Charter of the College of William & Mary

On 8 February 1693, the royal charter establishing the College of William & Mary was issued by King William III and Queen Mary II of England. The charter established the first college in the Colony of Virginia and the second in what is now the United States, after Harvard in 1636. The document served as the college's constitution for nearly 90 years, establishing it as an extension of the British Imperial bureaucracy and Church of England hierarchy. The original document has been lost, but contemporary copies survive. The chartering is celebrated annually at the college on 8 February as Charter Day.

The charter was initially given to James Blair, the colony's commissary, who returned to Virginia and presented it to the Virginia General Assembly in September 1693. The college was constructed at Middle Plantation, where the city of Williamsburg was established in 1699. The charter intended for the college to operate a seminary for the colony and a mechanism for converting Native Americans, but it operated only as a grammar school for about two decades. One of the charter's provisions called for the eventual transfer of the college's governance to the faculty, which was ceremonially completed on 15 August 1729. During the 18th century, the college celebrated 15 August as Transfer Day.

The original charter was reported by Carlo Bellini to have been taken from the college in the 1780s, and reported as last being observed in the possession of a Russian trader. It is now considered lost, though contemporary and later copies survive. An 18th-century copy possibly made for Governor of Virginia Edmund Andros is occasionally displayed. Another 18th-century copy was previously held by Harvard. Both of these copies are now part of the William & Mary Libraries' special collections.