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Jul 28, 2021 · Sarah Harrison Blair was a member of the Virginia colonial elite who defied the standards of her time when she refused to vow to obey her husband during their wedding ceremony. Blair was the daughter of an influential Surry County family and the wife of James Blair, founder of the College of William and Mary.
Sarah Harrison was the daughter of Benjamin Harrison (1645-1712) and married Reverend James Blair in 1687. They had no children. The portrait is signed and was painted in England. Dimensions: 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm.) The subject wears a dress trimmed with jewels and she is wrapped in a drape. She is in a painted oval frame.
Born in 1670 to wealthy tobacco planter Benjamin Harrison II and his wife, Hannah Churchill Harrison, Sarah broke a prior engagement to marry Scottish-born Anglican minister Blair when she was seventeen. At their wedding, she reportedly repeatedly refused to vow to obey her husband.
Aug 4, 2021 · Sarah Harrison Blair offers a tantalizing glimpse of unlikely female agency in colonial Virginia. She was the daughter of wealthy Surry County tobacco planter, trader, and land speculator Benjamin Harrison II.
- The Mother-In-Law Tree of Jamestown Island, VA
- The History of Sarah Harrison and Dr. James Blair
- During and After Their Marriage
- College Created
- The Mother-In-Law Tree
- The Legacy of Sam Robinson
- The Future For The Blairs
Jamestown Island is off Glasshouse Point, along the Colonial Parkway. It’s home to Historic Jamestown and the Jamestown Memorial Church. It’s here at the Church that visitors could come to see the legendary Mother-in-Law tree and hear the strange tale of familial obligation and young love.
Before Marriage The new Jamestown Memorial Church was built in 1907 on top of the original 1617 church foundation. There’s a small cemetery behind the church, and among the interred deceased are James and Sarah Harrison Blair. Sarah was the daughter of Colonel Benjamin Harrison, owner of the Wakefield Plantation. She lived an entitled life as a gen...
Sarah was disowned by her family’s surviving members and forbidden from being buried in the Harrison plot in the Church’s cemetery. When she died in 1713 (without having children), she was buried in a stone crypt about six feet from her family’s plot. She was just out of arm’s reach of her parents and other relatives. Blair lived for another thirty...
Blair used these plans to approach King William III and Queen Mary II in 1691 about funding the creation of a college in Williamsburg. Since he was a clergyman for the Church of England, he proposed the new school could train other clergymen and missionaries on both sides of the Atlantic. Ministers would use the school to educate and civilize the N...
When Blair died in 1743, he was buried next to his wife and sweetheart Sarah. Their tombs only had a space of about a few inches between them. Jamestown Island was abandoned and allowed to become completely overgrown. The original church from the colony ended up crumbling into ruin. As nature took over, the graves were forgotten. Sometime in 1750 (...
When Jamestown Island was restored, the Memorial Church needed a sexton. In1922, Canadian native Sam Robinson was hired by Ms. Ellen Bagby and the Associate for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. He became the caretaker of the island in 1935. Sam was a likable and friendly man who loved history and was an excellent orator. He enjoyed teachin...
Some versions of the story refer to the tree as the “cursed tree” or “mother-in-law’s revenge.” The Park Service eventually was forced to cut down the tree. Strangely, a new sapling started growing in the same place! As of 2007, Park Rangers removed the second tree, and the graves were restored to their rightful places, side-by-side, together again...
Daughter of Benjamin Harrison II and Hannah Churchill of Surry Other siblings are: Henry 1679-? Anne Mary Margaret 1685-1727
Sarah Harrison Blair. This engraved portrait shows Sarah Harrison Blair, wife of James Blair, an Anglican minister and member of the governor's Council. The pair married on June 2, 1687, when Sarah was seventeen years old; during the wedding ceremony she refused to vow to obey her husband.
