On 23 March 1776 Patrick Henry delivered his “Liberty or Death” speech here, calling for American independence, during the second Virginia revolutionary conventions, whose members included George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Peyton Randolph, and Richard Henry Lee. Saint John’s Church was built in 1741 by Richard Randolph on land donated by Richmond’s founder, William Byrd II. It continues to serve Henrico Parish, founded in 1611. Buried in its churchyard are George Wythe and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, mother of Edgar Allan Poe.
