University of Virginia Library

JOHN TYLER.

To the golden worth of the subject of the present sketch the great
statesman, Henry Clay, publicly bore the following ardent testimony:
"I knew the father of the President, Judge Tyler, of the Supreme
Court of Virginia, and a purer patriot or a more honest man never
breathed the breath of life. I am one of those who hold to the safety
which flows from honest ancestors and the purity of blood" (Congressional
Globe, Vol. VIII, p. 345). Some interesting communications regarding
early representatives of the name Tyler in England, and its
curious etymological changes, are presented in a correspondence, held
in 1852, between President John Tyler and Rev. William Tyler, of
Massachusetts, as to their common lineage. It is conjectured there
that the first of the name who settled in England was of Norman origin,
and accompanied thither William the Conqueror, and assisted him to
throw off the Saxon power which went down with Harold, and who was
a beneficiary in the parceling out of lands in 1202, under the name of
Gilbert de Tiler; which, in 1233, was rendered de Tyler, then le Tyler
when the race became more numerous—being represented in Parliament
by Thomas le Tyler in 1311—and finally Tyler, a numerous family, including
Knights, Baronets, Admirals in the Navy, Members of Parliament
and distinguished Divines; but the subject of our sketch, regardless
of titles, was prouder of the tradition which declared him a veritable
descendant of Wat Tyler, the great blacksmith of English history, who
in the reign of Richard II., led the glorious rebellion which forced the
reconfirmation of Magna Charta; bearing testimony to his sincerity in
the name of his first born son, Wat Henry, called after the two greatest
rebels in English history, Wat Tyler and Patrick Henry. The
received tradition is that the ancestor of the family in Virginia, Henry
Tyler, was one of three brothers from Shropshire, England, the other two
settling severally in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Henry Tyler first
appears in the records of Virginia, January 7, 1652, as a patentee of lands
in James City County, at "The Middle Plantations," where Williamsburg
now stands. He was a man of station and influence. When,
after the destruction of the State House at Jamestown by fire, Governor
Nicholson, in 1699, removed the seat of government to Middle Plantations,
the General Assembly by act laid off the city of Williamsburg, as

the new capital, on the lands of Henry Tyler, "Gentleman." He was
named with the Governor, Edmund Jenings, Philip Ludwell, Thomas
Ballard, Lewis Burwell, Philip Ludwell, Jr., John Page, James Whaley
and Benjamin Harrison, Jr., trustees and directors to carry the same
into effect. He retained lands for the site of a residence for himself, adjoining
the Governor's "palace," and was on terms of friendship with
Governor Nicholson. Henry Tyler served as sheriff of York County,
and died in 1710, leaving with other issue two sons, Francis and John.
The latter settled in James City County; was a vestryman of Bruton
parish; married Elizabeth Tyler, and died about 1737, leaving issue a
daughter, Joanna, who married Dr. William McKenzie, of an ancient
Scotch family; and three sons, John, Henry and William. John Tyler,
the eldest son, married Anne, daughter of Dr. Louis Contesse, a Huguenot
refugee from religious persecution, and a distinguished physician;
he was marshal of the Vice Admiralty Court, and died August 26,
1773, at his ancestral home in James City County, leaving issue:
Elizabeth, who married John Greenhow; Rachel, who married, first,
William Drummond, and secondly, Colonel Stith Hardyman, of Charles
City County; Louis Contesse; Anne Contesse, who married Dr.
Anthony Tucker Dixon, and Joanna, who married Major Wood Bouldin,
of Charlotte County. Of the above, John Tyler, the subject of
this sketch, was born February 28, 1747. He entered the grammar
school of William and Mary College, in the eighth year of his age, and
graduated from the college in due course. He then studied law for five
years in the office of Robert Carter Nicholas, in Williamsburg. Jefferson,
four years his senior in age, was a student there, also, at the same time,
with George Wythe. Alike devoted to popular right, and both lovers
of the fiddle, as many other eminent Virginians have been, there was
early cemented between these ardent youths a friendship which endured
with their lives. Together they tested their musical skill, to the discomfiture
of the future author of the Declaration of Independence, who
so envied the bow arm of young Tyler, that he declared were that arm
his own he would yield to no man living in the excellence of his performance.
Together they listened to Patrick Henry, the "forest born
Demosthenes," in his famous philippic against George III., with like enkindling
emotions. So earnestly were the sympathies of young Tyler
enlisted in the cause of colonial rights, and so outspoken were his sentiments,
that they led him into contentions with his father, to whose
loyal sensibilities such utterances were all but impious. His remonstrances
being futile, he would dubiously shake his head and depreciatingly
say to his rebellious son: "Ah, John! they will hang you yet!
They will hang you yet!" Mr. Tyler, having been duly licensed, for a
time practiced his profession in James City, but in 1772 removed to
Charles City, probably as offering a less crowded field to a young aspirant,
but there was another reason amply alluring. In a MS. volume
of poetical essays by him, still extant, there are some lines, dated 1774,
in which the charms of a daughter of the "County of Presidents," are
glowingly portrayed. This lady, Mary, the daughter of Robert Armistead
(a descendant from William D'Armstadt of Hesse, who settled in
Virginia about 1650), at the age of sixteen became the wife of John
Tyler, in 1776, at "Weyanoke," the seat of Colonel Samuel Harwood,
on James River. The mother of Mrs. Tyler was the daughter of
Colonel Samuel Shield, a worthy representative of a family of sterling
virtues.

At a meeting of the freeholders of Charles City County, held
December 17, 1774, Benjamin Harrison was appointed chairman of a
committee consisting of John Tyler, William Acrill, Francis Eppes,
Samuel Harwood, David Minge, John Edloe and some others, who were
charged with the duty of looking to the observance of the regulations
of an association lately recommended to Congress, to prevent the use of
merchandise shipped from Great Britain and Ireland. The march in
April, 1775, of Patrick Henry, to recover the powder removed by Dunmore
from the magazine at Williamsburg, kindled the martial spirit of
the colonists to fiercest heat. They were everywhere eager to rush to
the standard of Henry. Tyler, at the head of a company from Charles
City County, was among the first to thus organize, but the ready indemnity
offered by the terrified Dunmore, gave him no opportunity for
immediate service. On September 11th following, deputies from the
district of which Charles City was a county, assembled at Williamsburg,
to take into consideration the military aspect of affairs. A battalion
was resolved on with the following officers: Colonel, Champion Travis;
Lieutenant-Colonel, Hugh Nelson; Major, Samuel Harwood; and of one
of two companies from Charles City, John Tyler was made captain.
But the abilities of Mr. Tyler were needed in another sphere. He was
appointed by the Virginia Convention, July 5, 1776, one of the judges
of the High Court of Admiralty. In the spring of 1778, he was called
by the voice of Charles City, to represent it in the House of Delegates,
of which body he was Speaker from 1781 to 1786. In this body also he
moved, and secured the passage of the bill which convened the famous
Assembly at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786, and which, not having a
quorum from the several States, adjourned to meet at Philadelphia the
year following, and there framed the new Federal Constitution.

In the year 1780 he was appointed a member of the Council
of State. A reminiscence of his experience in this station, which
would have aptly illustrated the preceding sketch of Patrick Henry,
still deserves preservation here. In May, 1781, Mr. Tyler was in attendance
upon the Assembly, which, as already narrated in the sketch
of Thomas Jefferson, had adjourned before British pursuit to Charlottesville.
Thither the noted Colonel Tarleton followed them with his regiment,

with the intention of capturing the leading members. Receiving
through one Jewett, by dint of hard riding, the appalling intelligence,
the fugitive legislators betook themselves again to their saddles. Late
in the day Patrick Henry, John Tyler, Benjamin Harrison, and Colonel
William Christian, who had fled together, fatigued and hungry, stopped
their horses at the door of a small hut in a gorge of the Blue Ridge,
and asked for refreshments. A woman, the sole occupant of the hut,
inquired of them who they were, and where from. "We are members
of the Legislature," said Mr. Henry, "and have just been compelled
to leave Charlottesville on account of the approach of the enemy."
"Ride on, then, ye cowardly knaves," replied the old woman, violently
indignant; "here my husband and sons have just gone to Charlottesville
to fight for ye, and you are running away with all your might.
Clear out; ye shall have nothing here." "But," Mr. Henry rejoined,
in an expostulating tone, "we were obliged to fly. It would not do for
the Legislature to be broken up by the enemy. Here is Mr. Speaker
Harrison; you don't think he would have fled had it not been necessary?"
"I always thought a great deal of Mr. Harrison till now,"
the old woman answered; "but he'd no business to run from the
enemy," and she was about to shut the door in their faces. "Wait a
moment, my good woman," again interposed Mr. Henry; "you would
hardly believe that Mr. Tyler or Colonel Christian would take to flight
if there were not good cause for so doing?" "No, indeed, that I
wouldn't," she replied. "But Mr. Tyler and Colonel Christian are
here," said he. "They here! Well, I never could have thought it,"
and she stood a moment as if in doubt, but finally added, "No matter;
we love those gentlemen, and I didn't suppose they would ever run
from the British; but since they have, they shall have nothing to eat
in my house. You may ride along." As a last resort, Mr. Tyler then
stepped forward and said: "What would you say, my good woman, if
I would tell you that Patrick Henry fled with the rest of us?" "Patrick
Henry! I would tell ye that there wasn't a word of truth in it," she
answered, angrily; "Patrick Henry would never do such a cowardly
thing." "But this is Mr. Henry," rejoined Mr. Tyler, pointing him
out. The old woman was manifestly astounded. After a moment's
consideration, and a convulsive twitch or two at her apron string, by
way of recovering her scattered thoughts, she said: "Well, then, if
that's Patrick Henry, it must be all right. Come in, and ye shall have
the best I have in the house."

Perhaps, says Abeel, in his life of President Tyler, from which the
above is extracted, no higher compliment was ever paid to the patriotism
of Patrick Henry than this simple tribute, expressive of the sentiment
with which he was regarded by the people of Virginia. Throughout
the Revolution Mr. Tyler devoted himself unceasingly and untiringly

to its success. A bold, free, and elegant speaker, his voice was never
silent when it could avail aught for the great cause in which he was
enlisted. In 1786 Mr. Tyler was again appointed a Judge of the Court
of Admiralty, and was consequently a member of the first Court of
Appeals of the State. He was appointed a Judge of the General Court
in 1788, and served in this capacity until December 1, 1808, when he
was elected Governor of Virginia. From the last station he was called,
by the appointment of Mr. Madison, to the judgeship of the District
Court of the United States for Virginia; which office he held until his
death at his seat, "Greenway," in Charles City County, January 6, 1813
—the period of the second war with Great Britain. As a judge, the
first prize case—the capture of the privateer Globe—was passed upon by
him, and so ardent was his individuality as a Republican, that his repeated
utterance on the fatal bed of sickness is memorable: "My only
regret," he would feebly say, "is, that I can not live long enough to
see that proud English nation once more humbled by American arms."
The eminent Daniel Call, in his Reports (Vol. IV, p. 23), says of Mr.
Tyler: "In all his public situations he maintained an independence
of character which was highly honorable to him. * * * He was
very attentive to young lawyers upon their first coming to the bar; and
did every thing in his power to put them at ease and inspire them with
confidence. His conversation was familiar, his heart benevolent, and
his friendship sincere."

Mr. Tyler left three sons, Wat Henry, a skilled and popular physician
of Hanover County, Virginia; John, 10th President of the United
States; and William; and five daughters, Anne Contesse, married the
learned James Semple, long the Judge of the General Court of Virginia,
and Professor of Law at William and Mary College, Elizabeth,
married John Clayton Pryor, of Gloucester county; Maria Henry,
married John Boswell Seawell, of Gloucester county; Martha Jefferson,
married Thomas Gunols Waggaman, of Maryland, a brother of United
States Senator Waggaman, of Louisiana, and Christiana, who became
the wife of Dr. Henry Curtis, an accomplished and highly successful
physician and surgeon of "Puccoon," Hanover County, Virginia, who
was of the same lineage as the distinguished New England family of
that name, both deriving from Sir Henry Curtis of England.

Of the person of Governor Tyler the writer has been furnished the
following description by a grandson, Lyon G. Tyler, Esq., of Richmond,
Va., who has recently prepared for publication a meritorious account of
his progenitors—the President and the Governor—The Life and Letters
of the Tylers: "Governor Tyler did not exceed five feet ten inches in
stature. He was lightly built and somewhat round-shouldered. His
complexion was fair, nose aquiline, hair brown, inclining to auburn,
and eyes light blue."

There is an expressive portrait of Governor Tyler in the State
Library at Richmond, which seemingly denotes the virtues and characteristics
which so adorned his life.

The County of Tyler, formed, in 1814, from Ohio County, commemorates
the name of Governor Tyler.