The initials of the F.H.C. Society stand for a secret Latin phrase, likely "Fraternitas, Humanitas, et Cognitio" or "Fraternitas Humanitas Cognitioque". The "brothers" of the original F.H.C. devised and employed a secret handshake, wore a silver membership medal, issued certificates of membership, and met regularly for discussion and fellowship, especially at the Raleigh Tavern. The group became publicly known by the backronym "Flat Hat Club" in probable allusion to the mortarboard caps then commonly worn by all students at the College. William & Mary alumnus and third American president Thomas Jefferson may be the most famous member of the Flat Hat Club. Late in life, Jefferson noted that, "hen I was a student of Wm. & Mary college of this state, there existed a society called the F.H.C. society, confined to the number of six students only, of which I was a member, but it had no useful object, nor do I know whether it now exists." A second Latin-letter fraternity, the P.D.A. Society, was founded at William and Mary in March, 1773, in imitation of the F.H.C. Society. John Heath, a student at William and Mary who in 1776 sought but was refused admission to the P.D.A., later established the first Greek-letter fraternity, the Phi Beta Kappa Society. The student members of the F.H.C. suspended the activities of the group in 1781, probably as a result of the suspension of academic exercises at the university as the contending armies of the American Revolution approached Williamsburg during the Yorktown campaign. "The memory of this fraternity had entirely died out at William and Mary, but discovery of certain manuscript material in the correspondence of St. George Tucker, who was a student of the College in 1772.... These manuscripts consist of 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... a list of the books described as compiled for the club's library, in 1772, by Rev. Thomas Gwatkin, Professor of Mathematics; the credentials of Robert Baylor as a member in abbreviated Latin." Therefore, we know the society existed for some years, and possessed a small library.
History of the subsequent society
The name of the group was revived in the twentieth century by application to a select group of twelve undergraduate men and four professors which had been founded in 1916 as the Spotswood Club. This society operated largely as a college honorary society. The society suspended its activities in 1943 as the number of men enrolled at the College steeply declined because of American involvement in World War II. The modern F.H.C. Society was revived in May, 1972. It remains an all-male society, consisting of twelve undergraduate men and one alumnus "in urbe". In recent years, an additional six members were added. Most of its activities remain comparatively secret within the university. Upon graduation from William and Mary, members receive medals of distinction, showing their membership. Contrary to the practice of some similar societies, alumni may disclose their membership after graduation.
