2/2 Ale uio rial o/ George Brcmni Goode. 



Our forefathers in colonial times had their national universities beyond 

 the sea, and all of the 3'oung colonists, who were able to do so, went to 

 Oxford or Cambridge for their classical degrees, and to Edinburgh and I^on- 

 dou for training in medicine, for admission to the bar, or for clerical 

 orders. L<ocal colleges seemed as unnecessary as did local scientific 

 societies. 



Many attempts were made to establish local societies before final results 

 were accomplished, and the beginnings of the national college system had 

 a similar history. 



In 1 619 the Virginia Company of England made a grant of 10,000 

 acres of land for ' ' the foundation of a seminary of learning for the Eng- 

 lish in Virginia," and iu the same year the bishops of England, at the 

 suggestion of the King, raised the sum of ^1,500 for the encouragement 

 of Indian education in connection with the same foundation. A begin- 

 ning was made toward the occupation of the land, and George Thorpe, a 

 man of high standing in England, came out to be superintendent of the 

 university, but he and 340 other colonists (including all the tenants of 

 the university) were destroyed by the Indians in the massacre of 1622. 



The story of this undertaking is told by Professor H. B. Adams in the 

 History of the College of William and Mar}^, in which also is given an 

 account of the Academia Virginiensis et Oxoniensis, which was to have 

 been founded on an island in the Susquehanna River, granted in 1624 

 for the founding and maintenance of a university, but was suspended on 



country as yet undiscovered by men of science. The promoter of this brilliant 

 scheme was the Chevalier Alexander Maria Ouesnay de Beaurepaire, grandson of the 

 famous French philosopher and economist, Doctor Quesnay, who was the court 

 physician of Louis XV. Chevalier Ouesnay had served as a captain in Virginia, in 

 1777-78, in the war of the Revolution. The idea of founding the academy was sug- 

 gested to him in 1778 by John Page, of Rosewell, then lieutenant governor of 

 Virginia, and himself devoted to scientific investigation. Quesnay succeeded in 

 raising by subscription the sum of 60,000 francs, the subscribers in Virginia embracing 

 nearly 100 prominent names. The corner stone of the building, which was of wood, 

 was laid with Masonic ceremonies July 8, 1786. Having founded and organized this 

 academy under the most distinguished auspices, Quesnay returned to Paris and suc- 

 ceeded in enlisting in support of his plan many learned and distinguished men of 

 France and England. The French revolution, however, put an end to the scheme. 

 The academy building was early converted into a theater, which was destroyed by 

 fire, but a new theater was erected in the rear of the old. This new building was 

 also destroyed by fire on the night of December 26, 181 r, when 72 persons perished 

 in the flames. The Monumental church conmiemorates the disaster, and its portico 

 covers the tomb and ashes of most of its victims. A valuable sketch of Quesnay's 

 enlightened projection, chiefly drawn from his curious M^moire concernant I'Aca- 

 demie des Sciences et Beaux-Arts des Etats-Unis d'Amdrique, ^tablie a Richmond, 

 was published in The Academy, December, 1887, II, No. 9, pp. 403, 412, by Doctor 

 Herbert B. Adams, of Johns Hopkins University. A copy of Quesnay's rare 

 Memoire is in the library of the vState of Virginia. Quesnay complains bitterly 

 that all his letters relating to his service in the American Army had been stolen from 

 a pigeonhole iu Governor Henry's desk and his promotion thus prevented. 



