The first book collection, 1693–1705

JAMES BLAIR, shortly after arriving in London in 1691 on his mission to secure a charter for the college, wrote to Francis Nicholson in Virginia urging agreement on the early appointment of a president for the projected seat of learning. One of Blair’s arguments in favor of the move stressed the need for “overseeing of the . . . Library.^[1] Such concern perhaps indicates that Blair sought to collect books for the projected library during the course of his two-year stay in England. Many of the dignitaries whose patronage was solicited-John Tillotson, Gilbert Burnet, Anthony Homeck, Henry Compton, Edward Stillingfleet—were distinguished men of letters. It is unlikely that a man as enterprising as Blair would have failed to mention the desirability of including the printed works of those eminent divines in the college collection. That form of flattery, as a matter of fact, would have been a means of ingratiating himself, as well as the college project, into their favor and esteem. It is also reasonable to assume that Blair made effons to obtain the printed works of Robert Boyle, whose eleemosynary bequest helped finance the academic venture. Blair negotiated the Boyle transaction with the philosopher’s nephew, Richard Boyle, first earl of Burlington.^[2] Because Blair resorted principally to personal interviews in seeking support for the project, he left sparse documentation of his activities. This complicates the problem of determining whether he made efforts to acquire books and, if so, whether his efforts met with success. The detailed expense accounts that Blair kept for the mission fail to show that he returned to Virginia in 1693 with crates of books.^[3] This, of course, is not conclusive proof that none were obtained, for the transportation of such materials would have been handled by the college’s London agent, Micajah Perry.^[4]

Additional evidence that the founders contemplated library needs even before the college was formally organized can be seen in the terms of the charter. It specifically enjoined the trustees to employ the initial funds ” only for defraying the Charges that shall be laid out in Erecting and Fitting the Edifices of the said intended College, and furnishing them with books and other utensils.”^[5] The declaration of academic aims set forth in the preamble to the charter would presumably have governed the formulation of plans for the organized acquisition of library materials. But more likely than not plans of this nature existed only in the mind of President Blair. Upon returning to Virginia in 1693, he assumed active control of the project.

Both Blair and his principal assistant, Headmaster Mungo Ingles of the grammar school, held degrees as masters of arts from Edinburgh. Recollections of Edinburgh may have come to mind when the two set about forming a library for William and Mary. Neither Blair nor any of his colleagues in the undertaking were well acquainted with Harvard College in New England, which then supported the only other college library in the colonies.

The Edinburgh library, as recalled by Blair and Ingles, served merely as a reading room.^[6] Its volumes did not circulate and, indeed, many were still firmly attached to the bookcases by medieval chains. Not until 1688 was a visitor able to commend Edinburgh’s librarian for having bookcases enclosed with wire. Strict regulations were in effect moreover, to prevent damage to and destruction of the books. William Henderson, “who showed great zeal and fidelity in his office,” was Edinburgh’s librarian during Blair’s student days. And Henderson’s son, Robert, who achieved distinction by introducing bibliothekswissenschaft into the management of the Edinburgh library, held the post when Ingles was in residence.

Blair was also able to recall-not from firsthand experience, perhaps, for undergraduate use of college libraries was a much later development-the library of Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he had secured his bachelor’s degree. It is doubtful that his three years’ experience in the office of the master of rolls at London served any useful purpose in setting up the William and Mary collection of printed books.

Library plans could not be pursued aggressively at William and Mary until suitable accommodations were available for housing books. The main college building, “adapted to the Nature of the Country” from drawings attributed to Sir Christopher Wren, Surveyor-General of the King’s Works, was begun in 1694 and was first occupied in 1697.^[7] It was the most ambitious collegiate edifice erected during the colonial period of American history. It is certain that the plans included accommodations for the library. Since 1380, when William of Wykeham founded New College, Oxford, the plans for every English college had provided space for an institutional book collection.^[8] Wren, who is credited with the plans for the first building at William and Mary, was keenly interested in library planning. His work on the Lincoln Cathedral library in 1674, his celebrated design in 1676 for the New Library at Trinity College, Cambridge, and his St. Paul’s Cathedral library at London, all antedated the drafting of plans for the collegiate structure in Virginia.^[9] Wren, moreover, greatly influenced his successors in library planning, for though he did not actually introduce the wall system of shelf arrangement into England, he developed and successfully adapted it to English requirements.

The long front or façade of the William and Mary structure faced due east, and virtually all of its major rooms, with the exception of the great hall and the chapel, which respectively were to form the north and south links of a projected quadrangle, enjoyed eastern exposures. This orientation enabled the builders, consciously or unconsciously, to follow the precept of Vitruvius that “libraries ought to have an eastern exposure because their purposes require the morning light and also because books in such libraries will not decay.”^[10] The precise location of the library room in the original structure is not revealed in the surviving records. But the most likely location would have been on the second floor.

The spacious basements and cellars of the building were given over to kitchens, storerooms, pantries, butteries, and other housekeeping arrangements. On the main floor were quarters for the grammar school, rooms for advanced classes, a great hall, a wide covered piazza, and, after 1732, the chapel.^[11] The second floor provided space for an impressive chamber—designated the “Blue Room”—in which the president and masters, as well as the board of visitors, could transact their official business, as well as more classrooms and living accommodations for students and masters. Additional living quarters for the students and masters were located on the third floor and in the attics.

The notion that a seat of higher learning ought to devote its own funds to acquiring library materials was virtually unknown in the seventeenth century. Professor Morison reports that his examination of English college records for the period 1595–1640 failed to uncover a single instance of a college spending money on books.^[12] It was generally believed that a college or university library could be developed solely on the basis of donations and bequests. This belief was given credence in the colonies by the fact that the library cart often preceded the college horse. At Yale, for example, each member of the body of ministers who met in 1700 to consider the advisability of an institution of higher learning for Connecticut agreed to give “books for the founding of a college.”^[13] The very name of Harvard College, moreover, perpetuates the generosity of a library benefactor. Thus, despite the authorization contained in their charter, little evidence survives to show that the officials at William and Mary earmarked any significant portion of their initial endowments for the development of a library. The magnificent building under construction from 1694 to 1699 absorbed all the available funds.

Indeed, it is not surprising to discover that the first reference to library resources at the college occurs in connection with a donation. Francis Nicholson, “the Great Maecenas of the College,” heads the list of known library benefactors. A catalogue of his private library, endorsed May 30, 1695, and now preserved in the Fulham Palace archives, is prefaced by a statement that Nicholson wished to leave the entire collection to William and Mary.^[14] His generous disposition preceded the preparation of the catalogue, for contemporary annotations indicate that seven volumes from the collection had already been turned over to the college. The titles so marked were Robert South’s Animadversion upon Dr. Sherlock’s book entituled A vindication of the holy and ever-blessed Trinity; three works of Gilbert Burnet, A discourse of the pastoral care, The life of William Bedell, and The life and death of Sir Matthew Hale; an anonymous work entitled The art of catechising: or, The compleat catechist; Burnet’s translation of Sir Thomas More’s Utopia; and, appropriately enough, John Locke’s enlightened Some thoughts concerning education. No earlier evidence than the record of these accessions, received before May 30, 1695, remains to show that books were actually being assembled for the library.

The college did not have to wait for Nicholson’s demise in order to obtain the rest of his books. They apparently were donated to the library when Nicholson returned to Virginia in 1698 to reassume the reins of government. This may have led the Virginia House of Burgesses to affirm the following year that, after the king, Nicholson was “the most zealous patron of the New Seat of Learning.”^[15] Nicholson retained in his possession a copy of the catalogue receipted by College Clerk William Robertson. It was subsequently employed when he sought to vindicate the eccentric personal behavior that characterized his conduct during his second sojourn in the colony, 1698–1705.^[16] The vindication, published in 1727, contained a rueful estimate that the books presented to the college cost a good fifty or sixty pounds sterling.^[17]

The Nicholson catalogue covers a collection of well over two hundred volumes.^[18] Of this number, 158 works were specifically listed by title. These titles are grouped according to the sizes of the respective volumes under three headings, (1) folios, (2) quartos, and (3) octavos and duodecimos. Valuations are supplied in most cases, affording a check on Nicholson’s 1727 estimate of the total value of the collection. Positive identification of the listed works is occasionally complicated by the free rendition of a title or else by complete absence or incorrect spelling of an author’s name. One entry under the quartos covers “thirty-nine books and pamphlets relating to the several sorts of trade and commerce.” This is the only entry matching that favorite yet frustrating colonial cataloguing phrase, “a parcel of old books.” Even here the cataloguer was thoughtful enough to indicate the subject nature of the volumes so lightly dismissed. A large percentage of the works were printed after 1690, which suggests that Nicholson formed the collection between 1692 and 1694 while in England awaiting a new colonial assignment. The donation provided a nucleus or core around which a library could be developed, and possibly served the useful purpose of encouraging other friends of the college to follow Nicholson’s example.

The library thus accessioned a collection that was mainly theological in nature. Its Protestant tone failed to substantiate, moreover, the implications of rumors that the donor had once kneeled during Mass said in the tent of James II on Hounslow Heath.^[19] The Biblical commentaries, catechistical and inspirational works, and studies touching dogma, doctrine, and ecclesiastical history were appropriate to the library of an institution dedicated to the propagation of the Anglican faith. The subject matter of the thirty-five folios provides a key to the entire collection. These heavy volumes included copies of Richard Hooker’s Of the lawes of ecclesiastical politie, Gabriel Towerson’s Explication of the decalogue and Explication of the Lord’s prayer, John Strype’s inspiring Memorials of . . . Thomas Cranmer, the works of Henry Hammond and of Joseph Mede, the sermons of Edward Stillingfleet, Hugh Davis’ De jvre vniformitatis ecclesiasticae, and William Cave’s historical study Antiquitates apostolicae. The octavos included, naturally enough, a copy of The works of the learned and pious author of The whole duty of man.

Devotional works comprised a large segment of the collection. John Kettlewell’s widely read Measures of Christian obedience was present; so were copies of Sir Matthew Hale’s Contemplations moral and divine, Robert Boyle’s Seraphic love, Abraham Seller’s Devout communicant, and John Tillotson’s Rule of faith. Ecclesiastical history was represented by Louis Ellies Dupin’s Evangelical history; William Cave’s Primitive Christianity and Dissertation concerning the government of the ancient church, the latter describing “the rise and growth of the First Church of God” ; John Sleidan’s important General history of the reformation; and Peter, Lord King’s Enquiry into the constitution, discipline, unity and worship of the primitive church.

Factional dispute, which engaged many learned seventeenth-century minds, was represented by such works as Robert South’s previously mentioned Animadversion upon Dr. Sherlock’s book and by copies of Samuel Clarke’s Demonstration of the divine authority of the law of nature, Thomas Roger’s True Protestant bridle, and William Sherlock’s Vindication of the doctrine of the holy and ever blessed Trinity. Polemics accounted for numerous anti-Quaker tracts. These included John Faldo’s Quakerism no Christianity, Henry Hallywell’s Account of familism as revived by the Quakers, William Allen’s bitter little volume entitled Grand errour of the Quakers detected, and John Norris’ Two treatises concerning the divine light.

Other polemical works calculated to edify Protestant thought appeared on the college shelves as a result of Nicholson’s piety and generosity. Edward Fowler’s Examinations of Cardinal Bellarmine’s fourth note of the church was present; so were copies of Edward Stillingfleet’s Discourse concerning the idolatry practised in the Church of Rome, Edward Gee’s Jesuit’s memorial, and the more scholarly Letters of Father Paul, a production of the celebrated Venetian friar, Paolo Sarpi. One of the more curious diatribes among these treatises was directed by John Williams at the strange sect discussed in his Absurd and mischievous principles of the Muggletonians considered.

The usual assemblage of sermons popular with colonial readers could be found in the Nicholson donation. Wilkins, Glanvill, Hezekiah Burton, Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Clagett, Wake, and Burnet were well represented. And among the miscellaneous religious works were copies of D’Emiliane’s Short history of monastical orders, John Conrad Werndly’s Calvinistic Liturgia Tigurina, Bishop Jewel’s Apology, Symon Patrick’s Mensa mystica, as well as innumerable “paraphrases.”

Aside from a formidable array of Anglican learning and devotion, the Nicholson collection failed to emphasize any particular field of literary interest. Belles-lettres made a scattered showing in such works as Samuel Wesley’s heroic poem entitled The life of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in the prose and poetry of Abraham Cowley, and in the essays of Montaigne, Saint-Evremond, and Sir William Temple.

History, travel, and biography were more generously treated. Heading the list was Sir Walter Raleigh’s Historie of the world, a work greatly admired in seventeenth-century Virginia. The presence of a copy of Raleigh’s Remains was an additional token of the author’s popularity. The popularity of another great figure in Virginia history was demonstrated by the presence of two historical studies treating the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Camden’s History of . . . Princess Elizabeth and Edmund Bohun’s Character of Queen Elizabeth. Nicholson’s donation also brought to the library copies of Christopher Helwich’s Historical and chronological theatre, Edward D’Auvergne’s History of the last campagne in the Spanish Netherlands, George Walter Story’s finely illustrated Impartial history of the wars of Ireland, and an anonymous work entitled An historical account of the memorable actions of the most glorious monarch, William III.

Among the notable pieces of Americana in the accession were copies of Increase Mather’s Brief history of the vvarr with the Indians, George Warren’s Impartial description of Surinam, Acosta’s Natural and moral history of the East and West Indies, Thomas Gage’s New survey of the West Indies, and the anonymously produced Relation of the invasion and conquest of Florida by the Spaniards. Travel and description were further buttressed by copies of Lewis Du May’s Estate of the empire . . . of Germany, Gabriel de Megalhaen’s New history of the empire of China, an account of the earl of Carlisle’s Russian mission by Guy Miege entitled Relation of three embassies, and Jean de Thevenot’s Travels . . . into the Levant. Useful adjuncts to these relations were present in the form of Edmund Bohun’s Geographical dictionary and Robert Morden’s Geography rectified.

Nicholson’s gift failed to supply much sustenance in the classics. Here could be noted copies of Sir Robert Stapylton’s translation of Pliny’s Panegyricke, Meric Casaubon’s translation of Marcus Aurelius Antonius’ Meditations, John Norris’ translation of Hierocles upon the golden verses of the Pythagoreans, and an abridgment of Caesar’s Commentaries, but not a single volume in the original tongue.

Nicholson, however, was conscious of Whitehall’s goals for its colonial appointees, for his books exhibited considerable strength in materials relating to trade and commerce. This brought to the library copies of Gerard de Malynes’ widely quoted Lex mercatoria, Lewis Roberts’ useful Merchants mappe of commerce, Sir Josiah Child’s important Discourse about trade, and Roger Coke’s England’s improvements. These volumes were backed up by copies of John Smith’s England’s improvement reviv’d, William Leybourn’s Panarithmologia, Thomas Mun’s England’s treasure by forraign trade, Thomas Houghton’s work on American and African gold and silver mining entitled Royal institutions, and the thirty-nine unspecified books and pamphlets on trade and commerce in general.

The books on gardening and husbandry that the library received from Nicholson may have been inappropriate to the college collection. In any event, the donation included copies of Jean de La Quintinie’s Compleat gard’ner, Evelyn’s famous Sylva and the separate edition of his Kalendarium Hortense, Leonard Meager’s English gardener, John Worlidge’s practical Systema agriculturae, John Pechey’s Compleat herbal, and Moses Cooke’s Manner of raising, ordering and improving forest-trees. Related to these, but perhaps of greater academic value, was a copy of Sir Thomas Pope Blount’s Natural history.

The rest of the books in the donation touched diverse subjects. Several courtesy books, books that a seventeenth-century Virginia gentleman’s library was sure to contain, were present. Among these were editions of Nicholas Cox’s Gentleman’s recreation, and Baltasar Gracian’s Courtier’s oracle. More welcome, perhaps, to the college shelves were Nicholson’s copies of Elisha Coles’s English dictionary, William Evats’ translation of Grotius’ Rights of war and peace, George Tully’s Discourse of the government of the thoughts, and Milton’s Letters of state.

The first disbursement of college funds on behalf of the library was made in 1697. Building accounts forwarded to England that year by Governor Sir Edmond Andros carried an entry dated February 27 for the disbursement of £32/11/10 for “books Mapps & papers as per Accot.”^[20] No other details regarding this sizable expenditure were supplied. The same accounts, however, carry another entry covering the purchase of “Bloomes History of the Bible,” that is, Nicholas Fontaine’s History of the Old Testament and History of the New Testament issued by the enterprising publisher, Richard Blome.^[21] The funds for this purchase, in the amount of £1/10/ —, were given by a friendly London merchant, Sir Jeffrey Jeffreys. The second major expenditure—to be sure, the only other major expenditure that can be dredged from the surviving records of the original library—was made possible with funds contributed by “Dr. Bray’s Associates.” A donation of £50 for the acquisition of library books was received from that philanthropic source prior to 1700.^[22] But again no records remain to show what was acquired. Contributions from the “Associates” might have become more frequent had not considerable coolness developed between Bray and the cantankerous Blair.^[23]

Donations of books from English friends of the college began to reach Williamsburg before the century ended. This was publicly noted in a 1699 May Day speech by one of the “scholars,” whose eloquence bore the imprint of Blair’s adroit coaching:

and here I must not omitt the generosity of the two famous Bishops of London & Sarum, who has broke the Ice to the other Bishops, in making a noble present of well chosen bookes to our Library, intending hereby to take care that our Youth be well seasoned with the best principles of Religion and Learning that can be taught by the most sound & Orthodox Divines.^[24]

The ice was broke indeed, but the tides of the “well chosen” books donated by Bishops Compton and Burnet were left to conjecture. Mungo Ingles asserted some years later that the resources of the original library had come mainly as gifts from the bishop of London. But this officious observation must be discounted inasmuch as it is set forth in a petition which the canny Scot addressed to Bishop Compton begging books on his own behalf.^[25] The natural patron of the library was the bishop of London. It lay within his ecclesiastical jurisdiction and, as a general rule, he alternated with the archbishop of Canterbury as its chancellor. Throughout the colonial period, moreover, the president of the college served as the bishop’s commissary or personal representative in Virginia.

The same “scholar” who praised Bishops Compton and Burnet for their generosity, optimistically added:

This example will be quickly followed by the present Lord Primate of England, a worthy successor to Dr. Tillotson, who continues to water this Nursery wch his predecessor took such pains to plant.^[26]

Dr. Tenison, the prelate in question, was not moved by this expression of confidence to emulate his spiritual associates. And had not Blair taken steps to correct any misapprehensions existing in his Grace’s mind, the “Nursery” might have waited in vain for nourishment from Lambeth. Blair reminded the archbishop of his derelictions, claiming: “I must continue to beg, that if it lies in your Grace’s way you will encourage our new City of Williamsburg, and help our College Library.”^[27]

The plea was shortly joined by a more positive supplication, dated May 29, 1700, in which Blair informed Tenison that

I must upon this occasion beg leave to put your Grace in mind of your good intentions to help our Library to some good books. We are of opinion that if application were made to the severall good authors in England, they would enrich it at least with a present of their own books. And the Governours of our College have desired me to signify this much to your Grace that if you will employ any young Scholar that you think fit to ask books for us, we will allow him 20 pound a year for his pains. I have enclosed a Catalogue of what Books we have at present that your Grace may the better judge what we want. If any books are procured, let them be sent to the house of Mr. Micajah Perry a Virginia merchant in Leaden hall Street over against the end of Billiter Lane, who will take care to send them to us, and will likewise pay the charges of packing &c., and the said 20 pound.^[28]

How far these enterprising efforts were rewarded cannot be fully ascertained. Yet the archbishop notified Nicholson in 1701 that “I have some books for Yor Library but have not sent them yet. . . . Nevertheless what is delayed is not designed not to be performed.”^[29] The catalogue mentioned in Blair’s letter, which would constitute an invaluable addition to the records of the first book collection formed by the college, has either been destroyed or misplaced.

In this respect, it can be noted that Thomas Hearne, antiquarian and Bodleian library keeper, recorded in his journal shortly after the first book collection at William and Mary was destroyed by fire that

letters from Virginia say that the College at Williamsburg, a most Stately Fabrik & one of the best in all America, & to wch the late King Wm had been a Benefactor, was on the 29th of October last [1705] utterly consum’d by fire wch by an unknown accident broke out in the very dead of the Night together with the Library, to wch divers persons bearing any Love to Learning had been Contributors, & in all probability would in some time have grown very famous.^[30]

This observation came from a professional librarian, familiar with the intricacies of his calling and well acquainted among the English literati of his day. His comments on the “divers persons” who contributed to the library would seem to indicate a knowledge of the aforementioned efforts to solicit books from “the severall good authors” in England.

Such diligence in seeking contributions for the library in England should not be construed as an indication that opportunities in Virginia were neglected. Some of the more active colonial promoters of the college possessed plantation libraries of considerable size and distinction. Three of the six private book collections analyzed by Louis B. Wright in his First gentlemen of Virginia were owned by members of the college board of visitors—Ralph Wormeley II, Robert (“King”) Carter, and William Byrd II. In the search for benefactors, these collectors would have been fair targets. The Philip Ludwells—the elder brother-in-law to James Blair and the younger soon to become a member of the board of visitors—may have donated books from the library at Green Spring, the Ludwell seat near Williamsburg. It is idle but intriguing to speculate on the works that could have come from such a source. The Green Spring collection was begun by Sir William Berkeley, a man of literary pretensions and the author of several dramatic pieces.^[31]

Even visitors passing through Virginia were approached in the campaign to secure books for the library. The only volume known to have survived the fire of 1705, a copy of Paolo Sarpi’s History of the Council of Trent, was the gift of an English sea captain who occasionally made the Virginian voyage. This volume, recovered by the college in 1947, carries an inscription stating that it was “The Gift of Captain Nicholas Humfrys, Commander of the Ship Hartwell to Wm & Mary College, Anno 1703/4.”^[32]

But the college remained little more than a grammar school for nearly two decades fallowing its establishment. The actual need for library resources was therefore not acutely felt until early in the eighteenth century. This may explain a failure to uncover any rules governing the administration and use of the original collections. Comments by Hugh Jones in 1724 indicate quite clearly that use of the library was restricted to the college masters.^[33] Such a policy would have been in accord with contemporary practice at other collegiate establishments.^[34] There is nothing to indicate, though, that any of the books at William and Mary were chained to their cases, despite the fact that English colleges retained the practice until the end of the eighteenth century.^[35] The University of Edinburgh, on the other hand, got rid of its chains before 1688,^[36] and chains were never used on the library books at William and Mary’s colonial counterpart, Harvard in New England.^[37]

Hugh Jones’s comments also reveal that one of the grammar school ushers was usually charged with the custody of the library “in order to make his Place more agreeable to his merit.”^[38] As the college was without an usher until 1699, either Blair himself or Mungo Ingles may have filled the post during the interim. This could account in part for the lamentations of the latter, who, in referring to ushers, complained that the first “Dyed at Cowes & he that was to succeed him Marryed a Wife . . . & could not come.”^[39] William Robertson, who became clerk of the college at the turn of the century, signed a receipt on at least one occasion for books given to the collection.^[40] This might mean that his predecessor in the clerkship, Francis Clements, rather than Blair or Ingles, served as first keeper of the library. In fact, if Blair assigned the responsibility to Clements, he could well have pointed out a precedent at Edinburgh, where the secretary of the university was charged with the same duties.^[41]

The furnishings of the library room probably consisted of wooden presses or cupboards arranged flat against the walls, plus necessary tables and stools. Just how the books were arranged on the shelves will perhaps remain a mystery. In this respect, it might be noted that the second Bodleian catalogue, published in 1620, recommended that library books be arranged according to size: folio, quarto, octavo, and so on.^[42] Perhaps the library keeper at William and Mary followed this advice. The printed Harvard catalogue of 1723 certainly demonstrates that the Massachusetts authorities were guided by the Bodleian precepts.^[43] The original book collection at William and Mary was not large enough to have presented any problems in classification, so press and shelf marks probably were not used.

Because of the lack of evidence, the nature of these resources, roughly estimated at fewer than one thousand volumes, cannot be properly evaluated. It would be unjustified to surmise that the traits of the Nicholson donation characterized the other components of the collection. That would overlook the Compton and Burnet gifts of “well chosen Bookes,” the Tenison and Dr. Bray’s Associates contributions, the books actually purchased with college funds, and gifts doubtless received but not recorded in lasting fashion. It is hardly to be expected that in point of size the collection compared very favorably with the older and by then well-established library at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yet Professor Morison’s evaluation of the seventeenth-century Harvard collection as “lots of theology and a little of everything else” could also doubtless be applied to the first collection at the College of William and Mary.^[44]

All the high hopes and good intentions embodied in the library were dashed to the ground on October 29, 1705. About eleven o’clock that evening William Eddings, Blair’s overseer, who was chasing some stray horses out of a nearby cornfield, discovered that the college building was on fire.^[45] The flames spread rapidly and by dawn the building was a gutted ruin.^[46] It does not appear likely that any of the books in the library were saved. Several students—including an inevitable scion of the Randolph clan—were hard pressed even to save themselves.^[47] If books were salvaged, subsequent fires in 1859 and 1862 obliterated the traces that remained in the possession of the college. The opportunity for pillage was doubtless inviting, so it might be expected that the eye of some unscrupulous bibliophile could well have alighted on a desirable piece. But the previously mentioned copy of Sarpi’s History of the Council of Trent is the only volume that has turned up to support this possibility.

The loss of books and papers was not confined to the contents of the library room. Benjamin Harrison, Jr., who was residing in the building at the time—or, according to Mungo Ingles, “for his greater Grandeur must needs keep his Court in the Colledge”—lost all of the materials he had collected for a projected history of Virginia.^[48] Ingles himself suffered the loss of his ” study full of books,” which, he declared, cost him “many a deep sigh.”^[49] These sighs were wafted to Bishop Compton in 1707 when Ingles complained that

I can not enough lament the loss of my books, 18 boxes or shelves crambed as full as could hold, ’tis very much contrary to my Nature to turn beggar, yet willingly be obliged to his Grace my Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and any of your friends for a small but choice collection of books of Divinity.^[50]

One intrepid soul, a Mr. Reedwood, attempted to save a “Genll. Map of the World,” presented by Colonel Nicholson, that was hanging in the grammar school room but “durst not for the flame that came pouring in from the south end.”^[51] The same individual then dashed “out of the School, and saved the Douk of Milan [an otherwise unidentified portrait] that hung next to the dore that opens into the Piazza.”^[52]

Despite contemporary rumors, there appears to be no reason for believing the fire was other than accidental. Several previous fires, all extinguished in time to avert disaster, were definitely attributed to faulty construction. On this fatal occasion a spark from one of the chimneys found lodgment on the wooden shingles of the roof and from there spread over the entire building. “When I first heard of its being burnt,” exclaimed Mungo Ingles, “I had so much charity for all mankind, that I was of opinion that none under a Fury let loose from Hell could be capable of so much Mischief.”^[53] A less spiritual Virginia General Assembly immediately instituted proceedings to inquire into the calamity, thereby provoking much lively testimony but few definite conclusions.^[54]

Several responsible witnesses testified that the fire broke out in the south end of the building and endeavored to imply that it originated in President Blair’s chamber chimney. Others argued that the conflagration was the work of three men, ominously “clothed like Gentlemen,” who were seen running from the building and across New Kent road shortly after the fire was discovered. In referring to this possibility, an ever-articulate Mungo Ingles offered up the pious hope that “if there be such devils out of Hell, God Almighty will bring their work of darkness to light.”^[55]