Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/37

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

ters have been recently published by Worth- ington C. Ford, and show him to have been a man of decided ability and originality.

Jones, Walter, son of Colonel Thomas Jones, of Hanover county, and Elizabeth Cocke, daughter of Dr. William Cocke, sec- retary of state, and Elizabeth Catesby, his wife, of Northumberland county, was born December i8, 1745. He was a student at William and Mary College in 1760, with Thomas Jefferson, and afterwards studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he was graduated M. D., June 12. 1769. He was described "as the most shin- ing young gent of his profession now in Edinburgh,'' and certain to **make a ^reat figure wherever he goes." He returned to \'irginia in 1770, and resided at Hayfield, Lancaster county, and acquired a large practice. He was a warm advocate of Amer- ican rights, and in 1777 was appointed by Congress to' be physician-general, a position which he declined. During the revolution he was a member of the house of delegates, and in 1786 was a delegate to the convention at Annapolis. After the establishment of the new constitution he was a member of Congress from 1797 to 1799 and from 1803 to 181 1. He married Alice Flood, daughter of Dr. William Flood, of Richmond county, and was father of the eminent lawyer. Gen- eral Walter Jones, of Washington. He died in Westmoreland county, Virginia, Decem- ber 31, 1815. He was a master of colloquial e'oquence and irony.

Lee, Arthur, was born at Stratford, West- moreland county, Virginia, December 21, T740, eighth and youngest son of Governor Thomas and Hannah (Ludwell) Lee. grand- son of Colonel Richard and Laetitia (Cor-

bin) Lee, and of Colonel Philip Ludwell, of Green Spring, Virginia, and great-grandson cf Richard and Ann Lee, and of Philip Lud- well. governor of North Carolina, 1689-91. He was educated at Eton and the University of Edinburgh. After journeying through Holland and Germany he returned and prac- ticed medicine in Williamsburg. The efforts to enforce the Stamp Act determined him to study law in order to assist the colonies in obtaining redress. He studied law in the Temple, London, 1768-70, and practiced in London, 1770-76, meantime studying the Colonial questions and discussing the Town- shend acts and other aggressive measures proposed by parliament. He won fame as a writer, signing himself "Monitor" and "Junius Americanus," and was the author of "An Appeal to the English Nation.*' He was a leading member of the "Supporters of the Dill of Rights," organized for the dis- cussion of the measures of the British min- istry and the restoration to the American colonies of the right to regulate taxes through their own representatives. He gained the friendship of Burke, Priestly, Dunning, Baire and Sir William Jones, and was admitted to a fellowship in the Royal Society. He was appointed by the general court of Massachusetts in 1770 as represen- tative for that colony in London, as asso- ciate with Benjamin Franklin. He was ap- pointed by Congress with Franklin, Jay and Dickinson, to open correspondence with friends of America in Europe, and was made secret agent of the committee in London, and opened negotiations with the French government which led to his residence in Paris in 1776. In 1776 Congress appointed him a joint commissioner with Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane to secure a treaty

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