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

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RUINS OF JAMESTOWN TOWER SEVEN MILES FROM THE COLLEGE,

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of the chancellorship down to the Kexolution. After this time the college was presided over by IJishops Ahulison, Johns, anil other eminent divines. Although after the Revolution all connection between college and church and state were severed by Jefferson, some of the most distinguished 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 influence in Ijringing the college into close connection with the State. Uv being situated in Williamsljurg. which, for a long time, was the social ami ])olitical center of the colonies, it had every opportunity for sending out the men wdio should shape the destinies of our countr . holding the office EDMUND RANDOLPH Governor of Virginia and Secretary of State. Stii ' lf ' ti ' 17 ' :i: : Mt ' m ' irr nl the Board of Visitors 1779. of Surveyor-! ieneral. it practically coiUrolled 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 ])ublic laud surveyor, it exercised the duties of this office miti! i.Sk;, and among the other sm-veyor.s appointed by the college, were Zachary Taxlor. grandfather of the late ( ieneral Taylor, and Thomas Jefferson. iVior to the Revolution, the college consisted of six schools including tlie Indian school, sujjported ]) - the donation of Hon. Robert Boyle. Tlie average niunbcr of students was ai)out sixty. Tliese were uni exce])tions to the general rule of young men of their time, and the I ' aculty 23

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was often coiisiilcrahly exercised to control their restless natures. A few (juotations from the okl records may be (jf interest and amtisement. In the first place, it would appear that some of these young gentlemen liad 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 y col- lege of what age, rank, or quality soever, do keep any race-horse at y ' ' college or in y town, or anywhere. 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 GEORGE WYTHE. Chancellor of Virginia. Stwhni aho ' it 17. ' 0 ; I ' rofesmv nf Law I77II-I7S!). sent ofT and never again lirought back under [)ain of severest animadversion and pimishnient. Having put its foot down on horse-racing, the h ' aculty then ]iroceeds to order that no scholar do presume to ap])ear playing y ' ' billiards or other gaming tables or be in any way concerned in keeping ligh ling-cocks, under y like severe animadversion and i)unishnient. othing could be more annising than the record of the action taken by the ' isitors on a certain occasion in 1761). when the Kev. . lr. |ohn (amm and the Kev. . lr. Josiali Johnson were arraigned for the terrible crime of having lalclx married and taken up tb.eir residence in the citv of Williamsburg, by which great inconvenience has arisen to the college, and 25