 The younger McKnight attended schools in New Jersey and graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1771 , in the same class as James Madison , Gunning Bedford , Jr . , Henry Brackenridge , and Philip Freneau . He was one of the founders of the American Whig Society , along with Brackenridge , Madison , Samuel Stanhope Smith , Bedford , Freneau , John Beatty , John Henry of Maryland , and William Bradford . McKnight studied medicine and surgery privately with eminent Philadelphia surgeon William Shippen , but left before he completed his studies and entered the Continental Army in 1775 . 
