page_title: Edmund Pendleton
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Edmund Pendleton / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Pendleton marker off Richmond Highway
context_page_description: Edmund Pendleton was a Virginia planter, politician, lawyer and judge. He served in the Virginia legislature before and during the American Revolutionary War, rising to the position of Speaker. Pendleton attended the First Continental Congress as one of Virginia's delegates alongside George Washington and Patrick Henry, and led the conventions both wherein Virginia declared independence and adopted the U.S. Constitution.
  Unlike his sometime political rival Henry, Pendleton was a moderate who initially hoped for reconciliation, rather than revolt. With Thomas Jefferson and George Wythe, Pendleton revised Virginia's legal code after the break with Britain. To contemporaries, Pendleton may have distinguished himself most as a judge, particularly in the appellate roles in which he spent his final 25 years, including leadership of what is now known as the Supreme Court of Virginia.
  On hearing of his death, Congress agreed to wear badges of mourning for 30 days and expressed "their regret that another star is fallen from the splendid constellation of virtue and talents which guided the people of the United States, in their struggle for independence".
context_section_description: Pendleton died in 1803, and after lying in state in Richmond he was buried at his home, Edmundsbury, in Caroline County. Due to the ravages of time upon the estate's buildings, his body was removed circa 1907 and moved to Bruton Parish Church in what became Colonial Williamsburg. A memorial to the distinguished legislator and jurist still exists near the former estate.
  Pendleton County, West Virginia (formed 1788) and Pendleton County, Kentucky (formed 1798) were both named in Pendleton's honor.
caption: Pendleton marker off Richmond Highway
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