George Wythe (1726 - 1806)

Born 3 Dec 1726 in Chesterville, Elizabeth City County, Colony of Virginia

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Taliaferro) Wythe — married 1754 in James City County, Virginia

Died 8 Jun 1806 at age 79 in Richmond, Virginia, United States

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George Wythe participated in the American Revolution. Join: 1776 Project Discuss: 1776

George Wythe resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776. Join: US Southern Colonies Project Discuss: southern_colonies

Biography

George Wythe is Notable.

George Wythe was a Founding Father in the American Revolution.

George Wythe (pronounced "With"), son of Thomas Wythe III, and Margaret (Walker) Wythe, was born 3 December 1726 at "Chesterville", his father's plantation, in Elizabeth City County (now Hampton County), Virginia.

George married Ann Lewis, daughter of Zachary Lewis, a prominent lawyer, in 1747. Ann died August 8, 1748.

George married again, about 1754, Elizabeth Taliaferro, the daughter of Richard Taliaferro. Elizabeth died in 1787.

George had no children. He wrote a will in favor of a grandnephew George Wythe Sweeney, who greedily couldn't wait for George's death and poisoned him. He died 8 June 1806. He is buried at St. John's Church in Richmond. See gravesite monument.

Some articles on the life of George Wythe:

• George Wythe from The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
  
• George Wythe , Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.
  

George Wythe, was the second of Thomas and Margaret Wythe's three children, born in 1726 on his family's plantation on the Back River in Elizabeth City County, VA. Both parents died when Wythe was young, and he grew up under in guardianship of his older brother, Thomas. Wythe was to become an eminent jurist and teacher, he received very little formal education. He learned Latin and Greek from his well-educated mother, and he probably attended a grammar school operated by the College of William and Mary.

Wythe's brother later sent him to Prince George County to read law under an uncle. In 1746, at age 20, he joined the bar, moved to Spotsylvania County, and became associated with another lawyer there. In 1747 he married his partner's sister, Ann Lewis, she died the next year. In 1754 Lt. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie appointed him as acting colonial attorney general, a position that he held for only a few months. The next year, Wythe's brother died and he inherited the family estate. He chose, to live in Williamsburg in the house that his new father-in-law,, designed and built for him and his wife, Elizabeth Taliaferro. They married in 1755, and their only child died in infancy.

At Williamsburg, Wythe immersed himself in further study of the classics and the law and achieved accreditation by the colonial supreme court. He served in the House of Burgesses from the mid-1750s until 1775, first as delegate and after 1769 as clerk. In 1768 he became mayor of Williamsburg, and the next year he sat on the board of visitors of the College of William and Mary. During these years he also directed the legal studies of young scholars, notably Thomas Jefferson. Wythe and Jefferson maintained a lifelong friendship, first as mentor and pupil and later as political allies.

Wythe first exhibited revolutionary leanings in 1764 when Parliament hinted to the colonies that it might impose a stamp tax. By then an experienced legislator, he drafted for the House of Burgesses a remonstrance to Parliament so strident that his fellow delegates modified it before adoption. Wythe was one of the first to express the concept of separate nationhood for the colonies within the British empire.

When war broke out, Wythe volunteered for the army but was sent to the Continental Congress. Although present from 1775 through 1776, Wythe exerted little influence and signed the Declaration of Independence after the formal signing in August 1776. That same year, Wythe, Jefferson, and Edmund Pendleton undertook a 3-year project to revise Virginia's legal code. In 1777 Wythe also presided as speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.

An appointment as one of the three judges of the newly created Virginia high court of chancery followed in 1778. For 28 years, during 13 of which he was the only chancellor, Wythe charted the course of Virginia jurisprudence. In addition, he was an ex officio member of the state superior court.

Wythe's real love was teaching. In 1779 Jefferson and other officials of the College of William and Mary created the first chair of law in a U.S. institution of higher learning and appointed Wythe to fill it. In that position, he educated America's earliest college-trained lawyers, among them John Marshall and James Monroe. In 1787 he attended the Constitutional Convention but played an insignificant role. He left the proceedings early and did not sign the Constitution. The following year, however, he was one of the Federalist leaders at the Virginia ratifying convention. There he presided over the Committee of the Whole and offered the resolution for ratification.

In 1791, the year after Wythe resigned his professorship, his chancery duties caused him to move to Richmond, the state capital. He was reluctant to give up his teaching, however, and opened a private law school. One of his last and most promising pupils was young Henry Clay.

In 1806, Wythe died at Richmond under mysterious circumstances, probably of poison administered by his grandnephew and heir, George Wythe Sweeney. Reflecting a lifelong aversion to slavery, Wythe emancipated his slaves in his will. His grave is in the yard of St. John's Episcopal Church in Richmond.

Legacy

Wythe County, Virginia is named in his honor.

See also: Wythe's Slaves.

Sources

• 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.
• Ivey, Willie Catherine. Ancestry of John Taliaferro... Tennille, GA: manuscript, 1936.
• WikiPedia:George_Wythe George Wythe.
• George Wythe from The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
• George Wythe, Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.
• College William & Mary, George Wythe.
• "Was George Wythe Murdered?: A celebrated case of 1806 posed questions which are still not answered," by Calvin Jarrett, Virginia Cavalcade 13 (3), Winter, 1963 - 1964, pages 33 - 39; image copy, Archive.org (https://archive.org/embed/sim_virginia-cavalcade_winter-1963-1964_13_3). This fascinating article also includes sketch-portraits of several of the key men involved in one way or another with this case.
• Bruce Chadwick, "The Mysterious Death of George Wythe," HistoryNet (https://www.historynet.com/the-mysterious-death-of-judge-george-wythe.htm).
• "I am murdered": George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson, and the killing that shocked a new nation, by Bruce Chadwick (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2009). This publication is freely accessible (free user account may be required) from The Internet Archive (archive.org); accessed 25 July 2021). The 239-page account includes through sources, extensive footnotes, and an index. There is no apparent photo of George Wythe Sweeney.
• American Aristides: A Biography of George Wythe, by Imogene Brown (Florham, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1981). This biography of George Wythe appears to be either out of print or extremely expensive; not consulted before adding as a source.
• Find A Grave: Memorial #2792 for George Wythe.