George Wythe – Tutor of Patriots

George Wythe (1726 in Chesterton, Virginia (present day Hampton)– June 8, 1806), was a 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. He was the first professor of law in America,^{[citation needed]} earning him the title of “The Father of American Jurisprudence.”^{[citation needed]} 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.

Wythe 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. Wythe’s pupils included Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, James Monroe, and John Marshall.

Of these men, Wythe was closest to Thomas Jefferson — so close that Jefferson once described Wythe as a “second father.”^{[citation needed]} 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.

A slaveholder, Wythe became an abolitionist, freeing his slaves and providing for their support. Wythe provided for his slaves, Lydia Broadnax and her son Michael Brown, in his will. 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 slaves 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.^[4]

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.^[5] 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. ^[6]

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.

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