Presidents of Georgetown College

Basil Manly, Jr.   1871-1879

            When Basil Manly Jr., arrived at Georgetown College in September 1871, the college was still recovering from the effects of the Civil War.  The number of buildings on the eighteen-acre campus had not changed; the number of students had grown from a low of 35 in 1863 to 145 in the preparatory and college departments; and a significant portion of $124,000 endowment had been lost.

            Manly’s career encompassed many leading roles in the Southern Baptist Convention.  He served as a minister, seminary professor, hymn writer, Sunday School Board leader, as well as college president.  Born to Basil and Sarah Murray (Rudulph) Manly on December 19, 1825, in Edgefield County, South Carolina, he spent most of his boyhood in Charleston, where his father was pastor of the First Baptist Church.  At age fourteen, he entered the University of Alabama, where his father was president, and graduated in 1844.  In the same year, he was licensed to preach and started his theological studies at Newton Theological Institution, Newton Centre, Massachusetts.  When the Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845, Manly transferred to Princeton Theological Seminary to finish his theological education.

            Between 1848, when he was ordained in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and 1859, Manly held pastorates in Alabama, Mississippi, and Virginia.  These pastorates were often simultaneous because many of the churches met once or twice a month.  In 1850, he accepted the call of the First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia.  He held that position for four years, and then assumed the presidency of Richmond Female Institute, which he helped found.  While holding this position, he preached three Sundays a month at Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Hanover County.

            In 1859, Manly played a vital role in forming the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  He drafted the articles of faith, which each future professor would be required to subscribe to before being hired.  Necessary because of the divergent doctrinal positions within the Southern Baptist Convention, the “Abstract of Principles” provided a broad platform upon which Baptists could unite.  Manly was hired as professor of biblical introduction and Old Testament interpretation when the seminary opened in Greenville, South Carolina.  Again Manly preached at churches in the area while teaching.  The seminary closed when the Civil War began, and Manly and his colleagues tried to rehabilitate it in 1865, but the work became disheartening.  In 1871, he accepted the presidency of Georgetown College.

            While at Georgetown, Manly’s major contribution was inspiring the faculty to change the curriculum and expanding dormitory capacity.  Inspired by the curriculum reform movement of the post-Civil War era, Manly led in replacing the compulsory, classical curriculum with the elective system.  Course offerings were expanded with Manly teaching the new course of English and Belles Lettres.  The president also increased the housing capacity for students when an addition was built onto Pawling Hall, one of three buildings on the campus. 

            After eight years, Manly left Georgetown College in 1879 to rejoin the faculty at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary when it reopened in Louisville, Kentucky.  While at the seminary, he published his only major literary contribution, The Bible Doctrine of Inspiration (1888). He remained there until his death in 1892. In addition to his other activities, Manly composed more than twenty hymns and edited three songbooks, and he led in the establishment of the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1863.

Please direct inquiries to Dr. Glen Taul