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George Wythe

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Attorney

The Resume

    (1726-June 8, 1806)
    Born in Elizabeth City County, Virginia
    Lawyer/politician/judge/educator
    Mayor of Williamsburg, Virginia (1768-69)
    Appointed Chair of Law at the College of William and Mary, becoming the first law professor in the United States (1769)
    Delegate from Virginia to the Second Continental Congress (1775-77)
    Signed the Declaration of Independence (1776)
    Elected Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates (1777)
    Member of the Constitutional Convention (1787)
    Appointed Judge of the Chancery Court of Virginia (1789)
    Murdered with arsenic by his grand-nephew George Wythe Sweeney

Why he might be annoying:

    He dropped out of the college where he later became a professor.
    Although he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he left early and did not sign the Constitution.
    His killer walked, largely because the main eyewitness, Wythe's cook Lydia Broadnax, was black and her testimony was not admissible against a white defendant.
    While serving in the Virginia House of Delegates three decades earlier, he had discussed with Thomas Jefferson allowing court testimony by blacks, but both had dismissed the idea as politically unfeasible.

Why he might not be annoying:

    His students included future presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe and Chief Justice John Marshall.
    He often let needy students live in his home.
    He was part of the committee that designed the Seal of Virginia.
    Along with Alexander Hamilton and Charles Pickney, he was appointed by George Washington to draw up the rules and procedures for the Constitutional Convention.
    He became an abolitionist after the American Revolution, freed his slaves, provided financial support for their transition to freedom, and named several in his will.
    He lived long enough after being poisoned to write Sweeney out of his will.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 13 Votes: 30.77% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 16 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 10 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 32 Votes: 43.75% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 21 Votes: 52.38% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 91 Votes: 51.65% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 81 Votes: 48.15% Annoying