Edmund Pendleton

Edmund Pendleton was a Virginia politician, lawyer and judge, active in the American Revolutionary War. He was born in Caroline County, Va., September 9, 1721. He was licensed to practice law in 1741. He raised and helped 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, serving as President of the last two. He was on the Virginia Committee of Correspondence in 1773. He was a delegate to Continental Congress from Virginia in 1774.

Pendleton served as President of the Virginia Committee of Safety and as President of the Virginia Convention which authorized the Virginia signing of the Declaration of Independence. After the Declaration, he became the first Speaker of the Virginia's new House of Delegates. 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 apppointed 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. He died October 23, 1803.

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