Washington College evolved from the Kent County Free School, an institution of more than 60 years' standing in "Chester Town," which by the college's founding date of 1782 had reached considerable strength and importance as a port city.
With his election as first President of the United States, General Washington retired from the Board of Visitors and Governors and accepted the honorary degree of doctor of laws, which a delegation from Chestertown presented to him on June 24, 1789, in New York, then the seat of Congress.