The Educational Background of the Framers
by Gordon Lloyd and Jeff Sammon
Introduction
It has often been remarked that in the journey of life, the young rely on energy to counteract the experience of the old. And vice versa. What makes this Constitutional Convention remarkable is that the delegates were both young and experienced. The average age of the delegates was 42 and four of the most influential delegates—Alexander Hamilton, Edmund Randolph, Gouvernor Morris, and James Madison—were in their thirties. Over half of the delegates graduated from College with nine from Princeton and six from British Universities. Even more significant was the continental political experience of the Framers: 8 signed the Declaration of Independence, 25 served in the Continental Congress, 15 helped draft the new State Constitutions between 1776 and 1780, and 40 served in the Confederation Congress between 1783 and 1787.
The Delegates Arranged by School
Harvard
- Elbridge Gerry (1762)
- Rufus King (1777)
- William Samuel Johnson (M.A. 1747)
- Caleb Strong (1774)
- George Washington (Honorary LLD 1776)
Yale
- Abraham Baldwin (1772)
- Jared Ingersoll (1766)
- William Samuel Johnson (1744)
- William Livingston (1741)
- Roger Sherman (Honorary MA 1768)
- William Livingston (Honorary LLD 1788)
College of New Jersey (Princeton)
- Gunning Bedford, Jr. (1771)
- William R. Davie (1776)
- Jonathan Dayton (1776)
- Oliver Ellsworth (1766)
- William C. Houston (1768, M.A. 1771)
- James Madison Jr. (1771)
- Alexander Martin (1756, M.A. 1759)
- Luther Martin (1766)
- William Paterson (1763)
- David Brearly (Honorary M.A. 1781)
- John Dickinson (Honorary LLD)
Middle Temple (London)
- John Dickinson (1757)
- John Rutledge (1760)
- John Blair (Juris Doctoris)
- Jared Ingersoll (Juris Doctoris 1776)
College of William and Mary
- John Blair
- James McClurg (1762)
- John F. Mercer (1775)
- William L. Pierce (attended)
- Edmund J. Randolph (attended)
King’s College (Columbia)
- Gouverneur Morris (1768, M.A. 1771)
- Alexander Hamilton (attended)
College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania)
- Thomas Mifflin (1760)
- Hugh Williamson (1757, M.A. 1760)
- James Wilson (Honorary M.A. 1766)
Dartmouth
- John Langdon (Honorary LLD 1805)
Newark Academy
- James McHenry (1772)
Inner Temple (London)
- William Houstoun (1776)
Oxford (England)
- Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1764)
St. Andrews (Scotland)
Glasgow (Scotland)
- Richard Dobbs Spaight (1778)
Edinburgh (Scotland)
- James McClurg (M.D. 1770)