 | Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia. |  |
No. XXI.
The Inscription on Commissary Blair's Tombstone in the Old
Graveyard at Jamestown, furnished by Mr. Hugh Blair
Grigsby, a Descendant of Commissary Blair's Brother.
I send you the inscription on the stone of the old Commissary
in as perfect condition as I could procure it. I also send a translation,
filling the blanks and chasms with my own knowledge of the
events of the Commissary's life. If you look critically at the Latin and
at my paraphrase, you will perceive that I have rarely missed the mark.
One thing it is proper to say. In the line "Evangeli—Preconis" there
may be a mistake of the transcriber. If the word "Preconis" be correct,
then it is figurative, and means to compare the Commissary with John
the Baptist. But I think the word "Preconis" is wrong, and was written
"Diaconi," "Deacon," as the number of years shows that it was in his
combined character of Evangelist, Deacon, and Priest, to which allusion
is made; that is, to his whole ministerial services, which were precisely
fifty-eight years.
To another topic I would invite your attention. The concluding lines
in which theology is mentioned are imperfect, and cannot convey the
exact meaning intended, and so I translate them as referring to pious
youth who may seek instruction in sacred things; but they certainly lead
us to suspect that the good old man left his books to theological students
as a class, and that he had in view to endow by his will an ecclesiastical
professorship. His will in the Clerk's Office, and the statute or order of
the faculty accepting his books, would ascertain the fact.
I wish the remains of the Commissary could be removed to the chapel
of the College, and there, with appropriate services, deposited beneath
the chancel.
H. S. E. (Hic sepultus est)
Vir Reverendus et Honorabilis
Jacobus Blair, A.M.
In Scotia natus,
In Academia Edinburgensi nutritus,
Primo Angliam deinde Virginiam
venit:
In qua parte tenarum
Annos LVIII. Evangeli, Preconis
LIV. Commissarii
Gulielmi et Mariæ Præsidis,
e Britanniæ Principum
Consiliarii
Concilii Præsidis,
Coloniæ Prefecti,
munera sustinuit:
ornavit
um oris venusti Decus,
ate hilari sine (?) hospitali
munificent
issimo egenis largo.
omnibus comi
superavit.
Collegio bene diversam
fundaverat
ens Bibliothecam suam
id alendum Theologiæ studiosum
juventutem pauperiorem instituendam
Testamento legavit
Cal. Maii in die[9]
MDCCXLIII
ætat: LXXXVIII
am desideratissimi
Senis Laudem
is nepotibus commendabunt
pene marmore perenniora.
Here lies buried
The Reverend and the Honourable
James Blair, A.M.,
who was born in Scotland, was educated in the College of Edinburgh,
and emigrated to England, and thence to Virginia, in which Colony
he spent fifty-eight years as an Evangelist, Deacon, and Priest of the
London.
He was the Founder and first-President of William and Mary College,
a member of the Council, and, subsequently, its President; and, as such,
in the absence of the representative of the King, the Governor of the
Colony.
He sustained his various offices with the approbation of his fellow-men,
while he illustrated in his life those graces which adorn the Christian
character.
He had a handsome person, and in the family circle blended cheerfulness
with piety.
He was a generous friend of the poor, and was prompt in lending assistance
to all who needed it.
He was a liberal benefactor of the College during his life; and, at his
death, bequeathed to it his library, with the hope that his books—which
were mostly religious—might lead the student to those things that pertain
to salvation.
He died on the — day of the Calends of May, [August, rather,] in the
year 1743, aged eighty-eight years, exhibiting to the last those graces
which make old age lovely, and lamented by all, especially by his nephews,
who have reared this stone to commemorate those virtues which will long
survive the marble that records them.
The word "Maii" must be a mistake of the gentlemen who transcribed one of
the fragmentary inscriptions from which I have made out the above skeleton. Dr.
Blair died, I believe, on the 3d of August, 1743. Some of the words, apparently
perfect in my notes, are certainly wrong; but I have done the work as thoroughly
as my materials will allow me. The two transcripts before me were made, one of
them by the Rev. George W. McPhail, of Easton, Pa., the other by William Lamb,
Esq., of Norfolk. I have made a translation, filling up the chasms with my own
suggestions; and I feel confident that, however much we may regret the loss of
the inscription as a whole, and however unable we may be to judge of it as a work
of taste in its present dilapidated state, I have incorporated every important sentiment
which it contained in the transcript which I send you on the opposite leaf.
I am ashamed to say that I have lost—or, rather, put too carefully away—the fragments
of the inscription which you transmitted to me.
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