Hamilton began in 1793 as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy, a seminary founded by Rev. Samuel Kirkland, a Presbyterian minister, as part of his missionary work with the Oneida tribe. The seminary admitted both white and Oneida boys. Kirkland named it in honor of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, who was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy. It was first located in Whitestown, New York, incorporated by the New York Board of Regents in 1793, and received its charter from them in 1812. A visitor in 1799, who refers to the school as a seminary, reported that there were "fifty-two students of both sexes under the care of two instructors". By 1825 it had moved to Clinton.