Edmund Pendleton

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Edmund Pendleton (September 9, 1721-October 23, 1803) was a Virginia politician, lawyer and judge, active in the American Revolutionary War. He was born in Caroline County on September 9, 1721. When he was 14 years old, he was bound out as an apprentice to the Clerk of the Caroline County Court. In 1737, Pendleton was made clerk of the vestry of St. Mary’s Parrish in Caroline and with the small profits made there he procured a few law books. In 1740, he was made clerk of the Caroline Court-Marshall. He was licensed to practice law in April 1741 and his success before the county courts caused him to become a member of the General Court in October 1745. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Caroline County in 1751. He helped raise and school his fatherless nephew John Taylor of Caroline, who went on to be a U.S. Senator. From 1752-1776 he was a member of the House of Burgesses. Pendleton was on the Virginia Committee of Correspondence in 1773 and was a delegate to Continental Congress from Virginia in 1774.

Pendleton served as President of the Virginia Committee of Safety from 16 August 1775 to 5 July 1776 (effectively serving as governor of the colony) and as President of the Virginia Convention which authorized Virginia's signing of the Declaration of Independence. After the Declaration, he became the first Speaker of the Virginia's new House of Delegates although a fall from a horse caused him to miss the first session and crippled him so that he used crutches the rest of his life. He, along with Thomas Jefferson and George Wythe, revised Virginia's law code. He was appointed Judge of the High Court of Chancery in 1777. When Virginia created a Supreme Court of Appeals in 1778, Pendleton was appointed its first President where he served until his death. He served as President of the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1788. Pendleton died October 23, 1803.

Thomas Jefferson said of Pendleton: "Taken in all he was the ablest man in debate I ever met".

Pendleton County, West Virginia was formed in 1788 and named in Pendleton's honor.

[edit] Further reading

David J. Mays;"Edmund Pendleton, 1721-1803: A Biography"; 1952, Harvard University Press; 1984 reprint: Library of Virginia, ISBN 0-88490-119-X; (paperback: ISBN 0-88490-120-3).
David Mays (editor); "The Letters and Papers of Edmund Pendleton" (2 volumes); 1967, Charlottesville, Virginia, The University Press of Virginia.