University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: Roger Sherman (1721 1793)
In 1723, when Sherman was 2 years of age, his family relocated from his Newton, MA, birthplace to Dorchester (present Stoughton). As a boy, he was spurred by a desire to learn and read widely in his spare time to supplement his minimal...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: David Brearly 1745 1790
Brearly (Brearley) was descended from a Yorkshire, England, family, one of whose members migrated to New Jersey around 1680. Signer Brearly was born in 1745 at Spring Grove near Trenton, was reared in the area, and attended but did not...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: George Clymer 1739 1813
Clymer was orphaned in 1740, only a year after his birth in Philadelphia. A wealthy uncle reared and informally educated him and advanced him from clerk to full-fledged partner in his mercantile firm, which on his death he bequeathed to...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: John Rutledge 1739 1800
John Rutledge, elder brother of Edward Rutledge, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born into a large family at or near Charleston, SC, in 1739. He received his early education from his father, an Irish immigrant and...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: William Few 1748 1828
Few was born in 1748. His father's family had emigrated from England to Pennsylvania in the 1680s, but the father had subsequently moved to Maryland, where he married and settled on a farm near Baltimore. William was born there. He...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: John Langdon 1741 1819
Langdon was born in 1741 at or near Portsmouth, NH. His father, whose family had emigrated to America before 1660, was a prosperous farmer who sired a large family. The youth's education was intermittent. He attended a local grammar...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: Daniel Carroll, 1730 1796
Daniel Carroll was member of a prominent Maryland family of Irish descent. A collateral branch was led by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Daniel's older brother was John Carroll, the first Roman...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: William Leigh Pierce 1740 1789
Very little is known about William Pierce's early life. He was probably born in Georgia in 1740, but he grew up in Virginia. During the Revolutionary War Pierce acted as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Nathanael Greene and eventually attained...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: William Blount 1749 1800
William Blount was the great-grandson of Thomas Blount, who came from England to Virginia soon after 1660 and settled on a North Carolina plantation. William, the eldest in a large family, was born in 1749 while his mother was visiting...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: William Richardson Davie 1756 1820
One of the eight delegates born outside of the thirteen colonies, Davie was born in Egremont, Cumberlandshire, England, on June 20, 1756. In 1763 Archibald Davie brought his son William to Waxhaw, SC, where the boy's maternal uncle,...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: Nicholas Gilman 1755 1814
Member of a distinguished New Hampshire family and second son in a family of eight, Nicholas Gilman was born at Exeter in 1755. He received his education in local schools and worked at his father's general store. When the War for...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: Jared Ingersoll 1749 1822
The son of Jared Ingersoll, Sr., a British colonial official and later prominent Loyalist, Ingersoll was born at New Haven, CT, in 1749. He received an excellent education and graduated from Yale in 1766. He then oversaw the financial...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: James Mc Henry
McHenry was born at Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, in 1753. He enjoyed a classical education at Dublin, and emigrated to Philadelphia in 1771. The following year, the rest of his family came to the colonies, and his brother and...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: Robert Morris 1734 1806
Morris was born at or near Liverpool, England, in 1734. When he reached 13 years of age, he emigrated to Maryland to join his father, a tobacco exporter at Oxford, Md. After brief schooling at Philadelphia, the youth obtained employment...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: George Read 1733 1798
Read's mother was the daughter of a Welsh planter, and his Dublin-born father a landholder of means. Soon after George's birth in 1733 near the village of North East in Cecil County, MD, his family moved to New Castle, DE, where the...
Bill of Rights Institute
Bill of Rights Institute: James Wilson
James Wilson lived what one might call a double life. His formidable intellect, passion for politics, and willingness to fight for his beliefs made him one of the most influential leaders of his time. On the other hand, his penchant for...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: Jacob Broom 1752 1810
Broom was born in 1752 at Wilmington, DE., the eldest son of a blacksmith who prospered in farming. The youth was educated at home and probably at the local Old Academy. Although he followed his father into farming and also studied...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: Charles Pinckney 1757 1824
Charles Pinckney, the second cousin of fellow-signer Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, was born at Charleston, SC, in 1757. His father, Col. Charles Pinckney, was a rich lawyer and planter, who on his death in 1782 was to bequeath Snee Farm,...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: Abraham Baldwin 1754 1807
Baldwin was born at Guilford, Conn., in 1754, the second son of a blacksmith who fathered 12 children by 2 wives. Besides Abraham, several of the family attained distinction. His sister Ruth married the poet and diplomat Joel Barlow, and...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: John Blair 1732 1800
Scion of a prominent Virginia family, Blair was born at Williamsburg in 1732. He was the son of John Blair, a colonial official and nephew of James Blair, founder and first president of the College of William and Mary. Signer Blair...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: Thomas Fitzsimons 1741 1811
Fitzsimons (FitzSimons; Fitzsimmons) was born in Ireland in 1741. Coming to America about 1760, he pursued a mercantile career in Philadelphia. The next year, he married Catherine Meade, the daughter of a prominent local merchant, Robert...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: John Francis Mercer 1759 1821
John Francis Mercer, born on May 17, 1759, was the fifth of nine children born to John and Ann Mercer of Stafford County, VA. He attended the College of William and Mary, and in early 1776 he joined the 3d Virginia Regiment. Mercer...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: Thomas Mifflin 1744 1800
A member of the fourth generation of a Pennsylvania Quaker family who had emigrated from England, Mifflin was born at Philadelphia in 1744, the son of a rich merchant and local politician. He studied at a Quaker school and then at the...
Bill of Rights Institute
Bill of Rights Institute: John Hancock
Forever famous for his outsized signature on the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock was a larger than life figure in other ways as well. Part of the great Boston triumvirate that included Samuel Adams and James Otis, Hancock was a...