VIII. WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE

Extracy from the Present State of Virginia and the College

In the year 1691, Colonel Nicholson being Lieutenant Governor, the General Assembly considering the bad Circumstances of the Country for want of Education for their Youth, went upon a Proposition of a College, to which they gave the Name of William and Mary. They propos’d that in this College there should be three Schools, viz. A Grammar School, for teaching the Latin and Greek Tongues: A Philosophical School, for Philosophy and Mathematicks: and A Divinity School, for the Oriental Tongues and Divinity; for it was one part of their Design that this College should be a Seminary for the breeding of good Ministers, with which they were but very indifferently supply’d from abroad: They appointed what Masters should be in each of these Schools, and what Salaries they should have. For the Government and Visitation of this College, they appointed a College-Senate, which should consist of 18, or any other Number not exceeding 20, who were then the Lieutenant-Governor, four Gentlemen of the Council, four of the Clergy, and the rest nam’d out of the House of Burgesses, with Power to them to continue themselves by Election of a Successor in the room of any one that should dye, or remove out of the Country. They petition’d the King that he would make these Men Trustees for founding and building this College, and governing it by such Rules and Statutes, as they, or the major Part of them, should from Time to Time appoint. Accordingly, the King pass’d his Charter under the Great Seal of England for such a College, and contributed very bountifully, both to the Building and Endowment of it. Toward the Building he gave near 2000 l. in ready Cash, out of the Bank of Quit-Rents, in which Governor Nicholson left at that Time about 4500 l. And towards the Endowment the King gave the neat Produce of the Penny per Pound in Virginia and Maryland, worth 200 l. per Annum, (mention’d pag. 60) and the Surveyor General’s Place, worth about 50 l. per Annum, and the Choice of 10000 Acres of Land in Panmuckey Neck, and 10000 more on the South-side of the Black-water swamp, which were Tracts of Land till that Time prohibited to be taken up. The General Assembly also gave the College a Duty on Skins and Furrs, worth better than 100 l. A Year, and they got Subscriptions in Virginia in Governor Nicholson’s Time for about 2500 l. towards the Building. With these Beginnings the Trustees of the College went to work, but their good Governor, who had been the greatest Encourager in that Country of this Design, (on which he has laid out 350 l. of his own Money) being at that time remov’d from them, and another put in his Place that was of a quite different Spirit and Temper, they found their Business go on very heavily, and such Difficulties in every thing, that presently upon change of the Governor they had as many Enemies as ever they had had Friends; such an universal Influence and Sway has a Person of that Character in all affairs of that Country. The Gentlemen of the Council, who had been the forwardest to subscribe, were the backwardest to pay; then every one was for finding Shifts to evade and elude their Subscriptions; and the meaner People were so influenc’d by their Countenance and Example, (Men being easily perswaded to keep their Money) that there was not one Penny got of new Subscriptions, nor paid of the old 2500 l. but about 500 l. Nor durst they put the Matter to the Hazard of a Law-Suit, where this new Governor and his Favourites were to be their Judges. Thus it was with the Funds for Building: And they fared little better with the Funds for Endowments; for notwithstanding the first Choice they are to have of the Land by the Charter, Patents were granted to others for vast Tracts of Land, and every one was ready to oppose the College in taking up the Land; their Survey was violently stop’d, their Chain broke, and to this Day they can never get to the Possession of the Land. But the Trustees of the College being encourag’d with a Gracious Letter the King writ to the Governor to encourage the College, and to remove all the Obstructions of it, went to work, and carry’d up one Half of the design’d Quadrangle of the Building, advancing Money out of their own Pockets, where the Donations fell short. They founded their Grammar-School, which is in a very thriving Way; and having the clear Right and Title to the Land, would not be baffled in that Point, but have struggled with the greatest Man in the Government, next the Governor, i.e. Mr. Secretary Wormley, who pretends to have a Grant in furturo for no less than 13000 Acres of the best Land in Panmuckey Neek. The Cause is not yet decided, only Mr. Secretary has again stop’d the Chain, which it is not likely he would do, if he did not know that he should be supported in it. The Collectors of the Penny per Pound likewise are very remiss in laying their Accompts before the Governors of the College, according to the Instructions of the Commissioners of the Customs, so that illegal Trade is carry’d on, and some of these Gentlemen refuse to give any Account upon Oath. This is the present State of the College.

Text—Hartwell, Blair, and Chilton: The Present State of Virginia, and the College, pp. 67–71.