University of Virginia Library

ARTICLE XII.

Williamsburg, Bruton Parish.—No. 2.

We have now to consider Mr. Blair as Commissary, and
having, with the Governors, the superintendence of the clergy
and the affairs of the Church; as representative of the Bishop
of London, with no defined limits of authority; as the founder
and President of William and Mary College, having joint action,
with visitors, professors, and others, in all things belonging to
the College, and of course often coming in collision with them;
as member of the Council, consulting and deciding with the
Governor and others — the first men of Virginia — on all the
concerns of the State, civil and religious, and forming the
great judicial body to whom all important causes were referred
for final decision. That a man of his active character and superior
mind should, for more than half a century, have been thus
associated in matters of such importance, without frequent collision
and without having many enemies, is not to be supposed.
That he should be charged with worldliness and management, with
being an informer to the Bishop of London and the Archbishop
of Canterbury, with whom he must have had intimate correspondence,
was to be expected; that he should be misunderstood by
many, and be very unpopular with some good men, through that
misunderstanding, and perhaps through want of conciliatory manners,
and a tact in the management of men:—all these things
might be expected. He was involved in difficulties with Governors
and clergymen, more or less, during almost the whole period
of his Commissaryship and Presidency of the College. I have the
whole of these controversies spread before me in long and tedious
letters, from himself and his opponents, to the authorities in England,
which have never been published. His first controversy was
with Governor Andros, who came to Virginia, under no good
character, from New York. By royal instructions Andros was not
only Governor of Virginia, but the ordinary, the representative
of the King and Bishop of London in Church matters, the Commissary

being comparatively a very negative character. When
these complaints were made, which ended in his disgrace, Dr.
Blair, then in England, about his College, preferred the charges
against him as an enemy to religion, to the Church, the clergy,
and the College, bringing proofs of the same. The charges cover
thirty-two folio pages of manuscript, and are well written. But
Blair had formidable foes to meet in London. Governor Andros
sends over in his defence Colonel Byrd, of Westover, Mr. Harrison,
of Surry, Mr. Povey, a man high in office in the Colony, and
a Mr. Marshall, to arraign Dr. Blair himself before the Bishop of
London and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Two days were spent
in Lambeth Palace in the examination. The charges and the
answers are set down, and fill up fifty-seven folio pages of manuscript.
Never were four men more completely foiled by one.
The accusers seem to feel and acknowledge it, and doubtless
wished themselves out of Lambeth Palace long before the trial
was over. One of the chief charges was Mr. Blair's partiality to
Scotchmen, whom they said he brought over to fill the churches,
contrary to the wishes of the people. But, being called on to
specify names, it was found that they had made egregious blunders
as to facts; that some whom they supposed to be Scots were
Englishmen. Great was the prejudice against Mr. Blair, as being
a Scot. This was the time when that unhappy feeling was at
its height in England, when a "beggarly Scot" was the common
phrase. A number of the private letters which I have show the
prejudice to have been very strong. The result of it all was, that
Mr. Blair came home with a good sum of money for his College,
and Andros was sent back to England to stand his trial, from
which he came out but badly. Governor Nicholson succeeded him.
He had been Deputy-Governor before Andros came over, and
there was then a good understanding and friendship between him
and Mr. Blair. During the government of Andros he was Governor
of Maryland, and disagreed with the good Commissary Bray
not a little. On returning to Virginia he seemed to be a changed
man. A disappointment in love was thought to have much to do
with it. He was vain, conceited, fickle, passionate, and acted
sometimes like a madman, though still professing great zeal for
the Church. After a year or two Dr. Blair and himself were open
foes. Letters on both sides were written to England. Blair wrote
four, covering in all forty-four pages folio, charging him with
interfering with his province and with private and public misconduct;
dwelling on his furiousness in relation to the affair of Miss
Burwell, and the Rev. Mr. Fouace.[45] The Council and some of
the clergy joined with him in petitioning the recall of Nicholson,
which petition was successful. The Church and State were in an
uproar. A number of the clergy, with whom Mr. Blair was unpopular,
and whom Mr. Nicholson had ingratiated by taking part
with them against the vestries and representing Mr. Blair as less
favourable to their cause, took part with Mr. Nicholson. Mr.
Nicholson ordered a Convocation to be assembled for general
purposes, and during its sitting had private meetings of those
friendly to him, at his house or lodging, who signed a paper
denying the charges of Mr. Blair and the Council. A great
dinner or supper was given them at the hotel in Williamsburg,
which was satirized in a ballad, in which their hilarity was set
forth, and some of them depicted in rather unfavourable colours.
It soon appeared in London. Mr. Blair, with his few friends,
however, (for a large majority of the clergy present were against
him,—17 to 6,) triumphed again, and Mr. Nicholson was recalled.
In his place Mr. Nott, an amiable man, came out, and the Bishop
of London sent with him a severe letter to the clergy, begging
them not "to play the fool any more." Mr. Nott died in a short
time, much esteemed and regretted.

In 1710, Colonel Spottswood was appointed Governor,—an old
soldier, a man of resolute character, of liberal views on many
points, but a most ultra man for the royal prerogative, and for the
transfer of it to the Governor of Virginia. For some years he and
Mr. Blair agreed well. They both were in favour of efforts for the
Indians. Mr. Blair advocated the Governor's favourite enterprise,
—the ascending the Blue Ridge and looking upon the valley beyond.
At length the Governor became unpopular with the House
of Burgesses for some measures supposed to be high-handed, and
again Colonel Byrd is sent over, with others, to bring charges
against him, and was more successful than in the case of Mr.
Blair. About this time Governor Spottswood got into a difficulty
with the vestry of St. Anne's parish, Essex, on the subject of the
rights of the vestries and Governors in the matter of induction, in
which he claims higher powers than had ever been claimed before.
The Rev. Hugh Jones had been in England and reported some
things to the Bishop of London unfavourable to the rubrical exactness
of Mr. Blair and others; and evil reports also as to the
moral character of some of the clergy were rife in the mother-country.
In 1719 the Bishop of London addressed a letter to the
Governor and Commissary, directing a convocation of the clergy
to receive a communication from him. At their meeting the letter
is read. It referred to some reports as to the evil conduct of the
clergy and the violation of the rubrics. Commissary Blair opens
the meeting with a sermon and address. The Governor calls upon
him for his sermon, which he immediately sent. The Governor
was offended at something in it touching Government. Perhaps
the Commissary, even at that day, had a little of the spirit of
American independence in him. The Governor also sends in an
address to the clergy in reference to the Bishop of London's letter,
which he had previously read. He opens with a direct assault on
Commissary Blair, saying that he knew of no clergyman who
transgressed the rubrics except the Commissary, who sometimes
let a layman read the service for him in church, and even the
burial-service in his presence, and wished to establish lay-readers
in the parishes. He also charged him with injuring the clergy by

opposing their induction, &c. To all this the Commissary had an
easy answer. Once or twice, when unable to go through the service
through sickness, he had gotten a lay-reader to assist him.
On some occasion he may have passed the churchyard when a clerk
or lay-reader was burying some one,—a thing very common in
Virginia at that time by reason of the scarcity of clergymen, and
when lay-readers were common and commanded by law. As to
the discouraging of induction, he shows that he had always advised
it; but that the vestries would not present ministers for
this purpose to the Governor, and that the Governors would not
use the privilege granted and perform the duty enjoined upon them
by the royal institution,—viz.: after six months' vacancy to present
and induct if the vestry did not supply the place. As to his own
example, he said that he could not help it, for the vestry in Williamsburg
would not present him to the Governor for induction;
and that he, (the Governor,) though on the spot, had never remonstrated
against it, but, on the contrary, when he communicated the
fact of his election to the Governor he only received the assurance
of the pleasure it gave him; not one word being said about induction.[46] The manuscript of the journal of this convocation is before
me, covering some forty or fifty pages. Neither this nor any other
journal of the Colonial convocation has ever been in print. It
is one of the most interesting documents of the kind I ever read,
and exhibits in a clearer light the true condition of the Church,
and character of the clergy, and peculiarities of the two great
combatants, Spottswood and Blair, than can be seen anywhere
else. The whole history of the dispute about induction is also
there seen. The persevering determination of the vestries as to
their defensive measures, and the fearfulness of the Governor, the
Council, the Bishop of London, and the Crown, to come into collision
with the vestries, is there plainly seen. Though the vestries
doubtless often made the position of the ministers a painfully-precarious
one, and that doubtless prevented some good men from
coming over, yet these were lesser evils than would result from
allowing the Governor to be the patron of all the livings, with
authority to send to and keep in parishes any and all whom he
should choose. So interesting and instructive is this journal beyond
that of any meeting ever held by the clergy of Virginia, that
I shall subjoin the document in an appendix. There is one question,
proposed by the Bishop of London, which was very difficult
to be managed,—viz.: whether any of them knew of the existence
of evil livers among the clergy. It was first proposed in the
meeting from the chair. The answer was, that none of them were
personally acquainted with any notorious evil livers, and the same
was introduced into an answer to the Bishop of London, drawn up
by the committee. It was a trying question, and was doubtless
evaded by denying that they were personally acquainted with such.
It is probable that the notorious evil livers did not attend convocations,
especially this, as they might have heard the special object
of it. As this seems to be a proper place for considering this
painful question, I will adduce from letters addressed to the Bishop
of London, from Governor Drysdale, Dr. Blair, and others, some
passages which may give us a correct view of it. In 1723, Mr.
Blair, in writing to the Bishop of London, says:—

He complains of the precariousness of the ministers, by reason
of their dependence from year to year on new elections by the
vestries. "This (he says) has gone on so long, by the connivance
of Governors, that though our present Governor (Drysdale) is very
willing of himself to redress it, yet thinks it not prudent to do it
without an instruction from his Majesty." Dr. Blair wished the

Governor, when a vacancy of more than six months occurred, to
send and induct a minister, as by law directed. But neither the
Governors—not even the brave Spottswood—dared to do it, nor
did his Majesty dare order it to be done. In another letter from
Mr. Blair to a worthy clergyman, Mr. Forbs, he says:—

In a letter to the Bishop of London, in 1724, on the same
subject, he says, "I have never made but two examples (that is,
of withdrawing their licenses during the Bishop's pleasure) in all
the time I have been Commissary, now thirty-four years; and,
indeed, for want of clergymen, we must bear with those we have
much more than we should do." In the same year a joint letter
from Governor Drysdale and Mr. Blair, and others from worthy
clergymen, confirm the above. About the same time, several
lengthy communications are sent over to England, containing
schemes for a supply of more and better ministers for Virginia,
and offering some suggestions as to their government and discipline.
The reigning vice among the clergy at that time was
intemperance; as it probably has been ever since both among the
clergy and laity of all denominations, having given great trouble to
the Church of every age. The difficulty of proof is stated in one
of these schemes for reformation; and the following mortifying
tests of intoxication are proposed to the Bishop of London, for the
trial of the clergy in Virginia. They were these:—

It was found then, as it ever has been, that one great source of
the scandal brought upon the Church of God by the intemperance of
clergy and laity, is to be found in the difficulty not only of witnesses
and prosecutors, but of deciding when excitement from intoxicating
liquors has reached that point which must be regarded as the sin
of drunkenness. And what an argument this should be with both
clergy and laity, but especially the former, to abstain altogether,
lest they should appear to be, or be charged with, or suspected of
this sin!

I have thus brought to a close my remarks on the chief incidents
in the life of Dr. Blair, and the peculiar points of his character.
Our impression of him is, that, though he could not be otherwise
than busy, considering all the offices he held and the relation he
bore to others, yet that the charge brought against him by some,
that he was too busy, had truth in it. His most minute details of
things said and done, in his long and tedious though well-written
letters to England furnish proof of this. Still, we must esteem
him a sincere Christian and a most laborious man in the performance
of duty in all his official relations. The College owed its
existence to him, and was probably as well managed by him as
times and circumstances allowed; and it is probable that his faithful
preaching and correct moral deportment did much to stem that
torrent of wickedness which, in his day, flowed over England and
America. Few men ever contended with more difficulties or surmounted
them better than Dr. Blair. Few clergymen ever were
engaged with such fierce opponents in high stations, and who not
only bore up manfully against them, but actually overcame them.
Governors of distant provinces have ever been proverbially corrupt
and tyrannical men. Such were Andros and Nicholson. Spottswood
was a nobler spirit, but he was brought up a soldier, and rose
to high command in the English army, and had there learned both
to obey and command. As Governor of Virginia, he thought it
was his province to command, and that of all others to obey; but
Dr. Blair thought there were limits to submission. They were
both of them benefactors to Virginia. Had there been many such
before and after, it would have been well for the State. Of Dr.
Blair I have nothing more to say, but that, in a letter from Governor
Gooch to the Bishop of London, at his death, he informs
him that the Commissary left his library and five hundred pounds
to the College, and ten thousand pounds to his nephew and the

children of his nephew, besides some smaller legacies. His nephew
was Mr. John Blair, who was so long President of the Council,
and whose character was of the highest order. The son of this
John Blair (whose name was also John) was distinguished as a
patriot, statesman, and jurist. He represented the College of
William and Mary in the House of Burgesses for a long time,
took an active part in all the Revolutionary movements, was a
member of the great Convention which met to revise the Articles
of Confederation, and, finally, was one of the Supreme Federal
Court.

GOVERNOR SPOTTSWOOD AND HIS FAMILY.

The following sketch has been furnished me, at my request, by
one of the descendants in Virginia, and I take pleasure in adding
it to this article.