Your letter of the 19th was received in due time, and I wish it were in my power to furnish you more fully, than in the enclosed paper, with materials for the biography of George Wythe; but I possess none in writing, am very distant from the place of his birth and early life, and know not a single person in that quarter from whom inquiry could be made, with the expectation of collecting any thing material.  Add to this, that feeble health disables me, almost, from writing; and, entirely, from the labor of going into difficult research.  I became acquainted with Mr. Wythe when he was about thirty-five years of age.  He directed my studies in the law, led me into business, and continued, until death, my most affectionate friend.  A close intimacy with him, during that period of forty odd years, the most important of his life, enables me to state its leading facts, which, being of my own knowledge, I vouch their truth.  Of what precedes that period, I speak from hearsay only, in which there may be error, but of little account, as the character of the facts will themselves manifest.  In the epoch of his birth I may err a little, stating that from the recollection of a particular incident, the date of which, within a year or two, I do not distinctly remember.  These scanty outlines, you will be able, I hope, to fill up from other information, and they may serve you, sometimes, as landmarks to distinguish truth from error, in what you hear from others.  The exalted virtue of the man will also be a polar star to guide you in all matters which may touch that element of his character.  But on that you will receive imputation from no man; for, as far as I know, he never had an enemy.  Little as I am able to contribute to the just reputation of this excellent man, it is the act of my life most gratifying to my heart:  and leaves me only to regret that a waning memory can do no more.

Of Mr. Hancock I can say nothing, having known him only in the chair of Congress.  Having myself been the youngest man but one in that body, the disparity of age prevented any particular intimacy.  But of him there can be no difficulty in obtaining full information in the North.

I salute you, Sir, with sentiments of great respect.

Th:  Jefferson.

Notes for the Biography of George Wythe.

George Wythe was born about the year 1727 or 1728, of a respectable family in the county of Elizabeth City, on the shores of the Chesapeake.  He inherited, from his father, a fortune sufficient for independence and ease.  He had not the benefit of a regular education in the schools, but acquired a good one of himself, and without assistance; insomuch, as to become the best Latin and Greek scholar in the state.  It is said, that while reading the Greek Testament, his mother held an English one, to aid him in rendering the Greek text conformably with that.  He also acquired, by his own reading, a good knowledge of Mathematics, and of Natural and Moral Philosophy.  He engaged