William Stith--clergyman, teacher, historian, antiquarian, college president--was one of the ablest men of his generation in Virginia. As an antiquarian and a major Southern colonial historian, he made a significant contribution to the tradition of modern historical scholarship; as a pulpiteer, he left three printed sermons which demand respect as both theology and literature.

A native Virginian, Stith was born in 1707, the son of Captain John and Mary Randolph Stith. The Randolph family was one of the most powerful families in Virginia. As the grandson of William and Mary Isham Randolph of Turkey Island ("the Adam and Eve of Virginia"), the nephew of Sir John Randolph (King's Attorney), and the cousin of such men as Richard Bland and Peyton Randolph, the intelligent young Stith had many opportunities available to him. After attending the grammar school at the College of William and Mary, he matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford...