I happened to check e-mail this evening and found the following from a 
Google search.  Contents of the second and third hyperlinks below indicate 
the date of Whitefield's preaching at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg 
was Sunday, December 16, 1739:

From: http://www.history.org/almanack/resources/glossary/rsrcehg5.cfm

"Whitefield, George (1714-1770), English evangelist. He was extremely 
popular during the revival movement known as the Great Awakening that swept 
the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s.

Whitefield attended Oxford University, where he joined the Wesley brothers' 
"Holy Club," whose highly structured religious habits earned them the 
derisive name "Methodists." Ordained a deacon in 1736, Whitefield joined the 
Wesleys as a missionary to Georgia in 1738. He was ordained an Anglican 
priest in 1739. Whitefield began open-air preaching and was soon threatened 
with excommunication by his superiors. Thereafter, he was barred from most 
Anglican pulpits. Whitefield embarked again for America a few months later 
and visited several colonies including Virginia on his way to Georgia. 
During this trip, Whitefield preached at Bruton Parish Church at the 
invitation of Commissary James Blair on December 14, 1739.... "

-----------------------------

From: 
http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/visit/eventsAndExhibits/specialEvents/index_2005c.cfm

Whitefield Day – Virginia Gazette, Friday, December 21, 1739, 
Williamsburg, – “On Sunday morning last, the Rev. Mr. Whitefield preached at 
our Church, on the words, ‘What think ye of Christ?’ There was a numerous 
congregation, and ’tis thought there would have been many more, if timely 
notice had been given of his preaching.” Experience a reenactment of famous 
18th-century evangelist George Whitefield’s appearance at Bruton Parish 
Church on Sunday, December 16, 1739. A minister of the Church of England and 
colleague of John and Charles Wesley, Whitefield was an important figure in 
the Great Awakening, a series of revivals that swept through Britain and 
North America in the first half of the 18th century.

------------------------------

From: http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1739&country=1

December 16, 1739 was a Sunday.

------------------------------

I hope all of you enjoy a heartfelt and thoughtful Memorial Day weekend. 
When I was a kid, this weekend was a homecoming of relatives with a cemetery 
full of people placing fresh-cut flowers on graves and reminiscing while 
memorializing those who had gone before, especially war veterans who gave so 
much for all of us -- that continues to present times.  My nearby home town 
still conducts Memorial Day services with an American Legion and VFW honor 
gurard, speech and all, but with not nearly the turnout of 50-60 years ago. 
It seems we should do so much more.

Neil McDonald

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin Joel Berland" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2007 8:55 PM
Subject: [VA-HIST] Whitefield in Williamsburg?


> Dear learned list,
>
> In the new DNB article on James Blair, there's a note about the 
> Commissary's
> hospitality to the evangelist George Whitefield, who passed through 
> Virginia in
> December, 1739.  Apparently Blair not only invited Whitefield to stay in 
> his
> house, but he also invited him to preach in Bruton Parish Church, which he 
> did
> in the presence of Governor Gooch, the Council, and (no doubt) many other
> eminent Virginians.
>
> Can anybody point me in the direction of a specific date for this event, a
> primary source, or a reliable history?
>
> (this is the link to the biography in question: James B. Bell, ‘Blair, 
> James
> (1655/6–1743)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University
> Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2564]--you have to be a
> subscriber to the database to read it, however).
>
> Cheers -- KJB
>