Signature on the Declaration of Independence
George Wythe (1726 – June 8,
1806) was an American lawyer, a judge, a prominent law professor and
"Virginia's foremost classical scholar." Wythe's signature is
positioned at the head of the list of seven Virginia signatories on
the United States Declaration of Independence. Wythe served as a
representative of Virginia and a delegate to the Constitutional
Convention — though he left the Convention early and did not sign the
final version of the Constitution.
Wythe is believed to have been murdered in June 1806 by arsenic
poisoning by his great-nephew George Wythe Sweeney. He was
likely targeting Lydia Broadnax, Wythe's housekeeper, and her
mixed-race son Michael Brown, to whom Wythe made bequests in his will.
Brown died a week before Wythe but Broadnax survived.
Some historians have suggested that she was Wythe's lover, or
common-law wife, and Brown his son, but others disagree. As
blacks were prevented by law from testifying at trials against whites,
Sweeney was acquitted. He later served time for horse stealing.