History of The College of William & Mary

History Of The College Of William & Mary

The history of The College of William & Mary can be traced back to a 1693 royal charter establishing "a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and the good arts and sciences" in the British Colony of Virginia. It was named for the reigning joint monarchs of Great Britain, King William III and Queen Mary II. The selection of the new college's location on high ground at the center ridge of the Virginia Peninsula at the tiny community of Middle Plantation is credited to its first President, Reverend Dr. James Blair, who was also the Commissary of the Bishop of London in Virginia. A few years later, the favorable location and resources of the new school helped Dr. Blair and a committee of 5 students influence the House of Burgesses and Governor Francis Nicholson to move the capital there from Jamestown. The following year, 1699, the town was renamed Williamsburg.

During the American Revolution about 75 years later, the college successfully made the transition from British support and a role in government and the established church under Bishop James Madison, and added post graduate programs including the School of Law under George Wythe to become a "university" (although the traditional name using the word "college" has always been retained). With buildings and finances both devastated by the American Civil War (1861–1865), through the perseverance of school presidents Benjamin Stoddard Ewell and Lyon Gardiner Tyler, funding from the U.S. Congress and the Commonwealth of Virginia eventually restored the infrastructure and facilitated expansion of the school's programs with a new emphasis on educating teachers for the state's new public school divisions.

In 1918, William and Mary became the first of Virginia's state-supported colleges and universities to admit women as well as men to its under graduate programs. Adjacent to the restored colonial capital area which became Colonial Williamsburg beginning in 1926, the school has long been involved in the programs and work there. A few blocks away from the campus in the Historic Area, many students continue to attend Bruton Parish Church, a tradition of over 300 years duration.