Shortly after the College began to function, a fire at Jamestown
destroyed the government building. As that location was quite malarial,
it was deemed best to establish a new capital on higher ground and it
was decided to locate it near the College at Middle Plantation.
Legislation was enacted setting off for such purpose approximately what
is now known as The Restoration Area, together with approaches through
Capitol Landing Road from Queen Mary’s Port on Queen’s Creek and through
South Henry Street from Princess Anne Port on Archer’s Hope Creek. Since
the receipt of the College charter in 1693, Queen Mary had died, leaving
William III to reign alone; so the newly planned city was called
Williamsburg.
This, the second planned city in America, was laid out in 1699 with the
main street named for Princess Anne’s son, Duke of Gloucester Street.
The center line of the street was laid out from the middle of the
doorway of the Wren Building in an easterly direction so far as to make
the whole length of the street exactly three-fourths of a mile long. The
street’s width was fixed at six poles (99 feet) and all buildings were
to be kept back six feet from the street. Governor Nicholson named two
of the streets for himself: Francis and Nicholson. Other streets had
such significant names as England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Nassau,
Prince George and York. Williamsburg being on the crest of the York and
James watersheds, there were many brooks or dry ravines crossing all the
east-west streets. For years Duke of Gloucester Street spanned these
ravines on bridges.
[Illustration: THE RALEIGH TAVERN]
The first public building to be erected after the laying out of the city
was, naturally, The Capitol. This was located on the easterly extension
of the center line of Duke of Gloucester Street, thus balancing the Wren
Building on the west. Until the completion of the Capitol, the General
Assembly held its meetings in the Blue Room of the Wren Building. After
the completion of the Capitol it became for three-quarters of a century,
the center of public activity in the Virginia Colony, the
training-school of democracy, the place where Americans contended
against autocracy. Here Patrick Henry made his famous “Caesar-Brutus”
speech; here George Washington received the thanks of the Colony; here
Thomas Jefferson secured religious freedom for his State; here George
Mason presented the first Bill of Rights. The rooms in this building are
indeed hallowed for every lover of liberty!
[Illustration: BLAND-WETHERBURN TAVERN]
Repeatedly, when the Royal Governor felt obliged to prorogue the
Assembly for impertinence to the King, the entire membership withdrew to
The Raleigh Tavern where rump sessions were held. In such gatherings,
and in frequent less formal meetings at this famous tavern, many
important decisions were reached in the growing contest between the
Crown and its colonial subjects. This tavern appears to have been the
most important informal social center in Virginia in the later years of
the 18th century. In the earlier years of that century, certainly as
early as 1709, this service was performed by the Bland-Wetherburn
Tavern, directly across the street. This is the third oldest building
now standing in Williamsburg. It was probably built by Richard Bland,
Sr., about the year 1700 and was a meeting place for leading citizens
after the completion of the Capitol. At various times the famous host,
Henry Wetherburn, ran this hostelry and the Raleigh, opposite.
As Solomon did not build a house for himself until he had completed the
Temple, so the colonial Virginians finished the building of the Capitol
before beginning, in 1706, a residence for the Royal Governor. Like most
great houses of the period, The Governor’s Palace was not built all at
once. In 1706, £3,000 was appropriated for the erection of a “house” for
the Governor. What with additions and furnishings, by 1718 it had become
a “palace” and the House of Burgesses was complaining of the high-handed
manner in which the Governor was “lavishing away the country’s money
contrary to the intent of the law.” As in the case of many another
public building, the extravagance of construction cost was forgotten by
later generations in their pride in the product. A traveled Englishman
considered this the finest building in America and exceeded by few in
England, an opinion which has never required revision. From its
completion, it was occupied by all the Royal Governors down to the
Revolutionary War; and then by two Governors of the Commonwealth,
Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. After the removal of the Capital to
Richmond in 1779, the Palace was used by the army as a hospital.
[Illustration: THE GOVERNOR’S PALACE]
After providing a residence for the Governor, the next public building
erected by order of the Assembly was a Public Magazine, familiarly
called The Powder Horn. From 1714 to 1775 this octagonal brick structure
was used for the storage of ammunition; and for reasons of safety it was
placed in an open square. This building saw the beginning of the
Revolutionary War, so far as Virginia was concerned. On the 20th of
April, 1775, just one day after the Battle of Lexington, in
Massachusetts, Governor Dunmore removed the powder so that it might not
fall into the hands of the populace. Thereupon, Patrick Henry brought
troops toward Williamsburg and secured the payment of £330 from the
King’s Receiver General, with which substitute powder was purchased. The
Governor withdrew to the comparative safety of a British warship and
thus ended forever foreign dominance in Williamsburg.
[Illustration: THE POWDER HORN]
While the Public Magazine was under construction the Colony and the
Parish were proceeding with the erection of a fine new building to take
the place of the antiquated structure of The Bruton Parish Church. The
then-existing building, whose foundations are still in place under the
sod of the churchyard, was adequate only for a small rural community.
With the influx of large numbers of people for court seasons and with
the necessity for dignity, if not grandeur, in the edifice of the
Established Church of the Colonial Capital, the Governor, the Assembly
and the Parish united in building a church which, from its completion in
1715 to the present time, has been one of the prides of Virginia,
whether Colony or Commonwealth.
[Illustration: BRUTON PARISH CHURCH]
It will probably be impossible for one to understand the helpful
leadership of this church in the ecclesiastical life of Virginia without
an appreciation of the great difficulty experienced in securing
high-grade, or even fairly respectable, clergy in the country districts.
In all church affairs Virginia was directly under the control of the
Bishop of London. It is evident from the records that great pressure
must have been exerted on him to send to Virginia the ne’er-do-well
younger sons of British aristocrats or any other low-grade men who had
been trained for the church as for any other occupation and who had at
all costs to be got out of England. Governor Gooch, one of the best
Royal Governors Virginia ever had, was active throughout his long and
happy administration in raising the ministerial standards; it is
impossible to read his letters to the Bishop of London without having
the greatest sympathy for him in his Augean labors. Through all this sad
experience, with the exception of the reported indictment of Dr. Dawson
for drunkenness in 1760, Bruton Parish seems to have been blessed with
such leadership as helped much to raise the whole colonial standard.
[Illustration: THE TRAVIS HOUSE]
It is somewhat difficult in this generation to realize the unity of
church with state in Colonial Virginia when the legislature might order
sermons on special subjects. A most notable case was the setting apart
by the Assembly of June 1, 1774, the day when the British were forcibly
to close the Port of Boston, as a day of fasting and prayer. The
enactment closed with these words: “Ordered, that the members of this
house do attend in their Places, at the Hour of ten in the Forenoon, on
the said first Day of June next, in order to proceed with the Speaker,
and the Mace, to the Church in this City, for the Purposes aforesaid;
and that the Reverend Mr. Price be appointed to read Prayers, and the
Reverend Mr. Gwatkin, to preach a Sermon, suitable to the Occasion.”
[Illustration: GALT HOUSE]