George Wythe Information
George Wythe (1726 – June 8, 1806) was an American lawyer, a judge, a prominent law professor and "Virginia's foremost classical scholar."[1] Wythe's signature is positioned at the head of the list of seven Virginia signatories on the United States Declaration of Independence. Wythe served as a representative of Virginia and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention—though he left the Convention early and did not sign the final version of the Constitution.[2]
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Life
Wythe was born in Hampton , Virginia (present day Hampton). He served as mayor of Williamsburg, Virginia, from 1768 to 1769. In 1779 he was appointed to the newly created Chair of Law at William and Mary, becoming the first law professor in the United States. He remained on the college faculty until 1789 when he became a Judge in the Court of Chancery. Wythe's pupils at William and Mary included James Monroe and John Marshall. Students who studied in his law office at other times included Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, and John Breckinridge.[3]
Of these men, Wythe was closest to Thomas Jefferson. At a time when law students often read law for a year or less, Jefferson spent five years reading law with George Wythe, and the two men together read all sorts of other material; from English literary works, to political philosophy, to the ancient classics.
Wythe was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775, voting in favor of the resolution for independence and signing the Declaration of Independence. He helped form the new government of Virginia, was elected Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1777, and also as part of a committee designed the Seal of Virginia, inscribed with the motto "Sic Semper Tyrannis", which is still in use today. In 1789 he became Judge of the Chancery Court of Virginia.
In 1787, George Washington appointed Wythe along with Alexander Hamilton and Charles Pinckney to draw up rules and procedures for the Constitutional Convention.
In John Trumbull's famous painting, The Declaration of Independence, Wythe is shown in profile farthest to the viewer's left. Trumbull's painting can also be found on the back of the U.S. $2 bill, but Wythe's image is cut off in that depiction.[4]A slaveholder, Wythe became an abolitionist, freeing his slaves and providing for their support. Wythe provided for freed Lydia Broadnax and her son Michael Brown in his will; Broadnax had stayed on as a servant. The will also contained a provision for Brown's education. Jefferson biographer Fawn M. Brodie has alleged Broadnax was Wythe's concubine, and Brown was his son.
Wythe's other heir, his grand-nephew, George Wythe Sweeney, decided to avoid this dilution of his fortune by poisoning the servants with arsenic. In the process, he killed Wythe as well, though Wythe lingered long enough to change his will to eliminate his bequest to his murderer. Broadnax survived the poisoning. [5]
It was the only punishment his killer received. In Sweeney's trial he was acquitted of murder in Virginia, primarily because of a law that forbade the testimony of black witnesses, a law Wythe ironically had himself penned. [6] Sweeney was tried for forgery, and convicted, but that was overturned on appeal and Sweeney is said to have gone to Tennessee, stolen a horse, and served a term in a penitentiary. The rest of his life was then lost to history. [7]
Wythe, in his will, left his extraordinary book collection to Thomas Jefferson who described Wythe as "... my ancient master, my earliest and best friend, and to him I am indebted for first impressions which have [been] the most salutary on the course of my life."
Wythe is buried at St. John's Church in Richmond, the same church in which Patrick Henry made his "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" speech.
Memorialization
Will of George Wythe, 1806, leaving books to Thomas JeffersonWythe's home in Williamsburg, Virginia has survived and stands next to Bruton Parish Church of which Wythe was a vestryman.[8] It was acquired by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 1938 and is today a museum known as the Wythe House.
Wythe County, Virginia, its county seat Wytheville, Virginia, two George Wythe High Schools (one in Wytheville and one in Richmond, Virginia), George Wythe Elementary in Hampton, Virginia (the present day name of Elizabeth City County, Virginia) and George Wythe College of (Cedar City, Utah) are all named after George Wythe. The Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, a section of US-301 named Wythe Street that intersects I-95 in Petersburg, Virginia, and the Olde Wythe Neighborhood in Hampton also bear his name.
Thomas Jefferson's notes on biography of Wythe, 1820See also
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Notes
- ^ Online site for Colonial Williamsburg
- ^ usconsitution.net Notes on the Constitution
- ^ Courthouse History, U.S. District Court, Washington, DC.
- ^ americanrevolution.org Key to Trumbull's picture
- ^ Kappman (ed), Edward W. (1994). Great American Trials. Detroit, MI: Visible Ink Press. pp. 75–77. ISBN 0-8103-9134-1.
- ^ Stephen G. Christianson (1999). "George Sweeney Trial: 1806 - Sweeney Poisons Wythe And Is Tried For Murder". http://law.jrank.org/pages/2424/George-Sweeney-Trial-1806-Sweeney-Poisons-Wythe-Tried-Murder.html. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
- ^ Bruce Chadwick, "The Mysterious Death of George Wythe", American History Feb. 2009, pp.36-41
- ^ Williamsburg site, supra
External links
- Philosophy and Biography on Wythe at the George Wythe College website
- Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856
- George Wythe at Find a Grave
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| Preceded by James Cocke | Mayor of Williamsburg, Virginia 1768-1769 | Succeeded by James Blair, Jr. |
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| Name | Wythe, George |
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| Date of birth | 1726-0-0 |
| Place of birth | Elizabeth City County, Virginia |
| Date of death | June 8, 1806 |
| Place of death | Virginia |
Categories: Continental Congressmen from Virginia | Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence | House of Burgesses members | Speakers of the Virginia House of Delegates | American legal scholars | American people of English descent | American abolitionists | 1726 births | 1806 deaths | People of Virginia in the American Revolution | Virginia Supreme Court justices | College of William & Mary alumni | The College of William & Mary faculty | American murder victims | People murdered in Virginia | Murdered politicians | Deaths by poisoning
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