View source for Professor of Law and Police

After becoming the Governor of Virginia and a member of the Board of Visitors at the College of William & Mary in 1779, [[Thomas Jefferson]] set into motion a change in legal education. His idea was that a formal educational program for lawyers should replace the practice of taking on legal apprentices.<ref>Paul D. Carrington, [http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol31/iss3/2/ “The Revolutionary Idea of University Legal Education,”] ''William & Mary Law Review'' 31 (1990), 527.</ref> His goal was to introduce a program of study that would teach law with the aim of “inculcate[ing] republican virtue, those traits needed by public men to evoke public trust in public institutions.”<ref>Paul D. Carrington, Teaching Law and Virtue at Transylvania University: The George Wythe Tradition in Antebellum Years, ''Mercer Law Review'' 41 (1989), 675.</ref>  At a meeting of the College's Board of Visitors on December 4, 1779 he was able to do just that: a resolution was passed that created the Chair of Law and Police as one of the six professorships at the College.<ref>The Virginia Gazette, [http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/gwythe/2/ "At a convocation of the visitors of the college of William and Mary, on the 4th day of December 1779, a statute was passed, of which the following is an extract,"] December 18, 1779, at 1.</ref>

[[George Wythe]], Jefferson’s teacher, was recruited to fill the [[Wythe the Teacher|position]]. Wythe lectured twice a week on topics such as the political economy, public law, and English common law and created regular moot court sessions where students argued in front of Wythe and other professors.<ref>W. Taylor Reveley, III, [http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs/75/ “W&M Law School Came First. Why Care?”] ''University of Toledo Law Review'' 35 (2003), 185.</ref> Wythe served as the Chair of Law and Police until 1789 and was succeeded by [[St. George Tucker]] who continued the focus on public affairs. Tucker, like Wythe, also served concurrently as a judge, a tradition that continued for the [http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/deans/ Chair of Law and Police at William & Mary] until 1851.<ref>Carrington, “Teaching Law and Virtue at Transylvania University: The George Wythe Tradition in Antebellum Years,” 675-6.</ref> In 1861 the school would close due to the Civil War and would not re-open until 1922 as the Marshall-Wythe School of Government and Citizenship.

==See also==
*[[Wythe the Teacher]]

==References==
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[[Category:Aspects of Wythe's Life]]