It has affiliated to it colleges of the Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Methodist denominations, with medical and pharmaceutical colleges.
The ministers were mostly Puritans; by their ordination, &c., Episcopalian; and for the most part strongly impressed with the desirability of nearer agreement with the Church of Scotland, and other branches of the Reformed Church on the Continent.
In 1696 the first church charter in New York was granted to the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church (now the Collegiate Church) of New York City; at this time there were Dutch ministers at Albany and Kingston, on Long Island and in New Jersey; and for years the Dutch and English (Episcopalian) churches alone received charters in New York and New Jersey - the Dutch church being treated practically as an establishment - and the church of the fort and Trinity (Episcopalian; chartered 1697) were fraternally harmonious.
The chief movers in the enterprise were the Congregationalist, David Bogue of Gosport, and the Episcopalian, Thomas Haweis, rector of Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire.
In Virginia many churches became Episcopalian and others United Brethren.