LIV.
COMMISSARY JAMES BLAIR.
LIV. President of the Council.
LIV. June, 1740, to July, 1741.
James Blair was born in Scotland, in 1655. Having
been educated for the Church, he became one of its most
zealous champions, and was sent by the Bishop of London, in
1685, as a missionary to Virginia. He was the minister of
Henrico parish for nine years, and then moved to Jamestown
in order to be more convenient to the college which he was
raising up. He had been made Commissary of the Bishop
of London, and in 1710 he became the Minister of Bruton
parish. He was largely instrumental in procuring the
charter for William and Mary College, and a grant of twenty
thousand acres of land for its support. The King himself
subscribed ¢2,000 towards its building, out of the quit-rents.
Seymour, the Attorney-General of Great Britain, remonstrated
against such liberality, urging that the nation was
engaged in an expensive war. Commissary Blair in reply
said, that the institution was for the education of young men
to be ministers of the gospel, and suggested that the people
of Virginia had souls to be saved, as well as the people
of England. "Souls!" exclaimed Seymour, "damn your
souls! make tobacco!" But notwithstanding this command,
the college was built, and owed its existence in large measure
to Mr. Blair.
The history of Mr. Blair during the last forty-three out
of the fifty-three years of his ministry, is inseparably connected
with the history of Williamsburg, the College, the
Governors, Council, Assembly, and Church of Virginia. He
filled a large space about him, and battled manfully in support
of his convictions of right. As a faithful soldier of
Christ, his trumpet had no uncertain sound. That a man of
his active character and superior mind should for more than
half a century have been associated in matters of high importance
to church and state without many contests, was not
possible. He was engaged in controversies with Governors
and clergy during the whole period of his Presidency of the
College, and few men ever contended with more difficulties
or surmounted them better than Dr. Blair. In addition to
his daily and varied duties, he found time to write one hundred
and seventeen sermons expository of the "Sermon on
the Mount." Bishop William Meade says, in 1872: "As
an accurate commentary on that most blessed portion of
Scripture, I should think it can never have been surpassed."
Dr. Blair was long a member of the Council, and as President
of that body, was the Acting Governor of Virginia
during the absence of Governor Gooch on the Carthagena
expedition, from June, 1740, to July 25, 1741. He died
August 3, 1743, aged 88, and was buried at Jamestown. By
his will he left his library and ¢500 to the College, and
¢10,000 to his nephew and the children of his nephew,
besides some smaller legacies. His nephew, John Blair, was
long President of the Council, and a man of high character.
His son, John Blair, "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."
The following is a translation of the Latin inscription on
Commissary Blair's tombstone, in the old graveyard at
Jamestown, Va.:
Here lies buried
The Reverend and the Honorable
JAMES BLAIR, A. M.,
Who was born in Scotland, was educated in the College of Edinburg, and
emigrated to England, and thence to Virginia, in which Colony he
spent fifty-eight years as an Evangelist, Deacon, and Priest of the Church
of England, and fifty-four years as Commissary of the Bishop of 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 fellowmen,
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 3d 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."
