John Tyler Sr. (February 28, 1747 – January 6, 1813) was an American lawyer, planter, politician and judge who served in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-number ...

and became 15th

Governor of Virginia The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022. Oath of office On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...

and later

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the

United States District Court for the District of Virginia The following are former United States district courts, which ceased to exist because they were subdivided into smaller units. With the exception of California, each of these courts initially covered an entire U.S. state, and was subdivided as the ...

. Lyon Gardiner Tyler, "John Tyler" in Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography (1915) vol. 2, pp. 35-36 He was the father of U.S. President

John Tyler John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president in 1841. He was elected vice president on the 1840 Whig tick ...

Early life and education

Born on February 28, 1747, in

James City County James City County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,254. Although politically separate from the county, the county seat is the adjacent independent city of Williamsburg. Located ...

, Colony of Virginia, British America, to the former Anne Contesse, the wife of John Tyler, the marshal of the Colony's vice-admiralty court. His maternal grandfather was

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

physician Dr. Louis Contesse. Beginning in 1754, Tyler attended first the grammar school at the

College of William & Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William I ...

in the colony's capitol, Williamsburg, then the college itself. When he was nineteen, Tyler stood in the lobby of the colony's assembly, the

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been establishe ...

and listened to

Patrick Henry Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): " Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first a ...

's speech concerning the Stamp Act 1765, which caused him both to become hostile to the British government, as well as to read law with eminent attorney Robert Carter Nicholas

Career

Tyler was admitted to the Virginia bar and had a private legal practice. Around 1770, Tyler moved to Charles City County. There, in addition to his private legal practice, Tyler operated plantations using enslaved labor. By the time of his marriage in 1776 discussed below, Tyler built Greenway Plantation, where he would raise his family and later die. In the 1787 Virginia tax census, Tyler owned 20 enslaved adults and 14 enslaved children, as well as 12 horses and 75 cattle, and was also taxed for his carriages (which had a total of six wheels). Meanwhile, as relations with Britain became strained, Tyler became a member of the Charles City County Committee of Safety, then in 1775 he raised a company of troops and joined his forces with those led by

to demand restoration of the gunpowder Virginia's governor Lord Dunmore had removed from the government magazine in Williamsburg, else compensation. In 1776 Tyler accepted a one-year appointment as commissioner in admiralty. Tyler's statewide political career began in 1778, as he first won election as one of Charles City County's delegates to the

. Charles City County voters re-elected him annually until 1788. Furthermore, fellow delegates elected Tyler as their Speaker in 1781, when he succeeded Benjamin Harrison (who legislators had elected the Governor), and re-elected Tyler until 1785, when Benjamin Harrison became the Speaker). In addition to his legislative service, Tyler also served as a Judge of the Virginia High Court of Admiralty from 1776 to 1788. He was a member of the Virginia Council of State (now the

Virginia Governor's Council The Governor's Council (also known as the "Council of State" or simply "the Council") was the upper house of the colonial legislature (the House of Burgesses was the other house) in the Colony of Virginia from 1607 until the American Revolution i ...

) from 1780 to 1781. Legislators elected Tyler a Judge of the General Court of Virginia starting in 1788.

Virginia ratification convention

Charles City County voters elected Tyler as one of their representatives to the

Virginia Ratifying Convention The Virginia Ratifying Convention (also historically referred to as the "Virginia Federal Convention") was a convention of 168 delegates from Virginia who met in 1788 to ratify or reject the United States Constitution, which had been drafted at ...

that ultimately ratified the United States Constitution in 1788. During that convocation, fellow delegates elected Tyler the convention's Vice-President. In the debates over ratification of the United States Constitution, like

George Mason George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of the three delegates present who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including ...

and

, Tyler was an

Anti-Federalist Anti-Federalism was a late-18th century political movement that opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government and which later opposed the ratification of the 1787 Constitution. The previous constitution, called the Articles of Con ...

, ultimately voting against the document, although it was ratified by a narrow margin. Tyler explained his opposition stating, "It has been often observed ... that liberty ought not to be given up without knowing the terms. The gentlemen themselves cannot agree in the construction of various clauses of

he Constitution He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

and so long as this is the case, so long shall liberty be in danger."

Governor

Legislators elected Tyler the 15th

from 1808 to 1811.

Federal judicial service

President

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

on January 2, 1811, appointed Tyler to a seat on the

vacated by Judge

Cyrus Griffin Cyrus Griffin (July 16, 1748 – December 14, 1810), a Virginia lawyer and politician, was the final President of the Congress of the Confederation and first United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of V ...

. The

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

confirmed the appointment on January 3, 1811, and Tyler received his commission on January 7, 1811. Thus, Tyler judge some cases on his circuit with U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, who had resided in Richmond and who had been a Federalist both during that Ratifying Convention years earlier, and in later elections.

Death and legacy

Tyler died on January 6, 1813 at Greenway Plantation in Charles City County. His official papers as Governor are held by the

Library of Virginia The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It serves as the archival agency and the reference library for Virginia's seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and ...

. Tyler County,

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

is named in Tyler's honor.

Family

Tyler married Mary Marot Armistead (1761–1797) in 1777. His wife was the only child of Robert Booth and Ann (Shields) Armistead of King's Creek plantation in York County, Virginia (her ancestor, another Robert Booth, had served as a burgess representing the county in 1653 and 1654-1655. They had eight children, including future President

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyler, John Sr. 1747 births 1813 deaths

Fathers of presidents of the United States Fathers of vice presidents of the United States Governors of Virginia Speakers of the Virginia House of Delegates Justices of the Supreme Court of Virginia Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Virginia United States federal judges appointed by James Madison American people of English descent People from Charles City County, Virginia American planters American slave owners College of William & Mary alumni People from York County, Virginia Virginia colonial people Continental Army soldiers People of Virginia in the American Revolution 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American judges United States federal judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law