The Flat Hat Club; Wm. and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 3

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The Flat Hat Club

   William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine,  Vol. 25, No. 3.
   (Jan., 1917), pp. 161-164.

                               THE FLAT HAT CLUB

See QUARTERLY XX, p. 146, and THE FLAT HAT, Vol. 1, No. 1

   Among the earliest collegiate societies the Phi Beta Kappa Society established at William
and Mary College, in 1776, takes precedence as the first Greek letter fraternity.  Its object
was both literary and social.  It was not, however, the first club or society of students. 
In 1769 the "American Whig Society" was founded at Princeton University, and contained such
members as William Bradford and James Madison.  Much earlier was the Flat Hat Club, or F.H.
C., established at William and Mary in 1750, and which continued in existence till after
1772.  This was also a secret society.  It contained such members as Thomas Jefferson, James
Innes, St. George Tucker, Rev. Thomas Gwatkin and Robert Baylor.

   The memory of this fraternity had entirely died out at William and Mary, but was suddenly
revived by the discovery in Richmond of a photograph of the medal worn by one of the members
and handed over to the President of the College in 1909.  This was followed by the discovery
of certain manuscript material in the correspondence of St. George Tucker, who was a student
of the College in 1772 and afterwards was a distinguished judge of the State Supreme Court.
These manuscripts consist of (1) a letter of Mr. Jefferson, written to John D. Taylor, of
Maryland, giving some account of the club at the College, stating that he was a member, and
that out of this club the Phi Beta Kappa, founded in 1776, might have arisen; (2) a list of
the books described as compiled for the club's library, in 1772, by Rev. Thomas Gwatkin,
Professor of Mathematics; (3) the credentials of Robert Baylor as a member in abbreviated
Latin.  These manuscripts were seen and read by the Editor, while in the possession of Mr.
George P. Coleman, of Williamsburg.

   The history of the medal is interesting.  A short time ago the negative of the photograph
referred to above was traced to H. P. Cook, photographer, in Richmond, Va., whose father
obtained it about thirty years ago from the Lee Gallery, of which

Page 162.

J. W. Davies and W. W. Davies were proprietors. Further investigation showed that the drawing
was originally made by Mr. R. A. Brock, late deceased, the distinguished antiquarian, who had
the photograph taken by the Lee Gallery.  The descriptive words at the bottom "Flat Hat
Club, Williamsburg, Virginia", were fully identified by Mr. Brock's daughter, Miss Elizabeth
C. Brock, as in his handwriting.  This led to an investigation of Mr. Brock's copious note
books with the result that the following entry was discovered in one of them:

   "Flat Hat Club, Williamsburg, Va., - Medal belonging to Maj. Innis Randolph, Corner
Lexington and Calvert Streets, Baltimore, Md.  'It belonged to my great-grandfather, Col.
James Innes, attorney-general of Virginia.  His only daughter, Anne, married Peyton
Randolph of Wilton.  My father was their only son and this branch of the Innes family is
extinct in us.  The medal was worn at the watch guard.  My grandmother remembers it.  It was
a club at Williamsburg, perhaps semi-political.  I fancy that the rose and thistle were on
the obverse.  The clasped hands and the motto indicate that it was more than a social club.
It may, however, had been a mere college club or whist club.  The tradition is that they
met in the upper room of the tavern and that their laughter shook the house.  I fancy that

there was a punch bowl near about.'"

   This entry was made in 1881 or 1882.  Acting on the hint contained in this memorandum,
the Editor made inquiries in Baltimore and finally located the medal in the family of Mr.
Harold Randolph, of that city.  Mr. Randolph wrote as follows:

   "My mother has referred to me your letter of October 26th in regard to the "Flat Hat
Club".  The medal of which you speak belonged to my father, Innes Randolph, who died in 1887,
and it is now in my possession.  In your letter to the Maryland Historical Society of 
October 21st you mention a photograph of this medal, adding that you would like to see the
original.  I shall be very glad indeed to show it to you, together with some papers and

letters concerning Col. Innes, but am reluctant to let them go out of my possession -- unless
there is positively no other way of your seeing them.  Is there not a possibility of your
coming to Baltimore some time in the near future?

Page 163.

   Col. Innes was my great-great-grandfather and the medal, & accompanying documents -
altho' they refer in no way to the medal or the "Flat Hat Club" - are highly prized family
heirlooms."

   Since the receipt of this letter, Mr. Harold Randolph has sent, direct from the seal
itself, a photograph which has been used to illustrate this paper.  The obverse shows a
monogram, F.H.C., with the date of foundation, November 11, 1750; and the reverse a heraldic
representation:  a chevron with a rose in the apex, and underneath two clasped hands.

   A word may be proper in regard to James Innes, the original owner of this most interesting
relic - probably the most interesting connected with student life existing in this country.
He was a son of the Rev. Robert Innes, a Scotchman and graduate of Oxford, and was born in
1754.  On November 22, 1770, he was appointed a Foundation Scholar in the College of William
and Mary, and on May 27, 1772, he was appointed Assistant Usher of the Grammar School.  On
June 25, 1773, he was appointed Usher of the College, and the same year joined the Masonic
Lodge in Williamsburg.  Innes shared in all the excitement of the coming Revolution, and on
May 27, 1774, he was one of the signers of the Association entered into my members of the
House of Burgesses and distinguished private citizens to prevent the importation of British
merchandise into the Colony.  In 1775 he was elected Captain of the Williamsburg Volunteers,
and in February, 1776, he marched against Dunmore's troops at Hampton.  Previous to this he
was removed from his office of Usher by the Tory Faculty of the College.  In November, 1776,
as Lt-Col. he became an aide to Washington and served at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine,
Germantown and Monmouth.  In October, 1778, he was appointed a navy commissioner.  In 1780
he entered the house of delegates.  At the solicitation of Washington, he raised a regiment
for home defense, and commanded it at the siege of Yorktown.  He was a member of the con-
vention of 1788, and eloquently supported the Constitution.  He then engaged in law practice
and attained high rank at the bar, and later succeeded Edmund Randolph as the second
attorney-general of Virginia.

Page 164.

Governor Tazewell pronounced him "the most classical, the most elegant and the most eloquent
orator" to whom he ever listened.  Washington held him in highest esteem, and tendered him
the attorney-generalship of the United States, which is state of health obliged him to de-
cline.  He died August 2, 1798, before completing his forty-fourth year, in Philadelphia,
while discharging his duties as commissioner under Jay's treaty, and was buried in that city,
in Christ Church burial ground, not far from the grave of Franklin.  He was a brother of
Harry Innes, attorney-general of Kentucky.

   Col. James Innes married Elizabeth Cocke, daughter of James Cocke, at one time Mayor of
Williamsburg, and had a daughter Anne Browne, who married Peyton Randolph, of Wilton,
Virginia.  Peyton and Anne (Innes) Randolph had two children - Lucy and James Innes.  The
latter, James Innes Randolph, married Susan P. Armistead, and had issue with other children
Innes Randolph, Major C.S.A.; noted for his literary talents and author or a number of
well-known poems; married Anne King and had Armistead, Harold, Clare and Maud.

   In this connection it may be mentioned that there appears to have been another society
previous to the American Revolution at William and Mary besides the "Flat Hat Club".  In a
letter written by Hon. William Short to Edward Everett, of Harvard, in 1831, is the
following:

   "There had existed for a long space of time another society at William and Mary.  The
initials on its medal, (P.D.A.), were understood to indicate Latin words.  There was at the
same time at College a youth whose repurtation as a Hellenist was so far beyond that of
others, that he valued himself, as I remember well, exclusively on it.  The P.D.A. Society
had lost all reputation for letters and was noted only for the dissipation and conviviality
of its members.  Whether they had refused to admit our Hellenist, or he was unwilling to
join them I do not now recollect, but so it was that he determined to get up another Society
in opposition - and in conformity with his own reputation formed and adapted the Greek phrase
indicated by the initials.  Whether it be pure I would not now say.  But at that time none
of us supposed anything more pure could have been formed in Athens, such was our opinion of
the great learning of our founder".  (See Phi Beta Kappa Key, Vol. 1, No. 7, page 12.)