near Charles City court house. Governor Wise tells the following anecdote of him : One day, returning from a collision with the "supervisor" of the streets, who had en croached as he thought on his lot, he entered his office exclaiming: "Yes, I will teach the upstart what the rights of land proprietors are!" A young man who had been waiting to see him to get him to sign his license to practice law, seeing him in such a rage timidly presented his letter of introduction from a brother lawyer. Immediately Mr. Tyler said: "Young gentleman, I can tell by a single question whether you are fit to be a lawyer or not. Can you tell me the meaning of the word 'supervisor'?" The young man was very much perplexed, think ing it some catch, but stammered out, "Judge, I hardly know any technical mean ing, but I suppose the common meaning is 'super' — over, and 'vidio,' to see — the noun ' overseer.' " Eagerly, the Judge, Governor Wise tells us, exclaimed, " Yes, young man, you have hit it exactly. He is on the stilts of ' supervisor,' just as if he was lord of the manors and of all the owners, and all the time he is nothing but a d—d vulgar ' overseer.' You know the meaning of words, sir, and interpret truly, and are fit to be a lawyer. Give me your license, I will sign it with pleasure." He died in 18 1 3 . Governor Wise says : " He was a noble specimen of the 'booted and spurred cavalier' of colonial times, a ruffled gentleman of great learning and mental force, and a man of unspotted name for honor, truth, integrity and pluck." Daniel Call was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, studied law, and settled in Rich mond to practice, where he became very distinguished. He was the author of " Call's Reports," a well-known law book. He had a large practice and acquired a handsome fortune. He married Miss Lucy Nelson Ambler, and died in Richmond about 1840. His wife was a relative of the wife of ChiefJustice John Marshall. Judge Marshall and Mr. Call were the best of friends and, in his
letters to his wife, while absent in Washing ton, he frequently sent messages to Mr. Call which show his opinion of him. Paul Carrington was descended from a good old English family. One of his ances tors is said to have patented, March 6, 161 5, one hundred acres of land in Virginia, the first-known English land patents in America, therefore he was the first Englishman to own land in this country. Paul Carrington fought in the actions of Guilford and Green Springs d <ng the Revolutionary War. He was a me,, er of the House of Burgesses, of the Comn. lee of Safety and of the Committee of Decla.ation of Rights, judge of the gen eral court and of the court of appeals. It is said : " He was an upright and impartial judge, whose opinions were greatly re spected." He was employed, when a lad, as a deputy clerk by Col. Read, the clerk of Lunenburg and one of the most highly re spected men in Virginia, and it was there he began the study of law. Mr. John Selden of Washington says: " It would be difficult to point to a class of public servants of the present day possessing the virtues and quali fications which, by universal consent, be longed to the clerks of the Virginia tribunals. Through no other instructors, at home or abroad, could the youth of that common wealth receive equal preparation for the most noble and difficult of professions." Mr. Carrington married Col. Read's daughter, Peggy. His mother-in-law was known as " Madam Read " and was one of the best-known women in Virginia. She survived her husband several years, and John Randolph of Roanoke, in Congress, when enumerating the most talented men that Charlotte County had produced, always included "Madam Read." Mr. Powhatan Bouldin says : " She was a woman of great force of character and wielded as much in fluence as anyone in the county of Char lotte." A descendant, Mr. John Carrington of Louisville, tells me that it is a tradition
