At first, Witherspoons weren’t going to go to America.

One of the interesting facts about John Witherspoon is that he had no intention of coming to America in the first place. It's difficult to believe that John Witherspoon hardly ever traveled over the Atlantic with all the contributions he has made to the young country of the United States. It's noteworthy to note that John Witherspoon's wife is hesitant to move across the ocean, leave their familiar surroundings, and begin a new life on a different continent. However, a University of New Jersey student who was studying in Edinburgh went to the Witherspoon residence to try and persuade the couple to reconsider. The student spent a few days with the Witherspoons and confided her anxieties to Mrs. Witherspoon.

John Witherspoon traveled across the Atlantic at the age of 45, carrying 300 books, to take the helm as the sixth President of the College of New Jersey. He was elected as the institution's sixth president, leading it to become Princeton University. When Witherspoon arrived, he discovered that the school was in debt, had a subpar curriculum, and had an inadequate library collection.

He started doing local and domestic fundraising right once, adding 300 of his own books to the library, and starting to buy scientific tools like the Rittenhouse wreckage, numerous maps, and a globe terrestrial bridge. Witherspoon implemented a number of innovations, such as the modeling of the curriculum and the university architecture that was later adopted by the University of Edinburgh and other Scottish universities. In order to assist the institution to compete with Harvard and Yale for scholars, he significantly tightened the admittance standards