Pendleton, Edmund
lawyer, jurist, statesman, was born Sept. 9, 1721, in Carolina county, Va. He was a member of the house of burgesses in 1752, and was subsequently speaker of that body. He was a delegate to the continental congress from 1774 to 1775; president of the Virginia conventions of 1775 and 1776; and drew up the resolutions for the declaration of independence. He was speaker and president of the chancery court; and in 1779 president of the court of appeals. In 1788 he presided over the convention which adopted the federal constitution. He died Oct. 23, 1803, in Richmond, Va.