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

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The College of William and Mary, T IS pleasing and profitable to trace minutely the evolution of institutions and of men, but to describe the stages of progress which the College of William and Mary has passed since its establishment in 1693, would be a seemingly endless task. Consequently, the writer has contented himself with mentioning a few of the most important and inteiesting facts con- nected with its origin, foundation, and subsequent career. William and Mary, the oldest College in America with the single exception of Harvard, although not formally established until 1693, has antecedents which date as far back as 1617. Before the little colony had hardly gained a firm footing at Jamestown, before the onerous task of clearing the forest had hardly begun, and while the hostile Indians were still hovering around the almost defenceless settlement, these early Virginians conceived the idea of higher education. The primary object in founding a college was the education and conversion of the Indians, whose condition seemed to weigh heavily upon the consciences of the people of that time. So, in 1619, Sir Edwin Sandys, together with some good people of England, raised a considerable sum for the establish- ment of an Indian College and the foundation of a seminary of learning for the English. Mr. George Thorpe, a gentleman of His Majesty ' s Privy Cham- ber, was sent over to superintend the so-called university. But this fust begin- ning of philanthropy to the Indian was nipped in the bud by the Great Mas- sacre of 1622, when Thorpe and three hundred and forty other settlers per- ished. Passing over the next forty years, during which the seed sown in 161 7 was still in embryo, we find that in 1660 the Virginia Assembly voted that for the advance of learning, education of youth, supply of the ministry, and promotion of 1 1

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Calendar, Si nday, June 22, 1902, n A. M., Final Sermon. Sunday, Junk 22, 1902, 8 P. M., Sermon before the Young Men ' s Christian Association. Monday, June 23, 1902, 8 P. M., Celebration of the Phcenix Society. Ti 1 5DAY, June 24, 1902, 10 A. M., Celebration of the Senior Class ; 8 P. M., Celebration of the Philomathean Society. Wednesday, June 25, 1902, 11A. M., Celebration of the Society of the Alumni ; Oration, n A. M.; Banquet, 9 P. M. Thursday, June 26, 1902, A. M.. Address before the Literary Societies; 12 A. M., Awarding Diplomas, Medals, and Scholarships ; 10 P. M., Final Ball. Next Session begins Thursday, October 2, 1902. Tlie 13th of May of each year, being the day the first English settlers landed at Jamestown, is a general holiday. The session of each year ends on Thursday before the 29th of June, the date of the adoption of the first written Constitution of Virginia.

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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.