Thomas Church Brownell by Unknown Photographer, ca. 1845-1865

Born in 1779 in Westport, Massachusetts, Thomas Church Brownell taught Latin, Greek, Belles Letres, Moral Philosophy, Chemistry, and Mineralogy at Union College [location] between 1805 and 1811. At some time before 1815, he left the Congregational Church. After becoming a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1816, he accepted unanimous election as Bishop of Connecticut by the Episcopal Church three years later.

Starting in late 1822, Brownell played a major role in the writing of the petition which led to the chartering of a college by the Connecticut state legislature on May 16, 1823. Rather than a Church-controlled academy, Trinity College began under the rule of a Board of Trustees whose members were not required to pass a religious test. Still, Bishop Brownell publicly saw the creation of Washington (later Trinity) College as a bulwark against what he called “a spurious liberality.” The lack of an Episcopal school had long prevented Episcopal parents in Connecticut from sending their boys to colleges whose professors espoused their faith. Indeed, in September 1823, a letter “to the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Church of England,” which Brownell signed simultaneously as Bishop and “President” of the nascent college, became part of a campaign pleading for donations to support the newly chartered college on the basis of its religious affinities to the state-supported Church of England. Thirty thousand dollars was needed to be raised for the college's state charter to take effect.

By May 6, 1824, Thomas Brownell was formally elected as President of Washington College by the Board of Trustees. Serving until December 1831, Brownell's presidency involved selection of the site for the college, planning the course of study, creating a plan of governance, and codifying student discipline. In several areas, Brownell proposed radical ideas. For instance, he included practical and scientific studies alongside the traditional fare of classics. He also devised a curricula separated into eight categories – Political Economy, Belles Lettres, Science, Politics, Metaphysics, Mathematics, Morals, and History. Though Brownell's curricula was not implemented along these lines, there was a strong emphasis at Washington College on the natural sciences.

Brownell was so committed to furthering the college that he was criticized by fellow members of the Episcopal Diocese for neglecting his oversight of the rest of Connecticut's Episcopal churches. He did have time to serve as President of the African Mission School Society in Hartford, which began in 1828. After resigning from Washington College in 1831, he remained actively supportive of the college. For example, Brownell solicited donations for the endowment of the Hobart Professorship, first awarded in 1837. To a certain extent, Brownell became a more powerful presence over governance of the college's trustees during the 1840s than he had been as the college's president. He was named Chancellor and Visitor of Trinity College. In 1852, Brownell became the presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of America. Brownell died in January 1865. Four years later, a statue of Brownell was erected in Bushnell Park in Hartford.

Possible source formats

Text from History of Trinity College by Glenn Weaver (1967), pp. 34-40.

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History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, pp. 34-40.

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Glenn Weaver (1967) History of Trinity College, pp. 34- 40.

Glenn Weaver History of Trinity College (1967).

or something completely different!

Thomas Church Brownell, The Canterbury Project