William Stith
William Stith was a notable Colonial Virginia historian and the president of William and Mary College, remembered primarily for his 1747 work, "The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia," as well as three influential sermons. Born in Virginia in 1707 to a prominent family, Stith’s connections, particularly through marriage to Judith Randolph, positioned him within the influential Randolph family. His academic career began at Queen's College, Oxford, and he later served as the master of the grammar school at William and Mary. Following this, he held the rectorship of Henrico parish and served as chaplain to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Stith's presidency at William and Mary College in 1752 came amid political tensions, especially with Colonial Governor Robert Dinwiddie, as Stith advocated for individual liberties against royal authority. His historical writings, while criticized for their style, were significant for their reliance on primary sources and factual detail, establishing a foundational narrative of Virginia's early history. Stith's sermons, published shortly before his death in 1755, addressed themes of liberty and tyranny, contributing to the religious and political discourse leading up to the American Revolution. His work continues to be recognized for its impact on both history and religious thought in Colonial America.
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William Stith
- Born: 1707
- Birthplace: Virginia
- Died: September 19, 1755
- Place of death: Williamsburg, Virginia
Biography
Colonial Virginia historian William Stith is remembered primarily as the president of William and Mary College and for four published works: a 1747 history of Virginia and three published sermons. Although Thomas Jefferson described the former work as “inelegant,” it is respected for the accuracy of its research. Stith was born in Virginia in 1707. His uncle was Sir John Randolph, the eminent lawyer and scholar who was one of the founders of Williamsburg and the attorney general of the Virginia Colony. He married Randolph’s daughter Judith in 1738.
Stith’s connection with the Randolphs, the most powerful family in colonial Virginia, provided many opportunities for him. Shortly after his graduation from Queen’s College, Oxford, in 1731, he became master of the grammar school at William and Mary, holding that position for five years before accepting the prestigious rectorship of Henrico parish. He remained in that post, serving concurrently as the chaplain of the Virginia House of Burgesses, until 1752 when he won the presidency of William and Mary College.
His appointment came in the face of opposition from Colonial Governor Robert Dinwiddie, who disliked Stith because of his vocal objections to Dinwiddie’s levying a charge for affixing the royal seal onto land patents. The issue, which would be central in Virginia Revolutionary rhetoric, marked Stith as a proponent of individual liberty against the prerogatives of the Crown. His patriotic views were grounded firmly in a discourse of Virginia that treated the Virginia Company, the original charter granted to the Virginia settlers, as a vital symbolic image of the liberty of the people against royal power. Stith’s own writing in his History of Virginia from the First Settlement to the Dissolution of the London Company helped establish this narrative surrounding the settlement of the colony, including the legend of John Smith and Pocahontas.
The work, published in 1747, was based on a project begun by his uncle John Randolph, who had left his papers and research in Stith’s care upon his death in 1737. Although the work was intended to cover the entire history of the Virginia Colony through the mid-eighteenth century, Stith only completed the first volume, through the dissolution of the Virginia Company in 1624 when Virginia became a crown colony. It is nonetheless significant because of Stith’s extensive reliance on primary sources and because of his attention to factual detail; although it would be considered biased by today’s standards both because of Stith’s Whig politics and because his sources were limited, the work represents one of the first efforts to synthesize primary material into a historical narrative.
Stith died suddenly in 1755, after publishing a series of sermons in praise of liberty which argued from Biblical authority against tyranny. The sermons generated controversy among both his Anglican peers as well as the New Light ministers, but were nonetheless influential in shaping public religious opinion on the eve of the Revolution, as well as being competent examples of religious literature in their own right.