ar the church. The college was endowed by the crown with
twenty thousand acres of land in Pamunkey Neck, and on the south side of
Blackwater Swamp; the patronage of the office of surveyor-general;
together with the revenue arising from a duty of one penny a pound on
all tobacco exported from Virginia and Maryland to the other
plantations, the nett proceeds being two hundred pounds. The college
was also allowed to return a burgess to the assembly. The assembly
afterwards added to the revenue a duty on skins and furs.[347:A] Dr.
Blair was the first president of the college, being appointed under the
charter to hold the office for life. The plan of the building was the
composition of Sir Christopher Wren. The objects proposed by the
establishment of the college were declared to be the furnishing of a
seminary for the ministers of the gospel, and that the youth may be
piously educated in good letters and manners, and that the Christian
faith should be propagated among the Western Indians.[347:B] In addition
to the five professorships of Greek and Latin, the mathematics, moral
philosophy, and two of divinity provided for by the charter, a sixth,
called the Brafferton, from an estate in England which secured the
endowment, had been annexed by the celebrated Robert Boyle, for the
instruction and conversion of the Indians.

The trustees met with many difficulties in their undertaking during the
administration of Governor Andros, and were involved in a troublesome
controversy concerning the lands appropriated to the institution, with
Secretary Wormley, the most influential man in the colony, next to the
governor.

In January, 1692, died John Page, of Rosewell, of the king's council in
the colony, aged sixty--a learned and pious man; first of the name in
Virginia, and father of the Honorable Colonel Matthew Page, who was also
of the council. A religious work, entitled "A Deed of Gift for my Son,"
by this John Page, has been published.

During the same year Governor Nicholson was succeeded by Sir Edmund
Andros, whose high-handed course had rendered him so odious to the
people of New England that they had lately imprisoned him. He was,
nevertheless, kindly received by the Virginians, whose solicitations to
King William for warlike stores he had promoted. He soon gave offence by
ordering ships to cruise against vessels engaged in contraband trade. In
the year 1693 an act was passed for the organizing of a post-office
establishmen