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BLAIR, James, clergyman and educator: b.
Scotland, 1656; d. Williamsburg, Va., Aug. 1, 1743. He graduated at the
University of Edinburgh in 1673 and became an Episcopal clergyman. In
1685, at the earnest persuasion of the Bishop of London, he went to
Virginia as a missionary. He was minister at Henrico City, Jamestown, and
Williamsburg. In 1689 he became commissary of Virginia, the highest
ecclesiastical post in the colony. Realizing the lack of educational
facilities, in 1690 he resolved to establish a college in Virginia; and in
the face of the opposition of the colonial officials he obtained the
charter of William and Mary College on Feb. 14, 1692, having previously
solicited subscriptions to the amount of £2,500. He was president of the
institution until his death, although he did not formally enter upon the
duties of his office until 1729. In spite of bitter opposition, the lack
of wealthy patronage and the burning of the building in 1705, his tireless
energy gave success to the enterprise. After 1693 Blair was a member of
the Council of Virginia, of which he was for some time president. He was
instrumental in securing the removal of Governors Andros, Nicholson, and
Spotswood. He probably did more than any other one man for the
intellectual advancement of Virginia during the colonial period, and was
truly the founder of Southern culture. His works are: Our Savior's Divine
Sermon on the Mount (1722, republished 1740), containing 117 discourses;
The Present State of Virginia and the College (with Hartwell and Chilton,
1727), one of the best accounts of Virginia in the latter part of the
Seventeenth century. |
