Williamsburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula, Williamsburg is in the northern part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. It is bordered by James City County on the west and south and York County on the east.
The House of Burgesses was the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly from 1619 to 1776. It existed during the colonial history of the United States when Virginia was a British colony. From 1642 to 1776, the House of Burgesses was an important feature of Virginian politics alongside the Crown-appointed colonial governor and the Virginia Governor's Council, the upper house of the General Assembly.
Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia. Its 301-acre (122 ha) historic area includes several hundred restored or recreated buildings from the 18th century, when the city was the capital of the Colony of Virginia; 17th-century, 19th-century, and Colonial Revival structures; and more recent reconstructions. The historic area includes three main thoroughfares and their connecting side streets that attempt to suggest the atmosphere and the circumstances of 18th-century Americans. Costumed employees work and dress as people did in the era, sometimes using colonial grammar and diction.
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30, 1619.
Middle Plantation in the Virginia Colony was the unincorporated town established in 1632 that became Williamsburg in 1699. It was located on high ground about halfway across the Virginia Peninsula between the James River and York River. Middle Plantation represented the first major inland settlement for the colony. It was established by an Act of Assembly to provide a link between Jamestown and Chiskiack, a settlement located across the Peninsula on the York River.
William Archer Rutherfoord "W. A. R." Goodwin was an Episcopal priest, historian, and author. As the rector of Bruton Parish Church, Goodwin began the 20th-century preservation and restoration effort which resulted in Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. He is thus sometimes called "the Father of the Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg."
Bruton Parish Church is located in the restored area of Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. It was established in 1674 by the consolidation of two previous parishes in the Virginia Colony, and remains an active Episcopal parish. The building, constructed 1711–15, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 as a well-preserved early example of colonial religious architecture.
The Virginia State Capitol is the seat of state government of the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in Richmond, the state capital. It houses the oldest elected legislative body in North America, the Virginia General Assembly, first established as the House of Burgesses in 1619.
The Wren Building is the oldest building on the campus of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Along with the Brafferton and President's House, these buildings form the College's "Ancient Campus." With a construction history dating to 1695, it is the oldest academic building still standing in the United States and among the oldest buildings in Virginia. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.
The Governor's Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia, was the official residence of the royal governors of the Colony of Virginia. It was also a home for two of Virginia's post-colonial governors, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, until the capital was moved to Richmond in 1780, and with it the governor's residence. The main house burned down in 1781, though the outbuildings survived for some time after.
James Blair was a Scottish-born clergyman in the Church of England. He was also a missionary and an educator, best known as the founder of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The Raleigh Tavern was a tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, and was one of the largest taverns in colonial Virginia. It gained some fame in the pre-American Revolutionary War Colony of Virginia as a gathering place for legislators after several Royal Governors officially dissolved the House of Burgesses, the elected legislative body, when their actions did not suit the Crown. It was also the site of the founding of the Phi Beta Kappa Society on December 5, 1776.
The history of Williamsburg, Virginia dates to the 17th Century. First named Middle Plantation, it changed its name to Williamsburg in 1699.
The history of the College of William & Mary can be traced back to a 1693 royal charter establishing "a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and the good arts and sciences" in the British Colony of Virginia. It fulfilled an early colonial vision dating back to 1618 to construct a university level program modeled after Cambridge and Oxford at Henricus. A plaque on the Wren Building, the college's first structure, ascribes the institution's origin to "the college proposed at Henrico." It was named for the reigning joint monarchs of Great Britain, King William III and Queen Mary II. The selection of the new college's location on high ground at the center ridge of the Virginia Peninsula at the tiny community of Middle Plantation is credited to its first President, Reverend Dr. James Blair, who was also the Commissary of the Bishop of London in Virginia. A few years later, the favorable location and resources of the new school helped Dr. Blair and a committee of 5 students influence the House of Burgesses and Governor Francis Nicholson to move the capital there from Jamestown. The following year, 1699, the town was renamed Williamsburg.
The history of Virginia in the American Revolution begins with the role the Colony of Virginia played in early dissent against the British government and culminates with the defeat of General Cornwallis by the allied forces at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, an event that signaled the effective military end to the conflict. Numerous Virginians played key roles in the Revolution, including George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson.
Christiana Burdett Campbell was a colonial innkeeper from Williamsburg, Virginia. She started the business herself in an era where it was unusual for women to do so in the colony. A replica of her tavern was built in Colonial Williamsburg and currently serves as a popular tourist attraction and restaurant.
John Blair was a merchant and politician of the colony of Virginia. He served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. As a member of the House of Burgesses, he initially represented Jamestown then Williamsburg, before being appointed to the Governor's Council. There he served for more than 25 years, including four times becoming acting governor during changes of the royal governors and while governor Francis Fauquier was in the New York and Georgia colonies. Nonetheless, this John Blair, the earliest of the four men of the name serving in the Virginia General Assembly, may be best known either as the nephew and heir of Rev. James Blair or father of John Blair, Jr..
The President's House is the residence of the President of the College of William and Mary in Virginia in Williamsburg, Virginia. Constructed in 1732, the building still serves its original purpose and is among the oldest buildings in Virginia. Since its construction only one of the college's presidents, Robert Saunders Jr., has not moved into the building, which is let for free to the president. The President's House is William & Mary's third-oldest building and the oldest official college presidential residence in the United States.
The Bodleian Plate is a copperplate depicting several colonial buildings of 18th-century Williamsburg, Virginia, as well as several types of native flora, fauna, and American Indians. Following its 1929 rediscovery in the archives of the Bodleian Library, it was used extensively in John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s reconstruction of Colonial Williamsburg. The plate has been tied to Williamsburg resident William Byrd II and may have been produced by English illustrator Eleazar Albin and engraver John Carwitham. It is dated to the 1730s.
The College of William & Mary has maintained a campus in what is now Williamsburg, Virginia, since 1693. The cornerstone of the Wren Building, then known as the College Building and the oldest surviving academic building in the United States, was laid in 1695. The college's 18th-century campus includes the College Building, the President's House, and Brafferton–all of which were constructed using slave labor. These buildings were altered and damaged during the succeeding centuries before receiving significant restorations by the Colonial Williamsburg program during the 1920s and 1930s.
