. Mr. Tyler, the
revolutionary patriot, while a member of the assembly, contracted an
intimate friendship with Patrick Henry, for whom he entertained an
almost idolizing veneration. They corresponded for many years. Mr. Tyler
participated largely in the debates, and on all occasions exhibited
himself a devoted patriot, and thoroughbred republican. In subsequent
years he was governor of Virginia and judge of the United States
district court. In private life his virtues won regard, in public his
integrity and talents commanded the confidence of his country.

John Banister was the son of an eminent botanist, of the same name, who
settled in Virginia toward the close of the seventeenth century, and
devoted himself to the study of plants. In one of his botanical
excursions, near the falls of the Roanoke, he fell from a rock and was
killed. As a naturalist he was esteemed not inferior to Bartram. John
Banister, the son, was educated in England, and bred to the law at the
Temple. He was a burgess of the assembly, and afterwards a distinguished
member of the convention of 1776. In the following year he was an active
member of the assembly. He visited the headquarters of the American
army about the time of the battle of Germantown. In 1778-9 he was a
member of congress at York, and at Philadelphia, and in September
visited headquarters as member of the committee of arrangement. He was
one of the framers of the articles of confederation. In 1781 he was
lieutenant-colonel of cavalry under General Lawson. The two other
colonels in the brigade were John Mercer, afterwards governor of
Maryland, and James Monroe, subsequently President of the United States.
Lawson's corps was dissolved when Leslie retired from Virginia, and thus
the horse commanded by Colonel Banister was lost to the State, at a time
when cavalry was so pressingly required. During the invasions which
Virginia was subjected to, Colonel Banister was actively engaged in the
efforts made to repel the enemy. Proprietor of a large estate, he
suffered repeated and heavy losses from the depredations of the British.
At one time, it is said, he supplied a body of troops, on their way to
the South, with blankets at his own expense.

A miniature likeness of him is said to be preserved by his descendants
in Amelia County. Of an excellent and well cultivated mind, and refined
manners, he was in private life amiable and upright, in public generous,
patriotic, and enlightened. As a