Note 125 — JOURNAL & LETTERS (continued 2)

John Bracken served as minister of Bruton Parish Church at Williamsburg from 1773 to 1818. He also served for a period as master of the grammar school at the College of William and Mary, and for two years as president of the college. At this time Bracken had just incurred the bitter enmity of Samuel Henley, professor of divinity and moral philosophy at the college, who had hoped to secure the appointment given his rival. The two men aired their grievances in a long and acrimonious controversy carried on in the columns of the Virginia Gazette. Henley, a Tory, left the colony for England in 1775 and never returned. He later became principal of the East India College at Hertford.