Bryn Mawr College is a private women's liberal arts college founded in 1885. The Graduate School is co-educational. It is named after the town of Bryn Mawr, in which the campus is located, which had been renamed by a representative of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Bryn Mawr was the name of an area estate granted to Rowland Ellis by William Penn in the 1680s. Ellis's former home, also called Bryn Mawr, was a house near Dolgellau, Merionnydd, Gwynedd, Wales. The College was largely founded through the bequest of Joseph W. Taylor, and its first president was James Evans Rhoads. Bryn Mawr was the first higher education institution to offer graduate degrees, including doctorates, to women. The first class included 36 undergraduate women and eight graduate students.