the colonial period, all those in public office were required to attend church. Government and College officials in the capital city of Williamsburg therefore would have attended Bruton Parish Church. The influx of students, the governor and his entourage, and the legislature, as well as townspeople overwhelmed the small church. The church and Williamsburg were each central to the life and government of the colony, As the court church of colonial Virginia, Bruton Parish Church soon took on appropriate trappings such as an altar cloth and cushion. 1715: a new church building Historians from Colonial Williamsburg Foundation have noted that the brick church stood near the center of Williamsburg's original survey map drawn 15 years after it was built. The layout may have been designed at least partially around the extant church, suggesting the church's importance to the colonial community's life. The brick church was, however, in poor condition and deemed inadequate for its prominent role. In 1706, the vestry began considering building a larger church. With only 110 families in 1724, the parish vestry could, however, only afford to plan a small church, and invited the colony's government to finance an enlargement to accommodate the needs not arising from the local residents. Four years later the General Assembly agreed to fund pews for the governor, council, and burgesses. Royal Governor Alexander Spotswood drafted plans for the structure: a cruciform church (the first in Virginia) 75 feet long, wide, with long transepts (wings). Under the watchful eye of Dr. James Blair, who was rector from 1710 to 1743 (and also president of William and Mary from 1693 until his death), the construction of the new church got underway, with the first construction contract awarded in 1711. Finished in 1715, the church soon had all the required furnishings: Bible, prayer books, altar, font, cushions, surplice, bell, and reredos tablets. In 1755 the church got its first organ when the vestry voted on November 18 to enable "a person to build a Loft for an Organ in the Church in the City of Williamsburg, and to set up the same." Peter Pelham was unanimously chosen as the church's first organist. Shortly after, the parish established the Bruton Parish Poorhouse. American Revolution, decline As the American Revolutionary War began in 1776, the power of both the monarchy and the church as an institution controlled by the government came into question in the colony.