Blair served in the House of Burgesses multiple times, alternately representing the colony's capital and surrounding county.
[1][2][3] He may be confused with a distant collateral relative, Archibald Blair, who became clerk of the Virginia Governor's Council in 1776 and served for more than 25 years.
His 17 year old wife Sarah was the daughter of Col. Benjamin Harrison of Wakefield plantation in Surry County, as well as the sister-in-law of prominent merchant and planter Philip Ludwell Jr., who became one of this man's business partners.
Blair never remarried in the three decades before his own death, when he bequeathed much of his estate to this man's son, as well as made charitable bequests.
Due to unhealthy circumstances at Jamestown, particularly during summers, Williamsburg was established as a trading center, and the colony's government offices ultimately relocated there.
His social status increased with his remarriages, as husbands of that era controlled their wives' estate, even such from a previous marriage.
Dr. Archibald Blair also served in the House of Burgesses, winning elections at various times to represent Jamestown or the surrounding James City County.
Dr. Archibald Blair died in Williamsburg in March 1733, before the 1734 session of the House of Burgesses began its business, and was succeeded in that body by his son John, who not only rose to a seat on the Governor's Council after his uncle's death, but served as its presiding officer (hence family members sometimes distinguished him as "President Blair').
This man's third wife and widow, Mary Wilson Roscoe Cary Blair, died in 1741, and his brother Rev.
Three buildings associated with Dr. Blair or family members survive today in the part of Colonial Williamsburg now on the National Register of Historic Places.