded in 1856) has recently been annexed, and the department of dentistry was opened in 1882. No school of divinity was ever organized. The school of arts had a troubled existence, and finally died, but has recently been revived by the union of Saint John's College with the university. The school of law was maintained for a few years, about 1840, with David Hoffman as professor, and was revived in 1869. Since that time, it has maintained high standards, and is the only law school in the State, having absorbed the Baltimore Law School (founded in 1900), and the Baltimore University School of Law (founded in 1890).