William Jessup University

William Jessup University is a Christian liberal arts university located in Rocklin, California with an additional site in San Jose, California. The university served over 1280 students during 2011/12, with 942 full-time equivalents. On August 29, 2013 it was announced that the 2013/14 academic year had over a 10% increase compared to the previous years enrollment. Record enrollments have occurred for the past 4 consecutive semesters.

History

The University was founded as San Jose Bible College in 1939, in San Jose by William Jessup, the school's first President. Eugene Claremont Sanderson had originally started a school called Evangel Bible University in San Jose in 1934 but was unable to make it viable. As a result, he recruited William Jessup, one of his former students to take over. By 1951, with the school expanding and the San José State University across the street encroaching, San Jose Bible College moved to a parcel bordered by Coyote Creek, 12th Street and Highway 280. Spanish style classroom buildings and several dormitory buildings made up the small campus.

William Jessup

William Jessup (June 21, 1797 – September 11, 1868) was a Pennsylvania judge and father of the missionary Henry Harris Jessup. A member of the Republican party, he is best known for being the chairman of the platform committee that crafted and reported the political platform adopted by the 1860 Republican National Convention and accepted by Abraham Lincoln, the party's nominee. Jessup, Pennsylvania is named in his honor.

Biography

William Jessup left his native home, Long Island, in early adulthood to study at Yale College, graduating in 1815. He moved in 1818 to Montrose, Pennsylvania, and made it his lifelong home. He read law with an established firm, and was admitted to the bar.

He married and fathered two sons, Henry Harris and Samuel Jessup, born in 1832 and 1833. In 1838 Jessup became the presiding judge of the Eleventh Judicial District of Pennsylvania, in which capacity he rode circuit from 1838 until 1851.

A staunch abolitionist, Jessup was named as one of the Pennsylvania delegates to the 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago. Upon arrival, he was selected to chair the platform committee to write the party's statement of political principles. The platform adopted by Jessup's committee was approved by the convention by a unanimous vote. In November 1860, the Republican ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin was elected to lead the new national administration, and soon thereafter, the Civil War broke out.