 Franklin and the board of trustees would appoint him Provost of the College of Philadelphia when he returned.Johnson with the help of his step-son Benjamin Nicoll, his former students - who were now powerful merchants - the De Launcey-Nicoll "Popular" downstate majority party in the New York Assembly, and the clergy and vestry of Trinity Church, New York City, created a board of Governors for the new college, ensuring that it had an Anglican majority though it included Dutch Reformed Church and Presbyterian Church members.The assembly voted that a lottery be established to raise funds for the new college.