John Tyler (1747–1813), governor of Virginia, 1808–11, became acquainted with TJ in the 1760s at Williamsburg, where Tyler studied at the College of William and Mary and read law. He represented Charles City County in the Virginia House of Delegates, 1778–86 (as speaker, 1781–85), and he opposed the new federal constitution as vice president of the Virginia ratification convention in 1788. Tyler was a justice on Virginia’s High Court of Admiralty, 1785–88, after which he served on the state’s General Court, 1788–1808. With TJ’s strong endorsement, Tyler won appointment early in 1811 as judge of the federal court for the district of Virginia and served until his death. His son and namesake became the tenth president of the United States (DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ; TJ to James Madison, 25 May 1810).

TJ attended two banquets in his honor while in Richmond, one organized by the officers of the 19th Regiment, held at the Swan Tavern on 20 Oct. 1809, and the other given the next day at the eagle tavern, presided over by Tyler (Richmond Enquirer, 24 Oct. 1809; Malone, Jefferson description begins Dumas Malone, Jefferson and his Time, 1948–81, 6 vols. description ends , 6:14; MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1249).