Chartered as Queen's College on November 10th, 1766, Rutgers was the eighth institution of higher education founded in the colonies prior to the American Revolution. King George III of Great Britain granted the charter in response to a petition presented by the education-minded Dutch settlers of New Jersey and New York, and named the college in honor of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg, his consort.

While no copy of the original document has survived, a second charter granted in 1770 provides for the "education of youth in the learned languages, liberal and useful arts and sciences." The first students were enrolled in 1771 to work under a single tutor, and the first student to graduate received his degree in 1774.

In the years immediately following its founding, Queen's College continued to carry out the charter's provisions, except for brief periods during the Revolutionary War when the two tutors then in residence departed for civil and military service. These were hectic years for the institution as the British troops made periodic forays into the New Brunswick area, forcing faculty and students to find temporary quarters at various points in Somerset County. Continental troops were active in the vicinity as well. On the knoll now occupied by Old Queen's, the university's central administration building, Colonel Alexander Hamilton commanded a battery of artillery that harassed the British during Washington`s retreat from New York in 1776.

In 1825, the name of the college was changed to Rutgers in honor of Colonel Henry Rutgers, a veteran of the American Revolution, and early benefactor, "as a mark of respect for his character and in gratitude for his numerous services" to the institution.

Rutgers is the only institution in the country to include in its heritage the colonial college of the eighteenth century, the land-grant tradition of the nineteenth century, and the development of the modern state university.