1700, December 5. The College Building became the temporary headquarters of the colonial government after it moved from Jamestown. The General Assembly met here for its first legislative session in Williamsburg on this date and continued to meet at the College until April 1704, when the Capitol was sufficiently completed to permit its use. 1702, July. Young men at the College are believed to have presented the first theatrical performance as early as 1702. Royal Governor Francis Nicholson, in a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury on July 22, 1702, reported that "a Pastoral Colloquy in English verse, spoken by some younger Scholars in the College hall" was presented. 1705, October 29. The College Building burned between 11 and 12 o'clock at night. The building, including the library and furniture, "was in a small time totally consumed." This conflagration, of unknown origin, left intact most of the thick walls, later incorporated in the structure as altered with the help of Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood and rebuilt between 1710 and 1716.

The first College Building from a crude drawing circa 1702

1709-1710.
Queen Anne bestowed upon the College £1,000 to rebuild the College Building.

1716.
In this year the second College Building was "well nigh compleated." The grammar and Indian schools, the first schools established in the College, are believed to have been continued in buildings outside the campus between 1705 and 1716.

1718, May 30.
The General Assembly granted £1000 to the governors and visitors of the College "for the maintaining and educating such and so many of the ingenious scholars, natives of this colony, as they shall think fit."

1723.
The Brafferton Building was erected with funds from the estate of The Honorable Robert Boyle. It housed the Indian School, founded about 1700. The executors of the noted physicist had invested his residuary estate in the Yorkshire manor, "Brafferton," whose rents supported the Indian School until the time of the Revolution.

1729, February 27.
All departments of the College, with a president and six full professors, were finally established. In compliance with the charter, the transfer of corporate authority from the surviving trustees, the Reverends James Blair and Stephen Fouace, to the president and masters was completed on August 15.

1732, June 28.
The Chapel, the south wing of the College Building, was opened. Long the seat of worship at the College, it included a crypt which became the final resting place of several eminent Virginians. Interred in its vaults are Sir John Randolph, speaker of the House of Burgesses; his sons Peyton, first president of the Continental Congress, and John, "the Tory"; Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, governor of Virginia; and the Right Reverend James Madison, president of the College and first Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia.

1732, July 31.
The foundations of the President's House were laid.

The College Yard, circa 1733 - 1734. The Bodleian plate was found in the Bodleian Library at Oxford but is today in the collection of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

1736.
The first edition of the William and Mary Charter and Statutes appeared, printed by William Parks of The Virginia Gazette.

1740, September 25.
By his will, probated this day, Lieutenant Governor Spotswood bequeathed to the College "all my books, maps and mathematical instruments as an acknowledgement of the courteous reception and civilities I have received from the masters."

1747-1754.
After the Capitol burned on January 20, 1747, the General Assembly again held its meetings in the College Building.

1749, July 29.
Before the Culpeper County court, 17-year-old George Washington produced a commission from the president and masters of the College appointing him surveyor of that county.