Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/92

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

the French and Indians proved very disas- trous. In the attempt to take h'ort Duciuesne, as the French called the captured post at the forks of the Monongahela and Alleghany, Braddock's army was destroyed, and in the north the TVench captured Oswego and l-"ort William Henry. For four years the evil days followed one another, hut amid the most dis- heartening conditions, Robert DinwidcUe re- mained undismayed. The ardent task of rais- ing unwilling troops and directing the defense of 350 miles of frontier fell to him, and while he did not escape th.e charge of imjiroper inter- ference at times, on the whole, he discharged his duties ably and nobly.

To the excitement in the colony produced by the French war more was added by the pas-

sage m i;

of the first of the Two Penny

/\ct by the assembly, making the tax for sal- aries of the ministers payable either in tobacco or in money at two pence per pound, at the option of the tax payer. The ministers tried to get Governor Dinwiddle to veto the bill, but he was beginning to learn the lesson of non- interference with the legislature, and he de- clined. Worn out at length with the harassing duties of his office, he solicited from the authorities in England permission to return, and so in January, 1758, he departed from the colony, bearing with him the commendations of the assembly and the peojile of \'irginia in general. He marked his interest in the colony by contributing many books to the College Library. lie survived his return to England by twelve years, and finally died at Clifton, Bristol, whither he had gone for the benefit of the baths, July 27, 1770. in the 78th year of his age. His brother John was a merchant on the Rappahannock river in Virginia. He mar- ried Rosa Enfield Mason, of Stafford county, and is innneronsly represented in the South.

Blair, John, president of the council, and as such acting governor of Virginia from the departure for England of Governor Din- widdle, January. 1758, till the arrival of Gov- ernor Francis Fauquier, June 7, 1758, and from the time of (iovernor F^auquier's death, March 3, 1768, till the arrival of Lord Bote- tourt, October. 1768. He was son of Dr. .Vrchibald lUair, brother of Dr. James Blair, president of the College of William and Mary, and was born in \'irginia in 1687. He was educated at William and Mary College, and was a burgess from Williamsburg in 1736- 1740, and in 1743 became a member of the council, an office which he held till his death. During his first administration, which hap- assembly augmented the forces in the pay of the colony to 2,000 men and issued' £32,000 in treasury notes to defray the expenses of the increased defences of the colony. In the trou- bles which led to the American Revolution, Ijlair was always on the popular side. As a judge of the general court in April, 1764, he upheld the Tw^o Penny Act, and as president of the committee of correspondence he voted to condemn the Stamp Act in June, 1764. When he became acting governor the second time he promptly called the general assembly together to consider the new revenue measures passed by parliament. \\'hen the assembly convened, March 31, 1768, he concurred with the council and house of burgesses in the bold resolutions unanimously adopted that only the general assembly could make any laws regard- ing ""thie internal policy or taxation of the colony." Blair was the source through which they were transmitted to England, and Lord Hillsborough, the secretary of colonial afifairs, expressed himself amazed especially at the action of the council and its president, who
 * ened during the French and Indian war, the