In late 1762, a group of Baptist leaders met in Philadelphia, among them Morgan Edwards, who made a motion for the establishment of a Baptist college in New England. Rhode Island, one of the few colonies without a college, and a growing population with at least 22,000 Baptists, eighty percent of the total in New England. In July 1763, a young James Manning was sent to gauge the interest of Rhode Island’s leaders and found an overwhelmingly positive response.