Cyrus Griffin

Cyrus Griffin (July 16, 1748 – December 14, 1810) was an American lawyer and politician, who served as the final President of the Congress of the Confederation and first United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Virginia.

Education and career

Born on July 16, 1748, to the former Mary Anne Bertrand and her husband Col. Leroy Griffin in Farnham Parish (now Farnham), then in Lancaster County (which became part of Richmond County in his lifetime), Colony of Virginia, British America, He was a descendant of an Englishman named Thomas Griffin, who settled to the Virginia Colony in the early 1600s, and received land grants and purchased land including from Edward Bradshaw of Lancaster County. That Thomas Griffin may have emigrated with relatives, for one old genealogist stated his widow married Samuel Griffin of Northumberland County, and bore another Col. Leroy Griffin of Rappahannock County, who married Winifed Corbin (daughter of a member of the King's Council) and bore sons Thomas Griffin (who became a burgess), Corbin Griffin of Middlesex County, and daughter Winifred who married Burgess and Col. Peter Presley of Northumberland House, and whose only daughter, also Winifred, married Anthony Thornton and whose son therefore was Col. Presley Thornton who served on the King's Council 1760-1769. Clearly, this Griffin was a patriot and also had two older brothers as well as a sister who married Col. Richard Adams who served multiple terms in the state legislature as well as became mayor of Virginia (which became the new state's capital during this man's lifetime). Thomas Bertrand Griffin, the eldest son, inherited his maternal grandfather's and uncles estates, Belle Isle in Lancaster County and also served as the Lancaster County clerk 1770-1777. Another slightly older brother Samuel Griffin also became a Virginia lawyer, and Continental Army officer before beginning a political career that included service in the U.S. House of Representatives. Another brother, Dr. Corbin Griffin (d. 1813) practiced medicine in Yorktown and became the state surgeon during the Revolutionary War but was imprisoned by the British, and after his release served in the state senate.

Like his brothers, Cyrus received a private education appropriate to his class in Virginia, then sailed to England to complete his education. He studied law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and at the Middle Temple in London. Fellow legislators elected him among Virginia's delegates to the Second Continental Congress, where he served from 1778 to 1780. They had at least one child, a daughter Mary, who married her cousin Thomas Griffin, son of Dr. Corbin Griffin of Yorktown and a member of the Virginia House of Delegates as well as U.S. Congress. He returned to Virginia and died on December 14, 1810 at Yorktown, in York County, probably at the home of his daughter or of Dr. Griffin as referenced in that letter. However, a state historical marker commemorating his legislative and judicial career is further north along the coast in Richmond County near Belle Isle State Park, which includes two historic houses, one constructed by a descendant.