Returning to Virginia, Wythe was elected Speaker of the House of Delegates, & worked to draw up the Virginia constitution, overhaul the laws of the state, & design the state seal. In 1779, he became professor of law at the College of William & Mary (making him the first official law professor in America), formalizing his role as a prominent educator (his students included Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall & Henry Clay).
Wythe was named a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, but left Philadelphia early due to his wife's final illness. In 1789, Wythe was named judge of Virginia's Court of Chancery; he moved to Richmond in 1791, & lived there for the remainder of his life. Wythe was poisoned by a grandnephew in late May, 1806, & died on 8 June after an agonizing illness.
Wythe bequeathed his extensive library of law, classics & other books to Thomas Jefferson, a longtime friend who was serving as president when Wythe died in 1806. Among Wythe's garden books was
In Latin, essays of classic garden & farm writers. Rei rvsticae avctores Latini veteres, M. Cato, M. Varro, L. Colvmella, Palladivs: priores tres, e vetustiss. editionibus; quartus, e veteribus membranis aliquammultis in locis emendatiores: cum tribus indicubus, capitum, auctorum, & rerune ac verborum memorabilium ... Ex Hier - Bequeathed by Wythe to Thomas Jefferson in 1806. Sold by Jefferson to Congress in 1815
An Almanac Purchased by Wythe from the offices of the Virginia Gazette, 21 November 1764 (1/3 sh., through Mrs. Drummond), Daybooks, 1764-66.
The botanic garden : a poem, in two parts. With philosophical notes Erasmus Darwin New-York : Printed by T. &. J. Swords ..., 1798.
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