American Aristides: A Biography of George Wythe
by Imogene E. Brown.
Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1981.
324 pages.
Imogene, Lady Wolseley (1943 – 2024) was born Imogene "Jeannie" Ellen May on August 29, 1943, in Columbus, Ohio, the elder of two children of John and Grace May of Dayton. Jeannie was educated at Ohio State University in Columbus (BA), graduating with honors, and then at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (MA). In her early twenties, she married Bowman Brown and had two daughters, one of whom died in infancy.[1]
In the 1970s, Brown began research for her first book, which was published as American Aristides: A Biography of George Wythe (Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1981) under the name Imogene E. Brown. In November, 1981, Brown donated her research for Wythe's biography to the William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia (then called the "Marshall-Wythe School of Law"). An internal memo from William F. Swindler, Professor of Legal History, to Dean William B. Spong Jr. and Library Director Edmund P. Edmonds, records the donation as a "box of materials received from Mrs. Imogene Brown of Miami, Florida, via Edward Blumberg." A preliminary inventory was made by Professor Swindler.[2] A finding aid to the Imogene E. Brown papers was created in 2025.
Brown met Sir Charles Garnet Richard Mark Wolseley while researching her second book. They were married on May 5, 1984, in Winchester, England and settled in Hampshire, but moved to the Wolseley family seat in Staffordshire in 1987.[3] Lady Wolseley converted to Catholicism in 1990. Lady Wolseley's second book became Wolseley: A Thousand Years of History (Lichfield: Lichfield Press, 2003). A self-published third book appeared in 2017: The Widow in the Wood (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform). The Wolseleys lost Wolseley Hall and the family estate in Staffordshire to bankruptcy in 2008. Lady Wolseley died in Rugeley, Staffordshire, on July 11, 2024.[4]
American Aristides
Considered one of the better biographies of Wythe alongside Joyce Blackburn's George Wythe of Williamsburg (1975), and Alonzo Dill's George Wythe: Teacher of Liberty (1979), American Aristides is more comprehensive than either. It draws deeply from Edwin Hemphill's "George Wythe the Colonial Briton" (1933) and "George Wythe, America's First Law Professor" (1937), while not still not matching the depth of Robert Kirtland's George Wythe: Lawyer, Revolutionary, Judge (1986).
While critics lauded her subject, they complained of Brown's lack of analysis and scholarship. While praised for citing her sources and numerous footnotes, the book made use of outdated sources, and contained typographical errors and inconsistent form in the notes and bibliography. American Aristides was strongly compared to that of Clarkin's Serene Patriot (1970) from a decade before, as being much the same.
Book reviews
- James S. Chase, Journal of the Early Republic 2, no. 4 (Winter 1982), 441-442.
- Lester E. Denonn, American Bar Association Journal 67, no. 9 (September 1981), 1166.
- Joan R. Gundersen, Journal of Southern History 48, no. 1 (February 1982), 102-103.
- Daniel P Jordan, American Historical Review 89, no. 2 (April 1984), 514-515.
- A. G. Roeber, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 90, no. 4 (October 1982), 506-507.
References
- ↑ Requiem Mass for Lady Jeannie Wolseley, St. Joseph & St. Etheldreda Catholic Church, Rugeley, Staffordshire, Facebook (accessed April 17, 2025).
- ↑ William F. Swindler to Dean William B. Spong, Jr. and Edmund P. Edmonds, November 6, 1981. Imogene E. Brown Papers Accession File, LSA2019.002, Wolf Law Library Archives, William & Mary Law School, Williamsburg, Virginia.
- ↑ Obituary of Sir Charles Wolseley, Times (London), May 7, 2018, 45.
- ↑ Obituary notice of Lady Imogene (Jeannie) Ellen Wolseley, Funeral Notices (accessed April 17, 2025).
External links
- View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.