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George Taylor (Pennsylvania politician)

George Taylor (c. 1716 – February 23, 1781) was an American ironmaster and politician who was a Founding Father of the United States and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Pennsylvania. His former home, the George Taylor House in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, was named a National Historic Landmark in 1971.

Early life and education
Taylor was born in the North of Ireland (now Northern Ireland), possibly Ulster, in 1716. He emigrated to the American colonies at age 20, landing in Philadelphia in 1736. According to early 18th century biographies of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, he is believed to have been the son of a Protestant clergyman. To pay for his passage, Taylor was indentured to Samuel Savage Jr., who was ironmaster at the French Creek Iron Works in Coventry in Chester County northwest of Philadelphia.

Iron worker
Taylor started as a laborer at the ironworks, but when it was discovered he had a certain degree of education, he was promoted by 1739 to a position in the offices as a clerk.

In 1738, Savage, his brother-in-law Samuel Nutt Jr., and his mother Anna Savage Nutt built Warwick Furnace, a cold blast, charcoal furnace to the west, which they named Warwick. Savage died in 1742, and the following year, Taylor married Savage's widow, Ann, whose maiden name was also Taylor. In 1745, under iron master John Potts, Taylor was made manager of the works, which consisted of the furnace and Coventry Forge. When Ann's son Samuel III reached legal age in 1752, the son assumed ownership of the mills by the terms of his father's will.

The Taylors continued to live at Warwick Furnace until 1755, when Taylor formed a partnership to lease the Durham Furnace in Upper Bucks County, north of Philadelphia. The ironworks, built in 1727, was started by a group of investors who were among Pennsylvania's wealthiest and most influential men, including James Logan, proprietor of the Pennsylvania colony for the Penn family, and William Allen, later the colony's chief justice and founder of Allentown (then called Northampton Town).

Political career
Shortly after becoming ironmaster at Durham, Taylor entered public life for the first time, serving as a justice of the peace in Bucks County, Pennsylvania from 1757 to 1763. When the lease for the Durham mill expired, the Taylors relocated to Easton, the county seat of Northampton County, where they purchased a stone house near the center of town and built a stable nearby. Continuing his interest in public affairs, Taylor was commissioned as a justice of the peace in Northampton County and was elected to the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly. He also helped build a new county courthouse in Easton's center square.

In 1767, Taylor purchased 331 acre near Allentown at Biery's Port, which is now part of Catasauqua, Pennsylvania. The house was completed in 1768, but Taylor's wife Ann died shortly after the Taylors moved in. Taylor continued living there for the next several years and, for a time, leased half of the property for farming. In 1776, two years after moving back to Durham, he sold the estate. Two centuries later, on July 17, 1971, the George Taylor House was designated as a National Historical Landmark.

While still at Biery's Port, Taylor arranged another lease to operate the Durham ironworks in 1774. The ironworks had just been acquired by Joseph Galloway, a Philadelphia attorney and speaker of the Pennsylvania General Assembly (1766–1774). After failing to gain support in the First Continental Congress for his plan to avert a break with England, Galloway resigned as speaker and refused to attend the Second Continental Congress in 1775. Taylor, meanwhile, was re-elected to the Assembly in 1775 and attended the Provincial Convention on January 23. In July, as colonial forces prepared for war, he was commissioned as a colonel in the third battalion of the Pennsylvania militia.

Two weeks later, on August 2, Taylor secured a contract with Pennsylvania's Committee of Safety for cannon shot. On August 25, with a shipment of 258 round balls weighing from 18 to 32 pounds each, Durham Furnace became the first ironworks in Pennsylvania to supply munitions to the Continental Army.

Founding father and signer of the Declaration of Independence
In 1776, the Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2 and adopted the Declaration of Independence two days later, on July 4. Before the vote for independence, five of Pennsylvania's delegates, all Loyalists, were forced to resign. On July 20, Taylor was among the replacements appointed by the Assembly. One of his first duties as a member of Congress was to affix his signature to the Declaration of Independence, which he did on August 2, along with most delegates. Of the 56 signers, he was one of only eight who were foreign-born, the only one to have been indentured, and the only one to hold the position of ironmaster. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration, Taylor was one of the 41 who owned slaves.

Durham Furnace

Taylor's service in Congress was brief, lasting under seven months. On February 17, 1777, when the Assembly appointed a new Pennsylvania delegation, Taylor was one of seven signers from Pennsylvania who were not among those renominated. In March 1777, he was appointed to Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council, which was formed to govern the commonwealth under its new constitution. Taylor attended all of the council's daily meetings from March 4 through April 5 but fell ill and was bedridden for more than a month. He subsequently retired from the council, ending his public career.

Taylor continued overseeing cannon shot and shells production at Durham Furnace for the Continental Army and Navy. Not long after independence was achieved, however, Joseph Galloway fled Philadelphia, first seeking refuge with British General William Howe and later escaping to England. Galloway was subsequently convicted by the Assembly as a traitor, and his properties, including the Durham mill, were seized.

Taylor filed an appeal with the Supreme Executive Council that enabled him to finish the first five years of his lease, but in 1779, the Commissioner of Forfeited Estates sold Durham Furnace to a new owner. Forming yet another partnership, Taylor leased Greenwich Forge in what is now Warren County, New Jersey.

Personal life
Little is known of Taylor's life before he arrived in Philadelphia in 1736, although there is general agreement that he was born in Northern Ireland (possibly Ulster). His wife Ann Taylor's lineage, however, is well documented. Her grandfather, John Taylor, came to Pennsylvania from Wiltshire, England, in 1684 and became surveyor general of Chester County, Pennsylvania, which then accounted for about one-third of the colony. Later, her father, Isaac Taylor, served as Chester County's deputy surveyor general. Ann's family belonged to the Society of Friends, but she was disowned as a Quaker in 1733 for her marriage outside the circle to Samuel Savage Jr.

George and Ann Taylor had two children: a daughter Ann, who was called Nancy and died sometime during childhood, and a son James, who was born at Warwick Furnace in 1746. James studied law after his parents moved to Easton in 1763. In 1767, he married Elizabeth Gordon, the 17-year-old daughter of Lewis Gordon, Easton's first resident attorney. The couple initially lived in Easton but moved to Allentown, where James practiced law until he died in 1775. James and his wife had five children: George, Thomas, James Jr., Ann, and Mary.

Death and legacy
In failing health, Taylor moved back to Easton in April 1780 and died there on February 23, 1781, at the age of 65. Taylor was buried in St. John's Lutheran Church cemetery across from his residence at Fourth and Ferry Streets in Easton. When the church property was sold in 1870 for construction of a public school, Taylor was re-interred at Easton Cemetery. Residents dedicated a monument there in Taylor's honor in 1855, and his body rests in front of the memorial. The house he leased in his final days is now known as the Parsons-Taylor House. Easton founder William Parsons built it in 1753 and is Easton's oldest still-standing house today.

Taylor's will was filed in January 1781, the month before his death, and was entered into probate in Northampton County on March 10. Taylor bequeathed £500 to George, his eldest grandchild, and another £500 to Naomi Smith, his housekeeper, "in Consideration of her great Care & Attendance on me for a Number of Years." The remainder of Taylor's estate was to be divided equally between the grandchildren and five children he fathered with Naomi Smith: Sarah, Rebecca, Naomi, Elizabeth, and Edward. None of these bequests were ever fulfilled, however. Taylor had been experiencing financial difficulties in the last few years of his life, and legal entanglements over the Durham and Greenwich forges dragged on until 1799, at which point his estate was judged insolvent.

title: George Taylor (Pennsylvania politician)


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Matthew Thornton

Matthew Thornton (March 3, 1714 – June 24, 1803) was an Irish-born Founding Father of the United States who signed the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Hampshire.

Background and early life
Thornton was born in Ireland in 1714 to James and Elizabeth (née Jenkins) Thornton, James Thornton lived on a farm within a mile of Derry, and this is where Matthew was probably born, although Lisburn and Limerick have also been suggested as birthplaces.

In 1716, Thornton's family immigrated to North America when he was three years old, settling first in Wiscasset, Maine. On July 11, 1722, the community was attacked by Native Americans. James and Elizabeth Thornton fled from their burning home with Matthew, moving shortly thereafter to Worcester, Massachusetts. Thornton completed studies in medicine at Leicester. He became a physician and established a medical practice in Londonderry, New Hampshire. He was appointed as a surgeon for the New Hampshire Militia troops in an expedition against Fortress Louisbourg in 1745. He served in the New Hampshire Provincial Assembly from 1758-1762, had royal commissions as justice of the peace, and served as colonel in the militia from 1775 until his resignation in 1779.

In 1760, Thornton married Hannah Jack, and the couple had five children. Thornton became a Londonderry selectman, a representative to and president of the Provincial Assembly, and a member of the Committee of Safety, drafting New Hampshire's plan of government after dissolution of the royal government, which was the first state constitution adopted after the start of hostilities with England.

Continental Congress
Thornton served as the president of the New Hampshire Provincial Congress in 1775, and from January to September 1776, as speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. He was elected to the Continental Congress after the debates on independence had occurred, but as he did not arrive in Philadelphia until November 1776, he was granted permission to actually sign the Declaration of Independence four months after the formal signing in July.

Later life
He became a political essayist. He retired from his medical practice, and in 1780, moved to Merrimack, New Hampshire, where he farmed and operated Thornton's ferry with his family. Although he did not attend law school, he served as a judge on the New Hampshire Superior Court from 1776 to 1782.

In 1783, Thornton represented the towns of Merrimack and Bedford in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, and then Hillsborough County in the New Hampshire Senate from 1784 to 1787, while simultaneously serving as a state counselor from 1785 to 1786 and as a state representative again for Merrimack in 1786. His wife Hannah died in 1786.

Death and legacy
Thornton died in Newburyport, Massachusetts, while visiting his daughter. He was 89 years old.

The town of Thornton, New Hampshire, is named in his honor, as is a Londonderry elementary school, and Thorntons Ferry School in Merrimack. Thornton's residence in Derry, which was part of Londonderry at the time, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He is featured on a New Hampshire historical marker (number 79) along U.S. Route 3 in Merrimack.

Thornton was the uncle of Capt. Matthew Thornton, a suspected Loyalist who was charged with treason related to actions just before the Battle of Bennington in 1777. Ebenezer Webster, father of Daniel Webster, was enlisted to investigate the allegation. At his trial Capt. Thornton pleaded not guilty. Evidence was presented both for and against and the jury found him not guilty, whereupon he was discharged.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Matthew Thornton


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George Walton

George Walton (c. 1749 – February 2, 1804) was a Founding Father of the United States who signed the United States Declaration of Independence while representing Georgia in the Continental Congress. Walton also served briefly as the second chief executive of Georgia in 1779 and was again named governor in 1789–1790. In 1795, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate, to complete the unexpired term of a senator who had resigned.

Early life
Walton was born in Cumberland County, Virginia. The exact year of Walton's birth is unknown; it is believed that he was born in 1749. Research has placed it as early as 1740, but others as late as 1749 and 1750. The biographer of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Della Gray Bartholomew, uses 1741. His parents died when he was an infant, which resulted in his adoption by an uncle with whom he entered apprenticeship as a carpenter. Walton was a studious young man, but his uncle actively discouraged all study and believed a studious boy to be an idle one. Walton continued studying, and once his apprenticeship had ended, moved to Savannah, Georgia, in 1769 to study law under a Mr. Young and was admitted to the bar in 1774. His brother was John Walton. By the end of the American Revolution, he had become one of the most successful lawyers in Georgia.

American Revolution
He became an advocate of the Patriot cause, was elected secretary of the Georgia Provincial Congress, and became president of the Council of Safety. In 1776, he served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, a position that he held until the end of 1778. On July 2, 1776, he voted in favor of the Declaration of Independence for Georgia, along with Button Gwinnett and Lyman Hall.

During the American Revolutionary War, he was in the battalion of General Robert Howe. On January 9, 1778, Walton received a commission as colonel of the First Georgia Regiment of Militia. During the Battle of Savannah in 1778, Walton was injured in the battle and taken prisoner. He was hit in the thigh by a musket ball that threw him from his horse. He was subsequently captured by the British, who allowed his wound to heal before sending him to Sunbury Prison, where other colonial prisoners were held. Walton was released under a prisoner exchange in October 1779.

In October 1779, Walton was elected governor of Georgia for the first time, a position that he held for only two months.

Later life
In November 1795, he was appointed to the US Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Jackson. Walton served in that position from November 16, 1795, to February 20, 1796, when a successor, Josiah Tattnall, was officially elected. He was a political ally of Scottish General Lachlan McIntosh and a foe of Button Gwinnett. He and Gwinnett had political battles that resulted in his expulsion from office and indictment for various criminal activities. He was later censured for his support of a duel that resulted in Gwinnett's death by McIntosh.

Walton was for the Yazoo land sales, the massive real estate fraud perpetrated in the mid-1790s by Georgia Governor George Mathews and the Georgia General Assembly. The scandal brought Jackson home from the US Senate to lead a reform movement. Appointed to fill the vacant seat, a feud erupted between Jackson and Walton over the sale of land to speculators. Jackson won, and Walton left the office.

In 1788, Alexander McGillivray and other Creek Indian leaders met with Georgia leaders at Rock Landing, but the meeting failed to result in a peace treaty. That led Governor Walton to worry that "our prospects of peace have been obliged to yield to the impressions of war." Walton wrote to Colonel Jared Irwin and expressed both his concern and his surprise at the recent Indian depredations near the Oconee River. A treaty was not signed at Rock Landing, but eventually, the Treaty of New York (1790) ceded Creek lands to the state of Georgia.

During the 1780s, Walton devoted himself almost exclusively to Georgia state politics. He served as chief justice, commissioner to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokee in 1783, member of the Augusta Board of Commissioners (1784 and 1785), and commissioner to settle the border dispute between South Carolina and Georgia in 1786. He was elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, but he declined since his commitments at the state level occupied his time to the exclusion of all else. In 1789, he was a presidential elector and served at the state convention to adopt a new constitution. Walton was elected to a second term as governor in 1789 and served for one year. During his term, Georgians adopted the new Georgia Constitution, moved the capital to Augusta, and concentrated on settling the western frontier. After completing his tenure as governor, Walton served as a judge of the superior court from 1790 to his death. He also filled the unexpired term of James Jackson in the US Senate in 1795 to 1796. He was a founder and trustee of the Academy of Richmond County in Augusta and of Franklin College (now the University of Georgia) in Athens.

Offices held
The offices he held were:
 * Continental Congress (1776–1778)
 * Colonel of the First Georgia Militia (1778)
 * Governor of Georgia (1779–1780)
 * U.S. Congress (1780–1781)
 * Chief Justice of Georgia (1783–1789)
 * Acting Governor of Georgia (1789–1790)
 * U.S. Senator (1795–1796)

Death and legacy
During his second term as governor, he built Meadow Garden, a cottage constructed on confiscated Tory land outside of Augusta, where he died. He was survived by his wife Dorothy, née Camber, whom he had married in 1775, and one of his two sons. He was initially buried at Rosney, home of his nephew Robert Watkins; he was re-interred in 1848 beneath the Signers Monument in front of the courthouse on Greene Street in Augusta. Even though Walton was from Georgia and Virginia, he did not own slaves.

Walton County, Georgia, is named for him. There are also at least two schools that bear his name: George Walton Comprehensive High School in Marietta, Georgia, and George Walton Academy, a private school in Monroe, Georgia.

His son George Walton, Jr., was the first secretary of the Territory of Florida. He was also the first civilian to serve in the role of governor of the territory, being named as acting governor until the arrival of William Duval. Walton County, Florida, is named for him. His granddaughter, Octavia Walton Le Vert, was a noted socialite and author. His great nephew Thomas George Walton built Creekside near Morganton, North Carolina.

title: George Walton


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William Whipple

William Whipple Jr. (January 25, 1731 NS [January 14, 1730 OS ] – November 28, 1785) was an American Founding Father and signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence. He represented New Hampshire as a member of the Continental Congress from 1776 through 1779. He worked as both a ship's captain and a merchant, and he studied in college to become a judge. He died of heart complications in 1785, aged 55.

Early life and education
Whipple was born in Kittery in Massachusetts Bay (now Maine) in the William Whipple House to Captain William Whipple Sr. and his wife Mary (née Cutt). He was educated at a common school until he went off to sea, where he became a ship's master at age 21. He married his first cousin Catherine Moffat in 1767, and they moved into the Moffatt-Ladd House on Market Street in Portsmouth in 1769. Their son William Whipple III died in infancy. Whipple was a descendant of Samuel Appleton, early settler in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Whipple earned his fortune participating in the triangular trade between North America, the West Indies, and Africa, dealing in wood, rum, and enslaved people. He established himself as a merchant in Portsmouth in 1759, in partnership with his brother Joseph.

Political career
In 1775, New Hampshire dissolved the British Royal government and organized a House of Representatives and an Executive Council known collectively as a Provincial Congress. Whipple was elected to represent Portsmouth. He became a member of the Committee of Safety. He was then elected to the Continental Congress and signed the United States Declaration of Independence. He was the second cousin of fellow signatory Stephen Hopkins. In January 1776, Whipple wrote to fellow signatory Josiah Bartlett of the approaching convention:

"This year, my Friend, is big with mighty events. Nothing less than the fate of America depends on the virtue of her sons, and if they do not have virtue enough to support the most Glorious Cause ever human beings were engaged in, they don't deserve the blessings of freedom."

Whipple freed his enslaved servant, Prince Whipple, believing that no man could fight for freedom and hold another in bondage. He wrote:

"A recommendation is gone thither for raising some regiments of Blacks. This, I suppose will lay a foundation for the emancipation of those wretches in that country. I hope it will be the means of dispensing the blessings of Freedom to all the human race in America."

Military career
The New Hampshire Provincial Congress gave Whipple his first commission in 1777. At Saratoga, Whipple commanded a brigade of four militia regiments. Whipple commanded Bellow's regiment, Chase's regiment, Moore's regiment, and Welch's regiment. As a result of their meritorious conduct at the Battle of Saratoga, Whipple and Colonel James Wilkinson were then chosen by Major General Horatio Gates to determine terms of capitulation with two representatives of General John Burgoyne. Whipple then signed the Convention of Saratoga, the effective surrender of General Burgoyne and his troops.

Whipple was then appointed along with several other officers to escort Burgoyne and his army back to Winter Hill, Somerville, Massachusetts. Whipple passed the news of the victory at Saratoga to Captain John Paul Jones, who informed Benjamin Franklin, who was in Paris at the time. News of the victory proved valuable to Franklin throughout alliance negotiations with the French. In 1778, Whipple followed his commanding officer, General John Sullivan to the Battle of Rhode Island, where he commanded Evans' regiment, Peabody's regiment, and Langdon's light horse regiment. After General Sullivan ordered a retreat, Whipple and other officers resided in a house near the battlefield. The approaching enemy fired a field piece from a range of three-quarters of a mile. The shot tore through a horse lashed outside the house and severely wounded the leg of one of Whipple's brigade majors, which later required amputation.

Death
After the war, Whipple became an associate justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire. On November 28, 1785, he suffered from a heart ailment and died after fainting from atop his horse while traveling his court circuit. He was buried in what is now the North Cemetery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His headstone was replaced with a new memorial in 1976 in conjunction with the United States Bicentennial.

title: William Whipple


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George Wythe

George Wythe (1726 – June 8, 1806) was an American academic, scholar and judge who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The first of the seven signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence from Virginia, Wythe served as one of Virginia's representatives to the Continental Congress and the Philadelphia Convention and served on a committee that established the convention's rules and procedures. He left the convention before signing the United States Constitution to tend to his dying wife. He was elected to the Virginia Ratifying Convention and helped ensure that his home state ratified the Constitution. Wythe taught and was a mentor to Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Henry Clay and other men who became American leaders.

Born into a wealthy Virginia planter family, Wythe established a legal career in Williamsburg, Virginia, after studying under his uncle. He became a member of the House of Burgesses in 1754 and helped oversee defense expenditures during the French and Indian War. He opposed the Stamp Act of 1765 and other British taxes imposed on the Thirteen Colonies. He was also a delegate to Virginia's 1776 constitutional convention and helped design the Seal of Virginia. Wythe served as a judge for much of his life, first as a justice of the peace and then on the Virginia Court of Chancery. He was also a prominent law professor at the College of William & Mary and took on several notable apprentices. He remained particularly close to Jefferson and left Jefferson his substantial book collection in his will. Wythe became increasingly troubled by slavery and emancipated all of his slaves at the end of the American Revolution. Wythe died in 1806, apparently from poisoning, and his grand-nephew George Sweeny was tried and acquitted for Wythe's murder.

Early life and education
Wythe was born in 1726, at Chesterville, the plantation operated by three generations of the Wythe family in what was then Elizabeth City County but is now Hampton, Virginia. His maternal great-grandfather was George Keith, a Quaker minister and early opponent of slavery, who returned to the Church of England but was sent back as a missionary to the East Coast before ultimately returning to England. His mother, Margaret Walker of Kecoughtan, a learned woman probably raised as a Quaker, instilled a love of learning in her son. In his later years, Wythe became known for his outdated Quaker dress, as well as his gentle manner, which could cause even a surly dog to "unbend and wag his tail." After the early death of his father, Wythe probably attended grammar school in Williamsburg before beginning legal training in the office of his uncle, Stephen Dewey, in Prince George County.

Career
Wythe was admitted to the bar in Elizabeth City County in 1746, the same year in which his mother died. He then moved to Spotsylvania County to begin legal practice in several Piedmont counties. In 1747, he married Ann Lewis, the daughter of his mentor Zachary Lewis. However, his wife died on August 10, 1748. The childless and bereaved widower returned to Williamsburg; there, Wythe made law and scholarship his life, as he began what would become a distinguished career in public service. His motto was "Secundis dubiisque rectus", translated as "Upright in prosperity and perils."

Colonial politician and mentor
In October 1748, family connections (Benjamin Waller was related to Zachary Lewis) probably helped Wythe secure his first government job, as clerk to two powerful committees of the House of Burgesses, Privileges and Elections and Propositions and Grievances. Wythe also continued to practice law before those committees and the General Court in Williamsburg, as was permitted at the time. In 1750, Wythe was first elected as one of Williamsburg's aldermen. Wythe also briefly served as the king's attorney general in 1754–1755, appointed by Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie while Peyton Randolph traveled to London on the burgesses' behalf to appeal Dinwiddie's charging a one pistole fee to affix an official seal to land patents. Wythe resigned when Randolph returned from his unsuccessful mission. Dinwiddie returned to England less than three years after Randolph's return.

In the session of August 22, 1754, Wythe replaced the deceased Armistead Burwell as the burgess representing Williamsburg. In 1755, Wythe's elder brother, Thomas, died, childless. Wythe inherited the family's Chesterville plantation and was appointed to his brother's (and formerly his father's) place on the Elizabeth City County court. Wythe probably continued to live in Williamsburg, for his legislative work continued, and he married Elizabeth Taliaferro. Her father, planter Richard Taliaferro, built a house for them in Williamsburg which is called the Wythe House even though Wythe only had a life estate in the property after Taliaferro's death.

Wythe served as Williamsburg's delegate through the sessions of 1754 and 1755 (but not in the sessions of the Assembly of 1756–1758). During that gap, Wythe was reappointed clerk to the committees on Privileges and Elections and Propositions and Grievances, as well as to the Committee for Courts of Justice, and in 1759 to the Committee of Correspondence (with the colony's agent in England). In 1759, the College of William & Mary elected Wythe as its burgess to replace Peyton Randolph and reelected Wythe in 1760 and 1761. Wythe helped oversee defense expenditures related to the French and Indian War. For the Assemblies of 1761, 1765 and 1767, Wythe was one of the two burgesses representing Elizabeth City County.

Although known for his modesty and quiet dignity, Wythe eventually gained a radical reputation for his opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765 and later attempts by the British government to regulate the overseas colony. Meanwhile, Wythe maintained close friendships with successive Governors Francis Fauquier and Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt. Wythe also earned a reputation for personal integrity, which years later led Rev. Lee Massey to call Wythe "the only honest lawyer I ever knew." Fauquier, Wythe and college professor William Small often socialized together—conversing about philosophy, natural history, languages, history and other matters. In 1762, Small suggested Wythe supervise the legal training of a star student, Thomas Jefferson, which had profound impact that went beyond their lives.

Law practice
In the summer of 1766, three events occurred which profoundly influenced Wythe, Jefferson and several other Virginians who became Founding Fathers and insisted upon the separation of powers between three branches of the new government. When John Robinson, the powerful speaker of the House of Burgesses, died, his estate was nearly insolvent (with many debts, as well as outstanding loans), and the accounts Robinson kept as treasurer were irregular. Instead of destroying redeemed paper currency after the French and Indian War, Robinson had lent it to his political supporters (fellow southern Virginia planters). Keeping the money in circulation helped these allies pay their own debts but also tended to devalue the currency as well as defy the redemption laws the legislature had passed. Robinson's executors kept the names of the politically powerful loan beneficiaries secret for decades but did not manage to end the John Robinson estate scandal.

On June 20, 1766, Colonel John Chiswell (father of Robinson's widow and business partner of Robinson), Governor Fauquier, and William Byrd III killed merchant Robert Routledge (to whom he owed money) at the Cumberland Court House. Indicted for murder, Chiswell was brought under armed guard to Williamsburg for trial in the next session of the General Court (which included many men from distant counties who also served as Burgesses and was thus usually held at the same time). Before the group reached the Williamsburg jail, three judges (John Blair, Presley Thornton and Byrd) stopped them on the street and allowed Chiswell to post bail until September, since the next court session began in October.

Meanwhile, the publisher of the Virginia Gazette had died. When it became clear in the spring of 1766 that the Stamp Act was not going to be enforced, two printers set up shops in Williamsburg. Both papers thrived in the ensuing controversies. On July 4, Judge Blair explained in a published letter that the judges had relied upon assurances of "three eminent Lawyers" that they could grant Chiswell bail, as well as two depositions that Routledge had run himself on Chiswell's sword, while stressing that the high bail of 6,000 pounds sterling could be recovered should Chiswell fail to show for trial. In response, 'Dikephilos' wrote that his own investigation agreed that Routledge had been drunk, but Chiswell was not, and further that neither deponent favoring Chiswell had witnessed the brawl. He predicted popular violence if the trial unfairly favored the aristocratic defendant. More published letters followed.

On August 1, Wythe identified himself in print as one of the consulted lawyers and said his opinion had been limited to the legal bail issue. After Chiswell returned to Williamsburg in September, his attorney John Wayles published the two depositions given to the judges, which proved to be from Wayles himself and the Cumberland undersheriff. Judge Blair was furious when Wayles added a detail to the published copy of his own deposition (which he had gotten from the court records), apparently in order to track the undersheriff's deposition. Judge Byrd, on the other hand, joined with Wayles to demand a libel indictment against Col. Robert Bolling, Jr., claiming Bolling wrote the anonymous criticism of the bailment published on July 11. The grand jury refused, issuing a no-bill instead. However, Wythe's sterling reputation may have been tarnished. When the assembly reconvened, Robert Carter Nicholas was appointed treasurer, Peyton Randolph became speaker, and his brother John Randolph became king's attorney general, a post to which Wythe had aspired. Chiswell died unexpectedly in his Williamsburg home on October 15, before his trial could begin. Jefferson decades later in his Kentucky Resolution echoed the anonymous 'Virginia Gazette' writer of September 12, 1766, who stated, "Distrust, the parent of security, is a political virtue of unspeakable utility."

Wythe continued his thriving legal practice with Jefferson's assistance. In 1767, Wythe introduced Jefferson to the bar of the General Court, and Jefferson was appointed clerk to the House of Burgesses. The following year, Wythe wrote the colony's London agent to secure copies of the burgesses' complete journals from the colony's founding until 1752, which were supposed to be transmitted annually to the king, secretary of state and Lords of Trade, stressing "it be not made public nor attended with great expense." The secrecy may have related to continuing unrest in Massachusetts against the Townshend Acts or the administrative interregnum between Fauquier's death in March and Botetourt's arrival in October. Wythe also ordered printed journals of the House of Commons and case law books from London. Wythe's social standing remained high, for fellow aldermen elected him Williamsburg's mayor for the 1768 to 1769 term. Fellow parishioners also elected Wythe to the vestry of Bruton Parish Church in 1769.

Botetourt arrived on October 26, 1768, as Virginia's first governor to rule the colony in person in sixty years. Although Botetourt dissolved the House of Burgesses the following spring, following a royal order to all colonial governors after protests in Massachusetts against the Townshend Acts, Wythe managed to stave off the governor's clerk so the delegates could publish a resolution of protest before receiving the dissolution order. The burgesses then repaired to the Raleigh Tavern, where they passed the Virginia Nonimportation Resolutions on May 18, 1769. Some speculate that Wythe's own status as clerk kept his name off that document. In any event, the burgesses gave a spectacular party for Botetourt that Christmas, and his funeral ceremonies the following fall were the most elaborate in Virginia history. They also voted for a marble statue of the governor to be erected at public expense.

Revolution
The next royal governor, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, brought Wythe and Virginia to the brink of revolution. Dunmore arrived in Williamsburg from New York on September 26, 1771. Rumors of his rule as New York's governor, which included accusations of graft and companions roughing up local judges, soon followed. Although some cheered his military offensive against the Indians (later known as Lord Dunmore's War) as strengthening Virginia's land claims, Wythe, Jefferson and many others took offense at Dunmore's haughty personality. Dunmore attempted to govern without the burgesses, but counterfeiting and other money troubles forced him to convene the assembly in early 1773. Delegates began by voicing concerns that suspects in the burning of the revenue vessel Gaspee in Rhode Island could be tried in England. When on March 3, 1773, they resolved to establish a Committee of Correspondence, Dunmore prorogued (postponed) the assembly. Moreover, Parliament passed the Tea Act in May 1773, and on December 16, the Sons of Liberty instigated the Boston Tea Party. Dunmore tried to reconvene the delegates the following May. On May 24, 1774, the House of Burgesses passed a resolution declaring June 1 as a day of fasting and prayer, which resolution Wythe signed and posted. Enraged, Dunmore dissolved the assembly. The delegates moved to conduct their business at the Raleigh Tavern and met again in mid-March in Richmond.

Wythe attended the Second Virginia Convention as Williamsburg's representative. The meeting was held in St. John's Episcopal Church. Patrick Henry stirred the delegates with his "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech. The delegates agreed to convene militia, and the prospect of armed resistance caused Dunmore to try to remove gunpowderstores from Williamsburg to Royal Navy ships stationed offshore. Wythe enlisted in the militia immediately upon returning home. In the Gunpowder Incident of April 20, 1775, Peyton Randolph, Robert Carter Nicholas, and Carter Braxton helped defuse Henry's attempt to force return of the gunpowder by negotiating payment from Dunmore.

On May 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia. When war seemed inevitable, Wythe was elected as Virginia's delegate to replace George Washington, who took command of the Continental Army. George and Elizabeth Wythe moved to Philadelphia by September and were inoculated against smallpox, as were fellow delegate Francis Lightfoot Lee and his lady and others. By October, Jefferson had rejoined the Congress to work with his former teacher and the other delegates, although personal tragedy forced him to leave for five months in the winter and spring. Wythe accepted many assignments relating to military, currency and other matters. He, John Dickinson and John Jay also went to New Jersey that winter and convinced that colony's assembly to maintain a united front.

When petitions and other attempts failed to resolve the crisis by the following summer while Dunmore's raiders harassed Virginia settlements from its waterways, Wythe moved and then voted in favor of the resolution for independence that Jefferson had drafted upon his return. His fellow Virginia delegates in Philadelphia held Wythe in such esteem that they left the first space open for him when they signed the Declaration of Independence. Moreover, John Adams, who did not like many Virginians, thought so highly of Wythe that he wrote "Thoughts on Government" concerning the establishment of postwar constitutions for state governments. Earlier in the session, Wythe had also exchanged humorous verses with his friend and delegate William Ellery of Rhode Island despite their political differences. Wythe thus signed the Declaration of Independence upon his return to Philadelphia in September. The signers' names were not made public until the following January, for all knew the declaration was an act of treason, punishable by death should their rebellion fail.

During the war, Virginia became a battleground between Patriot and Loyalist forces. The farmer to whom he had leased Chesterville, Hamilton Usher St. George, was secretly a Loyalist, though he was acquitted of charges of being a British spy on April 23, 1776. St. George supported British raiding parties based in Portsmouth which targeted local plantations as well as Williamsburg and other colonial settlements along the James River in raids such as the skirmish at Waters Creek. In January 1781, Benedict Arnold led 1,600 American Legion troops which forced Jefferson to flee Richmond and burned the fledgling state capital, destroying many colonial records. Just weeks earlier, on New Year's Eve, Wythe had reportedly helped scare another British raiding party back to their ship. Finally, four boatloads of neighbors attacked St. George at his house on Hog Island on September 21, 1781, forcing him to flee to Chesterville then to New York and ultimately to England. Chesterville sustained damage before Wythe evicted Mrs. St. George in order to move into the house with Elizabeth while French troops occupied their Williamsburg home. During the Yorktown campaign which led to General Charles Cornwallis' surrender, American and French troops camped at Williamsburg, and Count Rochambeau occupied the George Wythe house. On December 21, 1781, fire burned down the Governor's Palace and also destroyed a wing of the college which included Wythe's beloved library and physics instruments.

Founding Father
Hurrying back to Virginia from Philadelphia, on June 23, 1776, Wythe began helping Virginia establish its new state government. Virginia's constitutional convention had begun months earlier (and had voted on May 15 to instruct its federal delegates to move toward a declaration of independence). Despite his late arrival, Wythe served on a committee with George Mason which jointly designed the Seal of Virginia, inscribed with the motto Sic Semper Tyrannis, which remains in use today. The reverse side shows three Roman goddesses, Libertas surrounded by Ceres and Aeternitas.

Wythe's most noteworthy contributions in establishing the new state government began when he again returned from Philadelphia that winter. Wythe served on a committee with Jefferson and Edmund Pendleton to revise and codify its laws and also helped establish the new state court system. Although few of their more than 100 proposed bills were passed, some concepts such as religious freedom, public records access, and public education became important concepts in the new republic, as did the concept of intermediate appellate courts. When a fall incapacitated Pendleton, Jefferson and Wythe redrafted his portion (much to Pendleton's dismay). Wythe also replaced Pendleton as speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates the following term (1777–1778).

Wythe also continued working to establish the new nation. In 1787, Wythe became one of Virginia's delegates to the Constitutional Convention. Fellow delegate William Pierce considered Wythe "one of the most learned legal Characters of the present age" and known for his "exemplary life," but "no great politician" because he had "too favorable opinion of Men." In any event, Wythe, Alexander Hamilton, and Charles Pinckney served on the committee which established the convention's rules and procedures. However, Wythe left Philadelphia in early June to tend to his ailing wife. The following year, York County neighbors elected Wythe and John Blair to represent them at the Virginia Ratifying Convention. As Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Wythe presided over oft-heated exchanges until the final day. Stepping down from the chair, Wythe spoke to urge ratification. Pendleton later wrote Wythe's "adherence to the Constitution" gave the margin for ratification, when otherwise would have proven "grave for the Union."

Teacher
Wythe's teaching career began with his appointment in 1761 to the Board of Visitors of the College of William & Mary, and often both overlapped and drew upon his legal and judicial careers. During more than twenty years, Wythe taught many legal apprentices, as well as students at the college. Among the most famous were future presidents Jefferson and James Monroe; future senators Henry Clay, Littleton Waller Tazewell and John Breckinridge; future Virginia judges St. George Tucker and Spencer Roane; future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Marshall; and future Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Bushrod Washington. Proficient in Latin and Greek, as well as known for his devotion to books and learning, Wythe initially taught students on a near-individual apprenticeship basis. Especially after Elizabeth's death in 1787, some private pupils boarded at Wythe's home and received daily instruction in classical languages, as well as political philosophy and law. Of all these men, Wythe remained closest to Jefferson, with whom he worked and corresponded many times in the ensuing decades. In their friendship, together the two men read all sorts of other material, from English literary works, to political philosophy, to the ancient sages.

In 1779, Governor Jefferson appointed Wythe to the newly created Chair of Law and Police, making Wythe the first law professor in the United States. As a law professor, Wythe introduced a lecture system based on the Commentaries published by William Blackstone, as well as Matthew Bacon's New Abridgement of the Law, and Acts of Virginia's Assembly. Wythe also developed experiential tools, including moot courts and mock legislative sessions, tools that are still used today. However, apprenticeship remained the main mode of learning law in that era, followed by examination before several practicing lawyers. Thus, not only did Marshall and Monroe attend Wythe's lectures for a time, they also affiliated themselves with more experienced lawyers before being admitted to the bar. The college suspended classes during the later days of the Revolutionary War, after which Wythe both taught in Williamsburg and performed his duties as judge (mostly in Richmond as the new capital) until the 1788–1789 term. Wythe then resigned from the college and announced that he planned to move to Richmond to concentrate on his judicial duties. Travel to the new capital for the four judicial sessions each year may have become onerous, many of Wythe's friends and colleagues had died or moved, and Williamsburg's intellectual and cultural life had also declined after the state capital moved upriver. Litigation involving professor Rev. John Bracken also distressed Wythe.

In Richmond, Wythe continued his pursuit of knowledge and even began learning Hebrew from Rabbi Seixas. One of Wythe's last pupils, William Munford, called Wythe "one of the most remarkable men I ever knew" and particularly remembered Wythe's scholarly philosophy, "Don't skim it; read deeply, and ponder what you read; they begin to make lawyers now without the 'biginti annorum lucubrationes' (twenty years of reflection) of Lord Coke; they are mere skimmers of the law, and know little else." St. George Tucker, his one time student and fellow judge, succeeded Wythe as the college's law professor and published an annotated edition of Blackstone's work before resigning in 1804 to succeed Edmund Pendleton on Virginia's Supreme Court of Appeals. In 1920, the college (now a university) established a law school, which it named after Wythe and Marshall.

Virginia judge
Although Wythe served as what would now be called a justice of the peace in Elizabeth City County during colonial times, his reputation as the "American Aristides" derived from Wythe's judicial service performed after Virginia became a state, as well as from his scholarship discussed above. The oath Wythe drafted for its admiralty judges indicates his judicial philosophy, "You shall swear that ... you will do equal right to all manner of people, great and small, high and low, rich and poor, according to equity and good conscience, and the laws and usages of Virginia, without respect to persons. ... And, finally, in all things belonging to your said office, during your continuance therein you shall faithfully, justly and truly, according to the best of your skill and judgment, do equal and impartial justice, without fraud, favor or affection, or partiality." Wythe also designed the chancery court seal to illustrate the punishment of the Persian judge Sisamnes, killed and skinned after taking a bribe.

In 1777, Wythe became one of the three judges on the newly-formed High Court of Chancery. Administering equity and developing that branch of the law became his mission for the rest of his life. Wythe was elected to serve as a federal judge on the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture in 1780, but he declined to serve. Wythe particularly despised lawyers who protracted litigation at great cost to the parties, though to their own benefit, and even in his last days he regretted the burden delays placed upon those seeking justice from his court. In the judicial reorganization of 1788, Wythe became sole judge of the Chancery Court of Virginia, refusing to be promoted with Edmund Pendleton to the Supreme Court of Appeals (now known as the Virginia Supreme Court). Both men refused offers from President George Washington of judgeships on the new federal courts, although their colleague John Blair accepted an appointment to the United States Supreme Court. In 1802, the legislature created two more territorial Chancery Courts, but Wythe remained in Richmond.

In the 1782 Commonwealth v. Caton opinion, Wythe upheld judicial review of legislative actions, in what became a predecessor to Justice Marshall's decision in Marbury v. Madison. After Virginia courts had convicted Caton and two other men of treason, they appealed to the legislature for pardons. The House of Delegates approved their pardon request, but the state Senate refused. Wythe decided that the court had the right to review that pardon and that the judiciary was obliged to "say to them, here is the limit of your authority; and hither, shall you go, but no further." Pendleton and Blair agreed with this principle of judicial review, although on slightly different grounds. Nonetheless, after the decision, both legislative houses pardoned the men, sparing them execution.

However, Chancellor Wythe's decisions were modified or overruled many times, particularly by the appeals court that his former student Spencer Roane joined in 1794. In 1795, Wythe published analyses of some of his cases and subsequent appellate decisions and added a few more pamphlets later. Although this publication offended Pendleton, he decided against replying in kind. One of Wythe's most famous decisions (unpopular at the time), Page v. Pendleton, upheld the authority of the 1783 federal peace treaty with Great Britain which required debts to British merchants be paid under the contract terms, although Virginia had passed a law that allowed payment in depreciated paper currency.

In Roane v. Innes, Wythe upheld Revolutionary War soldiers' pension claims but was reversed. Pendleton died in 1803, just before he could deliver an opinion attempting to reverse Wythe in Turpin v. Lockett, which dealt with the sale of the disestablished church's glebe lands, nominally at least to support the poor.

Views on slavery
Wythe grew more anti-slavery as time went on, and emancipated all of his slaves at the end of the American Revolution. The problem of slavery preoccupied Wythe in his last years. In 1785, Jefferson assured English abolitionist Richard Price that Wythe's sentiments against slavery were unequivocal. During the first two decades after the war, so many Virginians freed slaves that free blacks in the state had risen from less than 1 percent of the population to nearly 10 percent by 1810. However, the era also saw the development of increasingly harsh slave laws, particularly as slaveholders feared rebellions similar to the Haitian Revolution, which began in 1791. Tensions increased in 1793, when 137 vessels bearing French refugees from Haiti and their slaves arrived in Richmond. Marshall and other prominent citizens wrote to Governor Henry Lee III about slave rebellion rumors, and the white militia armed.

Six ships carrying between 500 and 1,000 black Catholic refugees, some free and wealthy and others enslaved, arrived in Baltimore in July 1791 and/or June 1793 after unsuccessful stops in Charleston, South Carolina and Norfolk, Virginia. Successively led by Sulpician priests who were fleeing the French Revolution and later by Redemptorists and Jesuits, the black Catholics worshipped in the basement of St. Mary's Seminary, then the basement chapel of St. Ignatius Church (renamed for St. Peter Claver) before they eventually formed America's first black parish, St. Francis Xavier Church (Baltimore, Maryland) during the Civil War era. Josephite priests became associated with the parish a decade later, and the parish moved in 1932 and 1968. The invention of the cotton gin in 1794 made cotton production using slave labor particularly profitable in the lower south, and those planters imported slaves from Maryland and Virginia, especially when importing slaves from Africa and Britain's Caribbean colonies became illegal and difficult.

In 1798, Virginian legislators forbade members of slave emancipation societies from serving on juries involving slave freedom suits, which probably affected Wythe as a judge in such cases and led the Virginia Abolition Society to all but disappear that year. In 1800 Governor James Monroe called out troops that crushed the rebellion led by Gabriel Prosser near Richmond, and 35 slaves were executed. Further rumors of slave insurrections led to alarms and executions, sometimes without judicial process, in 1802 and 1803. Also, in the legislative session that began in the spring of 1806, the year of Wythe's death, a law passed requiring freed slaves to leave the state within 12 months, although a later modification allowed local courts to allow certain manumitted slaves to remain.

Manumissions
When Wythe's wife Elizabeth died on August 18, 1787, Wythe returned some slaves whom her father had bequeathed to Elizabeth to her remaining relatives. Wythe filed manumission papers for his long-time housemaid and cook Lydia Broadnax on August 20, 1787, two days after Elizabeth's death. Four years later, Lydia accompanied Wythe as he moved to Richmond, where he had previously commuted four times yearly to handle Chancery Court business. In addition, a young mixed-race youth, Michael Brown, born free in 1790, lived in Wythe's household. By 1797 Broadnax owned her own home, where she and Brown lived and took in boarders. Wythe had taken an interest in Brown, taught him Greek and shared his library with him. On January 29, 1797, Wythe also freed Benjamin, another adult slave who continued to work as his servant in Richmond; Wythe named Benjamin a beneficiary in his 1803 will, which included money for Brown's continued education.

Fawn M. Brodie, who linked Jefferson and Sally Hemings, suggests that Broadnax was Wythe's concubine and Brown was their son. Wythe's biographer Imogene Brown notes both Brown's last name and Broadnax's age made such unlikely. Philip D. Morgan notes that there had been no documented gossip about Wythe and Broadnax at the time, unlike the case of Jefferson and Hemings, covered by newspapers and in individuals' letters and diaries.

Judicial decisions
Wythe for years followed Virginia precedent (including the 1768 case Blackwell v. Wilkinson ) as he adjudicated chancery cases treating slaves as property. Slavery matters often went to chancery, because there were no remedies at law. Virginia slave laws also became more severe as Richmond's importance as a slave trading center for points further south continued to increase, and French planters from what became Haiti came to Virginia with thousands of slaves. Wythe authored two legal opinions that attempted to steer Virginia away from the slave-based legal and economic system that entrenched in the early 19th century.

Wythe and Pendleton both sat on the chancery court bench which granted freedom to slaves in Pleasants v. Pleasants. However, that decision was appealed, and in 1799, after Virginia passed a law forbidding abolitionists from serving on juries in freedom suits, Wythe's decision was modified by the appellate court led by Pendleton and Roane, both former students of Wythe. This case concerned a Quaker's 1771 will, which purported to free slaves before Wythe and Jefferson drafted the 1782 law which legalized manumission in Virginia. Robert Pleasants and some of his siblings had freed about 100 slaves as his late father had requested, after manumission became legal and they turned 30 years old, as the will specified. Pleasants also lobbied extensively for manumission laws and founded the Virginia Abolition Society in 1790. Marshall and John Warden represented the slaves seeking their freedom, and Pleasants as executor of his father's will, as they jointly sued the siblings who failed to obey the testamentary instruction. Each justice on the Court of Appeals in Pleasants v. Pleasants agreed with Wythe that the will could be enforced and called the slaves free. However, none of the justices (all slaveholders) thought Wythe's grant of backpay proper, and they all agreed that children borne to slave parents would not actually gain their freedom until they repaid their owners' expenses in raising them, which in the intervening decades became quite large. Thus, although John Pleasants died holding over 530 slaves, fewer than a quarter received their freedom.

In one of Wythe's last cases, Hudgins v. Wright (1806), Wythe "singlehandedly tried to abolish slavery by judicial interpretation," according to Paul Finkelman. Jackey Wright, a slave, sued Houlder Hudgins (who, incidentally, had purchased Chesterville from Wythe) for freedom for herself and her two children. Wright based her claim on her descent from American Indians, including a woman named Butterwood Nan. Indians were considered free in Virginia by this time. Wythe ruled in favor of Wright on two grounds. He examined the women and noted that all three generations of the family showed only Indian and white ancestry, with no evidence of African ancestry. Because Hudgins did not provide definite proof of Wright's descent from a slave mother, Wythe considered Wright and her children "presumptively free". Alternatively, Wythe held that "all men were presumptively free in Virginia in consequence of the 1776 Declaration of Rights." This was similar to a contemporary ruling in Brom and Bett v. Ashley, which held that Massachusetts' constitution upheld freedom for all men.

When Hudgins appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court after Wythe's murder, all judges unanimously affirmed Wythe's decision allowing Wright freedom, but only on limited grounds. Wythe's former student St. George Tucker affirmed Wythe's ruling only on the particular and limited nature of Indian enslavement in the state. The other extensive opinion in the case was by Judge Spencer Roane, another former student of Wythe, who contrasted the presumption of freedom for Indians, as well as condemned Hudgins for failing to introduce evidence of any black ancestry of those seeking their freedom. Thus, all the appellate judges held that the two-decades old Declaration of Rights did not apply to blacks. Although Tucker (a slaveholder) rejected this judicial route to freedom, he had written in favor of emancipation and continued to fight for emancipation in other political venues.

Death scandal
By 1805, a grandson of Wythe's sister, 17-year-old George Wythe Sweeney, had come to live with his elderly namesake. The following spring, Wythe realized Sweeney had stolen some of his books, probably to repay gambling debts and support a dissolute lifestyle. Wythe also revised his will in early 1806 because Thomas Jefferson had agreed to educate the young mulatto Brown, although those new provisions would have no effect if Brown died before Sweeney, as happened.

On May 25, 1806, Wythe, Broadnax, and Brown all became violently ill. Richmond's leading doctors, Wythe's old friend James McClurg, James McCaw and his personal physician William Foushee at first suspected cholera, dismissing Wythe's claims of being poisoned. Two days later, Sweeney tried to cash a $100 check drawn on Wythe's account, which the bank found suspicious because Wythe's illness had become news throughout the city. The bank retrieved several earlier checks, which Wythe had previously denied signing. Gravely ill but still trying to work on legal matters, Wythe refused to post bail for Sweeney, who was jailed. Upon hearing that Brown had died on June 1, Wythe signed a codicil to his will drafted by Edmund Randolph that disinherited George Sweeney in favor of Charles, Jane and Ann Sweeney. Wythe also told the doctors "cut me." Although McClurg often used bloodletting, the doctors agreed that Wythe actually called for an autopsy after his death. Oddly, Houlder Hudgins served as administrator for at least two of the siblings, who became Wythe's heirs.

Broadnax recovered (although she ultimately suffered the effects for the rest of her life and received some support from Jefferson). Broadnax told many people that she had seen Sweeney put a powder in their morning coffee. Other black witnesses saw Sweeney drop paper from the jail, which appeared to contain rat poison. However, both trial judges agreed that Virginia race laws prohibited blacks from testifying at the trial.

Wythe died on June 8, 1806, and Sweeney was charged with poisoning Wythe and Brown with arsenic. Prominent attorneys William Wirt and Edmund Randolph defended Sweeney. The prosecutor was Philip Norborne Nicholas, Randolph's son-in-law. Early on, the judges quashed the murder charge relating to Brown because of his race. A jury acquitted Sweeney of Wythe's murder. Some attributed the verdict to the botched autopsy (which failed to use well-known tests for arsenic), and equivocal testimony by the physicians. Others blamed Virginia law, which since 1732 forbade testimony by black witnesses, whether free or enslaved. In a separate trial for check forgery, Sweeney was convicted. However, that conviction was overruled on appeal based on a technicality in the forgery law that Wythe and Jefferson had drafted years earlier (recognizing the crime only against individual victims, not against corporations such as the bank). Sweeney left for Tennessee. There, he reportedly was later convicted and jailed for stealing a horse. Afterward he disappeared in history.

Legacy and honors
In 1790 Wythe received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the College of William & Mary.

In his will, Wythe left his large book collection to Thomas Jefferson. This was part of the collection which Jefferson later sold to create the Library of Congress. Jefferson praised Wythe as "my ancient master, my earliest and best friend, and to him I am indebted for first impressions which have [been] the most salutary on the course of my life." However, Jefferson later refused an offer of Wythe's lecture notes and other legal papers, believing they should go instead to what became the Library of Virginia. Last reported either in the possession of Spencer Roane (who burned many papers before his death) or his ally Thomas Ritchie (publisher of the Richmond Enquirer), they were reported lost by the 1830s. Jefferson's grandson George Wythe Randolph, who became the secretary of war of the Confederate States of America, was named after Wythe. Places associated with Wythe remain preserved today, and over the centuries other places have been named in his honor:
 * Wythe's home in Williamsburg, Virginia, stands next to Bruton Parish Church, of which Wythe was a vestryman. His house was acquired by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 1938. Today it is operated as a museum, the Wythe House.
 * Several places in Virginia were named for him: Wythe County, Virginia, its county seat Wytheville; the Wythe district and neighborhood, including the Olde Wythe Historic District in Hampton, a section of US-301 named Wythe Street in Petersburg; Wythe Avenue in Richmond.
 * Several public schools in Virginia were also named for him: high schools in Wytheville and Richmond; a former junior high school and former elementary school in Hampton.
 * The Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary.
 * George Wythe University in Salt Lake City, Utah.
 * George Wythe Hotel in Wytheville.
 * The World War II Liberty Ship SS George Wythe.

title: George Wythe


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Music information retrieval

Music information retrieval (MIR) is the interdisciplinary science of retrieving information from music. Those involved in MIR may have a background in academic musicology, psychoacoustics, psychology, signal processing, informatics, machine learning, optical music recognition, computational intelligence or some combination of these.

Applications
MIR is being used by businesses and academics to categorize, manipulate and even create music.

Music classification
One of the classical MIR research topics is genre classification, which is categorizing music items into one of the pre-defined genres such as classical, jazz, rock, etc. Mood classification, artist classification, instrument identification, and music tagging are also popular topics.

Recommender systems
Several recommender systems for music already exist, but surprisingly few are based upon MIR techniques, instead of making use of similarity between users or laborious data compilation. Pandora, for example, uses experts to tag the music with particular qualities such as "female singer" or "strong bassline". Many other systems find users whose listening history is similar and suggests unheard music to the users from their respective collections. MIR techniques for similarity in music are now beginning to form part of such systems.

Music source separation and instrument recognition
Music source separation is about separating original signals from a mixture audio signal. Instrument recognition is about identifying the instruments involved in music. Various MIR systems have been developed that can separate music into its component tracks without access to the master copy. In this way, for example, karaoke tracks can be created from normal music tracks, though the process is not yet perfect owing to vocals occupying some of the same frequency space as the other instruments.

Automatic music transcription
Automatic music transcription is the process of converting an audio recording into symbolic notation, such as a score or a MIDI file. This process involves several audio analysis tasks, which may include multi-pitch detection, onset detection, duration estimation, instrument identification, and the extraction of harmonic, rhythmic or melodic information. This task becomes more difficult with greater numbers of instruments and a greater polyphony level.

Music generation
The automatic generation of music is a goal held by many MIR researchers. Attempts have been made with limited success in terms of human appreciation of the results.

Data source
Scores give a clear and logical description of music from which to work, but access to sheet music, whether digital or otherwise, is often impractical. MIDI music has also been used for similar reasons, but some data is lost in the conversion to MIDI from any other format, unless the music was written with the MIDI standards in mind, which is rare. Digital audio formats such as WAV, mp3, and ogg are used when the audio itself is part of the analysis. Lossy formats such as mp3 and ogg work well with the human ear but may be missing crucial data for study. Additionally some encodings create artifacts which could be misleading to any automatic analyser. Despite this the ubiquity of the mp3 has meant much research in the field involves these as the source material. Increasingly, metadata mined from the web is incorporated in MIR for a more rounded understanding of the music within its cultural context, and this recently consists of analysis of social tags for music.

Feature representation
Analysis can often require some summarising, and for music (as with many other forms of data) this is achieved by feature extraction, especially when the audio content itself is analysed and machine learning is to be applied. The purpose is to reduce the sheer quantity of data down to a manageable set of values so that learning can be performed within a reasonable time-frame. One common feature extracted is the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) which is a measure of the timbre of a piece of music. Other features may be employed to represent the key, chords, harmonies, melody, main pitch, beats per minute or rhythm in the piece. There are a number of available audio feature extraction tools Available here

Statistics and machine learning

 * Computational methods for classification, clustering, and modelling — musical feature extraction for mono- and polyphonic music, similarity and pattern matching, retrieval
 * Formal methods and databases — applications of automated music identification and recognition, such as score following, automatic accompaniment, routing and filtering for music and music queries, query languages, standards and other metadata or protocols for music information handling and retrieval, multi-agent systems, distributed search)
 * Software for music information retrieval — Semantic Web and musical digital objects, intelligent agents, collaborative software, web-based search and semantic retrieval, query by humming / Search by sound, acoustic fingerprinting
 * Music analysis and knowledge representation — automatic summarization, citing, excerpting, downgrading, transformation, formal models of music, digital scores and representations, music indexing and metadata.

Other issues

 * Human-computer interaction and interfaces — multi-modal interfaces, user interfaces and usability, mobile applications, user behavior
 * Music perception, cognition, affect, and emotions — music similarity metrics, syntactical parameters, semantic parameters, musical forms, structures, styles and music annotation methodologies
 * Music archives, libraries, and digital collections — music digital libraries, public access to musical archives, benchmarks and research databases
 * Intellectual property rights and music — national and international copyright issues, digital rights management, identification and traceability
 * Sociology and Economy of music — music industry and use of MIR in the production, distribution, consumption chain, user profiling, validation, user needs and expectations, evaluation of music IR systems, building test collections, experimental design and metrics

Academic activity

 * International Society for Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR) conference is the top-tier venue for music information retrieval research.
 * International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP) is also a highly relevant venue.

Example MIR applications

 * Musipedia — A melody search engine that offers several modes of searching, including whistling, tapping, piano keyboard, and Parsons code.
 * Peachnote — A melody search engine and n-gram viewer that searches through digitized music scores

title: Music information retrieval


text:
User talk:Fyanow

Hello Fyanow, welcome to Wikipedia. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian. You can learn more on the how to edit page. The naming conventions and manual of style pages are also useful. Feel free to experiment at the Sandbox. If you have any questions about the project then check out Help or add a question to the Village pump. Angela

title: User talk:Fyanow


text: User:Mydogategodshat/sandbox

title: User:Mydogategodshat/sandbox


text:
Petunia

Petunia is a genus of 20 species of flowering plants of South American origin. The popular flower of the same name derived its epithet from the French, which took the word pétun, 'tobacco', from a Tupi–Guarani language. A tender perennial, most of the varieties seen in gardens are hybrids (Petunia × atkinsiana, also known as Petunia × hybrida).

Taxonomy
Petunia is a genus in the family Solanaceae, subfamily Petunioideae. Well known members of Solanaceae in other subfamilies include tobacco (subfamily Nicotianoideae), and the cape gooseberry, tomato, potato, deadly nightshade and chili pepper (subfamily Solanoideae). Some botanists place the plants of the genus Calibrachoa in the genus Petunia, but this is not accepted by others. Petchoa is a hybrid genus derived from crossing Calibrachoa and Petunia.

Species
Species include: • Petunia alpicola

• Petunia axillaris

• Petunia bajeensis

• Petunia bonjardinensis

• Petunia exserta

• Petunia guarapuavensis

• Petunia inflata

• Petunia integrifolia

• Petunia interior

• Petunia ledifolia

• Petunia littoralis

• Petunia mantiqueirensis

• Petunia occidentalis

• Petunia patagonica

• Petunia reitzii

• Petunia riograndensis

• Petunia saxicola

• Petunia scheideana

• Petunia villadiana

Ecology
Petunias are generally insect pollinated, with the exception of P. exserta, which is a rare, red-flowered, hummingbird-pollinated species. Most petunias are diploid with 14 chromosomes and are interfertile with other petunia species, as well as with Calibrachoa.

The tubular flowers are favoured by some Lepidoptera species, including the Hummingbird hawk moth.

Cultivation
Petunias can tolerate relatively harsh conditions and hot climates, but not frost. They need at least five hours of sunlight every day and flourish in moist soil and conditions of low atmospheric humidity. They are best grown from seed. Watering once a week should be sufficient in most regions. Hanging baskets and other containers need more frequent watering. Maximum growth occurs in late spring. Applying fertilizer monthly or weekly, depending on the variety, will help the plant grow quickly.

AGM cultivars
The following is a selection of cultivars which have received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:
 * = 'Conblue'
 * = 'Conglow'
 * = 'Constraw'
 * = 'Kleph15313'
 * 'Storm Lavender'
 * 'Storm Pink'
 * 'Storm Salmon'
 * = 'Suntosol'
 * = 'Sunpurple'
 * = 'Kerpril'

Uses
Many species other than Petunia × atkinsiana are also gaining popularity in the home garden. A wide range of flower colours, sizes, and plant architectures are available in both Petunia × atkinsiana and other species.

Genetically engineered bioluminescent Petunia hybrida was approved for sales by USDA in 2023. Called 'Firefly,' this white-flowered petunia glows due to inserted genes from a bioluminescent mushroom.

Symbolism and folklore
The Maya and Inca believed that the scent of petunias had the power to ward off underworld monsters and spirits. Their flower-buds were bunched together for magical drinks.

title: Petunia


text:
Leibnitz

Leibnitz (Slovenian: Lipnica) is a city in the Austrian state of Styria and on 1 Jan. 2023 had a population of 13,014. It is located to the south of the city of Graz, between the Mur and Sulm rivers.

The town is the capital of the Leibnitz political district, which covers about 727 km2, within which more than 80,000 people live. Leibnitz acts as a cultural, educational, judicial and economic focus for the surrounding district.

History
Although the center of the current town is only about 3 km away from the archaeological site of Flavia Solva, Leibnitz cannot claim direct successorship to this Roman municipium founded in the 1st century, and finally destroyed in the early 5th century. When Bavarian settlers moved into the area during the 9th century, superseding and gradually absorbing the Slavic population that had established itself during the previous half-millennium, all recollection of the Roman city had long since faded.

The first documented version of the name Leibnitz reads Lipnizza and can be found in a scroll issued by emperor Otto the Great dated 7 March 970. However, a different settlement – the civitas Zuib (or Sulb; both names recall the Roman Solva) – was actually closer to the site of the present town than the civitas Lipnizza which was located on the nearby Frauenberg hill, where human occupation had persisted since the Neolithic age. Later, when the civilian settlement moved back and down to the Mur valley while the dwelling on the hill remained a fortified place, the name was transformed to Libniz and Libenizze (12th century), Leibentz and Leybencz (13th and 14th century), and finally Leybnitz (14th and 15th century).

During the 12th century the settlement and its surrounding area, including the Sulm valley to the west, became territories of the Archbishopric of Salzburg and remained so for more than 400 years. The relocation of the civilian settlement was initiated (or at least heavily supported) by Archbishop Konradin of Salzburg, probably by 1130. In March 1170, Emperor Barbarossa discussed matters associated with Salzburg's authority in Leibnitz, and an imperial document dated 14 June 1178 granted full jurisdiction to Salzburg.

The transition decades from the Middle Ages proved extremely turbulent and destructive to the area around Leibnitz, as it was to all the south-east parts of modern Austria. The fact that Leibnitz was not fortified certainly contributed to the decision of Archbishop Bernhard von Rorer in 1479 to hand the township over to the invading Hungarians; their occupation collapsed in 1490 and Austria quickly reclaimed Leibnitz, severely punishing those leading citizens who had collaborated with the Hungarians.

In the 18th and early 19th century, when Leibnitz had about 1,000 occupants, the town burned to the ground twice, on 29 May 1709 and again on 8–9 September 1829. By 1883 the population had risen to 2,471 and on 27 April 1913 Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Josef I of Austria formally elevated Leibnitz to city rank.

By 1 January 1968 the population of Leibnitz had reached 6,641 but its relative importance and vitality had severely declined since Lower Styria had fallen to Yugoslavia in 1919 as a consequence of World War I, severing the city's vital connections to the south and effectively making it all but a "dead-border township." From the 1970s onward, when it became easier for Yugoslav citizens to travel to Austria, Leibnitz started to experience a marked economic reinvigoration which gained momentum with the establishment of Slovenia as an independent state in 1991, and its entry into the European Union in 2004.

Local council
The elections in 2020 showed the following results:
 * 18 seats SPÖ
 * 6 seats ÖVP
 * 3 seats FPÖ
 * 4 seats The Greens - The Green Alternative
 * 2 seat Bürgerforum Leibnitz

Main sights

 * The ruins of the Roman settlement of Flavia Solva near the village Wagna
 * Schloss Seggau, a castle situated above the town on the Seggauberg. Founded in the 12th century by Archbishop Konrad I of Salzburg, it now accommodates a conference center
 * The church on the Frauenberg on the hill (381 m) of the same name
 * Leibnitz Abbey

Culture and recreation
Leibnitz has a cinema, an ice rink located in the center, and an open-air swimming pool with campsite and tennis courts. These facilities are enjoyed both by locals and passing tourist traffic on its way to the Adriatic.

Interesting annual events include a fall festival with harvest thanksgiving procession, Leibnitz "wine week" and a "Perchtenlauf".

The vineyard-rich hilly countryside is home to many traditional wine-drinking establishments known as "Buschenschenke", where the local produce can be readily tasted.

The area is also crisscrossed by cycle trails, which are particularly popular in summer and fall. Leibnitz is situated on a branch of the cycle track which runs alongside the Mur river from Graz to the Slovenian border. Another cycle track alongside the river Sulm leads to Gleinstätten.

Economy
The area surrounding Leibnitz (known as the "Leibnitzer Feld") is extensively cultivated, the main crops being maize and pumpkin. The latter is used in the production of the black-green colored pumpkin seed oil, a Styrian speciality. Several small to medium-sized industrial companies and also some smaller hotels and boarding houses are located within the town.

The areas of hilly countryside around the town support many vineyards, which itself is a renowned center of wine production.

Transportation
Leibnitz lies on the main southern railway line, connecting Vienna to Slovenia and the Croatia- northern parts especially like towns Čakovec or Varaždin via Graz. The journey from Graz main station to Leibnitz takes approximately 30 minutes using trains travelling to Spielfeld-Straß, Maribor or even Ljubljana or Zagreb. There are also several taxi firms based in Leibnitz.

Leibnitz is also served by the A9 motorway, the main route to Slovenia via Spielfeld.

Notable people

 * Anton Elschnig (1863–1939), a pioneer of eye surgery in the early 1900s
 * Rupert Marko (born 1963), an Austrian retired football player and a coach who played over 200 games
 * Thomas Muster (born 1967), an Austrian former world No. 1 tennis player in 1996
 * Thomas Pucher (born 1969) an Austrian architect, award winner for the NIK Office Building, in Graz

Twin towns — sister cities
Leibnitz is twinned with:
 * 🇨🇻 Pedra Badejo, Cape Verde

title: Leibnitz


text:
User:Vincent Ramos

es:Usuario:Vicente_Ramos fr:Utilisateur:Vincent_Ramos ja:%E5%88%A9%E7%94%A8%E8%80%85:%E6%9C%88%E5%BD%B1%E3%80%80 Vincens_Ramus & zh:%E7%94%A8%E6%88%B7:%E6%9C%88%E5%BD%B1 Autres projets : Wikibooks | Wiktionary | Meta

Hello,

Few words here, for my main contributions are in the French Wikipedia.

title: User:Vincent Ramos


text:
Talk:Glossary of graphies

Older comments
Why are calligraphy and choreography, which are both explained as "the art of ...", not considered fields of study? -- Timwi 00:04 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Calligraphy is not an Ography!

The suffix is -graphy not oggraphy! Like graph or graphite or graphic. Back to Square One, everybody! Wetman 22:00, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)~

what about pornography?

Xylography and the other -graphy technics in art

List moved from comment on article page
link dump: here's some more graphies for the lists in the article above:
 * amniography
 * anemography
 * angiocardiography
 * angiography
 * anthropography
 * aortography
 * arteriography
 * arthrography
 * astrophotography
 * audiospectrography
 * autography
 * bio-bibliography
 * biogeography
 * biostratigraphy
 * cacography
 * chirography
 * cholangiography
 * chorography
 * chromatography
 * chromolithography
 * cineradiography
 * cosmography
 * crystallography
 * dactylography
 * dittography
 * echography
 * encephalography
 * epigraphy
 * ethnography
 * flexography
 * fluorography
 * glossography
 * glyptography
 * hagiography
 * holography
 * hydrography
 * hypsography
 * ichnography
 * iconography
 * ideography
 * lexicography
 * lithography
 * lithostratigraphy
 * logography
 * lymphangiography
 * lymphography
 * macrography
 * mammography
 * metallography
 * mythography
 * nosography
 * oceanography
 * organography
 * orography
 * orthography
 * paleobiogeography
 * paleography
 * pathography
 * petrography
 * phlebography
 * phonography
 * photofluorography
 * photography
 * photolithography
 * phototypography
 * physiography
 * phytogeography
 * phytography
 * planography
 * polarography
 * pornography
 * prosopography
 * psychobiography
 * pyelography
 * pyrography
 * radiography
 * radiotelegraphy
 * reprography
 * roentgenography
 * scenography
 * selenography
 * skiagraphy
 * sonography
 * stenography
 * stereography
 * stereolithography
 * stratigraphy
 * tachygraphy
 * telegraphy
 * telephotography
 * thermography
 * tomography
 * topography
 * typography
 * ultrasonography
 * uranography
 * urography
 * venography
 * videography
 * wireless telegraphy
 * xerography
 * xylography
 * zincography
 * zoogeography
 * zoography

Rich Farmbrough, 09:48 29 August 2008 (GMT).

title: Talk:Glossary of graphies


text:
Ahmed Best

Ahmed Best (born August 19, 1973) is an American actor, comedian and musician. He is known for providing the voice and motion capture for the character Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars franchise.

Best likewise collaborated with director George Lucas in three films and seven episodes of the cartoon show, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He won the Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production for lampooning Jar Jar Binks in Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II.

Early life
Ahmed Best was born in New York City on August 19, 1973. Born in Roosevelt Hospital, he lived the majority of his formative years in the Soundview section of the Bronx, before moving to Maplewood, New Jersey in 1984. He attended Columbia High School, graduating in 1991. He then studied percussion at the Manhattan School of Music.

He is the younger brother of Dunia Best Sinnreich, lead singer and co-founder of Brave New Girl, Dubistry and Agent 99 and formerly with The Slackers.

Career
In 1994, Best joined the acid jazz group The Jazzhole. He contributed to the success of the group for two years. He co-wrote and co-produced three albums for the group including The Jazzhole, And the Feeling Goes Around, and The Beat is the Bomb. In 1995, he co-wrote and co-produced Escape by Bill Evans.

In 1995, he joined the Obie Award-winning cast of Stomp. He toured with the cast of Stomp throughout the US and Europe.

In 1997, after casting director Robin Gurland had observed his flexible, athletic movements in Stomp, Ahmed was cast as Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999–2005). He reprised the role on the Star Wars–themed episode of Robot Chicken (as well as its sequel), Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and on an episode of Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report. Best said he put a lot of himself into the character, so when Jar Jar drew hostility from audiences, it sometimes extended toward the actor or he otherwise interpreted it personally. The character of Jar Jar Binks was so disliked that Best considered suicide. Best later appeared with fellow Star Wars alumni Dee Bradley Baker, James Arnold Taylor, and Daran Norris on the TV show Big Time Rush.

In 2008, he also wrote, directed, and produced the pilot for a television show called This Can't Be My Life.

In late May 2020, Lucasfilm announced that Best would be starring as Jedi Master Kelleran Beq in a game-show called Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge, with a scheduled release date of June 3, 2020. It was later reported that Jedi Temple Challenge release date had been delayed until June 10 as a result of the unrest surrounding George Floyd's murder. He would later reprise the role in the third season of The Mandalorian, a live-action series set in the Star Wars universe.

In addition to his acting roles, Best has worked as an adjunct professor at Stanford University. His Stanford classes have touched on subjects such as art and Afrofuturism.

Best also holds the rank of Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

title: Ahmed Best


text:
Robert the Strong

Robert the Strong (Robert le Fort; c. 830 – 866) was the father of two kings of West Francia: Odo (or Eudes) and Robert I of France. His family is named after him and called the Robertians. In 853, he was named missus dominicus by Charles the Bald, King of West Francia. Robert the Strong was the great-grandfather of Hugh Capet and thus the ancestor of all the Capetians.

Origins and rise to power
The parentage of Robert the Strong is obscure. While very little is known about the beginnings of the Robertian family, speculative proposals have been made. According to one proposal, Robert was a son of Robert III of Worms. Far more speculatively, mainly based on the use of the name Robert, or similar names, it has been proposed for example that his family had its origins in the Hesbaye region in present-day eastern Belgium, or perhaps descended from the family of Chrodegang of Metz. However, these proposals are unproven. According to the Worms proposal, during the reign of Louis the German in East Francia, the Robertian family emigrated from East Francia to West Francia. After their arrival in his realm Charles the Bald rewarded the family defecting from his enemy by assigning to Robert the lay abbacy of Marmoutier in 852. And in 853 he granted the position of missus dominicus in the provinces of Maine, Anjou, and Touraine to Robert, giving him de facto control of the ancient ducatus Cenomannicus, a large duchy centred on Le Mans and corresponding to the ancient realm of regnum Neustriae. Robert's rise came at the expense of the established family of the Rorigonids and was designed to curb their regional power and to defend Neustria from Viking and Breton raids.

Revolt
In 858 Robert joined a rebellion against Charles the Bald. With the Bretons under Salomon he led the Frankish nobles of Neustria and invited Louis the German to invade West Francia and receive their homage. The revolt had been sparked by a marriage alliance between Charles and Erispoe, King of Brittany, and by the investment of Charles' son, Louis the Stammerer, with the regnum Neustriae, all which significantly curtailed the powers of both Salomon and Robert. Charles had given Robert the counties of Autun and Nevers in Burgundy; and in 856 Robert had defended Autun from Louis the German. But following Erispoe's assassination in November 857, he and Salomon rebelled against Charles.

Robert's Neustrians chased Louis the Stammerer from Le Mans in 858. Later that year, Louis the German reached Orléans and received delegations from the Breton and Neustrian leaders, as well as from Pepin II of Aquitaine. In 861, Charles made peace with Robert and appointed him Count of Anjou. Thereafter, Robert successfully defended the northern coast against a Viking invasion.

In 862 Charles granted Louis the Stammerer, his son, the lay abbacy of Saint Martin of Tours—a worthy benefice but small in comparison with the kingdom he had received in 856, and lost in 858. The young Louis rebelled and, befriended by Salomon who supplied him with troops, mounted war against Robert.

In 862 two Viking fleets converged on Brittany; one had recently been forced out of the Seine by Charles the Bald, the other was returning from a Mediterranean expedition. Salomon hired the Mediterranean fleet to ravage the Loire valley in Neustria. Robert captured twelve of their ships, killing all on board save a few who fled. He then hired the former Seine Vikings to attack Salomon's realm for 6,000 pounds silver.

Robert's apparent purpose was to prevent the Vikings from serving Salomon. He presumably collected a large amount in taxes for a (non-tributary) Danegeld to pay for keeping the Vikings out of Neustria. But peace between the Franks and the Vikings did not last long: in 863 Salomon made his peace, but the Vikings, now deprived of enemy lands to loot, proceeded to ravage Neustria. Charles now made Robert Lay abbot of the influential abbey St. Martin at Tours.

Robert warred with Pepin II in his later years. In 863 he again defended Autun from Louis the German; he campaigned in Neustria in 865 and again in 866, shortly before his death, dealing with Bretons and Vikings ravaging the environs of Le Mans.

Death and legacy
On 2 July 866, Robert was killed at the Battle of Brissarthe while defending Francia against a joint Breton-Viking raiding party led by Salomon, King of Brittany and the Viking chieftain Hastein. During the battle the Viking commander was entrapped in a nearby church. Robert removed his armour to start to besiege the church; the Vikings then launched a surprise attack and Robert died in the subsequent melee. He left behind a nine-year-old son, Odo (who would later be King of France), as his heir. His heroic successes against the Vikings led to his characterization as "a second Maccabaeus" in the Annales Fuldenses.

Family
Robert married Adelaide of Tours, daughter of Hugh of Tours. They had:
 * Odo of France (c.857–898), King of West Francia
 * Robert I of France (c.866–923), King of West Francia.

title: Robert the Strong