Any tour of Williamsburg by Bucktrout-Braithwaite descendants would begin at the college, which was built (1695) on the Rick Neck plantation of our first Virginia ancestor, Thomas Ballard (1630-1685) of the King’s council at Jamestown.  William Talman (1650-1619), another ancestor, may have been the architect as he was England’s comptroller of the works (Royal Building Projects) under Wren, who was Surveyor General.  Talman, unlike Wren, had studied in Holland and was a promoter of the Dutch style favored by William and Mary, British Rulers.

    The College of William and Mary was founded here in 1693.  This was before the Royal Capitol Jamestown moved to this tiny settlement called Middle Plantation (now Williamsburg), which had a small church and little else.  By a window in the Brafferton Building on the campus is a brick engraved “W.B. 1723” which is thought to be the work of William Ballard whos brother, Thomas II, sold 330 acres of Rich Neck to provide a site for the college.   (See CW Journal, Spring, 87”)