Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/56

 FATHERS OF THE REVOLUTION'

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gates, and, with George Wythe and Thomas Jefferson, revised the colonial laws. He was re-elected speaker in 1777. and, upon the organization of the court of chancery, was made its president by unanimous vote, and v.as transferred to the head of the court of appeals on its formation in 1788, holding the office until his death. He was president of the state convention that ratified the Federal constitution, and was one of its warmest supporters. In 17S9. President Washington appointed him judge of the United States district court of Virginia, but he declined. When parties were formed, he united with the Democratic-Republicans, and wrote a protest against waging war against France in 1799, claiming that gov- ernment to be a "sister republic." without whose aid independence could never have been obtained. He died in Richmond, Vir- ginia. October 23, 1803.

Frentis, Joseph, son of William Prentis, a merchant of Williamsburg, and Mary I'nMjke, his wife, was born January 24, 1754. was a student at William and Mary Culkge. member of the Virginia convention which met in December. 1775; appointed with James Hubard and John Tyler, a com- missioner in admiralty. 1776: member of the first house of delegates in 1777, from Williamsburg: member from York. 1778- 1788: speaker of the house of delegates, i/i^^: member of Patrick Henry's privy council. 1779; judge of the general court from 1789 to his. death. June 18, 1809; one of the revisors of the code of 1794. He was chairman of the house committee, which was appointed in October. 1785, to draw a bill to give the assent of V^irginia to a gen- eral regulation of trade by Congress. The

bill reported by Mr. Prentis was not ac- ceptable, and an rdternative resolution ofter- ed by John Tyler for a commercial con- vention of delegates at Annapolis, was adopted. This led to the Federal conven- tion at Philadelphia. Mr. Prentis married, December 16. 1778, Margaret Bowdoin, daughter of John and Grace Bowdoin, of Northampton county. He was great-grand- father of the present Judge R. R. Prentis, president of the State Corporation Commis- sion.

Randolph, Edmund, was born in Wil- liamsburg. August 10. 1753, son of John Randolph ( [727-178-1). the last attorney- general under the royal government ( 1766- 1775). He was graduated at the College of William and Mary, and studied law with his father. He remained in \'irginia. when his father fled to England in 1775. and Washington made him a member of his own family, and his aide-de-camp, .\ugust 15. 1773. On the death of his uncle. Peyton, he returned to William.sburg to care for the estate, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Carter Nicholas. He was a mem!)er of the convention of I77^>: was elected at- torney-general under the new constitution, and was mayor of Williamsburg. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress, 1779-82, where he had a place in the com- mittee on foreign aflfairs. He resigned in 1782. and devoted himself to the care of his estate. He was a commissioner to the .An- napolis convention, and as a member u^^ged the calling of a constitutional convention. He was governor. 1786-88. and leader of the \:rginia delegation to the constitutional convention of 1787, when he introduced the g;eneral plan of the instrument as agreed

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