Edmund Pendleton (1721–1803), a member of the House of Burgesses since 1752, was one of the most influential men in Virginia. Although a leader of the conservatives, he staunchly supported the rights of the colonists and was elected one of Virginia’s delegates to the First Continental Congress. He and Patrick Henry, often political opponents, met by prearrangement at Pendleton’s plantation in Caroline County 29 Aug. to travel together to Philadelphia, stopping at Mount Vernon on the way (WILLISON description begins George F. Willison. Patrick Henry and His World. Garden City, N.Y., 1969. description ends , 232).