When I was in law school, one of our first cases for review in our estate planning class was about a trust which had been written up by Patrick Henry in the 1750’s. His trust was upheld.

But did you know that Patrick Henry became a lawyer just by circumstance? As a young man, Patrick Henry fell in love with a neighbor girl, Sarah Shelton, nicknamed “Sallie.” When they were married, her parents gave them a 300 acre tobacco farm as a wedding gift.

Patrick was 18 at the time, Sarah wasn’t much over 16. Neither knew farming. Patrick grew up in a Merchantile household. Sallie’s parents owned an inn.

It was a year of a long drought followed by a hard freeze. Guess what, the farm failed. Patrick and Sallie lost the farm and moved back in with her parents. Patrick worked at their inn as a bartender and general waiter.

Patrick didn’t like alcohol, and saw the problems it caused with those who drank too much.  The Shelton’s Inn was near the City’s courthouse. Lawyers would come to the Inn’s restaurant for lunch and Patrick would overhear them talking about their court cases, and how they had won this or that point. It sounded exciting to Patrick.

By this time Patrick new he didn’t like bartending. He hadn’t like working in his own parents merchantile establishment, and he had failed at farming. But he loved to talk. He thought he would try to make his living by talking. He would become a lawyer.

There were no law schools in those days. One became a lawyer by finding a mentor. A memtor lawyer would plan a study program for an aspiring lawyer and have him assist in the mentor’s cases. After a period of time, usually about two years, the applicant would ask to be “admitted to the bar.”

This meant the ambitious attorney-to-be would be interviewed by several attorneys who had already been practicing law for a while, or who were judges.

After studying for only about 5 weeks, Patrick felt he was ready to be interviewed. This was unheard of, but Patrick found 5 gentlemen who would interview him to see if he was suitably prepared.

Two interviewers refused to grant him a license. But three others, including George Wythe, who would become the first law school professor in Virginia, and who also became a signer of the Declaration of Independence, found Patrick already had a good grasp of the common law, and passed him. He was admitted to the bar.

Patrick Henry became a very successful lawyer. He made a name for himself in the “Parson’s Case.” He was very popular and was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

On July 5, 1776, Patrick Henry became the first Governor of the new State of Virginia, under its newly approved State Constitution. He went on to serve as the governor of Virginia five separate times.

His speech in 1775 which ended with the words “Give Me Liberty, or give me Death,” is just about all anyone remembers about him now. But his friend Thomas Jefferson said of him: “After all, it must be allowed that he was our leader in the measures of the Revolution . . . . He left all of us far behind.”

And to think, he started our as a failed tobacco farmer!