Chapter VII: Part III (5)

By this time, Taylor’s Durham Furnace was turning out grapeshot, cannonballs, bar shot, and cannon for the Revolutionary army—for which Taylor was ill-compensated. In 1778 the State dispossessed him of his lease on the Durham Furnace, owned by the Philadelphia Loyalist John Galloway and confiscated by the State. Taylor then moved to Greenwich Township, N.J., and leased Greenwich Forge, which he operated until his death at the age of 65 in 1781. The year before, his health failing, Taylor had returned to Easton and leased a home. Originally buried in the yard of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church at Easton, his body was later moved to the Easton Cemetery.

Matthew Thornton

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Probably six of the 56 signers belatedly penned their
signatures, eight of them were foreign-born, and four
were physicians. Matthew Thornton belongs in all three
categories. Less exclusively, he ranks among the
substantial number of signers whose national service was
brief or relatively insignificant.

Thornton was born in Ireland about 1714. Approximately 4 years later, his Scotch-Irish parents emigrated with their family to America, settling first at Wiscasset, in present Maine, and then near Worcester, Mass. Young Thornton, after attending common schools, undertook the study of medicine with a local doctor. In 1740 he began what proved to be a thriving practice in the Scotch-Irish town of Londonderry (present Derry Village), N.H. Five years later, as a surgeon in the New Hampshire militia during King George’s War (1740–48), he participated in the British expedition from New England that captured Louisbourg, the French fortress in Nova Scotia.

By 1758 Thornton was representing Londonderry in the colonial legislature and stayed there until 1775. During the long interim, about 1760 he married and began a family of five; and throughout the period he figured prominently in New Hampshire politics and Revolutionary activities. In 1775–76 he held the offices of president of the provincial assembly and constitutional convention, chairman of the council of safety, and member of the upper and lower houses of the legislature, as well as speaker of the former. Although he did not enter Congress until November 1776, or 3 months after the formal signing of the Declaration, he was granted permission to affix his signature.

About a year later, Thornton left Congress to devote his time to his duties as associate justice of the State Superior Court. Despite a lack of legal education, he had acquired this position in 1776. He held it until 1782, some 2 years after he retired from his medical practice in Londonderry and settled on a farm he purchased near Merrimack, N.H. Later, in 1784–86, he completed a tour in the State senate. He spent his last years farming and operating a ferry—Lutwyche’s (later Thornton’s) Ferry—across the Merrimack River.

Thornton died in 1803 at about the age of 89 while visiting his daughter in Newburyport, Mass. His grave is in Thornton’s Ferry Cemetery, near the site of his Merrimack home.

George Walton

GEORGIA

Like signers Button Gwinnett and Lyman Hall a nonnative
of Georgia, George Walton fought hard to win independence
for his adopted State and his Nation—both in the political
arena and on the battlefield. He was wounded in the British
siege of Savannah late in 1778 and endured captivity for
almost a year. He evinced the same kind of tenacity in all
his other endeavors and conquered a string of adversities
in his ascent from humble origins to the highest National
and State offices.

Born sometime in the 1740’s near Farmville, Va., Walton was orphaned early and reared by an uncle, who apprenticed him to a carpenter. Walton supplemented extensive independent study with some formal schooling. In 1769 he moved to Savannah, Ga., read law under a local attorney, and 5 years later joined the bar.

That same year, Walton plunged into politics. Rallying Revolutionaries at Savannah as did Lyman Hall in St. John’s Parish—the two Whig hotbeds in a lukewarm colony—Walton helped organize and played a key part in meetings at Savannah in July and August 1774 and the first provincial congress the next January. But these meetings, to which only a few parishes sent representatives, hardly set the dissent in motion. The divided delegates, aware of their limited constituency, failed to send Delegates to the Continental Congress, as had all the other Colonies, and thus alienated St. John’s Parish. Except for creation of a committee of correspondence, to which Walton was appointed, the conferees for the most part substituted patriotic talk for action. During this period, Walton, blending political activism with romance, took a bride. She later gave birth to two sons.

By July 1775, when the second provincial congress convened and designated Walton as secretary, apathy in the Revolutionary ranks had given way to aggressiveness. The congress dispatched four Delegates to the Continental Congress to join Hall, already an unofficial “delegate” from St. John’s Parish. The next year, the third provincial congress elected Walton, by this time chairman of the council of safety, as a Delegate (1776–81). In this capacity, he sat on committees dealing with western lands, national finance, and Indian affairs. His only lapse in attendance occurred in 1778–79, when the military defense of his own State took precedence over his congressional obligations. As a colonel in the Georgia militia, he was wounded and captured during the siege of Savannah in November-December 1778—the beginning of the British invasion of the South. He was imprisoned until the following September, when he was exchanged for a navy captain.

Right after his release, at Augusta Walton became involved in a factional dispute between two groups of Revolutionaries. Walton’s group, irritated because their conservative opponents had taken advantage of the confusion generated by the British occupation of Savannah by putting their own “governor” into office without benefit of a general election, countered by selecting Walton as its “governor” (November 1779-January 1780). In January the new legally elected legislature picked a Governor, another anti-conservative. Walton returned to the Continental Congress in 1780–81, after which he headed back to Georgia.

Walton’s subsequent career suffered no diminution. His offices included those of chief justice (1783–89) and justice (1790–95 and 1799–1804) of the State Superior Court; delegate to the State constitutional convention (1788); presidential elector (1789); Governor (1789–90); and U.S. Senator (1795–96), filling out an unexpired term. Meantime, he had been elected as a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention (1787), but did not attend. An advocate of higher education, he was also a trustee and founder of Richmond Academy, in Augusta, and Franklin College (later the University of Georgia), in Athens.

About 1790 while Governor, changing his residence from Savannah to the capital of Augusta, Walton built “Meadow Garden” cottage on the northern edge of the city on confiscated Loyalist lands he had acquired. He lived in the cottage for 5 years, when he moved to College Hill, a country estate he erected on the western outskirts. He died there in 1804. Assigned first to the Rosney Cemetery in Augusta, his remains now rest at the Signers’ Monument in that city.

William Whipple

NEW HAMPSHIRE

William Whipple, a sea captain turned merchant, retired
from business to further the Revolution. In addition to
sitting in Congress, he commanded New Hampshire militia in
two major campaigns and held various State offices.

Whipple, the eldest of five children, was born in 1730, at Kittery, in present Maine. He attended local schools and went to sea while still a boy. In his early twenties he became a shipmaster, and later probably sometimes engaged in the slave trade. About 1760 he gave up the sea and founded a mercantile firm at Portsmouth, N.H., with his brother Joseph. In 1767 he married the daughter of a wealthy merchant-sea captain; their only child died in infancy.

By the outbreak of the Revolution, Whipple had become one of the leading citizens of Portsmouth. In 1775, his fortune well established, he left business to devote his time to public affairs. That year, he represented Portsmouth in the provincial assembly at Exeter, and served on the New Hampshire council of safety. The following year, he won seats in the upper house of the State legislature and in the Continental Congress. His congressional tour, interrupted intermittently by militia duty, lasted until 1779. He concerned himself mainly with military, marine, and financial matters. A tough-minded, independent individual, he recommended military aggressiveness in the war instead of diplomacy and favored severe punishment of Loyalists and speculators.

In the fall of 1777 Whipple, a brigadier general in the New Hampshire militia, led four regiments to upper New York State and helped encircle and besiege the British army at Saratoga. He was present on October 17 at the surrender of Gen. John Burgoyne; signed the Convention of Saratoga, ending the New York campaign; and helped escort the British troops to a winter encampment near Boston to await embarkation for England. In 1778 he led another contingent of New Hampshire militia into Rhode Island on a campaign that sought but failed to recapture Newport from the British.

During his last years, Whipple held the offices of State legislator (1780–84), associate justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court (1782–85), receiver of finances for Congress in New Hampshire (1782–84), and in 1782 president of a commission that arbitrated the Wyoming Valley land dispute between Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Ill the remaining few years of his life, he passed away in 1785 at the age of 55 at Portsmouth, where he was buried in Union Cemetery. His wife survived him.

William Williams

CONNECTICUT

Merchant William Williams was prominent in Connecticut
politics, but never won national fame except for signing
the Declaration.

A Congregational pastor’s son, Williams was born in 1731 at Lebanon, Conn., his lifelong home. After graduating from Harvard in 1751, he began studying for the ministry under his father. Four years later, during the French and Indian War (1754–63), he accompanied a British expedition to Lake George, in northeastern New York, that won a victory. Back home, he became a merchant. In 1771 he married a daughter of Jonathan Trumbull, Royal Governor of Connecticut; they had three children.

During his long political career, Williams held a myriad of local, provincial, and State offices: town clerk (1752–96) and selectman (1760–85); member, clerk, and speaker of the lower house of the colonial legislature (1755–76); State legislator (1781–84); member of the Governor’s council (1784–1803); judge of the Windham County court (1776–1805); and probate judge for the Windham district (1775–1809). He also represented Connecticut at various New England meetings, and attended the 1788 convention that ratified the Federal Constitution, of which he approved.

Upon the outbreak of the Revolution, Williams threw his weight behind the cause. Besides writing tracts for the press expressing the colonial viewpoint, he prepared Revolutionary state papers for Governor Trumbull. Williams also raised money for and personally contributed to the war effort. Between 1773 and 1776 he held a colonelcy in the Connecticut militia and served on the provincial council of safety. In Congress (1776–78 and 1783–84), he sat on the Board of War and helped frame the Articles of Confederation, though he did not sign them. During the winter of 1780–81, while a French regiment was stationed in Lebanon, he moved out of his home and turned it over to the officers.

Williams died at the age of 80 in 1811. His grave is in the Trumbull Cemetery, about a mile northeast of town.

James Wilson

PENNSYLVANIA

Brilliant yet enigmatic James Wilson possessed one of the
most complex and contradictory personalities of all the
signers. Never able to reconcile his strong personal drive
for wealth and power with his political goals nor to find
a middle road between conservatism and republicanism, he
alternately experienced either popularity or public scorn,
fame or obscurity, wealth or poverty. Yet his mastery of
the law and political theory enabled him to play a leading
role in framing the U.S. Constitution and to rise from
frontier lawyer to Justice of the Supreme Court.

Wilson was born in 1741 or 1742 at Carskerdo, near St. Andrews, Scotland, and educated at the universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. He then emigrated to America, arriving in the midst of the Stamp Act agitations in 1765. Early the next year, he accepted a position as Latin tutor at the College of Philadelphia, but almost immediately abandoned it to study law under John Dickinson.

In 1768, the year after his admission to the bar, Wilson set up practice at Reading, Pa. Two years later, he moved westward to the Scotch-Irish settlement of Carlisle, and the following year took a bride. He specialized in land law and built up a broad clientele. On borrowed capital, he also began to speculate in land. In some way he managed, too, to lecture for many years on English literature at the College of Philadelphia.

Wilson also became involved in Revolutionary politics. In 1774 he took over chairmanship of the Carlisle committee of correspondence, attended the first provincial assembly, and completed preparation of _Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament_. This tract circulated widely in England and America and established Wilson as a Whig leader. It denied Parliament’s authority over the Colonies, though it did not question their allegiance to the Crown, and recommended a reorganization of the imperial structure similar to the later British Commonwealth of Nations.

The next year, Wilson was elected to both the provincial assembly and the Continental Congress, where he sat mainly on military and Indian affairs committees. In 1776, reflecting the wishes of his constituents, he joined the moderates in voting for a 3-week delay in considering Richard Henry Lee’s resolution of June 7. On July 1, however, Wilson dissented from the majority of the Pennsylvania delegation and balloted with John Morton and Benjamin Franklin for independence. On July 2 the three men, representing a majority of the Commonwealth’s Delegates present, voted the same. Wilson’s strenuous opposition to the republican Pennsylvania constitution of 1776, besides indicating a switch to conservatism on his part, led to his removal from Congress the following year. To avoid the clamor among his frontier constituents, he repaired to Annapolis during the winter of 1777–78, and then took up residence in Philadelphia.

Wilson affirmed his newly assumed political stance by closely identifying with the aristocratic and conservative republican groups, multiplying his business interests, and accelerating his land speculation. He also took a position as Advocate-General for France in America (1779–83), dealing with commercial and maritime matters, and legally defended Loyalists and their sympathizers.

In the fall of 1779, during a period of inflation and food shortages, a mob, including many militiamen and led by radical-constitutionalists, set out to attack the republican leadership. Wilson was a prime target. He and some 35 of his colleagues barricaded themselves in his home at Third and Walnut Streets, henceforth known as “Fort Wilson.” During a brief skirmish, several people on both sides were killed or wounded. The shock cooled sentiments and pardons were issued all around, though major political battles over the Commonwealth constitution still lay ahead.

During 1781 Congress appointed Wilson as one of the directors of the Bank of North America, newly founded by Robert Morris with the legal advice of Wilson. In 1782–83, by which time the conservatives had regained some of their power, he was reelected to Congress, as well as in the period 1785–87.

Wilson reached the apex of his career in the U.S. Constitutional Convention (1787), in which he was one of the leaders, both in the floor debates and the drafting committee. That same year, overcoming powerful opposition, he led the drive for ratification in Pennsylvania, the second State to ratify. The new Commonwealth constitution, drafted in 1789–90 along the lines of the U.S. Constitution, was also primarily Wilson’s work and represented the climax of his 14-year fight against the constitution of 1776.

For his services in the formation of the Federal Government, though Wilson expected to be appointed Chief Justice, in 1789 President Washington named him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He was chosen that same year as the first law professor at the College of Philadelphia. Two years hence, he began an official digest of the laws of Pennsylvania, a project he never completed, though he carried on for awhile after funds ran out.

Wilson, who wrote only a few opinions, did not achieve the success on the Supreme Court that his capabilities and experience promised. Indeed, during those years he was the object of much criticism and barely escaped impeachment. For one thing, he tried to influence the enactment of legislation in Pennsylvania favorable to land speculators. Between 1792 and 1795 he also made huge but unwise land investments in western New York and Pennsylvania, as well as in Georgia. This did not stop him from conceiving a grandiose but ill-fated scheme, involving vast sums of European capital, for the recruitment of European colonists and their settlement on western lands. Meantime, in 1793, a widower with six children, he had remarried; the one son from this union died in infancy.

Four years later, to avoid arrest for debt, the distraught Wilson moved from Philadelphia to Burlington, N.J. The next year, apparently while on Federal circuit court business, he arrived at Edenton, N.C., in a state of acute mental stress and was taken into the home of James Iredell, a fellow Supreme Court Justice. He died there within a few months. Although first buried at Hayes Plantation near Edenton, his remains were later reinterred in the yard of Christ Church at Philadelphia.

John Witherspoon

NEW JERSEY

Rev. John Witherspoon, the only active clergyman among
the signers, achieved a greater reputation as a religious
leader and educator than as a politician. Emigrating
from Scotland to America in the midst of the controversy
between the Colonies and the Crown, he took part in the
Revolution, lost a son during the war, and signed the
Articles of Confederation as well as the Declaration. He is
better known, however, for his role in the growth of the
Presbyterian Church and for his distinguished presidency of
the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University).

The son of a Calvinist minister, Witherspoon was born in 1723 at the village of Gifford, near Edinburgh. He attended grammar school at the neighboring town of Haddington and won master of arts (1739) and divinity (1743) degrees from the University of Edinburgh. In 1743 the Haddington Presbytery licensed him to preach. He was ordained 2 years later at Beith, where he occupied a pulpit until 1757. He then transferred to Paisley, not far from Glasgow. Meantime, in 1748, he had married; only five of his ten children survived childhood.

Over the years, Witherspoon attained leadership of a group of conservative clergymen who were engaged in a prolonged struggle with a group of their colleagues to maintain the “purity” of orthodox Church doctrine. Witherspoon penned a stream of sermons and tracts attacking the opposition and denouncing moral decay in Scotland. He also defended the traditional prerogative of the people to choose their own ministers, a right ecclesiastical authorities had taken from them.

In 1768 Witherspoon channeled his energies in a new direction. He gave up his post at Paisley and accepted the presidency of the College of New Jersey, after two representatives of the college had visited him and finally at the end of 2 years of effort overcome the objections of his wife. He sailed to America with his family. The college bloomed under his direction. He increased the endowment, instituted new methods of instruction, and broadened and revitalized the curriculum. Continuing also as a minister and church leader, he patched up a major schism in the Presbyterian Church; stimulated its expansion, especially in the Middle Colonies; and worked closely with the Congregationalists.

The Revolution fanned Witherspoon’s hatred of the English, which had originated in Scotland. By 1770 his students were openly demonstrating in favor of the patriot cause. In a commencement oration he advocated resistance to the Crown, which became his favorite theme in sermons and essays. In 1774–76 he represented his county in the New Jersey provincial assemblies, and sat on local committees of correspondence. In the latter year he figured prominently in the agitations that led to the removal from office and imprisonment of the Royal Governor, and then received an appointment to the Continental Congress.

On July 2, 1776, in a congressional speech urging independence, Witherspoon declared that the Colonies were “not only ripe for the measure but in danger of rotting for the want of it.” In November, when the British invaded New Jersey, he closed the College of New Jersey. The redcoats occupied its major building, Nassau Hall, burned the library, and committed other acts of destruction. The next year, Witherspoon’s son James lost his life at the Battle of Germantown, Pa.

Witherspoon stayed in Congress until 1782. His main committee assignments dealt with military and foreign affairs. He also participated in the debates on the Articles of Confederation, aided in setting up the executive departments, and argued for financial stability. Meantime, in 1779, he had moved from the President’s House at Princeton to Tusculum, a country home he had earlier built nearby. He left the Rev. Samuel S. Smith, his son-in-law and the college vice president, in charge of the nearly defunct institution.

Witherspoon devoted most of his effort during the postwar years to rebuilding the college, which never fully recovered its prewar prosperity during his lifetime. In addition, during the years 1783–89 he sat for two terms in the State legislature, attended the New Jersey (1787) convention that ratified the Federal Constitution, participated in the reorganization of the Presbyterian Church, and moderated its first general assembly (1789). In 1791, at the age of 68, Witherspoon took a second wife, a 24-year-old widow, who bore him two daughters. Blind his last 2 years, he died in 1794, aged 71, at Tusculum. His remains rest in the Presidents’ Lot at Princeton Cemetery.

Oliver Wolcott

CONNECTICUT

Oliver Wolcott, as much a soldier as a politician, helped
convert the concept of independence into reality on the
battlefield. He also occupied many local, provincial, and
State offices, including the governorship. One of his five
children, Oliver, also held that position and became U.S.
Secretary of the Treasury.

Wolcott was the youngest son in a family of 15. Sired by Roger Wolcott, a leading Connecticut politician, he was born in 1726 at Windsor (present South Windsor), Conn. In 1747, just graduated from Yale College at the top of his class, he began his military career. As a militia captain during King George’s War (1740–48), he accompanied an unsuccessful British expedition against the French in New France. Back home, he studied medicine for a time with his brother before deciding to turn to law.

In 1751, when Litchfield County was organized, Wolcott moved about 30 miles westward to the town of Litchfield and immediately took over the first of a long string of county and State offices: county sheriff (1751–71); member of the lower house (1764, 1767–68, and 1770) and upper house (1771–86) of the colonial and State legislatures; and probate (1772–81) and county (1774–78) judge. By 1774 he had risen to the rank of colonel in the militia.

The next spring, the legislature named him as a commissary for Connecticut troops and in the summer the Continental Congress designated him as a commissioner of Indian affairs for the northern department. In that capacity he attended a conference that year with the Iroquois (Six Nations) at Albany, N.Y., that temporarily gained their neutrality in the war. Before the year was out, he also aided in arbitrating land disputes between Pennsylvania and Connecticut and New York and Vermont.

Wolcott sat in Congress from 1775 until 1783 except for the year 1779. In June 1776 illness caused him to return to Connecticut. Absent at the time of the voting for independence the next month and at the formal signing of the Declaration in August, he added his signature sometime after his return to Congress in October. Throughout his tour, Wolcott devoted portions of each year to militia duty, highlighted by participation as a brigadier general in the New York campaigns of 1776–77 that culminated in the surrender of Gen. John Burgoyne in October of the latter year at Saratoga (Schuylerville). During 1779, as a major general, Wolcott defended the Connecticut seacoast against the raids of William Tryon, Royal Governor of New York.

Wolcott’s postwar career was varied. On the national level, he helped negotiate two Indian treaties: the Second Treaty of Fort Stanwix, N.Y. (1784), in which the Iroquois ceded to the United States some of their lands in New York and Pennsylvania; and another (1789) with the Wyandottes, who gave up their tract in the Western Reserve, in present Ohio. On the State level, Wolcott continued his long period of service in the upper house of the legislature (ended 1786); enjoyed a lengthy stint as Lieutenant Governor (1787–96); attended the convention (1788) that ratified the U.S. Constitution; and, like his father before him and his son after him, held the office of Governor (1796–97).

While occupying the latter position, Wolcott died, aged 71, at East Windsor. His remains rest in the East Cemetery at Litchfield.

George Wythe

VIRGINIA

Virginia’s George Wythe spent only about a year in the
Continental Congress, never aspired to any other national
office, and played a minor part in the Constitutional
Convention. But he made a deep impress on legal education
in the Nation and strongly influenced the government and
jurisprudence of his State. A brilliant classical scholar
and the first professor of law in an American college, he
instructed scores of young lawyers. Included among them
were Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Marshall, and
Henry Clay.

Wythe was born in 1726, the second of three children, on his father’s plantation on the Back River in Elizabeth City County, Va., within the confines of present Hampton. He lost his parents at an early age and grew up under the guardianship of his older brother, Thomas. George acquired a knowledge of the classics from his well-educated mother before her death, and he probably attended for a time a grammar school operated by the College of William and Mary.

Wythe’s brother later sent him to Prince George County to read law under an uncle. In 1746, at the age of 20, he joined the bar, moved to Spotsylvania County, and became associated with a lawyer there. In December 1747, he married his partner’s sister, but she succumbed the next year. In 1754 Lt. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie appointed him as acting colonial attorney general, a position he held for a few months and which likely required that he spend some time in Williamsburg. The next year, Wythe’s brother died and he inherited his birthplace. He chose, however, to live in Williamsburg in the house that his new father-in-law, an architect, designed and built for him and his betrothed, whom he married about 1755. Their only child died in infancy.

At Williamsburg, Wythe immersed himself in further study of the classics and the law and achieved accreditation by the colonial Supreme Court. Like his father, he served in the House of Burgesses (mid-1750’s until 1775), first as delegate and after 1769 as clerk. During this period, in 1768 he held the mayorship of Williamsburg, and the next year sat on the board of visitors of the College of William and Mary. He also had found time during the years 1762–67 to train youthful Thomas Jefferson in the law. The two men, at first as mentor and pupil and later as political allies, maintained a lifetime friendship.

Wythe first exhibited Revolutionary leanings in 1764 when Parliament hinted to the Colonies that it might impose a Stamp Tax. By then an experienced legislator, he drafted for the House of Burgesses a remonstrance to Parliament so strident that his fellow legislators modified it before adoption. Wythe was one of the first to express the concept of separate nationhood for the Colonies within the British Empire.

Although elected to Congress in 1775–76, Wythe exerted little influence in that body. He spent considerable time helping draft a State constitution and design a State seal, and was not present at the time of the formal signing of the Declaration in August 1776. Furthermore, within a few months, Wythe, Jefferson, and Edmund Pendleton undertook a 3-year project to revise Virginia’s legal code. In 1777 Wythe also presided as speaker of the lower house of the legislature.

An appointment as one of the three judges of the newly created Virginia high court of chancery followed the next year. Sitting on it for 28 years, during 13 of which he was the only chancellor, Wythe charted the course of Virginia jurisprudence. In conjunction with these duties, he was an ex officio member of the State Superior Court.

Wythe’s real love was teaching. In 1779 Jefferson and other officials of the College of William and Mary created the first chair of law in a U.S. institution of higher learning and appointed Wythe to fill it. In that position, he educated America’s earliest college-trained lawyers, among them John Marshall and James Monroe. To supplement his lectures, Wythe introduced the use of moot courts and legislatures, in which students could put their knowledge into actual practice. In 1787 he also demonstrated his love of the classics and literature by offering free to anyone interested a class in Latin, Greek, and English literature. That same year, he attended the U.S. Constitutional Convention, but played an insignificant role and did not sign the Constitution. The following year, however, he was one of the Federalist leaders at the Virginia ratifying convention.

In 1791, the year after Wythe resigned his professorship, his chancery duties caused him to move his home to Richmond, the State capital. But he was reluctant to give up his teaching and opened a private law school. One of his last and most promising pupils was a teenager named Henry Clay.

In 1806, in his eighth decade, Wythe died at Richmond under mysterious circumstances—probably of poison administered by his heir, a favorite grandnephew. Reflecting a lifelong aversion to slavery, Wythe emancipated his slaves in his will. His grave is in the yard of St. John’s Episcopal Church at Richmond.

Part Three

Signers of the Declaration:

Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings

Over the decades that separate present-day America from the early periods of its history, a large number of the structures commemorating those periods have been marred or obliterated. Those relating to the signers of the Declaration of Independence have not been spared. The ravages of war, urbanization, fire, aging, weathering, neglect, and vandalism have destroyed all the residences of 21 of these 56 men and seriously impaired some of those that have survived.

Beyond those factors detrimental to all historic buildings are two special ones that have hampered the marking and preserving of signers’ homes and other sites. For decades following adoption of the Declaration, these individuals were not accorded the reverence bestowed on them in modern times. Secondly, many of them have received only slight historical recognition because they lacked national reputations other than as signers.

Yet among the residences and buildings that remain are many of major significance. As a whole, they reveal much about the way of life of the signers and illuminate the events involved in the creation of the Declaration. Of outstanding significance is Independence National Historical Park, Pa. Within its boundaries the document was written, debated, approved, and signed. The National Park Service administers the park in cooperation with the city of Philadelphia and various private agencies. Three residences of signers are also units of the National Park System: Adams National Historic Site, Mass.; the Floyd House, in Fire Island National Seashore, N.Y.; and the Nelson House, part of Colonial National Historical Park, Va.

Almost half the extant homes of the signers are owned by private individuals, many of whom personally reside in them and a few of whom are descendants of the signers. The rest of the residences are owned and maintained by States, cities, and a wide variety of nongovernmental institutions, such as patriotic-civic organizations, memorial associations, local historical societies, foundations, universities, churches, and corporations and business firms.

Reflecting the dedicated efforts of many of the above individuals and agencies, a considerable number of the buildings and residences provide fine examples of historic preservation and restoration. Unfortunately, some structures have badly deteriorated. But the increased recent interest in the signers has enhanced the identification, renovation, and preservation of pertinent sites and buildings.

In addition to the preservation of sites and buildings, the subject of this book, the signers have been honored in many other ways. Commemoration varies widely, however, from State to State and from signer to signer. Some have been recognized in a major way; others hardly at all.

In the forefront of the groups that have marked extant homes and buildings, as well as the sites of former structures and graves, or otherwise memorialized the signers are: Daughters of the American Revolution; Daughters of the Revolution; Colonial Dames of America; National Society of Colonial Dames of America; Sons of the American Revolution; Sons of the Revolution; and the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Inc., chartered by Congress in 1907.

A major share of the sites of residences with no physical remains has been marked. The 20 signers for whom no existing homes have been located are: Samuel Adams, Abraham Clark, William Ellery, Benjamin Franklin, Lyman Hall, John Hart, Francis Lewis, Philip Livingston, Thomas McKean, Lewis Morris, Robert Morris, John Morton, Robert Treat Paine, John Penn, George Read, Caesar Rodney, George Ross, Benjamin Rush, Roger Sherman, and James Smith. Another signer, Samuel Chase, is represented in this volume only by a structure (Chase-Lloyd House) that he began building but never resided in.

Monuments and memorials range from simple plaques to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, D.C., in the National Park System. Statues of several signers are located in the U.S. Capitol. Special monuments have been erected to those from two States. The Founders’ Monument, in Augusta, Ga., is dedicated to the three signers from that State (Gwinnett, Hall, and Walton) and contains the burial places of the latter two. A monument to the three North Carolina signers (Hewes, Hooper, and Penn) at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, in Greensboro, N.C., includes the tombs of Hooper and Penn.

Described in the following pages are the principal buildings associated with the signers of the Declaration. They are comprised of three categories: National Park Service Areas, National Historic Landmarks, and Other Sites Considered.

The principal aim of the National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings is to identify nationally important sites that are not _National Park Service Areas_, but no survey of historic places would be complete without including them. This is particularly true because many of them were designated as National Historic Landmarks before they became part of the National Park System. Further information about a particular area may be obtained by writing directly to the park superintendent at the address listed immediately following the location.

_National Historic Landmarks_ are those sites judged by the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and Monuments to meet the criteria of national significance in commemorating the history of the United States (pp. 270–271). They have been declared by the Secretary of the Interior to be eligible for designation as National Historic Landmarks. Final designation occurs when the owners apply for such status. They receive certificates and bronze plaques attesting to the distinction.

_Other Sites Considered_ consist of those sites deemed by the Advisory Board to possess noteworthy historical value but not national significance. The list of sites included in this category does not purport to be exhaustive; it is merely a representative sampling, all that is possible because of space limitations.

Many sites in the Other Sites Considered category in all phases of history are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, maintained by the National Park Service’s Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. The register consists not only of sites in the National Park System and National Historic Landmarks but also those of State and local significance, nominated through appropriate channels by the various States. It is published biennally and distributed by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 20402. The latest volume is _The National Register of Historic Places, 1972_, price $7.80.

HISTORIC SITES OF NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE (map)]

For the convenience of users of this volume, sites and buildings are listed alphabetically by State. The following code indicates site categories:

_Site Categories_

☑ NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AREAS
∆ NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARKS
⊗ OTHER SITES CONSIDERED

NOTE: _The following descriptions indicate sites that are open to the public. Before visiting any of them, inquiry should be made to the owners or custodians concerning dates and hours of access and admission costs, usually nominal. Special permission should be obtained to visit privately owned sites._

Huntington Birthplace, Connecticut ∆

_Location: Windham County, on the north side of Conn. 14, about 2
blocks west of its junction with Conn. 97, Scotland._

This plain but charming farmhouse on the bank of Merrick’s Brook was the birthplace and home of Samuel Huntington through his boyhood and early manhood. He lived in it from 1731 probably until 1760, the year he moved to Norwich.

The house, built in the period 1700–22, is shaded by huge trees and fronted by a spacious lawn. It is a large, two-story, clapboarded-frame structure of saltbox design. The gable roof slopes steeply at the rear. Exterior windows are topped by projecting cornices; the center door, by a rectangular transom. A one-story kitchen wing with front porch at the northeast end of the house along the main axis was added early in the 19th century.

The floor plan is typical of a central chimney New England dwelling. Behind a short central entrance hall, which contains an L-shaped stairway, is a large stone central chimney with three fireplaces. Two of these heat the parlor and dining room, entered from the hall; a huge third one serves the large original kitchen, which ranges across the rear two-thirds of the house behind the dining room and chimney. A small bedroom is situated back of the parlor alongside the original kitchen, between it and the one-story new kitchen addition. Three additional bedrooms, one of which has a fully paneled fireplace wall, are located upstairs. Wallpaper has been added to some of the rooms, but the fireplaces, wainscoting, and wide-board floors are original.

The privately owned house, which is in good condition and little altered, has never been restored, though some modern conveniences have been installed. It is not open to the public.

Huntington House, Connecticut ⊗

_Location: New London County, 34 East Town Street, Norwich._

Samuel Huntington erected this house in the years 1783–85 and lived in it until his death in 1796. Since that time, the frame dwelling has been extensively modified on both the exterior and interior and a major addition made at the rear.

Originally the residence was a large, two-story, rectangular structure with a gable roof, two interior chimneys, tall corner pilasters, and triangular pediments above the first-story windows. By the middle of the 19th century, however, the structure had been remodeled in Greek Revival style, including the construction of a two-story portico across the entire front, or north, side, and in the center of this facade a central two-tiered porch. Later in the century, the portico and the two interior chimneys were removed. Sometime during the century, a large two-story section was added to the rear of the house, and a projecting two-story bay on the west side.

The present two-tiered porch at the entrance is a modern replacement whose design differs considerably from the earlier one. Four large Doric columns support it, and a railing runs around the second-story level. The east entranceway consists of a one-story portico with an elliptical plan and Doric columns. Other modern features include clapboarding and window sash.

The central hall, extending from the entranceway through the rest of the house and rear addition, has always dominated the floor plan, which otherwise has been completely obliterated. Interior partitions have either been removed to create larger rooms or added to make smaller ones. Stairs are located in the front and rear of the hall. Little, if any, of the original interior finish remains.

The house, also known as the Governor Huntington House, in excellent condition, is owned and occupied by a charitable organization and is not open to the general public. Huntington’s remains rest in the adjacent Old Burial Ground.

Williams Birthplace, Connecticut ⊗

_Location: New London County, on the west side of Conn. 87 at the
south end of the commons, Lebanon._

William Williams was born in this house in 1731 and lived in it until 1755, when his father gave him a residence elsewhere in Lebanon. Constructed about 1712 by Rev. Samuel Welles, a Congregational minister, it later came into the possession of Rev. Solomon Williams, the signer’s father, and is also known as the Welles-Williams House. Over the years, considerable alteration has occurred.

The rectangular frame structure is two stories high with a gable roof. Exterior louvered shutters flank the windows on both stories. The Greek Revival architrave of the central door was added about 1830. A one-story ell, containing a kitchen and part of the dining room, is located at the rear southwest corner of the house. A barn has been built on the end of the ell. A more recent one-story frame wing extends from the southeast rear corner. The residence was recently covered with clapboard.

In modern times the original large central stone chimney has been replaced by a much smaller brick one, which provides a fireplace for the present living room. This has resulted in a major revamping of the typical central chimney floor plan. It once consisted of two tiers of four rooms but today is divided into large living room, dining room, and parlor, plus a bath, and three bedrooms upstairs. Two of the latter originally had fully paneled walls. Only one is paneled today.

The house, a private residence not accessible to the public, is in good condition.

Williams House, Connecticut ∆

_Location: New London County, southeast corner of the junction of
Conn. 207 and Conn. 87, Lebanon._

Of the two extant residences of William Williams, this house, where he lived the greater part of his life, is less altered. His father, Rev. Solomon Williams, acquired it in 1748 and 7 years later presented it to William, who resided there until his death in 1811.

The dwelling is a two-story, rectangular frame building. A long, 1½-story service wing extends from the center of the rear of the house. The original clapboard siding, covered with asbestos shingles in the 1930’s, has recently been reexposed. The front entranceway, in the Greek Revival style, was probably constructed about 1830. Other exterior changes to the main house are limited to the lowering of the two original interior chimneys on the back side of the ridge of the gabled roof, the addition of a brick chimney at the north end, and the insertion of a one-story bay window in the living room at the south end.

The central hall divides each floor into two large rooms. Downstairs, to the north of the hall, which incorporates the original stairway, is a parlor, whose entire fireplace wall is still covered with the old paneling; to the south of the hall is the living room. Its entranceway from the hall has been widened and two columns inserted. Upstairs are two bedrooms with fully paneled fireplace walls. The six original fireplaces, except for the one in the kitchen, have been closed up, but their mantels have been left in place. All the original wide floorboards remain. The rear service wing contains a dining room and kitchen on the first floor and four small bedrooms above.

The well-preserved house is today a private home and is not open to the public.

Wolcott House, Connecticut ∆

_Location: Litchfield County, on the east side of South Street
nearly opposite its intersection with Wolcott Avenue, Litchfield._

Oliver Wolcott erected and occupied this residence in 1753, some 2 years after he moved from Windsor to Litchfield, and lived in it until he died in 1797. Except for a major rear addition, it has been only slightly altered.

The two-story, frame structure has a gable roof, a large central chimney, and slight overhangs at the gable ends. Attached to the south end of the house on the main axis is a small, 1½-story frame wing with gambrel roof. A one-story porch, added by Wolcott about 1783, extends across this wing. The roof of the porch is of the coved, or “barrow,” type. The walls of the main house and wing are covered with clapboards, and the windows have louvered shutters. Triangular pediments cap the first-story windows. The center door, topped by a round arch fanlight, is sheltered by a Federal period broken-pediment portico supported by two fluted columns.

Later additions include small bay windows on each side of the chimney in the south end wall of the south wing; a wide dormer in the west, or front, upper story of the wing; and a two-story, frame, clapboard-covered service wing, added in the 1880’s at the northeast corner on the rear of the main house, which gave the structure its present L-shape. The service wing, which cannot be seen from the street, contains the present kitchen and servants’ workrooms and bedrooms.

The floor plan of the main house is the central chimney type. To the rear of the short central hall, which is equipped with the original L-shaped stairway and divides this portion of the house into two tiers of rooms, is the central chimney. On the first floor, to the north of the hall, is the dining room; to the south, the parlor. The fireplace walls in both rooms are fully paneled, and the floors have wide boards. Back of the parlor, a hall leads on the south to the morning room, or bedroom, in the south wing; and on the north, to the original kitchen, which contains a large fireplace. Four bedrooms occupy the second story of the main house, two of them featuring paneled overmantels, and one bedroom is located on the second floor of the south wing.

One of Wolcott’s descendants, who acquired and restored the house about 1920, resides in it today. In excellent condition, it is the oldest extant structure in Litchfield Historic District, a National Historic Landmark relating primarily to colonial architecture. The house is not accessible to the public.

The White House, District of Columbia ∆

_Location: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington._

Signers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were the first two occupants of the White House, official residence of our Nation’s Presidents since 1800. It is a national shrine that symbolizes the honor and dignity of the highest office in the land, and has been the scene of many historic events and brilliant social affairs. Like the Nation itself, it bears the influences of successive Chief Executives. Although rebuilt and modernized, it retains the simplicity and charm of its original appearance.

President George Washington approved the plans for the White House, drawn by Irish-born James Hoban, winner of the prize competition. Maj. Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the French artist-engineer, located the mansion in his plan of the Federal City, in which it and the Capitol were the first public buildings erected. The cornerstone was laid on October 13, 1792. Workmen used light gray sandstone from the Aquia Creek Quarries, in Virginia, for the exterior walls. During the course of construction or soon thereafter, they apparently were painted white. The building was thus unofficially termed the “White House” from an early date, but for many years it was usually referred to as the “President’s House” or the “President’s Palace.”

In the Palladian style of architecture, the main facade resembles the Duke of Leinster’s mansion in Dublin. Hoban probably derived the details of other faces and the interior arrangement from other contemporary European mansions. He supervised the original construction; the rebuilding after the burning by British forces, in 1814; and the erection of the north and south porticoes, some years later. Over the course of time, however, various architects modified Hoban’s original plans, notably Benjamin H. Latrobe during and after the Jefferson administration.

President and Mrs. John Adams were the first occupants, in November 1800 when the Government moved from Philadelphia to Washington. The interior had not yet been completed, and Mrs. Adams used the unfinished East Room to dry the family wash. During Jefferson’s administration the east and west terraces, or pavilions, were built. Jefferson, who practiced democratic simplicity in his social life, opened the mansion each morning to all arrivals.

During the War of 1812, British forces captured the city and set the torch to the White House, the Capitol, and other Government buildings in retaliation for the destruction by U.S. troops of some public buildings in Canada. Only the partially damaged exterior walls and interior brickwork of the White House remained in the spring of 1815 when reconstruction began. In 1817 the recently elected President, James Monroe, was able to occupy the structure. In 1824 builders erected the south portico; and in 1829, the large north portico over the entrance and driveway. The west wing, including the President’s oval office, was added during the first decade of the 20th century. The east wing was built in 1942.

Over the years, the White House proper has been extensively renovated and modernized on various occasions. The old sandstone walls have been retained, however. The aim has been to keep the historical atmosphere while providing a more livable home for the President and his family.

Located on the first floor of the main building are the East Room, Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room, State Dining Room, and Family Dining Room. These richly furnished rooms are open to the public on a special schedule. The ground and second floors are restricted to the use of the presidential family and guests. On the ground floor are the Diplomatic Reception Room, Curator’s Office, Vermeil Room, China Room, and Library. The second floor contains the Lincoln Bedroom, Lincoln Sitting Room, Queens’ Bedroom (Rose Guest Room), Treaty Room, Yellow Oval Room, and Empire Guest Room. Neither of the wings, reserved for the President and his staff, are ordinarily accessible to the public.

The simple dignity of the White House is enhanced by the natural beauty of its informal but carefully landscaped grounds.

College Hill, Georgia ∆

_Location: Richmond County, 2216 Wrightsboro Road, Augusta._

In 1795 George Walton built this house on the western outskirts of Augusta on land that had been granted him by the State of Georgia in 1787. He lived in it until his death in 1804.

The handsome, two-story, frame structure features weatherboarded and clapboarded walls, a gable roof, and a brick chimney at each end. Of special interest is the two-tiered veranda extending across the entire main facade. At its front and sides on both levels are a series of segmental arches supported by delicate square columns on high pedestals. The fine balustrade is composed of delicate, sheaf-like balusters. Central double doors are located on the front of both stories. The doors are framed by pilasters and sidelights and topped by segmental fanlights. The windows have exterior louvered shutters. A one-story kitchen, added in 1898, extends from the southwest rear corner of the house.

The central hall, which contains a U-shaped stairway, divides the main section of the structure into two pairs of rooms. The larger front two are equipped with fireplaces and have original mantels decorated in the Adam style. Behind the main hall is a smaller rear hall. The hall walls are plastered, and the board walls of the principal rooms are covered with paper and wainscoting. Five bedrooms occupy the second floor. The original kitchen was situated in a separate building that is no longer extant.

Known today as the Walton-Harper House, since 1885 College Hill has been owned by the Harper family, descendants of Walton. Little altered but never restored, it is a private residence and is not shown publicly.

Meadow Garden, Georgia ⊗

_Location: Richmond County, 1320 Nelson Street, Augusta._

About 1790 Gov. George Walton moved from Savannah to Augusta, then the capital. At that time, he built Meadow Garden cottage at the northern edge of the city, on confiscated Loyalist lands in his possession. He resided in it until 1795, the year he constructed and occupied a larger home, College Hill, just west of Augusta. He deeded Meadow Garden under trusteeship to Thomas Watkins, who later conveyed it to George Walton, Jr. Over the years, it has been doubled in size and otherwise altered.

Meadow Garden was originally a modest 1½-story cottage of frame construction built over a high brick basement. The gable roof was pierced by two front dormers and an interior central chimney. Windows were located in the gable ends. An entrance door and hall were situated on the western bay of the south facade, which had three bays. Two rooms on the first floor opened off the east of the hall, and the basement contained two more finished rooms.