Friends of Williamsburg Regional Library

Message from the Co-Chairs

We’re honored and delighted to serve as co-chairs of the Bisland Legacy Society.  The Williamsburg Regional Library is such a wonderful resource to our community. It’s a major reason we chose to retire here.  Whether it’s learning something new, finding information to help our understanding of a subject, keeping up with a variety of hobbies and interests, meeting friends, attending lectures, musical performances . . . it’s all here in our library!

Established in 2006, the Bisland Legacy Society recognizes those who have made future provisions for the Williamsburg Regional Library in their estate plans, in any form or amount. Though we are a relatively new group, our membership is growing and our roots reach back more than 100 years.  Read more about the estate of Margaret Bisland and her family’s importance to the founding of the library.

While we chose to make our bequest through our wills, there are a variety of other ways to provide for the library in your estate plans. Life insurance policies, IRAs, and other retirement plan beneficiary designations are some other popular bequest methods. Learn about making a bequest.

Your bequest can be used to establish a named endowment, add to one of the existing program endowments, or provide unrestricted support for the area of greatest need. The library’s Development Office can assist you and your attorney with the appropriate bequest language.

Once you’ve made your plans, be sure to complete the Bisland Legacy Society membership form so we can send you our welcome letter. For couples, Bisland Society membership is always extended to both spouses/partners regardless of the nature of the provision.

Bequests are so important to building and sustaining great public libraries. As you consider your estate plans, we hope you will include a bequest to the Williamsburg Regional Library-and join with us as members of the Bisland Legacy Society.

Mary and Jim Clark

Jim and Mary Clark

Jim and Mary Clark, Bisland Legacy Society Co-chairs

Elizabeth Bisland Wetmore

Portrait of Elizabeth Bisland Wetmore

At the estate sale of Mrs. Margaret Bisland, widow of Percival Bisland (d. 1908) and owner of Carter’s Grove, volunteers from the Williamsburg Free Public Library purchased nearly 400 volumes of fiction, history, essays, and travel for the library’s collection. In January 1911, Elizabeth Bisland Wetmore (sister of the late Percival Bisland), donated 200 additional books to the library in memory of Percival Bisland. Although the Bisland collection has been scattered by time during the more than 100 years since, commemorative funds have continued to expand the library’s collection.