§ 3 6 Naiidns lately become Literary. 



ment, and a charter for the proposed institution. 4 

 King William and Queen Mary being then on 

 the throne, the application of Mr. Blair was 

 favourably received; a patent was immediately 

 made out for erecting and endowing a seminary, 

 under the name of " William and Mary Col* 

 lege," agreeably to his request/ and the plan soon 

 went into operation. He was named in the charter 

 as the first president, and acted in that capacity 

 till the year 1742.'" 



This college, though liberally endowed, has not 

 flourished so much as its friends could wish. For 

 more than seventy years after its establishment, it 

 had rarely more than twenty students at any one 

 time. The habit of sending young men to Europe 

 for their education had continued so long, that 

 many of the more wealthy persisted in it after they 

 had a college erected among themselves. Within a 

 few years past the number of students has consi- 



k The laudable exertions of Mr. Blair are mentioned with great respect 

 by Bishop Burnet, in his History of bis Oivn Times. See vol iv. p. 174. 



/ 1 he object declared in the charter was, " to found and establish a cer- 

 tain place of universal study, or perpetual College, for Divinity, Philoso- 

 phy, Languages, and other good Arts and Sciences." But neither Theology 

 nor the Hebrew language appear to have been so much studied here as at 

 Cambridge in Massachusetts. 



m The Rev. James Blair was born and educated in Scotland, where 

 he obtained a benefice in the Episcopal church. On account of the unset- 

 tled state of religion which then existed in that kingdom, he quitted his 

 preferments and went into England, near the end of the reign of Charles 

 II. The bishop of London, considering him as well qualified for the office, 

 both as to talents and piety, prevailed on him to go to Virginia as a mis- 

 sionary, where he was highly popular and eminently useful ; and in 1689 

 obtained the appointment of ecclesiastical Commissary for the Province. 

 Though the charter was given for " William and Mary College," about the 

 year 1693, and though he was named therein as the first President, yet he 

 does not appear to have entered on the duties of this office till the year 

 1729, from which period until 1 742, he discharged them with faithfulness. 

 Mr. Blair was a learned and exemplary man. respected and useful in his 

 various official stations, and died in agoodold age, in 1743. He published 

 four octavo volumes of discourses, under the following title : " Our 

 Saviour'b Divine Sermon on the Mount explained ; and the Practice of it 

 recommended in divers Sermons and Discourses " London, 174a. This 

 work is spoken of with high approbation by Dr. Doddridge, in hia 



