, "his faithful and beloved mentor in youth and his mostaffectionate friend through life."To Governor Fauquier, with whom he was in habits of intimacy, is also ascribed a high character. With the exception of an unfortunate passion for gaming, he was everything that could have been wished for by Virginia under the royal government. "With him," continues Mr. Jefferson, "and at his table, Dr. Small and Mr. Wythe, his amici omnium horarum, and myself, formed a partie quarree, and to the habitual conversations on these occasions, I owed much instruction."George Wythe was emphatically a second father to young Jefferson. He was born about the year 1727, on the shores of the Chesapeake. His education had beenneglected by his parents, and himself had led an idle and voluptuous life until the ageof thirty; but by an extraordinary effort of self-recovery at that point of time, heovercame both the want and the waste of early advantages. He was one of theforemost of the Virginia patriots during the revolution; and one of the highest legal,legislative, and judicial characters which that State has furnished. He was early electedto the House of Delegates, then called the House of Burgesses, and continued in ituntil transferred to Congress in 1775. He was one of the signers of the Declaration ofIndependence, of which he had been an eminent supporter. The same year, he wasappointed by the Legislature of Virginia one of the celebrated committee to revise thelaws of the State. In 1777, he was chosen Speaker of the House of Delegates, and thesame year was appointed Chancellor of the State, an office which he held until hisdeath in 1806, a period of thirty years. After graduating from William and Mary in 1762, Jefferson studied law for five years under George Wythe. In January of 1772, he married Martha Wayles Skelton and established a residence at Monticello. When they moved to Monticello, only a small one room building was completed. Jeffers...
