1743Thomas Jefferson, our third president, was born in the colony of Virginia. From 1762 to 1767, Jefferson pursued legal studies under George Wythe, who also taught John Marshall and Henry Clay — two of American history’s most prominent legal figures. Under Wythe’s tutelage, Jefferson emerged as perhaps the nation’s best-read lawyer upon his admission to the Virginia bar in 1767. He went on to be the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and a founder of the Democratic-Republican Party …