born 1726, Elizabeth City county, Va.
died June 8, 1806, Richmond, Va., U.S.
U.S. jurist and statesman.
Admitted to the bar in 1746, he was a member (175455, 175868) and clerk (176975) of the Virginia House of Burgesses . He practiced law in Williamsburg, Va., where he taught Thomas Jefferson . At the College of William and Mary (177989) he became the first professor of law in the U.S.; among his pupils was John Marshall . A delegate to the Continental Congress , he signed the Declaration of Independence . In 1776 he was appointed, with Jefferson and two others, to revise the laws of Virginia. As a chancery judge (17781806), he asserted, in Commonwealth v. Caton (1782), the power of courts to refuse to enforce unconstitutional laws. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention (1787) and of the Virginia convention (1788) that ratified the Constitution of the United States .