Bruton Parish church, upon the removal of the seat of government from Jamestown to Williamsburg in 1699. succeeded to the prestige which pertained to the church of the Capital of the Colony. From this time there grew about the church an environment of ever-increasing interest, and about it gathered an atmosphere which with the passing years has caught and reflects the light of other days.
The county road which ran by the church yard, marking the inward and outward march of English civilization, now rose to the dignity of the Duke of Gloucester Street. The newly-designed yard and gardens of the Governor's palace swept down along the east wall of the church. In spacious yards adjacent rose the stately houses of the Virginia gentry who had resorted to the capital. Near by towered the wall of the College of William and Mary, and the halls of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and facing each other on the open green stood the Court of Justice and the octagon Powder Horn. The church had become the Court church of Colonial Virginia. His Excellency the Governor, attended by his Council of State and surrounded by the members of the House of Burgesses, gave to the church an official distinction and a position of unique importance.
The Church of 1710-15
The old brick building of 1674 soon became inadequate to the needs of the situation, and in 1710, during the rectorship of the Reverend Commissary James Blair, D. D., it was determined that a new church should be built. Plans were furnished by Governor Alex. Spotswood, who proposed that the vestry should build the two ends of the church and promised that the government "would take care of the wings and intervening part." The House of Burgesses, in addition, was pleased to state that they "would appropriate a Sufficient Sum of Money for the building of pews for the Governor, Council and the House of Burgesses," and appointed Mr. John Hollo-
