William GRAYSON, Congress, VA (1740-1790)

GRAYSON, William, (uncle of Alexander Dalrymple Orr), a Delegate and a Senator from Virginia; born in Prince William County, Va., around 1740; attended the College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania; pursued classical studies in England at the University of Oxford and studied law in London; returned to Virginia and practiced law in Dumfries; during the Revolutionary War was commissioned lieutenant colonel and aide-de-camp to General George Washington and promoted to colonel January 1777; commissioner of the Board of War 1780-1781; resumed the practice of law; member, Virginia house of delegates 1784-1785, 1788; member of the Continental Congress 1785-1787; delegate to the Virginia convention of 1788 for the adoption of the Federal Constitution, which he opposed; elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1789, until his death in Dumfries, Va., March 12, 1790; interment on the old family estate at Belle Air, near Dumfries, Va.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Bristow, Weston. “William Grayson, A Study in Virginia Biography of the Eighteenth Century.” Richmond College Historical Papers 2 (June 1917); DuPriest, James E., Jr. William Grayson: A Political Biography of Virginia’s First United States Senator. Manassas, VA: Prince William County Historical Commission, 1977.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present