James Blair (clergyman)

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James Blair
Oil painting of James Blair by Charles Bridges from William & Mary
1st President of the
College of William & Mary
In office
1693–1743
Succeeded byWilliam Dawson
Personal details
Born1655
Virginia
SpouseSarah Harrison
Alma materUniversity of Aberdeen
University of Edinburgh
Signature

James Blair (1656 – 18 April 1743) was a Scottish-born clergyman in the Church of England. He was also a missionary and an educator, best known as the founder of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.[1]

Youth and education

James Blair was born in

St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, and Mary Hamilton Blair. He was educated at Marischal College, University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh, where he received a Master of Arts degree.[1]

After completing his education, in 1679 he was ordained in the

Charles II of Scotland
. Charles was a strong opponent of Presbyterianism and throughout his lifetime worked to reassert the strength of the Anglican Church.

In 1681, Blair, aligned with the Episcopalians, was deprived of his parish in Edinburgh due to the conflict within the Episcopal movement between those supporting the Roman Catholic Church and those advocating a continued independent Episcopal national church. Blair relocated to London later that year.

Missionary to the Virginia Colony

Sarah Harrison Blair

In London, 1685, he was ordained in the

Harrison family
. He married Sarah Harrison, daughter of Benjamin Harrison Jr., on 2 June 1687.

When John Clayton, Commissary in the Virginia Colony for the Bishop of London, returned to England after just two years of service, Blair succeeded him, making him the colony's highest-ranking religious leader, a position that he would hold for 54 years.[2]

College of William & Mary

The leaders of the Virginia Colony had long wanted school to give their sons higher education, as well as to educate the natives. An attempt to establish a permanent university at

Indian Massacre of 1622
wiped out the entire settlement, which was not rebuilt.

Almost 70 years later, with encouragement from the Colony's House of Burgesses and other prominent individuals, Blair prepared a plan, believed by some historians to be modelled after the earlier one from Henricus, and returned to England in 1691 to petition the monarchy for a new college. The Powhatan people had been largely decimated and reduced to reservations after the last major conflict in 1644, but the religious aspiration to educate them into Christianity was nevertheless retained, perhaps as a moral incentive to help gain support and approval in London. Moreover, the school would serve to train clergy born in the colonies for service among their neighbors.[3]

The trip to London proved successful. Blair was supported in his efforts by

sixth longest serving college president
in US history.

After Blair returned to Virginia, the trustees of the new college bought a parcel of 330 acres (1.3 km2) from Thomas Ballard for the new school. The location chosen was at

James and York Rivers. Middle Plantation had served as a defensive location during periodic conflicts with the Native Americans since its establishment in 1632. Blair established his home at nearby Rich Neck Plantation
.

The college was given a seat in the House of Burgesses. Financial income was to come by taxation of a penny per pound on tobacco exported from Maryland and Virginia to countries other than England, and from other similar sources, such as an export duty on furs and animal skins. The new school opened in temporary buildings in 1694. Properly called the "College Building," the first version of the Wren Building was built at Middle Plantation beginning on 8 August 1695 and occupied by 1700. Today, the Wren Building is the oldest academic structure in continuous use in America. (Incidentally, it is called the "Wren Building" because tradition has it that the building was designed by the famed English architect Sir Christopher Wren who had designed St Paul's Cathedral in London. His actual involvement with the College Building completed in 1700 is disputed by some historians.)

Capital of Virginia, Williamsburg

The State House at Jamestown burned for the third time in 1698, and as it had in the past, the legislature again took up temporary quarters at Middle Plantation. On 1 May 1699, Blair and five students of the College of William & Mary appeared before the House of Burgesses to suggest that they designate Middle Plantation (soon to be renamed Williamsburg in honour of King William III), as the new capital of Virginia. A month later, the legislators agreed.

Williamsburg served as the capital of Virginia for 81 years, until 1780, when the capital was moved to Richmond for security reasons at the outset of the American Revolution.

Religious leadership, writing

Tombs of James Blair (left) and his wife Sarah (right) at Jamestown

James Blair served as a member and for a time, president of the Governor's Council in Virginia. As representative of the Bishop of London (of Oxford until 1675),

tyranny of the royal governors. He had great influence in England, and reportedly was involved with the recall to England of one royal governor, Edmund Andros, and two Lieutenant Governors who were serving in the absence of the Royal Governor: Francis Nicholson and Alexander Spotswood.[1]

He was also the Rector of

W.A.R. Goodwin. This project inspired Goodwin to advocate further restorations of other buildings, and seek sources of funding to do so, which led him to Colonial Williamsburg's greatest benefactor, Standard Oil fortune heir John D. Rockefeller Jr.
and his family.

In 1722, Blair published Our Savior's Divine Sermon on the Mount, a five-volume collection of his sermons from 1707 to 1721. With Henry Hartwell and Edward Chilton, Blair wrote The Present State of Virginia and the College, which was published in 1727.

Death, burial at Jamestown

Blair died of a gangrenous rupture on 18 April 1743.[1] He was buried next to his wife Sarah (née Harrison) Blair (d.1713) at Jamestown Island. Preservation Virginia now owns the original Jamestown site, including the church and cemetery. In 2005, the Cypher Society of the college announced it was taking responsibility for a site restoration and beautification of the Blair graves at Jamestown Island in anticipation of Jamestown 2007, which celebrated the settlement's 400th anniversary.

Heritage

probably no other man in the colonial time did so much for the intellectual life of Virginia.

— Moses Coit Tyler, professor of American history, Cornell University[2]

During the

Colonial period, Blair was instrumental in reviving and reforming the Church of England
in Virginia.

Blair's contributions to education in Virginia are recognised not only at the College of William & Mary, where Blair Hall is named for him, but also in the naming of various schools, including James Blair Middle School in James City County, Virginia, (formerly James Blair High School) and James Blair Middle School in Norfolk, Virginia.

In the Wren Building of the College of William & Mary, a large portrait of Blair is displayed in the Great Hall. A statue of him on the campus was dedicated for the college's 300th birthday in 1993.

In 1943, the United States commissioned a victory ship James Blair in his honour.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Tate, Thad. "James Blair". Encyclopedia Virginia. Library of Virginia. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  2. ^ a b c Chisholm 1911.
  3. ^ Edward L. Bond and Joan R. Gunderson, The Episcopal Church in Virginia: 1607-2007 (Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, 2007) p. 23
  4. ^ "Bruton Parish Church - A Brief History" (PDF). Bruton Parish Church. Retrieved 7 February 2020.

Sources

Further reading

External links

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