Home of George Wythe, Colonial Williamsburg, VA
Front study where George Wythe would regularly engage in scientific and philosophical discussion with guests.
Private law office. Unlike the front rooms, which would typically be used for visiting with guests, this back office was where Thomas Jefferson studied and then later practiced the law as an associate to George Wythe.
Desk in the private law office of George Wythe
Upon his death, George Wythe left an impressive library of books to his life-long friend, Thomas Jefferson. These became the foundation for the Library of Congress.
George Wythe
(December 03, 1726- June 08, 1806)
Known as the “Father of the American Law School,” George Wythe was a professor at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, receiving his first teaching appointment in 1761. Thomas Jefferson was Wythe’s student (starting in 1762) and later law associate. They served together in Congress as Virginia’s representatives with Wythe taking George Washington’s seat upon Washington’s commission as Supreme Commander of the Continental forces in 1775. Jefferson and Wythe were life-long friends.
In 1779, then-Governor Jefferson appointed Wythe to be the Chair of Law and Policy at William & Mary, a newly created position thus ensuring Wythe’s place in history as America’s first law professor at our nation’s first law school. Wythe’s teachings were believed to have been influential in the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Easter Egg # 7