Judge John Webb Tyler, Jurist and Mentor

Judge John Webb Tyler, Jurist and Mentor

Judge John Webb Tyler

Photo courtesy of the Hon. Terry Ney

By John Toler

Over its history, Fauquier County can claim more than its share of outstanding jurists, including fourth U. S. Chief Justice John Marshall (1755-1835) and Judge John Barton Payne (1855-1935), remembered for his statesmanship and philanthropy as well as his jurisprudence.

Perhaps less known was Circuit Judge John Webb Tyler (1799-1862), who presided over cases of local and national importance, as well as serving as adviser and mentor for the young lawyers who worked with him.

The son of William and Margaret Webb Tyler, John Webb Tyler was born at Woodlawn, the family home southwest of Haymarket. A member of one of the “First Families of Virginia,” William Tyler served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1803-1805 and 1808-1812.

After earning his law degree, John Webb Tyler practiced in Prince William County and served on several boards and committees. He was married to his first cousin, Mary Tyler, with whom he raised 12 children. Following her death in 1840, Tyler moved to Warrenton, where he practiced law.

During this time, he met Eppa Hunton II (1822- 1908) of New Baltimore, who had opened a new school at Buckland. Tyler sent five of his sons to Hunton’s school, and later urged him to pursue a career in law.

“Mr. Tyler instructed me in law gratuitously, and furnished me with the books to read,” wrote Hunton in his 1904 autobiography. He continued teaching, and in 1843 obtained a license to practice law.

Tyler advised Hunton to open a practice in Brentsville – where there was less competition for a new lawyer—and where he could gain as much experience as he could, “ before moving someplace where business was better.”

In 1845, Tyler married a Warrenton girl, Gwynetta Baylor Dade (1814-1883). They lived in a house on Main Street, where they raised three children, Constance (1849-1922), Gwynetta (1851-1900) and John W. Jr. (1853-1929).

Judge Tyler and his wife Gwynetta lived in this house at 100 Main Street, Warrenton. It was demolished in 1939 to make way for a grocery store. The Great Harvest Breaad Company now occupies the site.

Tyler was elected Judge of the 9th Judicial Circuit Court in 1850, presiding over quarterly courts held in Warrenton, Brentsville, Leesburg and Fairfax.

“When I was a young barrister, I went to Fauquier to try a case before Judge John Webb Tyler,” wrote John Randolph Tucker in “Reminiscences of Virginia’s Judges and Jurists” (1895). “No man ever had or deserved more devoted friends than this noble gentleman and excellent judge. He did not pretend to extensive learning, but had a strong common sense, a quickness of perception, and a sense of justice.”

During his first year on the bench, Tyler sat in judgment of a case with national implications. Digges v. Trustees of Cliff Church had come about when the trustees of the church, located in the country west of Warrenton, decided to join the Methodist Church, South, and exclude the northern Methodist minister then serving.

The breaking of the church into northern and southern factions in the days before the Civil War was happening elsewhere, including in Warrenton. But the situation with the Cliff Church was more complicated, since the deed to the property conveyed to the church by Jacqueline Marshall in 1844 stipulated that if the church were not used by a Methodist minister and congregation within five years, the property was to revert to Marshall or her heirs.

“Sitting in chancery, Judge Tyler relied heavily on the implied trust doctrine, referencing legal precedents to reach his decision in Digges,” wrote Lucas Volkman in “Houses Divided: Evangelical Schism and the Crisis of the Union” (2018).

“According to Tyler, the exclusion of the northern Methodist minister and the majority decision of the church to join the southern Methodists voided the grant from Marshall.” The ruling stated that the actions of the trustees had fundamentally transformed the church into another denomination. Widely known thereafter as “The Warrenton Church Case,” it would be used in several border state courts.

In recognition of his work in the Circuit Court, in 1858 Tyler was appointed one of the judges in the Virginia Special Court of Appeals, set up to relieve the docket of the regular court.

During his 12 years on the bench, Tyler tried many criminal cases, but one proved particularly difficult. It involved the killing of Rufus Ayers – stepson of Alfred Rector, whose family founded Rectortown – by William Wesley Phillips and his son, Samuel C. Phillips.

There had been an ongoing dispute over a farm gate prior to the fateful meeting in Rectortown on Nov. 11, 1859. After trading insults with Ayres, who was armed with a revolver, Phillips went home and returned with a rifle and his son, who had a shotgun.

They found Ayres inside Andrew Crider’s shoemaker’s shop, where the conflict escalated. Ayres fired twice from inside the shop, but missed Phillips. They returned fire, killing Ayres.

Father and son were quickly arrested. Refused bail, they were confined in the Fauquier County Jail until brought to court the following spring.

The case was prosecuted by Fauquier Commonwealth’s Attorney William H. F. Payne. After a trial marked more by regrets than rancor, the perpetrators were convicted of manslaughter. Judge Tyler, who was angered by the senseless tragedy, sentenced both men to three years in the state penitentiary.