George Wythe, a signer of the American Declaration of Independence, born in Elizabeth City co., Va., in 1726, died in Richmond, June 8, 1806. He was admitted to the bar in 1757, and in 1758 was elected to the Virginia house of burgesses, by which he was appointed in 1764 on the committee to prepare a petition to the king, a memorial to the house of lords, and a remonstrance to the house of commons against the proposed stamp act, the last of which he wrote. He was a member of the continental congress in 1775-'7, and in 1776 was one of the committee to revise the laws of Virginia. In 1777 he was chosen speaker of the house of delegates, and was appointed a judge of the high court of chancery; and on the reorganization of that court he became sole chancellor, which office he held till his death. He was professor of law in William and Mary college from 1779 to 1789. In the latter part of his life he emancipated his slavesand furnished them means of subsistence. He died suddenly from accidental poisoning. He was the author of "Decisions by the High Court of Chancery" (1795; 2d ed., with a memoir by B. B. Minor, 1852).