affected, style of the moderate divines of the time. They have gone through many editions. Johnson seems to have had a warm esteem for Blair, who had been introduced to him shortly before Boswell's first introduction in 1763, and had been told by the doctor that ‘many men, many women, and many children’ could have written Ossian (Boswell's Johnson,, 24 May 1763). Blair omitted from his published lectures a passage in which he had censured Johnson's pomposity (Boswell, 1777). Blair is described by Hill and A. Carlyle as very amiable, ready to read manuscripts of young authors, full of harmless vanity and simplicity, and rather finical in his dress and manners. He had considerable influence in the church, and was reckoned as one of the leading men amongst the ‘moderate’ divines. But his diffidence disqualified him from public speaking, and he declined to become moderator of the general assembly. He married his cousin, Katharine Bannatyne, in April 1748, who died long before him. He had a son who died in infancy, and a daughter who died at the age of twenty-one. He preached his last sermon before the Society for the Benefit of the Sons of the Clergy in the seventy-ninth year of his age (1797). He died, after an illness of three days, on 27 Dec. 1800. Besides the writings above mentioned, Blair contributed to the short-lived ‘Edinburgh Review’ of 1755 a review of Hutcheson's ‘Moral Philosophy,’ and of Dodsley's collection of poems. His early system of notes led to the ‘Chronological Tables’ published by his relative, John Blair. A collection of the ‘sentimental beauties’ in his writings was published in 1809, with a life by W. H. Reed.
[Life by Finlayson; Life by John Hill, 1807; Burton's Life of Hume; A. Carlyle's Autobiography, pp. 291–4; Tytler's Life of Kames.]
BLAIR, JAMES, D.D. (1656–1743), episcopalian divine, was born in Scotland (it is believed in Edinburgh) in 1656. He was educated in ‘one of the Scottish universities,’ but none of the notices of him specifies which it was. He obtained a benefice in the revived episcopal church in Scotland, but where does not appear. He retreated to England before the tempest which threatened the episcopal church after 1679. There, having been introduced to Dr. Compton, bishop of London, he was sent as a missionary to Virginia, where he arrived in 1685. He soon secured the confidence of the provincial government and of the planters, and proved himself far in advance of his contemporaries on the question of slavery. In 1689, when Sir Francis Nicholson was appointed lieutenant-governor of Virginia, Blair was appointed commissary, the highest ecclesiastical office in the province. By this office he had a seat in the council of the colonial government, presided over the trials of clergymen—a strangely mixed class at the period—and pronounced sentence upon conviction of ‘crimes or misdemeanours.’
Being ‘deeply affected with the low state of both learning and religion’ in Virginia, he endeavoured to establish a college, and set on foot a subscription with this object, which, being headed by the lieutenant-governor and his council, soon amounted to 2,500l. The project was warmly supported in the first assembly held by Sir Francis Nicholson in 1691, and was recommended to the sovereigns, William and Mary, in an address prepared for the assembly by Blair, which he was unanimously appointed to present. He accordingly proceeded to England; William and Mary favoured the plan; on 14 Feb. 1692 a charter for the college was granted, the Bishop of London being appointed chancellor and Blair president, and the college was named ‘William and Mary.’ Among the most liberal contributors to the college was Robert Boyle.
On Blair's return to Virginia the opening of the college was repeatedly deferred, although Blair's enthusiasm never waned. In 1705 a destructive fire practically reduced the college buildings to ruins. Under the loyal support of the new lieutenant-governor, Spotiswoode, the edifice was re-erected, and classes were afterwards commenced. But, according to the records of the college, it was not until 1729 that Blair entered formally on the duties of his office as president. Blair was for some time president of the council of Virginia and rector of Williamsburgh.
In 1722 he published his one work: ‘Our Saviour's Divine Sermon on the Mount, contained in the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel, explained, and the practice of it recommended in divers Sermons and Discourses,’ 4 vols. 8vo. A second edition was published in 1732, under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Waterland, who prefixed a ‘commendatory notice.’
Blair died on 1 Aug. 1743, aged 87. He bequeathed his library to his college. Two portraits of him are preserved in the college, one taken in youth and the other in later life. Bishop Burnet (History of his Own Times) calls him ‘a worthy and good man.’ George Whitefield wrote in his journal for 15 Dec. 1740: ‘Paid my respects to Mr. Blair, commissary of Virginia. His discourse was savoury, such as tended to the use of edifying.
