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Picture Thomas Jefferson, penman of the Revolution, at a writing desk, dipping a quill into an ink bottle, inscribing the Declaration of Independence or Virginia’s Statute of Religious Freedom.
Now picture a scholarly figure standing behind him — a trim, older man, with a high forehead and domed cranium, silently nodding his approval as the words appear on paper.
That figure is George Wythe, mentor, teacher and friend of the third president, and influencer of Supreme Court justices, senators, congressmen, attorneys general, ambassadors and governors.
So far-reaching was Wythe’s impact that an article on him could be pegged to any number of anniversaries; National Religious Freedom Day, observed by government proclamation every Jan. 16 to honor the passage of Virginia’s Statute of Religious Freedom in 1786, is as good as any.
Bringing attention to this sometimes forgotten Founding Father is a personal mission to author Suzanne Munson. To Munson, who titled one of her books “Jefferson’s Godfather,” Wythe is “the man behind the man.” In describing his effect on the young nation, Munson invokes “the power of one,” meaning a single individual can have an outsized impact on history — for evil, as in the case of Hitler or Pol Pot, or good, as in the case of Wythe.
“Our United States was much smaller then, only 13 former Colonies/states,” she said in a Zoom interview from her home in Henrico County, “so one man could have a tremendous influence at that time, much more so than now. George Wythe’s influence was like a ripple effect. It was like a large stone thrown into a small pond. Those he mentored became mentors themselves. Lawyers taught younger lawyers, and they did so for generations after that, carrying on his ethos” (morality and values).
George Wythe (pronounced “with”) was born in Elizabeth City County (modern Hampton) in 1726 or 1727, probably at the family home, Chesterville, on the grounds of today’s NASA Langley Research Center. The Wythes were tobacco farmers who used enslaved labor. A great-grandfather on his mother’s side was the missionary George Keith. Young George Wythe probably read Keith’s militant pamphlet against slavery.
As a younger son, Wythe had to pick a profession. He chose the law. As there were no law schools on this side of the Atlantic, he studied under a Williamsburg attorney. Admitted to the bar in 1746, Wythe moved to Fredericksburg to practice with Zachary Lewis.
Wythe married the senior partner’s daughter, Anne Lewis, and started putting down roots in the Rappahannock town. But the thread of life was fragile in the 18th century, and about seven months into the marriage, Anne died, probably from complications of pregnancy. The devastated young lawyer crawled back to the familiar environs of Williamsburg and opened a practice there.
Moving up in the Virginia hierarchy, Wythe was appointed acting attorney general in early 1754. Later that year he was elected to the House of Burgesses, representing Williamsburg. He inherited Chesterville when his brother died childless, and married Elizabeth Taliaferro (pronounced “Tolliver”), daughter of a James City County planter. The couple lived in Williamsburg in what became known as the Wythe House.
In 1760, 16-year-old Thomas Jefferson left Albemarle County for William & Mary. The temptations in “Devilsburg,” as Jefferson called the Colonial capital, included card games, dice games, horse racing and dog fights, lubricated with staggering amounts of rum, cider, beer, brandy and wine. Many a wide-eyed student from the backwoods fell in with the wrong crowd, but Jefferson wisely sought upright role models like Lt. Gov. Francis Fauquier; Dr. William Small, professor of science, then called natural philosophy; and Wythe. The older men enjoyed Jefferson’s violin playing and lively mind, and helped shape his intellect, social skills and aesthetic tastes.
Of Jefferson’s teachers and mentors, Wythe had the greatest influence. He tutored Jefferson in the law and also gave him reading assignments in history, literature, philosophy, languages and science. The childless older man became a paternal figure to Jefferson, whose father had died when he was 14. “He was my ancient master, my earliest and best friend,” Jefferson wrote.
The many portraits of Wythe all show a large head. His friends joked that it was “needed to hold all of his prodigious knowledge,” according to Munson.
Despite his schoolmasterly appearance and modest demeanor, Wythe was in the revolutionary vanguard. As far back as 1765, he co-authored a public letter protesting taxation without representation. In early 1775, when many Americans were still wavering, he called for the organization of an army.
Wythe traveled to Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress. As the delegates’ work was reaching a climax in the summer of 1776, Wythe returned to Williamsburg to help guide the creation of a state. He designed the Seal of the Commonwealth, featuring the Roman goddess of Virtue with one foot atop a fallen king; the inscription, “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” means “thus always to tyrants.” Wythe’s design, with minor alterations, remains on the state flag.
When Wythe returned to Philadelphia in late August, he was given a copy of the Declaration to sign. In deference to the senior delegate, his fellow Virginians had left a blank space atop the column of Virginia signatures. Wythe may have felt a teacher’s pride in a student’s work as he put his pen to the paper.
The Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom was introduced in 1779 and adopted by the General Assembly on Jan. 16, 1786. It asserts that “Almighty God hath created the mind free…” and condemns those “legislators and rulers, civil and ecclesiastical” who set up “their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible….” The words are Jefferson’s, but the content was shaped by a two-man committee consisting of the author and his mentor.
In 1788, Wythe played a key role in helping secure Virginia’s ratification of the Constitution at a convention in Richmond. It passed against significant opposition, 89 to 79. Patrick Henry was among the “no” votes.
Jefferson became governor of Virginia in 1779 and persuaded William & Mary’s Board of Visitors to establish a professorship in law. Wythe was his choice to become the first university-affiliated law professor in America. Wythe taught from 1780 to 1789. His most distinguished student was John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835.
In 1778, Wythe was elected to Virginia’s High Court of Chancery. In a chancery court, a judge, not a jury, decides an issue based upon fairness and not necessarily the letter of the law.
In a 1806 case, Judge Wythe invoked language from Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, “all men are by nature equally free,” to rule that the burden is on the person claiming ownership to prove that another person can be bound by slavery. Wythe began freeing his own slaves upon Elizabeth’s death in 1787, and by his own death no longer owned any.
In a just world, a man who devoted his life to justice would be rewarded with an easy death surrounded by a loving family. Alas, Wythe was poisoned by a relative, and in a further irony, Virginia’s justice system, which the judge did so much to shape, failed to bring the murderer to account.
In 1806, Wythe, about 80 — his exact birth date is not known — was still healthy and still on the Chancery bench. His household in Richmond included his great-nephew and namesake, George Wythe Sweeney, and two servants, Lydia Broadnax and Michael Brown. Wythe had manumitted Broadnax in 1787, and she remained with him as his paid cook. Michael Brown was a free teen of mixed race whom Wythe taught Latin, Greek and math. His connection to Wythe is uncertain but there is no evidence he was Wythe’s biological son.
The great-nephew, Sweeney, 18, was already on the wrong track. He had forged Wythe’s name on several checks and had stolen and sold some of Wythe’s possessions, probably to pay gambling debts. His kindly great-uncle forgave him and hoped he would straighten up. Wythe made Sweeney a beneficiary of his will, along with Broadnax and Brown.
On the morning of May 25, 1806, Lydia Broadnax was cooking breakfast. Sweeney picked up the kettle from stove and poured himself a cup of coffee. He replaced the kettle, then threw something into the fire. He could not stay to eat, he said, and left.
Broadnax and Brown drank coffee from the kettle, and Broadnax brought a cup to Wythe upstairs in his bedroom. Within minutes, all three were violently ill. Wythe immediately feared poisoning.
With Wythe on his deathbed, Sweeney was caught trying to cash another forged check. A search of Sweeney’s room turned up arsenic. Broadnax told investigators she had seen Sweeney reading Wythe’s will the night before the incident.
Commentators have disagreed as to whether Sweeney intended to kill just his great-uncle, or just his two co-beneficiaries, or all three.
Brown succumbed on June 1. Wythe survived long enough to amend his will to exclude his murderous relative. After two agonizing weeks, George Wythe expired on June 8, 1806.
Sweeney stood trial for the murder of Wythe and Brown. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty. The medical case was weak due to botched autopsies, and Broadnax couldn’t testify against a white defendant because she was Black.
Broadnax survived the incident. In poor health, she wrote a beseeching letter to her employer’s former student, the President of the United States. Thomas Jefferson sent her $50.
Memorials to Wythe are many. Wytheville and Wythe County are named for him. The Wythe House welcomes visitors at Colonial Williamsburg, and a statue of the professor with John Marshall was erected at the William & Mary Law School in 2000.
Richmond chose to rename its George Wythe High School in 2023 because he owned slaves. It is now called Richmond High School for the Arts. George Wythe High School in Wytheville continues to honor the jurist and educator.
Sources / further reading
Holt, Wythe W., “George Wythe,” Encyclopedia Virginia.
Munson, Suzanne, “Jefferson’s Godfather.”
Wythepedia, https://wythepedia.wm.edu/