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Mini
Biographies of Scots and Scots Descendants (B)
Blair,
James |
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1656–1743, Church of England clergyman,
missionary to colonial Virginia, and founder of the College of William and
Mary, b. Scotland. At the request of the bishop of London, Blair traveled
to Virginia in 1685 to revive and reform the church in the colony. He
returned to England (1691) to petition for a college, which when chartered
in 1693 was named William and Mary after the monarchs. Blair was made
president for life. In 1694 he was appointed by the king to the Virginia
council, of which he was a lifelong member (except for a brief period) and
in 1740–41 president. With Henry Hartwell and Edward Chilton, Blair
wrote The Present State of Virginia and the College (1727, ed. by
H. D. Farish, 1940).
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