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Virginia Biography

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Virginia Biography ENCYCLOPEDIA,,' of VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF LYON GARDINER TYLER, LL. D. President of William and Mary College, Williamsburg; Author of "Parties and Patronage in the United States," "The Cradle of the Republic," "Williamsburg, the Old Colonial Capital," "England in America," "The Letters and Times of the Tylers," etc.; Vice-President of the Virginia Historical Society, Member of the Maryland Historical Society, and vanous ocher societies. I ! ,II I VOLUME II I I I I 'i NEW YORK LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY I\ , 1915 I II' I I COPYRIGHT, 1915 LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 40 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY lumbiaUniversity, N ew York, and is com­ cOlltinu:ng till 1756. About this time he re- memorated in the massive marble Wa~~hing­ 1l1oyecl to Spotsylvania county, where he ton Arch in the same city, and in the \V<,,~h­ married Anne, daughter of Zachary Lewis, ington Monument in the national capital. a pJ"I)minent lawyer there. In 1758 he was Statues of Washington have been erected in "gai~l in Williamsburg, and was burges.,; nearly every important city in the couLtry, for the college of William and Mary in the the pri':lcipal ones being that by Houdon in assembly of 1758-1761, after which he re­ llroved to his native county, Elizabeth City. the capital at Richmond, Virginia, and ,nd was burgess for that county from 1761 Crawford's equestrian statue in the same to 17(;9, when he was made clerk of the city; and the colossal statue by GreenOl·,gh, house of burgesses, an office retained by in Washington City. Among numerous him till 1775. During the Stamp Act portraits are those of Stuart, Trumbull, ;.(nci truul:>les, he was one of the committee of both the Peales. corn's!)ondence, which in June, 1764, pro­ Martha Washington, wife of President tested ag·'linst its enactment, and he drew and General George Washington, was a the remonstrance to the house of com­ daughter of Colonel John Dandridge, and mUll." adopted by the burgesses in Decem­ widow of Daniel Parke Custis. Her ber. 1764. He opposed the resolution.,; oi daughter, Martha Parke Custis, died at the Patrick Henry in May, 1765, as hasty and age of seventeen; her younger children, IJremature. He served as clerk of the house Eleanor Parke and George Washington of burges~es till he was appointed a mem­ Parke Custis, were adopted by General ber of Congress in August, 1775, where Washington, who was childless. he supported the resolutions of Richard Wythe, George, son of Thomas Wythe, Henry Lee, in favor of iridependence .. and ,md Elizabeth Walker, his wife, who Vias a afterward was a signer of the Declaraticl:l granddaughter of the celebrated Rev. of Independence. In 1776 he was appoin:ed George Keith, of England and Penn~yl­ .a member of the committee to revise the vania, was descended from Thomas Wythe, laws of the state and to adapt them to the who came to Elizabeth City county, trom new {orm of government,having bee!l one Englalld about 1680. He was born 111 of the compilers of the Code of 1769. In 1726, was schooled under the care ot his 1777 he was speaker of the house of dele­ t:lOlber, who was well educated, anJ at­ gates, and the same year was appointed one te:1ded \i\filliam and Mary College. I J c ot the three judges of the chancery court es­ studicll iaw under his uncle-in-law, Stepbell tablished by law. While holding this posi­ Devvcy, in Prince George county; settled in tion, he was appointed, in 1779, professor of \V iUiainsburg, and attained distinction at l:Jw at \i\filliam and Mary College, being the bar, and was made attorney-general l,y thus the first professor of law in the United Go,"er!1or Dinwiddie,.in 1754, in the absence States. As a part of his methods of teach­ of Peyton Randolph; was burgess for tl·Je jng he held moot law courts and legislative city of Vlilliamsburg, August of the same assemblies in the old Williamsburg capital. year, on the death of Armistead Burwell, He was the first judge to announce the FATHERS OF THE REVOLUTION 41 power of the courts to over-rule an uncon­ Jefferson and John Marshall studied law stitutional enactment. In 1789 he was made under him. The former pronounced him sole chancellor of the state, resigned hi~ "one of the greatest men of his age." He professorship, and went to reside in Rich­ wa~ the author of "Decisions in Virgil~i;t mond. In 1787, he represented Virginia in by the High Court of Chancery." He dic,l the Federal convention at Philadelphia and from tlle effects of poison, and his ~Teat­ in 1788 was vice-president of the Virginia nephew, George Wythe Sweeney, was tricn state convention, which ratified its work, Mr. Wythe voting for the constitution. He for the crime, but was acquitted. He died was twice presidential elector on the Re­ .br,e 8, 1806, and was buried in St. John's publican ticket. The honorary degree of churchyard, Richmond. He married (sec­ LL. D. was conferred upon him by William ond) Elizabeth Taliaferro, daughter of . and Mary in 1790. So just and upright was Richard Taliaferro, of James City county . he in his decisions, that he was called the but he had no surviving issue by either of "American Aristides," and both Thomas his wives. .
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