Signers of the Declaration of Independence: Virginia, Part 3

View Online Signers of the Declaration of Independence: Virginia, Part 3 Aug. 7, 2026 | By David Vergun   Delegates to the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 56 delegates who signed the formal break from Britain are all considered Founding Fathers.     Virginia had seven delegates. This week's profile features George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee and Thomas Nelson Jr. Their signatures are grouped at the bottom of the document, third column from the left.   George Wythe    Wythe was born in 1726 to Thomas Wythe III and Margaret Walker in Elizabeth City County, Virginia. He had an older brother, Thomas, and a sister, Anne.  Wythe was 3 years old when his father died, and his brother became his guardian. His mother was well-educated and taught him Latin, Greek, math, science and logic. At age 14, Wythe attended the College of William and Mary and studied law in his uncle's office. He was admitted to the Virginia Bar at 20.  On Dec. 26, 1747, Wythe married Ann Lewis, who died the following year. In 1755, his brother died, and Wythe inherited the family estate. That same year, he married Elizabeth Taliaferro and moved to Williamsburg, Virginia.  Wythe went on to become one of Virginia's respected legal minds, serving in the Virginia House of Burgesses, as an acting attorney general, and from 1777 to 1778 as speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, presiding over the Virginia General Assembly during a critical period of the Revolutionary War. From 1778 until his death, he served as a judge on Virginia's High Court of Chancery and became one of the first to assert judicial review.  In addition to his service as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, he later helped ratify the U.S. Constitution, and his work at Virginia's 1776 constitutional convention proved influential by guiding the future state's governance and contributing to the drafting of its first constitution.  His commitment to justice led Wythe to free all of his slaves following the American Revolution and the passage of Virginia's Manumission Act of 1782, and he became an outspoken opponent of slavery.   In 1779, Wythe was appointed as the first Chair of the Law and Police at the College of William and Mary, making him the first professor of law in America. He served until 1789. James Monroe, who became the fifth president of the United States, and John Marshall, who became chief justice of the Supreme Court and served from 1801 to 1835, were among his students at William and Mary.  Wythe also mentored many future leaders, including Thomas Jefferson, who went on to become the third president of the United States. Jefferson studied under Wythe as an apprentice in Wythe's law office.  In 1790, Wythe moved to Richmond, Virginia, where he studied Hebrew and conducted science experiments.     Wythe died mysteriously June 8, 1806, allegedly poisoned by his grandnephew, George Wythe Sweeney, over his inheritance. He was buried at Saint John's Episcopal Churchyard in Richmond.  Today, the site of his boyhood home is part of the NASA Langley Research Center. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. His home in Williamsburg is a popular tourist attraction. The SS George Wythe was a World War II Liberty ship, launched in March 1942.  Wythe County, Virginia, is named for him, as is its county seat, Wytheville. There's also a Wythe Street in Petersburg, Virginia, and a Wythe Avenue in Richmond. Several schools in the state are also named for him, and in October 1953, the law school at the College of William and Mary became the Marshall-Wythe School of Law.  Richard Henry Lee     Lee was born on Jan. 20, 1732, on a tobacco plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia. His father was Thomas Lee, his mother was Hannah Harrison Ludwell, and he had five brothers and two sisters. The family was wealthy from generations of tobacco and fur sales. His younger brother, Francis Lightfoot Lee, was another Virginia signer of the Declaration of Independence.  Lee was educated at home and at 16 attended the Wakefield Academy in Yorkshire, England. In 1750, while he was in England, both of his parents died within a few months of one another.  He returned to Virginia in 1753 to assist his brother in managing their father's estate. In 1757, Lee married Anne Aylett, and they had four children. She died in 1768, and the following year, he married Anne Gaskins Pinkard; they had five children. Lee served as a justice of the peace and was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1758.  He is best known for introducing the Lee Resolution, June 7, 1776, during the Second Continental Congress. In the resolution, Lee called for independence from Britain, which led to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.  From 1784 to 1785, Lee served as president of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation. Although he objected to the U.S. Constitution, arguing it threatened states' rights and lacked a Bill of Rights, he was elected as one of Virginia's first U.S. senators in 1789. He also briefly held the position of president pro tempore, but resigned in 1792, due to illness.  Lee died June 19, 1794, and was interred at Burnt House Fields on the Mount Pleasant estate in Westmoreland County, Virginia — the Lee family burial ground. The site also contains the graves of both his wives and other family members.  The SS Richard Henry Lee was a World War II Liberty ship, launched in 1941, and in 1960, his family's tobacco plantation was designated as a National Historic Landmark.  The 1969 Broadway musical "1776" features the character about Lee who sang "The Lees of Old Virginia."  Thomas Nelson Jr.    Nelson was born in 1738, in Yorktown, Virginia, the eldest son of William Nelson and Elizabeth Burwell. He had five brothers and one sister, and he wasn't truly a junior; the generational suffix was added to distinguish him from his uncle of the same name.  At the age of 14, Nelson was sent to England for education and attended Eton College and Cambridge University. After graduating in 1761, he returned home and was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he was an outspoken advocate for colonial rights and opposed British policies.  Nelson married Lucy Grymes in 1762, and they had 11 children.  In 1781, as the commander of the Virginia militia, Brig. Gen. Nelson was instrumental in coordinating the defense against British Gen. Charles Cornwallis during the Siege of Yorktown, while also serving as governor of Virginia, an office he was elected to in the same year.   Alongside Gen. George Washington and French Royal Army officer Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau, Nelson besieged the British in his hometown. According to Nelson family oral history, often cited in biographical accounts, Nelson told Washington to aim fire on his home when he heard it was occupied by the British.  He developed late-onset asthma during the revolution and died Jan. 4, 1789, at the age of 50. He gave away much of his fortune to the cause of liberty and never financially recovered. He was buried at Grace Episcopal Churchyard in Yorktown. His wife died in 1830 and was buried in Fork Church Cemetery in Doswell, Virginia.  Nelson County, Virginia, and Nelson County, Kentucky, were named for him, as were two community colleges in Virginia and a high school in Kentucky. The Nelson House at his former home in Yorktown is a National Historic Landmark, maintained by the National Park Service.    This is the 10th installment in a series of articles about the men who signed the Declaration of Independence.  The 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress, representing the 13 colonies, are all considered Founding Fathers.

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