Special Collections Research Center
spcoll@wm.eduChristina R. Luers, CA, Inventory and item list completed by Karen King, SCRC Staff Assistant.
Administrative Information
Conditions Governing Use
Before reproducing or quoting from any materials, in whole or in part, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.
Preferred Citation:
William Cole Collection of Virginia Governor Documents, 1676-1971, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William and Mary.
Accruals
Acc. 2019.013 was added to the collection in 2019. Additional accruals are anticipated.
Content Description
Documents, prints, and heraldry pertaining to Virginia governors from the 17th and 18th centuries. Includes letters and documents signed by John Murray, Robert Brooke, James Wood, Beverly Randolph, Patrick Henry, Edmund Andros, Jeffrey Amherst, Norborne Berkeley, Robert Hunter, Francis Fauquier, Earl De La Warr, James Blair, and Robert Dinwiddie among others. Also included in the collection are prints, coats of arms, and commemorative coins.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
- Cole, William W.
- College of William and Mary--History
- Virginia--Governors
- Virginia--History--17th century
- Virginia--History--18th century
Significant Persons Associated With the Collection
- Amherst, Jeffery Amherst, Baron, 1717-1797
- Andros, Edmund, Sir, 1637-1714
- Blair, James, 1741-1772
- Botetourt, Norborne Berkeley, Baron de, ca. 1718-1770
- Brooke, Robert
- Cole, William W.
- Dinwiddie, Robert, 1693-1770
- Dunmore, John Murray, 4th Earl of, 1732-1809
- Dunmore, John Murray, Earl of, 1732-1809
- Fauquier, Francis
- Gibson, Edmund, Bp. of London, 1669-1748
- Henry, Patrick, 1736-1799
- Hunter, Robert
- Lee, Henry, 1756-1818
- Loudoun, John Campbell, Earl of, 1705-1782
- Randolph, Beverley, 1754-1797
- Wood, James, 1741-1813
- Wormeley, Ralph, 1744-1806
Significant Places Associated With the Collection
- Virginia--Governors
- Virginia--History--17th century
- Virginia--History--18th century
Container List
Display of Arms for Thomas West, Baron Delawarr La Warr, Governor under the Virginia Company of London. Motto: "Jour de ma Vif".
Full title: "Give under my hand in New York this 25th day of Sept.r 1676 to ye Constable and Overseers of Jamaica, E Andros".
Edmund Andros was the Ggovernor under the Crown, 1692-1698.
Robert Hunter was Governor of Virginia under the Crown, 1707-1709. He never served in the colony.
Colonial Virginia document.
Jeffrey Amherst born in Kent, England January 29, 1717-August 3, 1797. He was Governor of Virginia under the Crown, 1759-1768; he never went to Virginia and was represented by deputies.
Letter regarding shipping matters from Jeffrey Amherst, New York, to Boston merchant Thomas Hancock.
John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore (1732-1809), was the Colonial Governor of New York (1770-1771), and Virginia (1771-1776). He dissolved the Virginia House of Burgesses; precipitated colonial uprising by seizing powder store (April 1775); and was defeated by colonists at Great Bridge (January 1, 1776).
John Murray offers himself as a representative of the Peers of Scotland in Parliament and desires the Lordship's vote in the upcoming election. The recipient in unknown.
Copper plate engraving.
Conserved with funds from the Jamestowne Society.
Receipt for Beverly Randolph, Esq., for fifty pounds as a fee for himself, his brother Robert, and his ward Peter Randolph in their suit in the high Court of Chancery against the execution of their father. Signed by Edmund Randolph (Governor of the Commonwealth, 1786-1788).
Petition brought by Isaac Wood against James Gray of the state of South Carolina for James Gray refusing to pay Wood "two likely Negroes or one houndred and fifty pounds Sterling". The petition is directed to the Honorable George Walton Esquire, Chief Justice of the Said State, and the Assistant Justices of the County of Richmond.
Patrick Henry was, Governor of the Commonwealth, 1788-1791.
Full title: "The Answer of Thomas Lawson to the bill of complaint of Ralph Wormely Junior, Mann Page, Francis Lightfoot Lee, and Warner Lewis, surviving acting executors of John Tayloe, deceased". The document discusses Thomas Lawson's involvement in Tayloe's ironworks business in the county of Prince William.
Henry Lee was Governor of the Commonwealth, 1791-1794.
The folder includes three prints of Eyre Coote: two prints published in 1810 and 1815 and a "Builders of the Empire" card branded by Wills's Cigarettes.
George Loyall, May 29, 1789-February 24, 1868, graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1808. Loyall was a member of the House of Delegates from the Borough of Norfolk, 1817-1827. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1829. George Loyall was a member of Congress, 1831-1837. He was Navy agent of Norfolk from 1837-1861. Loyall resigned his position on April 17, 1861 because of his southern sympathies. His first wife Rebecca Tyler died in 1812 and his second wife Margaret Kelly died in 1855.
Robert Dinwiddie, (born 1693, died July 27, 1770), British, served as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, 1751-1758 under Governor Willem Anne van Keppel, and later as deputy, July 1756-January 1758, for John Campbell, Early of Loudon.
41st Congress, 3d Session, House of Representatives, Report No. 53. William and Mary College, Virginia, March 3, 1871. "Mr. Arnell, from the Committee on Education and Labor, made the following report..."
Full title: Southern War Claims. Speeches of Hon. Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, and Hon. Martin I. Townsend, of New York, on Bill to pay William and Mary College, of Virginia, the Sum of $65,000 for Injuries Received during the Rebellion. Delivered in the House of Representatives April 12, 1878.
Written by Lyon G. Tyler, M. A. LL. D., President of the College of William and Mary.
Commemorative coins for George Wythe, Benjamin Harrison, and Henry Lee.
The print includes a Latin inscription.
One pages with etchings was removed from the book "William and Mary College". The other page is from an unidentified source.
Copper engraving of Abraham Nicholas, 18th Century Mayor of Williamsburg, Va. by George Bickham, 1722 and a copper plate folio page engraving from A Display of Heraldry by John Guillim. This was the heraldry of Lord De Lar Warr and other British Barons dated 1679.
These two items were added to the collection in 2019.
Print of the Right Reverend D. Thomas Sherlock, Lord Bishop of London, Dean of the Chapels Royal, and one of the lords of His Majestys, Most Honourable Privy Council, Vanloo pinx, 1740/S. Ravenet Sculp 1756;
Torn from book, p. 214. vol. 4;
Print, TWills Pinx/J. McArdell Fecit.
"Sold by J. McArdell at the Golden Head next Southampton Street, Covent Garden, Price 2."
Latin inscription, M Beale Pinx, P Vandrebane sculp
Latin inscription on print, "Honoratissimus Dom. us ac Reverend us admodu in Christo pater D. Henricus Comptonus"
D. Loggan and Vivum, delin. et Sculp: 1679
Lithograph of "Vive La Republique, An Offering from the United States to the National Republic of France, 1776-1848" composed for the piano forte by Herrman S. Saroni.
Two bookplates, for John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun and Royal Governor of Virginia from 1756-1759, and for Ralph Wormeley, Rector of William & Mary and translator of the university charter
Print of Gibson, published in 1820 by T&H Rodd from a 1737 engraving by "Vandrebanc Pinx"