College of William and Mary

On 5 March 1906 the General Assembly passed an act transferring all the property belonging to the College of William and Mary to the state, thereby making it a state institution.

The College of William and Mary is the second-oldest college within the present limits of the United States. The Reverend James Blair was largely responsible for its founding and was also its first president. In 1691 the General Assembly instructed Blair to travel to England with a petition requesting a charter for the college in order that "the youth may be piously educated in good letters and manners, and that the Christian faith may be propagated among the Western Indians." On 8 February 1693, King William III and Queen Mary II granted a royal charter to establish a college that would bear their names. Blair not only was successful in obtaining the charter, but he also secured funding and land. Tradition has it that Sir Christopher Wren, the noted architect and royal surveyor-general, designed, or approved the design of, the college's main building.

When the capital moved from Williamsburg to Richmond in 1780, the former city went into a slow decline. The college was also affected, and by 1881 only twelve students were enrolled. Between 1882 and 1888, William and Mary was forced to close its doors for lack of funds. Despite many difficulties, the college reopened and flourished under its president, Lyon G. Tyler, son of President John Tyler.

Among its early distinguished alumni are Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Marshall, and John Tyler. William and Mary can also lay claim to be the birthplace of a number of achievements: the first college to offer professional training in the law; the first to organize the inter-collegiate fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa; and the first coeducational state college established in Virginia. It includes under its jurisdiction Richard Bland College, in Petersburg; the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, at Gloucester Point; and Ash Lawn-Highland, in Albemarle County.