WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE
2088
WILLIAMS
of his. William III of England was a grandson of William the Silent. Consult Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic and Harrison's William the Silent. See HOLLAND, PHILIP II and SPAIN.
William and Mary College, second in age only to Harvard among American colleges, was chartered in 1693 and is at Williamsburg, Va. It started with an endowment of lands and funds, was the richest college in America in 1775, but lost the bulk of the endowment after 1775 and closed in 1781. The college was reorganized after the Revolution, Virginia granting land to it and Washington serving as chancellor during 1788-9. Until 1819 the college was the surveyor, first of the colony, then for the state, and among the surveyors it appointed were Washington and Jefferson. In 1776 Phi Beta Kappa was founded by Jefferson at William and Mary; in 1779 the elective system was partly introduced, the first in the United States; and William and Mary also was the first college to introduce the honor-system among students. The college has always included history and political science among its studies, being the first in America to found chairs of law and history. Among its graduates were Chief-Just ice Marshall, Edmund Randolph, General Winfield Scott and Presidents W. H. Harrison, Jefferson, Monroe and Tyler, the last becoming chancellor. During 1862-8 the college was closed, as also during 1882-7. In 1869 the college reopened, and again in 1888. The courses of study consist of the collegiate and the normal course. The first is an elective course that groups the elective studies. The second is two years long, but Whaley School adds a year of practical work to the normal course. The state annually appropriates $25,000 to the college. In 1907 the faculty numbered 25, the students 235, the library 15,000 volumes. The college is undenominational.
Will'iams, Sir George, founder of the Y. M. C. A., was born at Dulverton, Somerset, England, on Oct. n, 1821; and was converted at Bridgewater in 1837. In 1841 he became an assistant in a dry-goods firm in London, where he was struck with the neglected condition of the young men. In 1843 he induced some of the employees to hold prayer-meetings at regular intervals, and in June, 1844, Williams and eleven other persons formed themselves into a society under the name of the Young Men's Christian Association (q. v.), "a society for improving the spiritual conditions of young men engaged in the drapery and other trades." This society spread rapidly; in 1851 associations were formed in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Montreal. From 1863 to 1885 he was treasurer of the organization; he then became president. He also became head of the firm of Hitchcock,
Williams and Company, and in 1894 was knighted. He died on Nov. 6, 1905. f Williams, John, a noted English missionary, was born at Tottenham, near London, June 29, 1796. He was trained as an iron-monger, but in 1816 went as a missionary to the South Sea islands. After learning the native language by a short stay at Eimeo in the (Society Islands, he made his headquarters at Raiatea. His success as a missionary here and elsewhere was remarkable. The people rapidly became Christians, and adopted many civilized habits. Williams traveled unceasingly among the various islands, planting stations and settling native missionaries, whom he himself had^ trained. From the Society Islands he visited the Hervey group, where he discovered the island of Raratonga. Most of the people of the group were converted in a remarkably short time, and Williams' influence over them was very great. At their request he drew up a code of laws for their government. At Raratonga he built himself a ship with the help of the natives, and with this he made voyages to Samoa and other islands. In 1834 Williams came back to England, and printed his translation of the New Testament into Raratongan. Four years afterwards he went back to the Pacific, and while visiting Erromango, one of the New Hebrides, was murdered by the natives on Nov. 20, 1839. Consult Ebenezer Prout's Memoir of John Williams.
Williams, Roger, born in Wales probably in 1607, was one of the founders of Rhode Island. In early life he left his home and went to London. Here his skill as a reporter gained him the patronage of Sir Edward Coke, who sent him to the famous Charterhouse School and then to one of the universities. He next studied law, but, changing his mind, became a clergyman. On account of his Puritan beliefs he left England and reached Massachusetts Bay in 1631. He preached for some years at Plymouth and at Salem. Chiefly on account of his strongly expressed opinion that the government should have no control of religious matters, he was exiled from the Massachusetts colony at Boston. In January of 1636 he left with a few followers for Narragansett Bay. At first the band settled on the site of Seekonk, Mass. But in June Williams and five others embarked in a canoe for Rhode Island and founded a settlement, to which Williams, in remembrance "of God's providence to him in his distress," gave the name of Providence. He went to England in 1643 and next year obtained a charter for the colony, of which he was made deputy president in 1649. In 1651 he made a second voyage to England in behalf of the settlers and spent three years there, during which he enjoyed the friendship of Milton, Cromwell atad
