Isaac Van Arsdale Brown

Isaac Van Arsdale Brown (November 4, 1784 – April 19, 1861) was an American educator and Presbyterian clergyman who founded, in 1810, Maidenhead Academy in Maidenhead, New Jersey........about 5 miles south of Princeton, New Jersey......opening with nine (9) male students. Eventually, with funding by one of those first-year students.......John Cleve Green........Lawrenceville School was formed in 1883 after Green Foundation purchased school in 1879 and embarked on major building program.........greatly expanding all-male boarding school.

Biography

He was born in Somerset County, New Jersey, November 4, 1784 and graduated, in 1802, from College of New Jersey......later known as Princeton University. He studied theology under Dr. John Woodhull, of Freehold Township, New Jersey. Later, he was ordained by the New Brunswick presbytery, and in 1807 was made pastor of Presbyterian Church at Lawrenceville, New Jersey,

With change of name for village to Lawrenceville in 1816......advocated by Reverend Brown..... name of school was changed to Lawrenceville Academy......then, in 1829, to Lawrenceville High School. In 1834, Reverend Brown sold Lawrenceville High School to Alexander Hamilton Phillips.......who sold High School, in 1837, to Samuel McClintock Hamill who changed name to Lawrenceville Classical and Commercial High School.

Reverend Brown remained in Lawrenceville for several years, becoming partner of group that owned Lawrenceville Female Seminary, founded 1834......."sister" school to Classical and Commercial High School. Female Seminary was eliminated in 1883 when Lawrenceville School took over.

In 1842 he moved to Mount Holly, New Jersey, and subsequently to Trenton, New Jersey, where he devoted his time principally to literary work. Among his publications are "Life of Robert Finley, D. D.," "The Unity of the Human Race." and also a "Historical Vindication of the Abrogation of the Plan of Union by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America" (Philadelphia, 1855). Dr. Brown was one of the founders of the American Colonization Society, and worked for its advancement, and was one of the original members of the American Bible Society. He died on April 19, 1861, in Trenton, NJ.

References

• Mulford, Ronald J (1935). History of the Lawrenceville School 1810–1935. Princeton University Press