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Special Collections Research Center
William & Mary Special Collections Research CenterFinding Aid Authors: SCRC staff
Before reproducing or quoting from any materials, in whole or in part, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.
The collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.
Office of the President, James Blair Records, Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary.
Acc. 2002.073 purchased from H.P. Kraus Rare Books and Manuscripts, NY, NY.
Acc. 1980.128 acquired 11/18/1980; Acc. 2002.073 acquired 10/22/2002.
A list of College of William and Mary presidents is available at . Further information about this individual or organization may be available in the Special Collections Research Center Wiki: . Further information about this individual or organization may be available in the Special Collections Research Center Wiki: .
Acc. 1980.128 contains papers of and relating to James Blair, first president of the College of William and Mary. The collection contains two original manuscripts: a funeral bill by Blair dated 1701, and a sermon erroneously attributed to Blair dated 1747. The bulk of the collection consists of copies collected for research purposes, mostly in 1940-1941. Includes biographical material; extracts and copies from official records; copies of correspondence; sermons; notes on paintings of Blair and his wife owned by the College of William and Mary; notes on their graves.
Acc. 2002.073 contains minutes of the Council of Virginia from 1695, including a resolution of the Governor's Council drawn up by Governor Edmund Andros and signed by all the Council members documenting the differences between Rev. James Blair and Andros and announcing the suspension of Rev. Blair from the Council.
Other Information:
A PDF document of this inventory is available online.
Additional information may be found at http://scrc.swem.wm.edu/findingaids/UA_1980_128%20blair,%20james.pdf
Some folders in the biographical material series are more thoroughly organized in the PDF inventory available at http://scrc.swem.wm.edu/findingaids/UA_1980_128%20blair,%20james.pdf Consult a staff member for assistance.
The Church Review, and Ecclesiastical Register 8 (New Haven, Conn.: January 1856). Photostat of page 613, discussing James Blair's death as noted in the vestry minutes of 1743.
Photostat of biographical sketch written by Dr. Earl Gregg Swem.
Typewritten note with bibliographical references to three articles on Blair.
Reuben Elmore Stivers, "The Governor, the Commissary, and St. John Shropshire," Shropshire Journal 3 (no. 4, January 1993).
Page 62, with continuation of biographical sketch from the next page cut out and glued on.
vol. 5 (New York: Robert Carter, 1859). Pages 7-14, containing biographical sketch of Blair, and also a biographical sketch of Hugh Jones, who was a professor of mathematics at the College of William and Mary as well as a clergyman. Typed transcription of Sprague's sketch of Blair.
Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church 14. Article and detached cover of journal.
Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, One Volume.
Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church 43, Article and detached cover of journal.
Country Life 150. Article and table of contents page, and photocopies of article.
Bulk from 1940-1941. Correspondence and notes, primarily of library staff, documenting efforts to research Blair's life and noting errors in published biographies.
Transcriptions or excerpts quoting from official records, private correspondence (neither to nor from Blair), and contemporary published works that mention Blair.
Photocopies and transcriptions of correspondence to and from James Blair.
Photostats relating to James Blair joining the University of Edinburgh Library. Photostat of the title page of the book which Blair presented to the Edinburgh Library on becoming a member of it; photostat of Blair's signature on joining the Edinburgh University Library; photostat of the agreement he signed. Copy of Blair's commission as commissary. Photocopy of commission, transcription of commission, translation of commission from Latin, bibliographic citations. A Vindication of Sr. Edmond Andros, 1697. Photocopy of a document by William Byrd. Papers relating to a dispute between Blair and Governor Nicholson, 1704-1705. Photocopies of two documents. Papers relating to a dispute over money owed to Blair by the College, 1719-1721.
Photostat and photocopy of the published pamphlet Papers Relating to an Affidavit... (London: 1727), made in 1942 from the volume owned by the John Carter Brown Library; photocopy of handwritten document entitled A Defence of Mr. Blair; and a Confutation of an Anonymous [sic] Pamphlet, Lately Dispersed by General Nicholson, Entitled Papers Relating to an Affidavit...
Brief extracts from two sermons preached in Bruton Church by Blair, taken from W. A. R. Goodwin's Historical Sketch of Bruton Church; Photostat of title page of James Blair, Our Saviour's Divine Sermon on the Mount...to which is Prefix'd a Paraphrase on the Whole Sermon of the Mount... (London: second edition, 1740) and Photostat of Blair's Paraphrase on Our Saviour's Sermon on the Mount (1729); photocopy of Danish edition of Our Saviour's Divine Sermon on the Mount (Copenhagen, 1761?). Both the English and the Danish editions of Blair's book are in the Rare Book collections of Swem Library, College of William and Mary.
Bibliographic citation for Blair's death notice in Scot's Magazine (July 1743); page 643 of The Gentleman's Magazine (August 1743) with Blair listed under Deaths; brochure entitled Merely to Survive Is Not Enough, comparing Dr. Woodbridge's building a fallout shelter for his neighborhood in 1961 with Dr. Blair's creation of the College of William and Mary; photographic copy of signature, James Blair President.
Itemized bill for funeral expenses.
Handwritten sermon said to be by James Blair, along with correspondence giving reasons why James Blair was probably not the author.
Resolution of the Governor's Council drawn up by Governor Edmund Andros and signed by all the Council members documenting the differences between Rev. James Blair and Andros and announcing the suspension of Rev. Blair from the Council.
Inventory of portraits of James Blair owned by the college, completed in 1968; notes miniature owned by Virginia Historical Society; photostat of silhouette; copy of published reproduction of college-owned portrait.
Three photographs of an oil painting by J. Hargreaves, in London, 1705, of Sarah Harrison, wife of James Blair. Portrait owned by the college.
Notes on inscriptions on the graves of James Blair and Sarah Harrison Blair; page from "Notable Trees of Virginia," Bulletin of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute 24 (March 15, 1931) illustrated with a photograph of the sycamore tree that separates the two graves; drawing of the tree and Mrs. Blair's damaged gravestone.