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Spencer Roane (1762–1822)

Role

Bushrod Washington and Spencer Roane both attended The College of William and Mary and studied law under George Wythe.

Description

Spencer Roane, lawyer, judge, and political writer, was born on 4 April 1762 in Tappahannock, Essex County, Virginia. He attended The College of William and Mary and studied law under George Wythe before gaining admission to the bar in 1782. Young Roane sat in the House of Delegates, was a member of the Council of State, served in the Virginia Senate, and published an essay opposing ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

Citations

David Johnson, Irreconcilable Founders: Spencer Roane, John Marshall, and the Nature of America's Constitutional Republic (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2021).

"Spencer Roane." Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/BT2310004658/UHIC?u=viva_uva&sid=bookmark-UHIC&xid=f56cf044. Accessed 16 Nov. 2023.

Killenbeck, Mark R. "Roane, Spencer 1762–1822." Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States, edited by David S. Tanenhaus, vol. 4, Macmillan Reference USA, 2008, pp. 259-261. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3241200863/UHIC?u=viva_uva&sid=bookmark-UHIC&xid=bfebf0ab. Accessed 16 Nov. 2023.

"Rules of the Constitutional Society of Virginia, [ca. 14 June] 1784," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-08-02-0040. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, vol. 8, 10 March 1784 – 28 March 1786, ed. Robert A. Rutland and William M. E. Rachal. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973, pp. 71–75.]

"Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane, 12 October 1815," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-09-02-0058. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 9, September 1815 to April 1816, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 72–74.]

Judge Spencer Roane at Find a Grave.

Spencer Roane at FamilySearch.