Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/62

 FATHERS OF THE REVOLUTION

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Lnited States'* (1803) ; and, under the name of Jonathan Pindar, a volume of satires, called "Probationary Odes" (1796). He left some manuscript plays, and much verse. One of his lyrics, "Days of my Youth*' has been widely popular, and is still remem- bered. He received the degree of LL. D. from William and Mary College in 1790. He died at his estate in Nelson county, Virginia. November 10, 1827. He married, secondly, Lilia Skipwith in 1791. but had no issue by her.

Tyler, John, son of John Tyler, marshal of the vice-admiralty court, and Anne Con- tesse. his wife, daughter of Dr. Lewis Con- tesse, a French Huguenot physician, was born in James City county, Virginia, Febru- ary 28, 1747. He attended the Grammar school at William and Mary in 1754, and afterwards was a student in the college. In his nineteenth year he stood in the lobby of the house of burgesses and heard Patrick Henry's speech on the Stamp Act, which roused in him a great hostility to England. He studied law under the eminent lawyer. Robert Carter Nicholas, and removed to Charles City county in 1770. Here in 1774 he was a member of the county committee of safety, and in 1773. when he heard of Lord Dunmore's act of removing. the pow- der from the government magazine in Wil- liamsburg, he raised a company of troops in Charles City county and joined his forces with those of Patrick Hcnr>', to demand restoration or compensation. In 1776 he was appointed a commissioner of admiralty for one year, and in 1778 was elected to the house of delegates. Here he was a warm supporter of the revolutionary war. and in 1 78 1 supported the proposition to permit Congress to levy a five per cent, duty on

imported goods. He was an active sup- porter of the reforms of Mr. Jefferson. In 1 78 1 he succeeded Benjamin Harrison, who had been made governor, as speaker of the house of delegates, and in 1783, so great was his popularity, that he defeated Richard Henry Lee for that office, but was himself defeated in 1785 by Benjamin Harrison, who v/as returned to the house after his term as governor had expired. He was in favor of granting to Congress the power to regulate trade, and in 1786 got through the house the resolution to call a commercial meeting of the states at Annapolis. Meantime, in No- vember, 1785. he was elected a judge of the admiralty court to succeed Benjamin Waller, who resigned. As such he was one of the judges of the supreme court of appeals till that court was reconstituted in December, 1788. He was vice-president of the state convention in 1788. called to consider the new Federal constitution, and denounced the clause which permitted the slave trade for twenty years ; and on this account, and be- cause of the centralizing tendency of that instrument, he opposed the adoption of the new Federal constitution. When, by opera- tion thereof, the admiralty jurisdiction was vested in the United States courts. Judge Tyler was elected to the general court, and in 1792, in the case of Kemper vs. Hawkins, took ground in favor of the power of the j«diciar\' to overrule legislative acts con- travening the constitution. In 1800 he was offered by the governor the appointment to the chancery court of the Williamsburg dis- trict, but he declined. In 1808 he was elected governor of Virginia, which office he retained till his resignation in i8ti to accept the judgeship of the United States district court for Virginia. As governor he

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