The Virginia Ratifying Convention was a convention of 168 delegates from Virginia who met in 1788 to ratify or reject the United States Constitution, which had been drafted at the Philadelphia Convention the previous year.

Edmund Pendleton was an American planter, politician, lawyer, and judge. He served in the Virginia legislature before and during the American Revolutionary War, becoming the first speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. Pendleton attended the First Continental Congress as one of Virginia's delegates alongside George Washington and Patrick Henry, signed the Continental Association, and led the conventions both wherein Virginia declared independence (1776) and adopted the United States Constitution (1788).