d dignified; thoroughly versed in
legislative proceedings; of excellent judgment, yet without
extraordinary genius; a sound lawyer; in politics conservative;
intolerant to dissenters.

Richard Bland was enlightened and laborious, a profound reasoner, an
ungraceful speaker, but an excellent writer; a wise but over-cautious
statesman, like Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, marching up with fearless
logic to his conclusions, but pausing there, unwilling to carry them
into effect.

Edmund Pendleton was the grandson of Philip Pendleton, a teacher, who
came over to Virginia about the year 1674 with his brother, Nathaniel, a
minister. Philip Pendleton's eldest son, at the age of eighteen, married
Mary Taylor, aged only thirteen, and Edmund was the fourth son of this
union. From a sister was descended General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, of
the United States army. Edmund Pendleton was born (his father dying
before his birth) in 1721, in Caroline County. Left poor and without any
classical education, it is said that after ploughing all day he pursued
his studies at night. Placed in his fourteenth year in the office of
Colonel Benjamin Robinson, (brother of the speaker,) clerk of the county
court of Caroline, he became acquainted with legal forms. He could
hardly have spent much time in ploughing before his fourteenth year. At
the age of sixteen he was appointed clerk to the vestry of St. Mary's
Parish; and the salary derived from that petty office he expended in the
purchase of books, which he diligently read. In his twentieth year he
was licensed to practise the law, after having been strictly examined by
the eminent lawyer Barradall. About the same time young Pendleton was
made clerk of the county court martial. Before he was of age he married,
in opposition to the advice of his friends, Betty Roy, remarkable for
her beauty. Upon being licensed he soon acquired a large practice. His
wife dying in less than two years after the marriage, in his
twenty-fourth year he married Sarah Pollard. He now began to practise in
the general court. In the year 1752 he was elected one of the
representatives of Caroline, and so continued down to the time of the
Revolution. Mr. Wirt says that he was a protege of Speaker Robinson, who
introduced him into the circle of refined society. Mr. Grigsby thinks
that the term protege was inapplicable to him, as he was the architect
of his own fortune. It is certain that Speaker Robinson found in him his
ablest su