Among the court's first members were several distinguished legal scholars and jurists as well as leaders of the revolutionary period. Edmund Pendleton, who served Virginia as a delegate to the First Continental Congress, was selected by the judges as its first president. George Wythe, the mentor of Thomas Jefferson and signer of the Declaration of Independence, and John Blair Jr., who later served on the United States Supreme Court, were also members of Virginia's first Supreme Court. Other notable members were William Fleming, the third governor of Virginia and Paul Carrington.