QUERY XV.
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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