Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1853).djvu/177

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THE COLLEGES AND PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENTS, THE ROADS, BUILDINGS, &c.?

The College of William and Mary is the only public seminary of learning in this State. It was founded in the time of King William and Queen Mary, who granted to it 20,000 acres of land, and a penny a pound duty on certain tobaccos exported from Virginia and Maryland, which had been levied by the statute of 25 Car. 2. The Assembly also gave it, by temporary laws, a duty on liquors imported, and skins and firs exported. From these resources it received upwards of £3,000 communibus annis. The buildings are of brick, sufficient for an indifferent accommodation of perhaps an hundred students. By its charter it was to be under the government of twenty visitors, who were to be its legislators, and to have a president and six professors, who were incorporated. It was allowed a representative in the General Assembly. Under this charter, a professorship of the Greek and Latin languages, a professorship of mathematics, one of moral philosophy; and two of divinity, were established. To these were annexed, for a sixth professorship, a considerable donation by Mr. Boyle of England, for the instruction of the Indians, and their conversion to Christianity. This was called the professorship of Brafferton, from an estate of that name in England, purchased with the moneys given. The admission of the learners of Latin and Greek filled the College with children. This rendering it disagreeable and degrading to young gentlemen already prepared for entering on the sciences, they were discouraged from resorting to it, and thus the schools for mathematics and moral philosophy, which might have been of
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