Wythe, George (1726-1806)

US judge and law educator. He was the first professor of law in the USA (1779-90), at the College of William and Mary, teaching John Marshall, James Monroe, Henry Clay, and others who would become influential lawyers and government officials. Born in Hampton, Virginia, he served as the colony of Virginia's attorney general and in the House of Burgesses, but he opposed Britain's Stamp Act (1764) and was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. He was sole justice of Virginia's High Court (1789-1801) and defended judicial review. He died from poisoning by a grandnephew seeking to secure a legacy.