College of William and Mary - Colonial Echo Yearbook (Williamsburg, VA)

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To this liberal charter only one condition was added. The College author- ities were to pay to us and our successors two copies oj Latin verse yearly , on the fifth day of November, at the house of the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor for the time being ; and in the Virginia Gazette for November 12th 1736, nearly fifty years after, the following appears : On this day s ' en night being the fifth day of November, the president, masters, and scholars of William and Mary College went, according to their annual custom, in a body, to present his Honor in obedience to their charter. Mr. President delivered the verses to his Honor, and two of the young gentlemen spoke them. By act of the House of Burgesses, the royal endowment of the College was considerably strengthened. Also this College, together with Harvard, fell heir to the estate of Hon. Robert Boyle, who died in England in 1691. From these funds the Brafferton estate in Yorkshire, England, was bought, and the Brafferton building was erected on the campus at William and Mary College, in Virginia, for the purpose of accommodating Indian youths, who continued to come, down to the Revolution. The House of Burgesses, after much deliberation, decided that Middle Plantation (afterwards known as Williamsburg) should lie the site of the Col- lege. The buildings, planned by Sir Christopher Wren, were erected between 1692 and 1700, when the first commencement exercises were held. Beginning with a President, Grammar Master, Usher, and Writing Master, the College bid fair to gratify the most sanguine hopes of its advocates ; but in 1705 a fire broke out and completely destroyed the building, with the laboratory and other appa- ratus. Steps were immediately taken for rebuilding, but owing to the lack of funds, the work was not entirely completed until 1723, soon after which a full corps of six professors was selected, and the College entered upon a career of use- fulness unparalleled by any other institution in the country. Opposite the Brafferton on the College campus stands the President ' s house, the foundation of which was laid in 1732. During the Revolution this building was accidentally burned while occupied by French troops, before the siege of Yorktown. Louis XYI kindly rebuilt it, and presented the College library with six hundred volumes of great value. About this time the famous old chapel, which forms the southwestern wing of the College building, was opened. It was concerning this that Bishop Meade, in his Old Churches and Families of Virginia, said: Williamsburg was once the miniature copy of the Court of St. James, somewhat aping the manners of that royal palace, while the Old Church, and its graveyard, and the College chapel were- si licet cum mao-no comfio ere patva — the Westminster Abbey and the St. Paul ' s of Loudon, where the great ones were interred. The remains of Sir John Randolph, his sons, Peyton Randolph, President ol the first American Congress, and John Randolph, Attorney of the Crown for the Colony of Virginia, Lord Botetourt, bishop Madison, and Chancellor Xel.-ou sleep in vaults beneath the floor. 13

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piety, there be land taken upon purchase for a colledge and free schoole. Sub- scriptions wire- also taken up, lo which His Majesties Governor, Council of State, and Burgesses of thi pre enl Grand Assembly have severally subscribed considerable suraes of money and quantityes of tobacco. Some have gone so far as to say that the College was really established in 1661, but for this there is no proof. The people subscribed liberally towards the College but the odds were against it, both in the economic and political conditions of the country. Ideas assumed a more definite shape in 1691, when Rev. James Blair was sent to England to secure a charter for said College. He laid the plans of the colony before Queen Mary, who heartily favored the idea. William concurred, and gave out of the quit-rents two thousand pounds sterling. Mr. Blair was then sent to Seymour, the Attorney- General, but with him he found more diffi- culty. The nation was expensively engaged in war, and could ill afford the necessary funds for planting a College in America. Mr. Blair urged that the institution was to prepare men to become ministers of the Gospel, and that Vir- ginians had souls to save as well as Englishmen. The argument was no doubt forcible, but it only evoked from Seymour that exclamation which has since become classic: Souls Damn your souls . ' Make tobacco ! But in spite of the Attorney- General, the King and Oueen adhered to their former resolution, and signed the charter on February 19th, 1693. Let us now glance at this ancient paper, which is so honorable to the King, Queen, and the colonists, in their efforts to spread learning and the Christian religion throughout the Western continent. The College was founded on the broad and comprehensive plan that the Church of Virginia may be furnished with a seminary of ministers of the Gospel, and that the youth may lie piously educated in good letters and manners, and that the Christian religion may be propagated among the Western Indians, to the glory of Almighty God. The officers consisted of a chancellor, a president, or rector, eighteen visitors, and six professors. By recommendation of the Virginia Assembly, Rev. James Blair was created and established the first president of the College during his natural life. The Bishop of London was to be the fist chancellor, and the visitors were to be a self-perpetuating body of eighteen men, who should have entire control of the institution. The charter then endows the College with the whole and entire sum of one thousand nine hundred and eighty-five pounds, fourteen shillings, and tenpence, of good and lawful money of England, that has been raised out of the quit-rents of said colony. The College was also to have a penny a pound on all tobacco exported from Virginia and Maryland ; the office of Surveyor-General, with all issues, fees, profits, advantages, liberties, places, privileges, and preeminences whatsi ever ' ' ; and a grant of twenty thousand acres of land lying in the Pamunkey Xeek. Authority was also granted to the president and professors to select some one of their number to represent them in the House of Burgesses of Virginia.

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There are two uotable things embodied in the charter of William and Mary, and demonstrated by its subsequent history ; the pious spirit with which it began and continued its career, and the close connection it has always had with the State. The motives for founding the College were the same in if o;, as in 1619, to edu- cate ministers and to propagate the Christian faith. The first words in the oldest record-book of the faculty are, nominee Dei I at) is, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. . linen. The religious character was shown by the selection of officers. Rev. James Blair was the first president, and the Bishop of London, and Archbishop of Canterbury were the holders of the chancellorship down to the Revolution. After this time the College was presided over by Bishops Madison, Johns, and other eminent divines. Although after the Revolution all connection between College and Church and State was severed by Jefferson, some of the most distin- guished divines of modern days have been sons of William and Mary. William and Mary, like Harvard, had no private ends to subserve : it has lived for the State. The privileges granted in the charter of 1693 had great influ- ence in bringing the College into close connection with the State. By being situ- ated in Williamsburg, which, for a long time was the social and political center of the colonies, it had every opportunity for sending out the men who should shape the destinies of our country. By holding the office of Surveyor-General, it practically controlled the land system, and thus the wisest statesman that America can boast of — George Washington — received from William and Mary his first commission as a public land surveyor. It exercised the duties of this office until is 19, and among the other surveyors appointed by the College, were Zachary Taylor, grandfather of the late General Taylor, and Thomas Jefferson. Prior to the Revolution, the College consisted of six schools, including the Indian school, supported by the donation of Hon. Robert Boyle. The average number of students was about sixty. These were not excep- tions to the general rule of young men of their time, and the Faculty was often considerably exercised to control their restless natures. A few quotations from the old records may be of interest and amusement. In the first place, it would appear that some of these young gentlemen had unbounded love for horse-racing, billiards, and other amusements, which, if indulged, was naturally calculated to detract from the performance of College duties. Therefore, we find that at a meeting of that august body in 1752, it was ordered that no scholar belonging to any school in ye College of what ; ge, rank, or quality soever, do keep any race-horse at ye College, or in ye town, or any- where. If the student dared to break the rules of the Faculty, or was in any way concerned in making races and abetting those made by others, he should be ' ' immediately despatched and sent off and never again brought back under pain of severest animadversion and punishment. Having put its foot down on horse-racing, the Faculty then proceeds to order 14