The College of William & Mary

By Chris Dickon

By the time of the American Revolution, the College of William and Mary was already into its eighth decade as the academic source of what the new nation would become and how it would relate to the larger world. Its land had been surveyed by George Washington, and its first honorary degree had been given to Ben Franklin. It would go on to educate two signers of the Declaration of Independence, three American presidents, and three justices of the Supreme Court. Chartered by British royalty in 1693, the college retains that connection to its roots into the 21st century. Remarkably through history, the College of William and Mary was, and remains, a public university--one of 16 in the Commonwealth of Virginia. At a time in American history when the 18th-century thought and practice of Thomas Jefferson has become part of the contemporary conversation, the college from which he graduated in 1762 continues to pursue his simple notion that "worth and genius [be] sought from every condition of life."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Apr 4, 2007
• ISBN: 9781439617588

Chris Dickon

Author Chris Dickon is a writer, historian, and Emmy-winning television producer. His work has been broadcast and published internationally, much of it derived from Virginia's rich past as the original source of American history. Chesapeake Bay Steamers brings together the photograph archives of the Library of Congress and 10 libraries, museums, and historical societies, large and small, from Norfolk to Baltimore.

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Mary

One

A CERTAIN PLACE

Soldiers and covered wagons line up along Williamsburg’s Duke of Gloucester Street in 1862, with the steeple of Bruton Parish Church and the cupola of the College Building visible in the background. By this time, the history of city, college, and church had been intertwined for over a century and a half. Williamsburg had been settled in 1632 as Middle Plantation; it became the capital of the Virginia colony in 1699, and then the first American city as designated by royal charter in 1722. Though it had and would retain a sense of place that was both American and British, it was a site of origin of the American Revolution and a philosophical capital of the movement to declare American independence from Great Britain. Through all of those years, events in Williamsburg had been intellectually driven in concert with the planning and development of the College of William and Mary. (Library of Congress.)

The Reverend James Blair held the prominent position of commissary of the Church of England in Virginia. He was part of a coalition that included the royal governor of the colony, Francis Nicholson, and a group of influential members of the colonial legislature formed to promote both the college and a new capital city away from Jamestown. In 1691, the General Assembly sent Blair to England to obtain a royal charter and financial support for the new enterprise. (College of William and Mary, Muscarelle Museum.)

On February 8, 1693, King William III and Queen Mary II granted a charter for the college that would bear their names. King William responded to Blair’s request by saying, I am glad that the colony is upon so good a design & I will promote it to the best of my power. Blair returned to Virginia with construction funds, an endowment that included two 10,000-acre land grants, and revenue for operation. (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.)

James Blair, seen in this 20th-century painting with the College Building under construction in the background, served as the college president from 1693 until his death in 1743. In 1784, Benjamin Franklin would write that some of Blair’s early fund-raising efforts were premised on the need for a college in the colony to educate and qualify young men to be ministers of the gospel. The people of Virginia, he said, had souls to be saved. The lord of the British treasury, Sir Edward Seymour, is reported to have replied, Souls! Damn your Souls. Make tobacco. (College of William and