George Wythe (; 1726 – June 8, 1806)Wythe's exact date of birth is not known. Hemphill, William Edwin, "George Wythe the Colonial Briton: A Biographical Study of the Pre-Revolutionary Era in Virginia," PhD diss., University of Virginia, 1937, 31.Tyler, Lyon G., "Ancestry of George Wythe, LL. D.," William and Mary College Quarterly 2, no. 1 (July 1893), 69. Wythepedia. Retrieved January 20, 2022. was an American academic, scholar, and judge who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The first of the seven signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence from Virginia, Wythe served as one of Virginia's representatives to the Continental Congress and the Philadelphia Convention and served on a committee that established the convention's rules and procedures. He left the convention before signing the United States Constitution to tend to his dying wife. He was elected to the Virginia Ratifying Convention and helped ensure that his home state ratified the Constitution.usconstitution.net Notes on the Constitution, U.S. Constitution Wythe taught and was a mentor to Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Henry Clay and other men who became American leaders.
Born into a wealthy Virginia planter family, Wythe established a legal career in Williamsburg, Virginia, after studying under his uncle. He became a member of the House of Burgesses in 1754 and helped oversee defense expenditures during the French and Indian War. He opposed the Stamp Act of 1765 and other British taxes imposed on the Thirteen Colonies. He was also a delegate to Virginia's 1776 constitutional convention and helped design the Seal of Virginia. Wythe served as a judge for much of his life, first as a justice of the peace and then on the Virginia Court of Chancery. He was also a prominent law professor at the College of William & Mary and took on several notable apprentices. He remained remarkably close to Jefferson and left Jefferson his substantial book collection in his will. Wythe became increasingly troubled by slavery and emancipated all of the people he owned at the end of the American Revolution.Virginia's Attitude Toward Slavery and Secession By Beverley Bland Munford pg. 102 Wythe died in 1806, evidently from poisoning. His grand-nephew, George Sweeny, was tried and acquitted for his murder.
Early life and education
Wythe was born in 1726 at Chesterville, the plantation operated by three generations of the Wythe family in what was then Elizabeth City County in the Colony of Virginia; now in present-day Hampton, Virginia. His paternal great-grandfather Thomas Wythe Sr. emigrated from England and established Chesterville, as well as served one session in the House of Burgesses representing Elizabeth City County. Although his grandfather, Thomas Wythe Jr., lived long enough to marry and sire a son, he did not hold legislative office. George's father, Thomas Wythe III, inherited the plantation and also served as a burgess for Elizabeth City County for several sessions. His maternal great-grandfather was George Keith, a Quaker minister and early opponent of slavery, who returned to the Church of England but was sent back as a missionary to the East Coast before ultimately returning to England.Dill, p. 5. His mother, Margaret Walker of nearby Kecoughtan, a learned woman probably raised as a Quaker, instilled a love of learning in her son. In his later years, Wythe became known for his outdated Quaker dress and gentle manner, which could cause even a surly dog to "unbend and wag his tail."Dill, p. 12, indirectly citing George Wythe Mumford. After the early death of his father, Wythe probably attended grammar school in Williamsburg before beginning legal training in the office of his uncle, Stephen Dewey, upstream in Prince George County.
Personal life
George Wythe first married on December 26, 1747, when he was a 21-year-old county lawyer in what was then western Virginia, to Ann Lewis, daughter of Zachary Lewis, his law partner in Spotsylvania County. Devastated after Ann Lewis Wythe died on August 8, 1748, George Wythe returned home to Chesterville and accepted a position as clerk in the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg.
Six years later, after himself winning election to the House of Burgesses, Wythe married Elizabeth Taliaferro, daughter of colonial Williamsburg architect Richard Taliaferro. Elizabeth died after 32 years of marriage on August 18, 1787. During his marriage to Elizabeth, George Wythe showed an interest in genealogy, asking Thomas Jefferson for his help in researching the lineage of the Taliaferro first family of Virginia with origins in Italy. Jefferson heeded Wythe's request, sending him a sketch of the Tagliaferro [sic] family coat of arms learned from a friend in Florence, Italy in 1786, along with an engraved copper plate which is kept at the Wythe House, the historic landmark home built by Richard Taliaferro for George and Elizabeth.
Career Wythe was admitted to the bar in Elizabeth City County in 1746, the same year his mother died.Dill, p. 10. He then moved to Spotsylvania County to begin legal practice in several Piedmont counties. In 1747, he married Ann Lewis, the daughter of his mentor Zachary Lewis. However, his wife died on August 10, 1748. The childless and bereaved widower returned to Williamsburg; there, Wythe made law and scholarship his life as he began a distinguished career in public service. His motto was , translated as "Upright in prosperity and perils."Dill, p. 3.
Colonial politician and mentor
In October 1748, family connections (Benjamin Waller was related to Zachary Lewis) probably helped Wythe secure his first government job as clerk to two powerful committees of the House of Burgesses, Privileges and Elections and Propositions and Grievances. Wythe also continued to practice law before those committees and the General Court in Williamsburg, as was permitted at the time. In 1750, Wythe was first elected as one of Williamsburg's aldermen.Dill, pp. 12–15. Wythe also briefly served as the king's attorney general in 1754–1755, appointed by Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie while Peyton Randolph traveled to London on the burgesses' behalf to appeal Dinwiddie's charging a one pistole fee to affix an official seal to land patents. Wythe resigned when Randolph returned from his unsuccessful mission. Dinwiddie returned to England less than three years after Randolph's return.Brown, pp. 38–39.
In the session of August 22, 1754, Wythe replaced the deceased Armistead Burwell as the burgess representing Williamsburg.Stanard, p. 133. In 1755, Wythe's elder brother, Thomas, died childless. Wythe inherited the family's Chesterville plantation and was appointed to his brother's (formerly his father's) place on the Elizabeth City County court. Wythe probably continued to live in Williamsburg, for his legislative work continued, and he married Elizabeth Taliaferro. Her father, planter Richard Taliaferro, built a house for them in Williamsburg which is called the Wythe House even though Wythe only had a life estate in the property after Taliaferro's death.
Wythe served as Williamsburg's delegate through the sessions of 1754 and 1755 (but not in the sessions of the Assembly of 1756–1758).Stanard, pp. 135, 137, 139, 140–146. During that gap, Wythe was reappointed clerk to the committees on Privileges and Elections and Propositions and Grievances, as well as to the Committee for Courts of Justice, and in 1759 to the Committee of Correspondence (with the colony's agent in England).Brown, pp. 47–48 argues that Wythe served as a burgess from Elizabeth City Country during 1756 and the College of William & Mary in 1758, but Chiswell defeated Wythe for the Williamsburg seat and he also lost the Elizabeth City County election.Kirtland, p. 89. In 1759, the College of William & Mary elected Wythe as its burgess to replace Peyton Randolph and reelected Wythe in 1760 and 1761.Stanard, pp. 146–154. Wythe helped oversee defense expenditures related to the French and Indian War.Dill, p. 15. For the Assemblies of 1761, 1765, and 1767, Wythe was one of the two burgesses representing Elizabeth City County.Stanard, pp. 154–179.
Although known for his modesty and quiet dignity, Wythe eventually gained a radical reputation for his opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765 and later attempts by the British government to regulate the overseas colony. Meanwhile, Wythe maintained close friendships with successive Governors Francis Fauquier and Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt. Wythe also earned a reputation for personal integrity, which years later led Rev. Lee Massey to call Wythe "the only honest lawyer I ever knew."Brown, p. 36, citing William Meade, Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia (Vol. 1)(Philadelphia 1856) p. 238 and a eulogy by Parson Weems reprinted in R.D. Anderson, "Chancellor Wythe and Parson Weems," William and Mary Quarterly series 1, vol. 25 (July 1916) pp. 13–19. Fauquier, Wythe, and college professor William Small often socialized together—conversing about philosophy, natural history, languages, history, and other matters. In 1762, Small suggested Wythe supervise the legal training of a star student, Thomas Jefferson, which had a profound impact beyond their lives.Brown, pp. 75–79.
Law practice In the summer of 1766, three events occurred that profoundly influenced Wythe, Jefferson, and several other Virginians who became Founding Fathers and insisted upon the separation of powers between three branches of the new government. When John Robinson, the powerful speaker of the House of Burgesses, died, his estate was nearly insolvent (with many debts, as well as outstanding loans), and the accounts Robinson kept as treasurer were irregular. Instead of destroying redeemed paper currency after the French and Indian War, Robinson lent it to his political supporters (fellow southern Virginia planters). Keeping the money in circulation helped these allies pay their debts but also tended to devalue the currency and defy the redemption laws the legislature had passed. Robinson's executors kept the names of the politically powerful loan beneficiaries secret for decades but did not manage to end the John Robinson estate scandal.Kirtland, p. 63.
On June 20, 1766, Colonel John Chiswell (father of Robinson's widow and business partner of Robinson), Governor Fauquier, and William Byrd III killed merchant Robert Routledge (to whom he owed money) at the Cumberland Court House. Indicted for murder, Chiswell was brought under armed guard to Williamsburg for trial in the next session of the General Court (which included many men from distant counties who also served as Burgesses and was thus usually held at the same time). Before the group reached the Williamsburg jail, three judges (John Blair, Presley Thornton, and Byrd) stopped them on the street and allowed Chiswell to post bail until September, since the next court session began in October.
Meanwhile, the publisher of the Virginia Gazette had died. Two printers set up shops in Williamsburg when it became clear in the spring of 1766 that the Stamp Act would not be enforced. Both papers thrived in the ensuing controversies.Kirtland, pp. 66-71. On July 4, Judge Blair explained in a published letter that the judges had relied upon assurances of "three eminent Lawyers" that they could grant Chiswell bail, as well as two depositions that Routledge had run himself on Chiswell's sword while stressing that the high bail of 6,000 pounds sterling could be recovered should Chiswell fail to show for trial.Kirtland, p. 73. In response, 'Dikephilos' wrote that his investigation agreed that Routledge had been drunk, but Chiswell was not, and further that neither deponent favoring Chiswell had witnessed the brawl. He predicted widespread violence if the trial unfairly favored the aristocratic defendant. More published letters followed.