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John Wickham (1763–1839)

Role

In 1814 Bushrod Washington asked Wickham to compose a biographical sketch of John Marshall.

Description

John Wickham was born on 6 June 1763 in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. A loyalist's son and ensign in the King's American Regiment, Wickham was arrested during the Revolutionary War on suspicion of being a British spy. Following his acquital, he studied law under George Wythe at The College of William and Mary, moved to Richmond, and opened a practice. A successful attorney and close friend of John Marshall, Wickham is best known as lead defense counsel in the Aaron Burr treason trial.

Citations

"John Wickham." Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/BT2310000701/UHIC?u=viva_uva&sid=bookmark-UHIC&xid=394d7d3e. Accessed 17 Dec. 2023.

"To Thomas Jefferson from John Wickham, 8 December 1796," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-29-02-0175. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 29, 1 March 1796 – 31 December 1797, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 217–218.]

William Wirt Henry, "The Trial of Aaron Burr," The Virginia Law Register, Volume 3, Number 7 (November 1897), 477–501. 

A Guide to the Wickham Family Papers, 17761945, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond (Archival Resources of the Virginias).

John Wickham, Jr. in Betts Family Tree (Ancestry.com).

John Wickham at Find a Grave.

John Wickham at FamilySearch.