Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/195

 COLONIAL COUNCILLORS OF STATE

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ing. Upon the death of his father in 1750 Philip Ludwell fell heir to the larger part of his estate, and was also entrusted with the guardianship and education of his younger brothers. Perhaps it was these responsibilities that kept him a bachelor until he was about thirty-hve years 0+ age, when Elizabeth Step- toe, daughter of James Steptoe, of Westmore- land, became his wife. He seems to have been secretary of the council in 1770, as on the eighteenth of June of that year he made out a "list of Books necessary for the Council Cham- ber." Such books as reports of parliament, histories, philosophical transactions, the ora- tions of Demosthenes, etc., were named in the list, rhilip Ludwell Lee died Feb. 23. 1775, and was buried the next day, his forty-ninth birthday.

Horrocks, Rev. James, is chietiy known tlirough his connection with William and Mary College. In 1764 Commissary Robinson wrote "Mr. Horrocks, a young clergyman, after hav- ing been master of the Grammar School two on three years, has found means of carrying the Presidentship of the college against Air. Gra- ham a clergyman of unexceptionable character and generally esteemed, who has been Pro- fessor of Mathematics in the college near twenty years."' In the same letter Robinson charged that Horrocks had gained this promo- tion through time-serving. Iksides being president of the college Horrocks, upon the death of Robinson a little later in the same year, was made commissary and was rector of Bruton Parish Church. ?Iis name is on record as present in the council in 1758 and 1759, and he remained a member until his death. He took an active part in the controversies which agitated \'irginia while the revolution was brewing, especially in the disputes regarding the salaries of the clergy, the establishment of a bishopric in America and the stamp act. He

expressed belief in the iuicjuity of the act of the house of burgesses providing that the clergy should be paid in paper money instead of tobacco, but opposed John Camm's plan of repeated appeal to England, believing it to be useless. His health failing in 1771 he sailed for England, accompanied by his wife, leaving Camm in his chair as president of William and Mary, the Rev. Mr. Willie as commissary and the Rev. Mr. Henley to fill the pulpit at Bruton. He died March 20, 1772. In spite of the stormy times Horrock's administration \\as a palmy time for William and Mary Col- lege. Harvard at the time was still under the cliarge of a president and tutors, with but two professors, while the younger sister in \'ir- gmia had for years enjoyed the advantages of a corps of professors, alumni of the great uni- versities of England and Scotland.

Fairfax, George William, of "Belvoir," Fairfax county, \'irginia, and of "Toulston," Yorkshire, England, was the son of Col. Wil- liam Fairfax, of "Belvoir," and was born in the Ijahamas in 1724. His education was ob- tained in England and, on his return to \'ir- ginia, in early manhood, he at once began to play an active part in the affairs of the colony, li: liis twenty-first year, he was appointed a justice in Fairfax county, and from 1748 to 1758 was a member of the house of burgesses. The companion of Washington on his first surveying expedition, he remained through life one of his most attached and valued friends. During the French and Indian war, as a colonel of militia, he actively assisted Washington in the defence of the frontier. He became a member of the council in April, 1768. and remained an active participant in its proceedings until 1773, when he went to Eng- land to take possession of Toulston, in York- shire, an estate which had descended to him through the death of his father's elder brother.