ngelical movement, when he came to Williamsburg in 1740, and had
the happiness to learn that his College had won the admiring approval
of his visitor. Whitefield wrote in his diary an account of what he
saw, and ended, "I rejoiced in seeing such a place in America."

Commissary Blair fought steadily and successfully for the rights and
privileges of the clergy, and secured real increase in clerical
salaries. He fought also for the right of the vestries to elect the
rectors of their own parishes, even as he strove when need was, to
secure the removal of the occasional unworthy clergyman.

The organization of the College of William and Mary in 1693 was indeed
the culmination of the plan of the London Company to establish a
University in Virginia. The first effort went up in smoke in 1622.
There was another effort in the days of Sir William Berkeley after the
Restoration, but the time was not then ripe. But the opportunity came
again. Already there were several endowed schools in Virginia: The Syms
School in Hampton, the Eaton School, also in that parish, the Peasley
School in Gloucester County, and others. Many parish clergymen also
became noted for the excellency of their schools. So the College which
began in 1693 came to head a group of schools which had already spread
through the colony.

From its beginning it held to the ideal of having a School of Divinity
to train men for the ministry of the Church of England, as well as a
school of philosophy or liberal arts as we now describe it, to train
men for secular life and leadership in the colonial life. When the
College reached its maturity it had a School of Divinity with two
professors, and a School of Philosophy with two, in addition to masters
in other departments. It had also a foundation which could support
eight men studying for the ministry. From that time until the
Revolution a steady stream of candidates went from the College to the
Bishop of London for ordination. But that is part of the story of the
next century. The beginning came in 1693.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Last Decade

The decade 1690-1700 was an era of steady growth in the religious and
cultural life of Virginia. New counties were created as population
spread further and further up the great rivers; and parishes increased
in numbers as the population grew. The first official list of "The
parishes and the clergymen in them" which has survived the wreckage of
time was the list of 1680, and th