Colonial worthies in goodly number were educated at William and Mary, as were later revolutionary soldiers and statesmen, and men of name and fame in the United States.

Three American Presidents--Jefferson, Monroe, and Tyler--were trained there, as well as Marshall, the Chief Justice, four signers of the Declaration of Independence, and many another man of mark.
The seventeenth century is about to pass.

France and England are at war.
The colonial air vibrates with the struggle.

There is to be a brief lull after 1697, but the conflict will soon be resumed.

The more northerly colonies, the nearer to New France, feel the stronger pulsation, but Virginia, too, is shaken.