George Wythe facts for kids

George Wythe

Wythe's signature

George Wythe (1726 – June 8, 1806), was a lawyer, judge, prominent law professor and "Virginia's foremost classical scholar." Wythe was one of the seven men from Virginia who signed the United States Declaration of Independence.

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.

Images for kids

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  The George Wythe House in Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Virginia

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  In John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence, Wythe is in profile farthest to the viewer's left. Trumbull's 1818 painting was used for the back of the U.S. $2 bill, but Wythe's image was cut out of that depiction.

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  Will of George Wythe, 1806, leaving books to Thomas Jefferson

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  Thomas Jefferson's notes on biography of Wythe, 1820

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  George Wythe gravestone at St. John's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia