Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence
Written in 1829 by Charles Goodrich, this biographical sketch covers the life of George Wythe. Goodrich incorrectly repeats that Wythe did not practice law until 1756, and that he was "very dissipated" until the age of thirty: a myth perpetuated by many 19th-century biographies of Wythe.[1]
Page 1
GEORGE WYTHE was a native of Virginia. He was born
n 1726, in the county of Elizabeth. On the decease of his
father, who was a wealthy farmer, he came into possession
of an ample estate, sufficient to render him independent.
His mother was a woman of superior intellect and acquire.
ments, and she took much pains to have him well instructed.
All the education he derived from schools, amounted only to
reading and writing his native language, with but a slight ac.
quaintance with the rules of common arithmetic. But his
mother, who was well instructed in the Latin language, took
on herself the instruction of her son, and aided him much in
acquiring a knowledge of both the Latin and Greek. He lost
1 both ofhis parents by death, before he had reached twenty-one
years of age, and was left to his own guidance, in possession
of pecuniary means sufficient for indulging all his desires for
worldly pleasure and amusement, which unrestrained youth
are too prone to pursue. After the decease of his mother,
he gave way to the seductions of pleasure, laid aside study,
and devoted several years to amusement and dissipation.
In the course of a few years, however, he seems to have
come to sober reflection, for at about the age of thirty, he
withdrew himself from his gay associates, relinquished his
levities, and returned to his studies with a zeal and applica.
tion, which prepared him for the distinguished honor and use.
fulness to which he afterwards obtained. This assiduous
application he continued to the end of his life. He did not
cease to lament the misimprovement of his early years, even
in his old age, and he always viewed the time he spent in
pleasure, not only as a heavy, but an irreparable loss.
Having by his own efforts acquired a preparatory educa.
tion, superior to that of many who enjoy better advantages
than he did, he commenced the study of law, under the in.
struction of Mr. John Jones, a distinguished lawyer in the co.
Jony. Soon after his admission to the bar, he rose rapidly to
