Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/670

WYTHE, George, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. in Elizabeth City county, Va., in 1726; d. in Richmond, Va., 8 June, 1806. His father was a wealthy planter, and his mother, who possessed unusual intelligence and learning, gave him his early educa- tion. Under her tui- tion he became an ac- complished Latin and Greek scholar, an ex- cellent mathematician, acquired a liberal knowledge of the sci- ences, and was further instructed at William and Mary ; but the death of both parents before he attained his majority and the con- sequent uncontrolled possession of a large fortune led him into extravagance and dis- sipation. He reformed

when he was about

thirty years old, studied law under John Lewis, an eminent practi- tioner, and quickly rose to the front rank at the Virginia bar. Early in life he was chosen to the house of burgesses, where he was recognized as one of the leaders, and he continued to serve until the beginning of the Revolution. On 14 Nov., 1764, he was appointed a member of its com- mittee to prepare and report a petition to the king, a memorial to the house of lords, and a remon- strance to the house of commons on the proposed stamp-act. He drew up the last-named paper, but it so far exceeded the demands of his colleagues in boldness and truth that it was viewed as bor- dering on treason, and accepted only after much modification. From that time he continued to exert all his influence in favor of the independence of the colonies, and in August, 1775, he was ap- pointed a delegate to the Continental congress from Virginia, signing the Declaration of Independence on 4 July of the next year. On 5 Nov., 1776, he was appointed by the legislature, with Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Pendle- ton, George Ma- son, and Thomas Ludwell Lee, on a committee to re-

vise the state laws

of British and colonial enactment, and to prepare bills for re-enacting them with such alterations as were required under the new government. Mason and Lee did not serve, but so industrious were the other three members of the committee that on 18 June, 1779, they had prepared 126 bills, which they reported to the as- sembly. He became speaker of the house of dele- gates in 1777, the same year was chosen one of the three judges of the chancery court of Virginia, and, on the reorganization of the court of equity, was constituted sole chancellor, which post he held for more than twenty years. Before the close of the Revolution, debts had been incurred between American and British merchants, and the recovery of these was the subject of the 6th article of John Jay's treaty with Great Britain, but popular feel- ing was strong against legal decrees in favor of British claimants. Chancellor Wythe was the first judge in the United States that decided the claims to be recoverable. He lost almost all his property during the Revolution, but he supplemented his small income as chancellor, which was £800 a year, by accepting the professorship of law in William and Mary, which he held in 1779-'89. In the latter year his arduous duties compelled his resignation, and he removed to Richmond, Va. In December, 1786, he was chosen a member of the convention that framed the constitution of the United States, and he regularly attended its ses- sions, but, being absent on the last day, failed to sign the constitution. He was subsequently twice a presidential elector. In the latter part of his life he emancipated his slaves, furnishing them with means of support until they learned to take care of themselves. In the eighty-first year of his age, while he was still in the full vigor of his in- tellect and the exercise of the duties of the chan- cellorship, he was poisoned. His nephew, George Wythe Sweeny, was tried for the crime, but was acquitted. William and Mary gave Judge Wythe the degree of LL. D. in 1790. He was twice mar- ried, but his only child died in infancy. Among his pupils were two presidents of the United States, a chief justice, and others who attained high rank in the legal profession. Thomas Jefferson, his law pupil and devoted adherent, said of him in notes that he made in 1820 for a biography of Wythe, which he never completed : " No man ever left be- hind him a character more venerated than George Wythe. His virtue was of the purest kind, his in- tegrity inflexible, his justice exact. He might truly be called the Cato of his country, without the avarice of the Roman, for a more disinterested person never lived. He was of middle size, his face manly, come- ly, and engaging. Such was George Wythe, the honor of his own and the model of future times." The engraving shows his house in Williamsburg, Va. He published "Decisions in Virginia by the High Court of Chancery, with Remarks upon De- crees by the Court of Appeals" (Richmond, 1795; 2d ed.. with a memoir by Benjamin B. Minor (1852).

WYTHE, Joseph Henry, physician, b. in Manchester, England, 19 March, 1822. He removed to this country in 1835, was licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal church in 1842, but decided to study medicine. He was graduated at the Pennsylvania medical college in 1853. and began to practise in Port Carbon, Pa., where he was for three years surgeon to the Beaver Meadow collieries. In 1862-'3 he served as surgeon of U. S. volunteers, organizing Camp Parole hospital, Alexandria, Va. After the war he removed to the west, and in 1865-9 was president of Willamette university, Oregon, organizing the medical department of that institution, and, having again united with the conference, preached in the Methodist Episcopal church. He subsequently settled in San Francisco, Cal., and became professor of microscopy and histology in the Medical college of the Pacific. He has published many professional papers, and is the author of/' The Microscopist " (Philadelphia, 1850); "Curiosities of the Microscope" (1852); " Physician's Pocket Dose- and Prescription-Book " (1852); "Agreement of Science and Revelation" (1883) ; " Easy Lessons in Vegetable Biology " (New York, 1883) ; and " The Science of Life " (1884).