University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXXII

ADMINISTRATIONS OF NICHOLSON AND ANDROS

The new lieutenant-governor was Francis Nicholson,[1] who
from the beginning of his administration, exhibited a most
active and intelligent concern for the Colony's welfare. He
showed consideration for the more or less malevolent wishes
of Effingham, still governor-general, in one instance alone: he
refused to summon the Assembly to meet at once, as he was
convinced that, while heated, as they still were, against his
predecessor, they would adopt intemperate resolutions in condemnation
of his conduct and policies, which could now serve
no useful purpose. In order to learn about the condition of
the people at large by personal inspection, he undertook a
tour of the plantations, and, in its course, he invited citizens
of every rank to submit their views even while he was seated
at his meals at table. He asked about their wants, and urged
them to speak out as to what, in their opinion, would be best
for the good of all. And this first progress from county to
county he afterwards repeated each year during his tenure
of office. By words of encouragement and valuable prizes, he
quickened the popular taste for such athletic exercises as
jumping, running, shooting, wrestling, and fencing; and by
the same means he sought to improve the methods of tillage
and to diversify the crops.

But his most conspicuous public service was his leading
share in establishing the College of William and Mary. His
principal coadjutor in this great work was Rev. James Blair, a
Scotchman who had been recently appointed the Bishop of

London's representative in Virginia, with the title of commissary.
We have seen how solicitous the London Company was
to found a university at Henricopolis, and how that project
had been so completely thwarted by the massacre of 1622.
When the population did not exceed twenty-five thousand in
all, and the wealth of the community was still insignificant, it
was proposed to erect by private subscription a college of the
liberal arts, which would also supply, through its graduates

WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE IN 172

in theology, a large number of candidates for the holy orders
in Virginia. The hour, however, was not yet ripe for such
an institution; and the disorders of 1676 further diverted
men's minds from such a project.

But the desire for a real school in their midst for the
education of their sons never lost its hold on the hearts of
the colonists—first, because the number of cultured Englishmen
settling in Virginia was annually increasing; and secondly
because the dangers of the wide ocean voyage naturally
discouraged the entrance of many of its youths into the halls
of the English universities. In July, 1690, Nicholson

announced that he was ready to receive the designs for the
free school which had been so long needed. He, at the same
time, appointed commissioners to collect subscriptions. By
May, 1691, a board of trustees had been nominated, and a
petition for a charter from the King and Queen drafted. This
was to be submitted to the Privy Council by Blair in person, for
whose expenses oversea a large sum was now appropriated.
The subjects to be taught were to be Latin, Greek, mathematics,
philosophy, and divinity, and the teachers were to be
three in number—a schoolmaster, an usher, and a writing
master.

By December, 1691, two thousand pounds sterling had
been subscribed in Virginia for the erection of the college, and
large bodies of land in different parts of the Colony had been
conveyed to its use. The English Government too granted it
very considerable sums of money from the treasury of the
auditor-general in London, and from the fund of the quitrents
in Virginia, the penny-tax on the exports of tobacco to the
sister colonies, and the duty on furs. Its income was further
increased by the fees from the appointment of surveyors, and
by the acquisition of all escheated lands not otherwise disposed
of.

In September, 1693, Blair, on his return from England, was
able to place in Nicholson's hands a copy of the charter, which
bore the date of February 8th, 1693; and he was granted by
the Assembly two hundred and fifty pounds sterling as a
reward for his energy and fidelity in obtaining it. Middle
Plantation was, after a long discussion, selected as the site
of the college because it was a salubrious spot and near the
center of population. By 1697, the buildings were so far
completed that the doors of the grammar school were thrown
open to pupils. Among the gifts made by benevolent persons
for its benefit was a large sum from Robert Boyle, which was
to be invested in the purchase of Brafferton Manor in Yorkshire,
and the income, after certain reservations, used in
christianizing and educating nine or ten Indian boys. Henry

Hon. Robert Boyle

Hartwell, a distinguished lawyer, also endowed it with fifty
pounds sterling. Blair was the first to fill the office of President.
His salary was one hundred and fifty pounds sterling
annually, five times the amount received by Mungo Inglis, the
first school-master, and six times the amount received by Mullikin,
the usher, the only other officers associated with him.
The college was empowered to return a burgess to the General
Assembly.

In the spring of 1699, the burgesses adjourned to be present
at the exercises that were held there on May Day. "The most
proper place for you," exclaimed Nicholson in suggesting
this, "is his Majesty's College of William and Mary, where
you may not only be eye witnesses of one of his Majesty's
bounties and royal favors to Virginia, but also judges of the
improvement of your youth in learning and education." The
burgesses, with equal stateliness, replied, "that it was an
unspeakable blessing to have their children brought up in so
fair a way of being rescued from barbarous ignorance." The
celebration was attended by people from places as remote as
Pennsylvania and New York; and the planters in Virginia
came thither in their coaches, on horseback, or in sloops.

Nicholson was also deeply interested in every influence
that would improve the religious condition of the people. On
several occasions, he gave the fees payable to him in certain
counties from marriage and tavern licenses, to make up a
fund for the support of readerships in impoverished parishes;
he contributed to the cost of erecting new churches; he
enforced with great strictness the laws for the preservation
of the Sabbath; and he maintained out of his private purse
the new clergymen from England until they could secure
benefices in the Colony. Especially solicitous was he that the
General Assembly should Christianize the slaves recently
arrived by ship from Africa. But the members of that body
were incredulous as to the ripeness of these poor creatures
for such pious lessons. "The gross bestiality and rudeness of
their manners," said they in reply, "the variety and strangeness

of their language, and the weakness and shallowness of
their minds, make it practically impossible to teach them even
the rudiments of the Christian religion. It is only those born
in the country and brought in contact with the family life of
the plantations who could be reached, and everything was done
by their owners to improve their disposition and manners."

Nicholson and Blair were not always on a friendly footing
with each other, owing to their rival claims to priority in ecclesiastical
matters. Nicholson uncompromisingly asserted that
he alone was the representative of the King and the Bishop
of London alike; and this claim was apparently justified by
a statute passed as early as 1643; but, in reality, at that time,
no commissary was in existence, and, therefore, there was no
one to dispute the supremacy of the governors in the affairs
of the church.

Liberal as Nicholson was, he sometimes grew exacting in
his attitude towards the Quakers. They were ordered to
announce the arrival of any emissary, should one be sent to
them—which seemed improbable—by the Indians or French,
who were now suspected, without much ground, of an intention
to invade the Colony. This injunction at least reveals the
smallness of the public confidence in that sect's patriotic
loyalty.

He endeavored in vain to persuade the General Assembly
to build an official residence for the governors. That body
shrank from the additional taxation which its erection would
make necessary; nor did they think that these officials themselves
were ever likely to desire to be so conspicuously housed
inasmuch as the demands of hospitality which would follow
would reduce the salary of the position to the vanishing point.
This salary did not now exceed one thousand pounds sterling,
which was just one-half of the amount that Effingham had
been paid. Nicholson always exhibited a generous spirit in
the employment of this small remuneration. He was not
greedy and parsimonious like his two predecessors, and
would have cheerfully spent his last pound in entertaining

the public, if he had been occupying an official palace, with
room enough for popular receptions.

He was not only of a generous temper, but also of a spirit
at once cool and gallant. This he exhibited again and again
in his efforts to capture or drive off the pirates who then
prowled along the Atlantic coast. At this time, there was
little difference between the pirate and the privateer. Many
privateers did not hesitate to rifle any merchant-vessel that
passed across their bows. So enormous was the quantity of
plate, coin, precious stones, silks, and costly clothes, often
captured by these sea-wolves that Nicholson was afraid at
times lest the news of its richness would so far demoralize
the Virginians as to induce many to follow in the same lawless
tracks. The cupidity of some of the colonists was frequently
so much excited that, receiving the buccaneers with an eager,
outstretched hand when they came on shore, they would
acquire the goods which the desperadoes had brought along
with them by offering them articles of food in return. "They
carry money into the country," was a complacent saying that
was now often heard among the people. Most of the guardships
were too poorly equipped and manned to overawe these
sinister strangers when they appeared off the coast.

When Nicholson's first administration came to an end, he
was succeeded by Andros,[2] who had acquired a somewhat
unsavory reputation while serving in the same office in the
northern colonies. It happened, however, that he had aided
the Virginians by his support of an important petition which
they had submitted on one occasion for supplies; but the
popularity which this fact gave him with them at the start
steadily fell away as his tenure of his post grew in length.
This decline, however, was apparently brought about entirely
by the faithfulness with which he carried out the instructions
of the English Government for the more rigid enforcement
of the Acts of Navigation. He always exhibited extraordinary

care in preserving the records intact. A fire in the house
next to the capitol having jeopardized the existence of the
documents stored in the latter building, the people, who were
present in large numbers—it being a court day—rushed inside
and tumbled the papers out pell mell. Andros had them scrupulously
assorted, listed, and bound. Such of the documents as
were becoming illegible from age were ordered by him to be
recopied; and all were placed in a safer place of custody.

He was keenly interested in the agricultural products of
the Colony, and he endeavored to extend the tillage to the
cotton plant, which he found grew prosperously in the soil
along the Carolina border. He was so active in encouraging
domestic manufactures of all sorts that he brought upon himself
a severe rebuke from the Board of Trade for thus diverting
a valuable trade from the English merchants. Like his
predecessor, Nicholson, he soon locked horns with Commissary
Blair over the scope of the governor's ecclesiastical powers;
and Blair grew so offensive in the controversy that he was
suspended from his seat in the council. But he retaliated by
aspersing Andros as an enemy of religion and education alike;
and he was shrewd enough also to destroy by private letters
the influence of the agents despatched to England by the governor
to relate his grievances against the commissary to the
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London. Subsequently
taking advantage of some small excuse, Andros suspended
him for the second time,—for he had been readmitted
by the King's order, but Blair again was able to find admission
through his personal weight with the English Government.

Andros exhibited a practical interest in the advancement
of religion. He gave communion plate to some of the churches
and supplied others with clergymen, who, while idle, had been
supported by his purse. He urged the General Assembly to
furnish them with a more lucrative salary; and it was due to
his persuasion that, in 1695, this body fixed the amount for the
incumbent of each pulpit at 13,333 1-3 pounds of tobacco.
Owing to his dislike of Blair, he was not at first friendly to

the College, but apparently later on saw that the institution
was properly supported; and he took judicious steps to restore
the more important fortifications and replace their guns on
new platforms. He instructed all the authorities in Virginia
to assist Peter Heyman, the deputy of Thomas Neal, the patentee
of the new postoffice, in putting the service under way in
Virginia. In 1701, Heyman was succeeded by Richard Lee in
this position.