Cyrus Griffin
Cyrus Griffin (1749–December 14, 1810) was the tenth and last President of the United States in Congress assembled under the Articles of Confederation, holding office from January 22, 1788 to March 4, 1789. He was preceded in office by Arthur St. Clair. Upon the approval of the United States Constitution, his position was eliminated.
Griffin was born in Yorktown, Virginia in 1749. He was educated in England and while there married Christine Stewart, daughter of the sixth Earl of Traquair. He was a member of the Virginia legislature and a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1778--1781 and in 1787--1788. He was president of the Supreme Court of the Admiralty from its creation until its abolition, was commissioner to the Creek nation in 1789, and was judge of the United States court for the district of Virginia from December 1789, until his death (in Yorktown, Virginia) on December 14, 1810.
While a superficial resemblance of titles, overzealousness in pursuit of trivia, and an inflated desire for "mythbusting" have led some people to insist that Griffin was (the seventh or tenth) President of the United States, he was in fact the last President of Congress under the Articles of Confederation. Historians, pointing out the difference in Griffin's title, President of the United States in Congress Assembled and George Washington's, President of the United States, and noting that these are offices with different responsibilities, and that there was no question in the minds of Washington's contemporaries that he was the first to be elected to the latter office, have proven largely impotent in stamping out the proliferation of misinformative websites that offer opinions to the contrary.
