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William Hooper

William Hooper (June 17, 1742 – October 14, 1790) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, and politician. As a member of the Continental Congress representing North Carolina, Hooper signed the Continental Association and the Declaration of Independence.

Early life
Hooper was the first child of five, born in Boston, Massachusetts on June 17, 1742. His father, William Hooper, was a Scottish minister who studied at the University of Edinburgh prior to immigrating to Boston. His mother, Mary Dennie, was the daughter of John Dennie, a well-respected merchant from Massachusetts. Hooper's father had hoped that William would follow in his footsteps as an Episcopal priest and placed his son at the age of seven in Boston Latin School headed by Mr. John Lovell, a highly distinguished educator. In 1757, at age 16, Hooper entered Harvard University where he was highly regarded as an industrious student. In 1760, Hooper graduated from Harvard with honors, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts. However, after graduating, Hooper did not wish to pursue a career in the clergy as his father had hoped. Instead, he decided on a career in law, studying under James Otis, a popular Boston attorney who was regarded as a radical. Hooper studied under Otis until 1764 and once completing his bar exam decided to leave Massachusetts in part because of the city's abundance of attorneys.

Life in North Carolina
In 1764, Hooper moved temporarily to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he began to practice law and became the circuit court lawyer for Cape Fear. Hooper began to build a highly respected reputation in North Carolina among the wealthy farmers as well as fellow lawyers. Hooper increased his influence by representing the colonial government in several court cases. In 1767, Hooper married Anne Clark, the daughter of a wealthy early settler to the region and sheriff of New Hanover County. They had three children: William (b. 1768), Elizabeth (b. 1770), and Thomas (b. 1772). Hooper moved quickly up the ranks, first in 1769 when he was appointed as deputy attorney of the Salisbury District, and then in 1770 when he was appointed deputy Attorney General of North Carolina.

Initially, Hooper supported the British colonial government of North Carolina. As deputy attorney general, in 1768 Hooper worked with Colonial Governor William Tryon to suppress a rebellious group known as the Regulators who participated in the War of the Regulation. The Regulators had been operating in North Carolina for some time, and in 1770 it was reported that the group dragged Hooper through the streets in Hillsborough during a riot. Hooper advised that Governor Tryon use as much force as was necessary to stamp out the rebels and even accompanied the troops at the Battle of Alamance in 1771. He served in the Province of North Carolina House of Burgesses in 1775.

American Revolution involvement

Hooper's support of the colonial governments began to erode, causing problems for him because of his past support of Governor Tryon. Hooper had been labeled a Loyalist and therefore he was not immediately accepted by Patriots. Hooper eventually was elected to the North Carolina General Assembly in 1773, where he became an opponent to colonial attempts to pass laws that would regulate the provincial courts. This in turn helped to sour his reputation among Loyalists. Hooper recognized that independence was likely to occur and mentioned this in a letter to his friend James Iredell, saying that the colonies were "striding fast to independence, and ere long will build an empire upon the ruins of Great Britain."

During his time in the assembly Hooper slowly became a supporter of the American Revolution and independence. After the governor disbanded the assembly, Hooper helped to organize a new colonial assembly. Hooper was also appointed to the Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry. In 1774, Hooper was appointed a delegate to the First Continental Congress, where he served on numerous committees. Hooper was again elected to the Second Continental Congress, but much of his time was split between the congress and work in North Carolina, where he was assisting in forming a new government. This caused him to miss the vote approving the Declaration of Independence; however, he arrived in time to sign it on August 2, 1776.

In 1777, because of continued financial concerns, Hooper resigned from Congress and returned to North Carolina to resume his law career. Throughout the Revolution the British attempted to capture Hooper, and with his country home in Finian vulnerable to British attacks, Hooper moved his family to Wilmington. In 1781, the British captured Wilmington, to where Cornwallis and his forces fell back after the Battle of Guilford Court House, and Hooper found himself separated from his family. In addition, the British burned his estates in both Finian and Wilmington, so Hooper was forced to rely on friends for food and shelter during this time, as well as nursing him back to health when he contracted malaria. Finally, after nearly a year of separation, Hooper was reunited with his family, and they settled in Hillsborough, North Carolina, where Hooper continued to work for the North Carolina assembly until 1783.

Post-Revolution years
After the Revolution Hooper returned to his career in law, but he lost favor with the public because of his political stance. Hooper fell in line with the Federalist Party because of his influential connections, his mistrust of the lower class, and his widely criticized soft dealings with Loyalists, toward whom he was generally forgiving. This kind and fair treatment made some even label him a Loyalist. Hooper was again called to public service in 1786, when he was appointed a federal judge in a border dispute between New York and Massachusetts, though the case was settled out of court. In 1787 and 1788, Hooper campaigned heavily for North Carolina to ratify the new United States Constitution, but by this time Hooper had become quite ill, and he died on October 14, 1790, at the age of 48. He was laid to rest in the Presbyterian Churchyard in Hillsborough, North Carolina. His remains were later reinterred at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park.

His home at Hillsborough, the Nash-Hooper House, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971. It is located in the Hillsborough Historic District.

title: William Hooper


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User talk:Saint-Paddy

Hello Patrick, welcome to Wikipedia. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian. You can learn more on the how to edit page. The naming conventions and manual of style pages are also useful. Feel free to experiment at the Sandbox. If you have any questions about the project then check out Help or add a question to the Village pump. Angela

Hi, your pages like King of Wikipedia are good, but they would be far more appropriate on Meta rather than in the Wikipedia namespace. Perhaps you could copy them over there (and add a link to Wikipedia humor) so it can be deleted from this part of the site? Angela. 00:26, May 4, 2004 (UTC)

Please don't start lines with a blank space - if you do this, the line will be treated as preformatted text and will look ugly otherwise. Only do this if you wish to generate preformatted text, such as showing source code for computer programs, &/c. Thanks Dysprosia 23:16, 5 May 2004 (UTC)

Happy Birthday! Hope you are having a great day and keep up the good work at Wikipedia! Yardcock | talk 19:19, Aug 30, 2004 (UTC)

Hey, thanks for the message, I doubt that any court would find a 'statement or purpose' being reused in refrence to the organisation as copyright infrigement, but thats not why I messaged ya...

I'd like to talk to you, if you use IRC at all please consider heading over to #aff on irc.freenode.net :)

The authors of the controversies page are there in full, most days as an aside.

Article Licensing
Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 2000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:
 * Multi-Licensing FAQ - Lots of questions answered
 * Multi-Licensing Guide
 * Free the Rambot Articles Project

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the " " template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:

 * Option 1
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

OR
 * Option 2
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions to any U.S. state, county, or city article as described below:

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace " " with "  ". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. -- Ram-Man (comment| talk)

When the tigers broke free.
I think it is definately a protest song, about war. Please feel free to add it.

Hello:
Hi I'm a new Wikipedian from Natick, Mass... just popped in to say hello to my Wiki neighbor:"

Merlinus (talk)

I was recently married to my lovely wife; We have lived together for several years already... -
 * Hi I Am Marc:
 * We love cats (3 currently own us)... Jeffy(15), Echo(6) & Gizmo(3). All sleep with us in the big bed and no room to move an inch.
 * I was Disabled in a 1993 (Coma)/ and am very slowly recovering. It's tough going out sometimes, though with friends I still do. I have a few supportive friends.
 * I am an "Unenrolled voter." Democrat/ Republicans, I don't care, whoever serves makes my life better in the long run I vote for!
 * Avid reader. Has collection of many hundreds of rare books. Especially Science Fiction and Fantasy.
 * Avid Music collector (2,500 albums)...mostly bootlegs...mostly rare bootlegs...Stones, Kinks, Clapton, Beatles. and solos!

I am what I am I'm strongly opinionated about disabled peoples' rights and jobs for American citizens who have trouble finding minimum wage jobs in my state today and support Universal health care, I would be dead if I did not have it. I am an idiot about Internet social skills. I hope that the Immigration Reform bill will protect disabled citizens who wish to work like myself first before considering allowing new people to come here. I was searching for an internet forum to be my outlet to express my needs, but found that Wikipedia is not best suited for that. I'm brushing up on Wikipedia's rules of conduct, and slowly starting to begin contributing again. -- Current book and CD I own hundreds of rare books

 * Current Book Jack Whyte: "Uther"
 * Current CD Faves:
 * Warren Zevon... "Life'll Kill Ya"
 * Howlin' Wolf: "Greatest Hits"
 * Latest Flick: "Charles II: The Last King"

-  Merlinus (talk)

Image:Motorola ROKR.jpg
Thanks for uploading Image:Motorola ROKR.jpg. I notice the 'image' page specifies that the image is being used under fair use, but its use in Wikipedia articles fails our first fair use criterion in that it illustrates a subject for which a free image could reasonably be found or created. If you believe this image is not replaceable, please:
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Ex Boy-Scout?
I noticed in your userbox page that you said that you were an ex-Boy Scout. What made you quit? Bl a st  16.04.07 0025 (UTC)
 * Ah. And yeah, I figured since I was already bent in the head, I should join the rest of the crowd at /b/. :p Bl a st  16.04.07 0206 (UTC)

New England Wikipedia Day @ MIT: Saturday Jan 18
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You're invited!
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license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:Saint-Paddy


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Francis Lightfoot Lee

Francis Lightfoot Lee (October 14, 1734 – January 11, 1797) was a Founding Father of the United States and a member of the House of Burgesses in the Colony of Virginia. As an active protester regarding issues such as the Stamp Act of 1765, Lee helped move the colony in the direction of independence from Britain. Lee was a delegate to the Virginia Conventions and the Continental Congress. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation as a representative of Virginia. In addition to his career in politics, Lee owned a tobacco plantation as well as many slaves. He was a member of the Lee family, a prominent Virginian dynasty.

Family, education and early life
Lee was born on October 14, 1734, at Stratford Hall Plantation, in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Lee was the fourth son of Thomas Lee and Hannah Harrison Ludwell. His middle name "Lightfoot" came from Francis Lightfoot, the best man at his father's wedding. He was of English descent and was born into one of the First Families of Virginia. He grew up at Stratford Hall, a large tobacco plantation, which his father completed in 1738. He was educated at home, where Lee pursued classical studies under Dr. Craig.

In 1772, Lee married his cousin, Rebecca Plater Tayloe. They were 2nd cousins, once removed. They had no children. Lee lived his entire life in the region of Virginia between the Rappahannock River and the Chesapeake Bay (known as the Northern Neck).

Lee was the grandson of Col. Richard Lee II and a great-grandson of Col. Richard Lee I. Senator Richard Henry Lee and diplomats William Lee and Dr. Arthur Lee were his brothers. Another brother, Thomas Ludwell Lee, was appointed to a committee, along with Thomas Jefferson, to re-write the laws of Virginia. His namesake Francis Lightfoot Lee II was the son of his brother Richard Henry Lee, and men of the same name descend from him.

Political career
In 1774, Lee was among those who called for a general congress and the first of the Virginia Conventions, which he attended. He served in the Virginia State Senate from 1778 to 1782 and was a delegate to the First Continental Congress held in Philadelphia, serving until 1779. As a congressional representative of Virginia, he signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1768.

Death and legacy
Lee died of pleurisy at his residence (named "Menokin") in Richmond County, Virginia, on January 11, 1797, following his wife's death four days prior. He is buried in the Tayloe family burial ground at Mount Airy Plantation, near Warsaw, Virginia.

The World War II Liberty Ship SS Francis L. Lee was named in his honor.

title: Francis Lightfoot Lee


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Treaty of Brétigny

The Treaty of Brétigny was a treaty, drafted on 8 May 1360 and ratified on 24 October 1360, between Kings Edward III of England and John II of France. In retrospect, it is seen as having marked the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) as well as the height of English power on the European continent.

It was signed at Brétigny, a village near Chartres, and was later ratified as the Treaty of Calais on 24 October 1360.

Background
King John II of France, taken as a prisoner of war at the Battle of Poitiers (19 September 1356), worked with King Edward III of England to write out the Treaty of London. The treaty was condemned by the French Estates-General, who advised the Dauphin Charles to reject it.

In response, Edward, who wished to yield few of the advantages claimed in the abortive Treaty of London the year before, besieged Rheims. The siege lasted until January and with supplies running low, Edward withdrew to Burgundy. After the English army attempted a futile siege of Paris, Edward marched to Chartres, and discussion of terms began in early April.

Terms
The Treaty of Brétigny was ratified on 10 May 1360, by Dauphin Charles and six English knights at the Hôtel de Sens. On 14 June 1360, John II, a prisoner in England, ratified the treaty at a banquet attend by Edward III, Prince of Wales, and the other French prisoners from the Battle of Poitiers. The finalization of the treaty would occur in Calais on 24 October 1360.

By the terms of this treaty, Edward III obtained Guyenne, Gascony, Poitou, Saintonge and Aunis, Agenais, Périgord, Limousin, Quercy, Bigorre, the countship of Gauré, Angoumois, Rouergue, Montreuil-sur-Mer, Ponthieu, Calais, Sangatte, Ham and the countship of Guînes. The king of England was to hold these free and clear, without doing homage for them. Furthermore, the treaty established that title to 'all the islands that the king of England now holds' would no longer be under the suzerainty of the king of France. The title duke of Aquitaine was abandoned in favour of lord of Aquitaine.

For his part, the king of England renounced all claims to the French throne. The terms of Brétigny were meant to untangle the feudal responsibilities that had caused so much conflict, and, as far as the English were concerned, would concentrate English territories in an expanded version of Aquitaine. England also restored the rights of the bishop of Coutances to Alderney, which had been removed by the king of England in 1228.

John II had to pay three million écus for his ransom, and would be released after he paid one million. The occasion was the first minting of the franc, equivalent to one livre tournois (twenty sous). As a guarantee for the payment of his ransom, John gave as hostages two of his sons, Dukes Louis I of Anjou and John of Berry, several princes and nobles, four inhabitants of Paris, and two citizens from each of the nineteen principal towns of France.

Breakdown
While the hostages were held, John returned to France to try to raise funds to pay the ransom. In 1362, John's son, Louis of Anjou, a hostage in English-held Calais, escaped captivity. Thus, with his stand-in hostage gone, John felt honor-bound to return to captivity in England. He died in captivity in 1364 and was succeeded by his son, Charles V. In 1369, on the pretext that Edward III had failed to observe the terms of the treaty, the king of France declared war once again.

By the time of the death of the Black Prince in 1376 and the death of Edward III in 1377, English forces had been pushed back into their territories in the southwest, around Bordeaux.

Legacy
The treaty did not lead to lasting peace, but procured nine years' respite from the Hundred Years' War. In the following years, French forces were involved in battles against the Anglo-Navarrese (Bertrand du Guesclin's victory at Cocherel on 16 May 1364) and the Bretons.

title: Treaty of Brétigny


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Francis Lewis

Francis Lewis (March 21, 1713 – December 31, 1802) was an American merchant and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation as a representative of New York in the Continental Congress.

Early life
Lewis was born in Llandaff, Wales, on March 21, 1713. He was the only child of Morgan Lewis and Anne Lewis (née Pettingale) of Newport. Lewis was educated at Westminster School in London.

Career
Lewis entered a mercantile house in London until he turned 21 and inherited some properties left by his father. Lewis sold the properties and used the proceeds to acquire merchandise, set sail for New York City, arriving there in 1734 or 1735. He left some of the goods in New York to be sold by Edward Annesley, his business partner, and brought the rest to Philadelphia. After two years in Philadelphia, he returned to New York.

Lewis made several trans-Atlantic trips, visiting several northern European ports, Saint Petersburg, northern Scotland, and Africa. He was taken prisoner while he served as a British mercantile agent in 1756 and sent to France for imprisonment. On his release and his return home, he became active in politics.

Lewis was a member of the Committee of Sixty, a member of the New York Provincial Congress, and a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1779. In 1776 he signed the United States Declaration of Independence, and in 1778 he signed the United States Articles of Confederation. In 1779, he served as the chairman of the Continental Board of Admiralty.

He helped his son Francis Lewis Jr. open a dry goods business named Francis Lewis and Son. His son Morgan served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and later held many offices in New York State, including governor.

Personal life
In 1745, Lewis married to Elizabeth Annesley (died 1779), a sister of his business partner, Thomas Annesley. Together, they were the parents of seven children, three of whom survived to adulthood:

 * Ann Lewis (1748–1802), who married Captain George Robertson (1742–1791) of the British Royal Navy.
 * Francis Lewis Jr. (1749–1814), who served as churchwarden of St George's Parish in Flushing, New York, from 1791 to 1794. He married Elizabeth Ludlow (d. 1831), daughter of Gabriel Ludlow, Esq.
 * Morgan Lewis (1754–1844), who married Gertrude Livingston, the daughter of Judge Robert Livingston of Clermont. He was a governor and attorney general of New York.

In 1775, Lewis acquired and relocated his family to an estate located in Whitestone, in present-day Queens. The home was later destroyed in the American Revolutionary War by British soldiers, who also arrested his wife, Elizabeth, and denied her a change of clothing or adequate food for weeks while in captivity. Her hardships in captivity ruined her health and led to her death in 1778 after being released in a prisoner exchange.

Through his eldest surviving daughter Ann, he was a grandfather to Marianne Robertson (1779–1829), who married John Bird Sumner, the Archbishop of Canterbury and brother of Charles Richard Sumner, bishop of Winchester. Through his son Morgan, he was a grandfather of Margret Lewis (1780–1860), who married New York lawyer and politician Maturin Livingston and became parents to twelve children. Through his son Francis Jr., he was a grandfather of Gabriel Ludlow Lewis.

Death and legacy
Lewis died on December 31, 1802, although his memorial in Trinity Church Cemetery gives his year of death as 1803.

In Queens, New York, Francis Lewis High School and P.S. 79 "The Francis Lewis School" are named after Lewis. Francis Lewis Boulevard, which locals sometimes refer to as "Franny Lew" or "Franny Lewie," stretches almost the entire north/south length of the borough. Francis Lewis Park is located under the Queens approach of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge. A society of the Children of the American Revolution located in Queens, NY, is named for him. A masonic lodge, Francis Lewis #273, is located in Whitestone.

title: Francis Lewis


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Thomas Lynch Jr.

Thomas Lynch Jr. (August 5, 1749 – December 17, 1779) was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of South Carolina and a Founding Father of the United States. His father Thomas Lynch was a member of the Continental Congress and had signed the 1774 Continental Association. When he had to step down because of illness, Thomas Lynch Jr. was selected to fill his post.

Early life
Lynch Jr. was born at Hopsewee Plantation in Prince George Parish, Winyah, in what is now Georgetown, South Carolina. He was the third child and first son of Thomas Lynch and his wife, Beverly (née Allston) Lynch. He had two older sisters, named Sabina and Esther, who were born in 1747 and 1748, respectively.

Their mother was the daughter of Gilliém Marshall Dé'Illiard of Iberville Parish, Louisiana, and his wife. Dé'Illiard's brother George William Dilliard settled in Virginia. He is credited with changing the Dilliard name to its current anglicized spelling.

Dilliard introduced Beverly Dé'Illiard and Thomas Lynch during a ball held at the childhood home of John Drayton Sr., Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston, South Carolina. Also in attendance were prominent families such as the Middletons, Randolphs, and Rutledge.

Thomas and Beverly Lynch's younger daughter, Aimeé Constance, was born in 1755. She later married John Drayton.

Lynch's grandfather was Jonas Lynch from the County Galway ancestral line. The Lynch family were expelled from Ireland following their defeat in the Irish wars of William of Orange.

Lynch Sr. had emigrated from Kent, England, to South Carolina. He served as a prominent figure in South Carolina politics, which contributed to his descendants' access to higher education and wealth.

Education
Lynch Jr. was schooled at the Indigo Society School in Georgetown, South Carolina. His parents sent him to England for higher studies. He received honors at Eton College and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Lynch Jr. studied law and political philosophy at the Middle Temple in London. His father admired English education and encouraged him to remain in Great Britain to study law and the principles of the British constitution.

After eight years away from America, Lynch Jr. returned to South Carolina in 1772. Although his father had dreamed of his being in law, Lynch Jr. decided to end his pursuit of that profession.

Marriage and family
Lynch Jr. married Paige Shubrick on May 14, 1772.

Following their marriage, the couple lived at Peach Tree Plantation, which was located near his homeland plantation. He enjoyed managing the cultivation of crops at the plantation, which was dependent on the labor of numerous enslaved African Americans. Lynch Jr. remained active in political affairs in his community.

His father died from a stroke in December 1776. His widowed mother later married South Carolina Governor William Moultrie, another influential political figure.

His sister Sabina Hope Lynch married James Hamilton, also of the planter class. One of their sons was James Hamilton Jr., who was elected as governor of South Carolina in 1830.

Career
Lynch was elected a member of the Provincial Congress on February 11, 1775. This committee was formed to prepare a plan of government and represent the people of South Carolina. Lynch served alongside Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Rutledge, Charles Pinckney, Henry Laurens, Christopher Gadsden, Rawlins Lowndes, Arthur Middleton, Henry Middleton, Thomas Bee, and Thomas Heyward Jr. in the Provincial Congress. This group formed the South Carolina constitution. Many people objected to this document including the Continental Congress. It stood as a temporary constitution as many believed there would be reconciliation with Great Britain.

Lynch became a company commander in the First South Carolina regiment on June 12, 1775. He was commissioned by the Provincial Congress. After being appointed, he gathered men and led a march into Charlestown, South Carolina. Amid the march, he became very sick with a bilious fever which prevented him from continuing. When he recovered, he was unable to fulfill his position. During his recovery, he received news about his father's declining health. In hope that he could manage his father's illness, Lynch asked his commanding officer, Colonel Christopher Gadsden, if he could travel to Philadelphia. His request was denied at first, but after receiving news of his election to the Continental Congress, he was allowed to travel to his father.

On March 23, 1776, the General Assembly of South Carolina named Lynch Jr. to the Continental Congress as a sixth delegate. Although he was ill, Lynch Jr. traveled to Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Lynch Sr. and Thomas Lynch Jr. were the only father and son to serve successively in the Continental Congress.

Lynch Jr. was the second youngest delegate in the Continental Congress and filled in his father's place due to illness. The youngest signer, South Carolinian Edward Rutledge, was younger by three months.

Less than a month after signing the Declaration of Independence, Lynch Jr. threatened that South Carolina would secede from the United States; his threat expressed the interests of his constituents, the elite planter class. "If it is debated, whether their Slaves are their Property, there is an End of the Confederation."

After signing the Declaration of Independence, an ill Thomas Lynch Jr. set out for home with his ailing father. On the way to South Carolina, his father suffered a second stroke. He died in Annapolis, Maryland, in December 1776. Thomas Lynch Jr. retired in early 1777.

Death
Lynch suffered for two more years of illness in South Carolina, where he resided with his wife at Peachtree Plantation on the South Santee River. Friends suggested that he travel to Europe in search for a different atmosphere. He and his wife sailed for respite on the brigantine Polly to St. Eustatius in the West Indies on December 17, 1779. The ship is known to have disappeared shortly after. He and his wife were considered to have been lost at sea. At age 30, Lynch was the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence to die.

Family estate
His will required that the heirs of his female relatives change their last name to Lynch in order to inherit a share of his family estate. At the time of his death, Thomas Lynch Jr. owned three plantations and held more than 250 enslaved African Americans, who were valued as personal property and part of the estate.

His sister, Sabina, responded by changing her name and that of her descendants in order to inherit the estate. She and her husband owned and managed Peachtree Plantation until their son was of age.

Their son, John Bowman Lynch, and his wife had three sons. Henry C. Lynch (1828-1843) died before reaching adulthood. Thomas B. Lynch (1821-1864) died in the American Civil War. James (N.M.) Lynch (1822-1887) lived the longest.

After Sabina Lynch died, the family estate passed to her youngest sister, Aimeé Constance Dé'Illiard Drayton. Thomas Lynch Jr. had specified that the estate should remain in the family.

Legacy
Lynch's birthplace was the Hopsewee Plantation. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971.

In his 1856 book, Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence, Rev. Charles A Goodrich lauds Lynch "as a man of exalted views and exalted moral worth". Goodrich continues: "In all the relations of life, whether as a husband, a friend, a patriot, or the master of the slave, he appeared conscious of his obligations, and found his pleasure in discharging them."

Autographs by Thomas Lynch Jr. are among the rarest by signers of the Declaration of Independence. His time in Congress lasted less than a year, and for much of this time he was in poor health. Only a single letter has survived, along with a few signatures on historical documents. Many of his autographs have scattered, and others were lost in a fire. Today, Lynch's autograph sells for as much as $250,000.

In popular culture
Lynch Jr. is played by Richard Bond in the 1938 film Declaration of Independence.

title: Thomas Lynch Jr.


text:
Thomas Nelson Jr.

Thomas Nelson Jr. (December 26, 1738 – January 4, 1789) was a Founding Father of the United States, general in the Revolutionary War, member of the Continental Congress, and a Virginia planter. In addition to serving many terms in the Virginia General Assembly, he twice represented Virginia in the Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Fellow Virginia legislators elected him to serve as the commonwealth's governor in 1781, the same year he fought as a brigadier general in the siege of Yorktown, the final battle of the war.

Early and family life

Nelson was the grandson of Thomas "Scotch Tom" Nelson, an immigrant from Cumberland, England, who was an early pioneer at Yorktown. Nelson Jr. was born in 1738 in Yorktown; his parents were Elizabeth Carter Burwell (daughter of Robert "King" Carter and widow of Nathaniel Burwell) and William Nelson, who was a leader of the colony and briefly served as governor. Through his paternal great-great-grandfather, George Reade, Nelson was a third cousin of first U.S. President and fellow Founding Father George Washington, though it is unknown if either of them knew they were related.

Like many Virginians of the planter class, Nelson was sent to England for his education. He attended Newcome's School before entering Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1758. He graduated in 1760 and returned to Virginia the following year. Nelson was an ancestor of Thomas Nelson Page and William Nelson Page.

Planter
Upon returning to Virginia, Nelson assisted his father in the operation of his several plantations, which depended on the labor of enslaved African Americans. Following his marriage to young widow Lucy Grymes Burwell, he also managed the estates left to her sons from her first marriage. These included Carter's Grove left to her son Nathaniel Burwell.

During the American Revolutionary War, Nelson bought 5,400 acres of land and 400 enslaved people in Prince William County from financially strapped Lewis Burwell (who died in 1779).

Political career
York County voters elected Nelson to the Virginia House of Burgesses as a young man in 1761; he succeeded Robert Carter Nicholas in this part-time position. He served his first six terms alongside veteran delegate Dudley Digges.

As Virginians became dissatisfied with colonial governance, Digges and Nelson were elected to represent York County during the five Virginia conventions that preceded statehood: the First Virginia Convention (which met in Williamsburg in 1774), the Second Virginia Convention (which met at St. John's Church in Richmond in March 1775), the Third Virginia Convention (which met in Richmond in the summer of 1775), the Fourth Virginia Convention (which met in the winter of 1775–1776 in Richmond and Williamsburg, which Nelson was unable to attend), and the Fifth Virginia Convention, which met in Williamsburg in the summer of 1776 (Nelson left this convention in May to attend the Continental Congress).

William Digges (who had represented York County during the last Virginia Revolutionary Convention) also represented York County alongside Corbin Griffin at the first non-colonial session of the Virginia House of Delegates in the fall of 1776. But Nelson won the 1777 and 1778 elections to represent York County in the House of Delegates, where he served alongside Joseph Prentis. Prentis relinquished his seat in 1778 to serve on the Council of State and was replaced by Nelson on September 21, 1778. In 1779, 1780, and 1781, Nelson served alongside William Reynolds and relinquished his legislative seat upon being elected governor of Virginia in June 1781.

Nelson's first term in Congress continued until 1776 when a bout of illness forced his resignation for the 1778–1779 term. After his recovery, he was again elected and served another year. During his first stint as a member of Congress, Nelson also returned to Virginia to play a key role in its Constitutional Convention in the spring of 1776. He returned to Congress to sign the Declaration of Independence that summer.

Thomas Nelson was one of the thirteen committee members appointed in the Continental Congress on June 12, 1776, to "prepare and digest the form of confederation" they drafted the Articles of Confederation.

He was a brigadier general of the Lower Virginia Militia and succeeded Thomas Jefferson as governor of Virginia (after William Fleming's nine days as acting governor). Nelson was engaged in the final siege of Yorktown.

According to legend, he urged General George Washington (or, in some versions, Marquis de Lafayette) to fire on his own home, the Nelson House, where General Cornwallis had his headquarters, offering five guineas to the first man to hit his house.

Following his term as Virginia's governor, Nelson again won election to the Virginia House of Delegates. He represented York County alongside Joseph Prentis in the assemblies of 1782 and 1783 but was replaced by Nathaniel Nelson in the assembly of 1784–1785. He and Prentis won the next election and again served in the sessions of 1786–1787 and 1787–1788. Robert Shield and William Nelson replaced them in the assembly of 1788.

Death and remembrance
Nelson died at his son's home in Hanover County, Virginia, nine days after his fiftieth birthday. He is buried in the Grace Churchyard at Yorktown. Nelson was a member of Grace Church.

Colonel Innes made this tribute:

"The illustrious General Thomas Nelson is no more! He paid the last great debt to nature, on Sunday, the fourth of the present month, at his estate in Hanover. He who undertakes barely to recite the exalted virtues which adorned the life of this great and good man, will unavoidably pronounce a panegyric on human nature. As a man, a citizen, a legislator, and a patriot, he exhibited a conduct untarnished and undebased by sordid or selfish interest, and strongly marked with the genuine characteristics of true religion, sound benevolence, and liberal policy. Entertaining the most ardent love for civil and religious liberty, he was among the first of that glorious band of patriots whose exertions dashed and defeated the machinations of British tyranny, and gave United America freedom and independent empire. At a most important crisis, during the late struggle for American liberty, when this state appeared to be designated as the theatre of action for the contending armies, he was selected by the unanimous suffrage of the legislature to command the virtuous yeomanry of his country; in this honourable employment he remained until the end of the war; as a soldier, he was indefatigably active and coolly intrepid; resolute and undejected in misfortunes, he towered above distress, and struggled with the manifold difficulties to which his situation exposed him, with constancy and courage. In the memorable year 1781, when the whole force of the southern British army was directed to the immediate subjugation of this state, he was called to the helm of government; this was a juncture which indeed 'tried men's souls.' He did not avail himself of this opportunity to retire in the rear of danger; but on the contrary, took the field at the head of his countrymen; and at the hazard of his life, his fame, and individual fortune, by his decision and magnanimity, he saved not only his country, but all America, from disgrace, if not from total ruin. Of this truly patriotic and heroic conduct, the renowned commander in chief, with all the gallant officers of the combined armies employed at the siege of York, will bear ample testimony; this part of his conduct even contemporary jealousy, envy, and malignity were forced to approve, and this, more impartial posterity, if it can believe, will almost adore. If, after contemplating the splendid and heroic parts of his character, we shall inquire for the milder virtues of humanity, and seek for the man, we shall find the refined, beneficent, and social qualities of private life, through all its forms and combinations, so happily modified and united in him, that in the words of the darling poet of nature, it may be said: His life was gentle: and the elements so mixed in him, that nature might stand up And say to all the world—this was a man."

Legacy and honors

 * Nelson County, Virginia, and Nelson County, Kentucky, were named in his honor.
 * The Virginia State Council for Higher Education named Thomas Nelson Community College in Thomas Nelson Jr's honor in 1967. The college was renamed in 2022, removing his name altogether.
 * The Thomas Nelson High School was opened in 2012 in Nelson County, Kentucky.
 * The circa 1730 Nelson House built by "Scotch Tom" Nelson in Yorktown, Virginia, was occupied by Thomas Nelson Jr. during the Revolutionary War. It was designated as a National Historical Landmark. It is maintained as part of the Colonial National Historical Park by the U.S. National Park Service.

title: Thomas Nelson Jr.


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Craft

A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale production of goods, or their maintenance, for example by tinkers. The traditional term craftsman is nowadays often replaced by artisan and by craftsperson.

Historically, the more specialized crafts with high-value products tended to concentrate in urban centers and their practitioners formed guilds. The skill required by their professions and the need to be permanently involved in the exchange of goods often demanded a higher level of education, and craftspeople were usually in a more privileged position than the peasantry in societal hierarchy. The households of artisans were not as self-sufficient as those of people engaged in agricultural work, and therefore had to rely on the exchange of goods. Some crafts, especially in areas such as pottery, woodworking, and various stages of textile production, could be practiced on a part-time basis by those also working in agriculture, and often formed part of village life.

When an apprentice finished their apprenticeship, they became a journeyman searching for a place to set up their own shop and make a living. After setting up their own shop, they could then call themselves a master of their craft.

This stepwise approach to mastery of a craft, which includes the attainment of some education and skill, has survived in some countries to the present day. But crafts have undergone deep structural changes since and during the era of the Industrial Revolution. The mass production of goods by large-scale industry has limited crafts to market segments in which industry's modes of functioning or its mass-produced goods do not satisfy the preferences of potential buyers. As an outcome of these changes, craftspeople today increasingly make use of semi-finished components or materials and adapt these to their customers' requirements or demands. Thus, they participate in a certain division of labour between industry and craft.

Nature of craft skill
The nature of craft skill and the process of its development are continually debated by philosophers, anthropologists, and cognitive scientists. Some scholars note that craft skill is marked by particular ways of experiencing tools and materials, whether by allowing tools to recede from focal awareness, perceiving tools and materials in terms of their practical interrelationships, or seeing aspects of work that are invisible to the untrained observer. Other scholars working on craft skill focus on observational learning and mimicry, exploring how learners visually parse the movements of experts. Certain researchers even de-emphasize the role of the individual craftsperson, noting the collective nature of craft understanding or emphasizing the role of materials as collaborators in the process of production.

Classification
There are three aspects to human creativity: art, crafts, and science. Roughly, art relies upon intuitive sensing, vision, and expression; crafts upon sophisticated technique; and science upon knowledge.

Handicraft
Handicraft is the "traditional" main sector of the crafts. It is a type of work where useful and decorative devices are made completely by hand or by using only simple tools. The term is usually applied to traditional means of making goods. The individual artisanship of the items is a paramount criterion, an such items often have cultural and/or religious significance. Items made by mass production or machines are not handicraft goods.

The beginning of crafts in areas like the Ottoman Empire involved the governing bodies requiring members of the city who were skilled at creating goods to open shops in the center of town. These people slowly stopped acting as subsistence farmers (who created goods in their own homes to trade with neighbors) and began to represent what we think of as "craftspeople" today.

Besides traditional goods, handicraft contributes to the field of computing by combining craft practices with technology. For example, in 1968, the Apollo 8 spacecraft's core memory consisted of wires that were woven around and through electromagnetic cores by hand. The core rope memory they created contained information used to successfully complete the mission.

Crafts and craftspeople have become a subject of academic study. For example, Stephanie Bunn was an artist before she became an anthropologist, and she went on to develop an academic interest in the process of craft. She argues that what happens to an object before it becomes a "product" is an area worthy of study.

The Arts and Crafts Movement
The term crafts is used to describe artistic practices within the family of decorative arts that traditionally are defined by their relationship to functional or utilitarian products (such as sculptural forms in the vessel tradition) or by their use of such natural media as wood, clay, ceramics, glass, textiles, and metal.

The Arts and Crafts Movement originated in Britain during the late 19th century and was characterized by a style of decoration reminiscent of medieval times. The primary artist associated with the movement is William Morris, whose work was reinforced with writings from John Ruskin. The movement placed a high importance on the quality of craftsmanship, while emphasizing the importance for the arts to contribute to economic reform.

Studio crafts
Crafts practiced by independent artists working alone or in small groups are referred to as studio craft. Studio craft includes studio pottery, metalwork, weaving, woodturning, paper and other forms of woodworking, glassblowing, and glass art.

Craft fairs
A craft fair is an organized event to display and sell crafts. There are also craft stores where such goods are sold and craft communities, such as Craftster, where expertise is shared.

Tradesperson
A tradesperson is a skilled manual worker in a particular trade or craft, with a high degree of both practical and theoretical knowledge of their trade. In cultures where professional careers are highly prized, there can be a shortage of skilled manual workers, leading to lucrative niche markets in the trades.

title: Craft


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Robert Treat Paine

Robert Treat Paine (March 11, 1731 – May 11, 1814) was a lawyer, politician and Founding Father of the United States who signed the Continental Association and Declaration of Independence as a representative of Massachusetts. He served as the state's first attorney general and as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state's highest court.

Early life and ancestors
Robert Treat Paine was born in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, in British America, on March 11, 1731. He was one of five children of the Rev. Thomas Paine and Eunice (Treat) Paine. His father was pastor of Franklin Road Baptist Church in Weymouth but moved his family to Boston in 1730 and subsequently became a merchant there. His mother was the daughter of Rev. Samuel Treat, whose father Maj. Robert Treat was one of the principal founders of Newark, New Jersey, and later a governor of Connecticut. Robert Treat Paine's Treat family had a long history in the British colonies and his Paine family, in particular, can trace a lineage back to the Mayflower.

Education
Paine attended the Boston Latin School and then entered Harvard College at age 14; he graduated in 1749 at age 18. He then taught school for several years, first back at Boston Latin and later in Lunenburg, Massachusetts. Paine also attempted a merchant career, with journeys to the Carolinas, the Azores, and Spain, as well as a whaling voyage to Greenland. He began the study of law in 1755 with his mother's cousin in Lancaster, Massachusetts.

Paine served as a chaplain in the Crown Point Expedition in 1755 during the French and Indian War. Upon returning to civilian life, he did some occasional preaching and returned to his legal studies. In 1756, he returned to Boston to continue his legal preparations with Samuel Prat, and he was admitted to the bar in 1757. He first considered establishing his law practice at Portland (then part of Massachusetts but now in Maine), but instead in 1761 moved to Taunton, Massachusetts, then back to Boston in 1780.

Legal career
In 1768, he was a delegate to the provincial convention, which was called to meet in Boston. Paine, along with the Massachusetts Solicitor General Samuel Quincy, conducted the prosecution of Captain Thomas Preston and his British soldiers following the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770. John Adams was opposing counsel, and Adams' arguments won the jury's sway, and most of the troops were let off.

Paine served in the Massachusetts General Court from 1773 to 1774, in the Provincial Congress from 1774 to 1775, as well as represented Massachusetts at the Continental Congress from 1774 through 1776. In that Congress he signed the final appeal to the king (the Olive Branch Petition of 1775), and helped frame the rules of debate and acquire gunpowder for the coming war, and in 1776 was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

He returned to Massachusetts at the end of December 1776 and was speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1777, a member of the executive council in 1779, a member of the committee that drafted the state constitution in 1780. He was Massachusetts Attorney General from 1777 to 1790 and prosecuted the treason trials following Shays' Rebellion. From 1777 to 1785, his acting Attorney General was Benjamin Kent. In 1780, he was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He last served as a justice of the State Supreme Court from 1790 to 1804 when he retired.

Death and legacy
Paine died at age 83 in 1814 and was buried in Boston's Granary Burying Ground. Many of his papers, including correspondence and legal notes, are now held by the Massachusetts Historical Society. Paine was a Congregationalist and a devout Christian. When his church, the First Church in Boston, moved into Unitarianism, Paine followed that path. A statue of Paine by Richard E. Brooks was erected at Taunton's Church Green in 1904. Paine is an honoree of the Washington, D.C., Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Paine married Sally Cobb, the daughter of Thomas and Lydia (née Leonard) Cobb and a sister of General David Cobb, on March 15, 1770. She was born May 15, 1744, and died June 6, 1816. They were the parents of eight children:
 * Robert Paine (May 14, 1770 – July 28, 1798), died unmarried, graduate of Harvard College.
 * Sally Paine (March 7, 1772 – January 26, 1823), died unmarried.
 * Robert Treat Paine Jr. (December 9, 1773 – November 13, 1811), graduate of Harvard College.
 * Charles Paine (August 30, 1775 – February 15, 1810), graduate of Harvard College, married Sarah Sumner Cushing (niece of both U.S. Supreme Court associate Justice William Cushing and Massachusetts Governor Increase Sumner).
 * Henry Paine (October 20, 1777 – June 8, 1814), married Olive Lyman, daughter of Theodore Lyman.
 * Mary Paine (February 9, 1780 – February 27, 1842), married Rev. Elisha Clap, graduate of Harvard College.
 * Maria Antoinetta Paine (December 2, 1782 – March 26, 1842), married Deacon Samuel Greele.
 * Lucretia Paine (April 30, 1785 – August 27, 1823), died unmarried.

Some of his notable descendants include:
 * Charles Jackson Paine
 * John Paine
 * Robert Treat Paine Storer
 * Robert Treat Paine, owner of The Robert Treat Paine Estate, known as Stonehurst
 * Lyman Paine. He married, in 1926, Ruth Forbes of the distinguished Forbes family and a great-granddaughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson
 * Sumner Paine
 * Michael Paine, husband of Ruth Paine
 * Robert "Bob" Treat Paine III, zoologist
 * Treat Williams, Actor

title: Robert Treat Paine


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John Penn (North Carolina politician)

John Penn (May 17, 1741 – September 14, 1788) was an American Founding Father who served multiple terms in the Continental Congress, and who signed both the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation as a delegate of North Carolina.

Biography
Penn was born near Port Royal in Caroline County, Virginia, the only son of Moses Penn and Catherine (Taylor) Penn. He attended at common school for two years as his father did not consider education to be important. At age 18, after his father's death, Penn privately read law with his uncle, Edmund Pendleton. He became a lawyer in Virginia in 1762.

On July 28, 1763, Penn married Susannah Lyne. The couple had three children. Their daughter, Lucy, married John Taylor of Caroline, a political leader from Virginia.

In 1774, Penn moved to the Stovall, North Carolina. There, he was a representative at the colony's Third Provincial Congress in August 1775. In 1775 Penn was elected to the Continental Congress. He was re-elected in 1777, 1778 and 1779 and is said to have served with distinction. During his tenure, he signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.

In 1780 Penn was appointed to the North Carolina board of war. Following his appointment to the Congress, he practiced law until his death in 1788.

Legacy
The naval ship USS John Penn was named in his honor. A historical highway marker honoring Penn was erected in near his home in Stovall in 1936; it was the first such marker erected by the state of North Carolina.

title: John Penn (North Carolina politician)


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George Read (American politician, born 1733)

George Read (September 18, 1733 – September 21, 1798) was an American politician from New Castle in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a Continental Congressman from Delaware, a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, president of Delaware, and a member of the Federalist Party. In addition, Read served as U.S. Senator from Delaware and chief justice of Delaware.

Read was a Founding Father of the United States, one of only two statesmen who signed four of the great state papers on which the country's founding is based: Petition to the King and Continental Association, both passed by the Congress of 1774, as well as the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and Constitution of the United States in 1787.

Father
Read was the son of John and Mary (Howell) Read. John Read was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of an Englishman of large fortune belonging to the family of Read of Berkshire, Hertfordshire, and Oxfordshire. The death of his beloved having left him bereft, John Read came to the American colonies and, with a view of diverting his mind, entered into extensive enterprises in Maryland and Delaware.

Soon after his arrival in America, John Read purchased a large estate in Cecil County, Maryland, and founded with six associates the city of Charlestown on the headwaters of Chesapeake Bay, with the intention of creating a new market for the northern trade. They developed northern Maryland and built up the neighboring iron works of the Principio Company, in which the older generations of the Washington family, and at a later period General George Washington, were also largely interested.

As an original proprietor of Charlestown, John Read was appointed by the colonial legislature of Maryland one of the commissioners to lay it out and govern it. He held various military offices during his life, and in his later years resided on his plantation in New Castle County.

Early life
George Read was born at Cecil County, Maryland, on September 18, 1733. When he was an infant, the family moved to New Castle County, Delaware, settling near the village of Christiana. As he grew up, Read joined Thomas McKean at the Rev. Francis Allison's Academy at New London, Pennsylvania, and then studied law in Philadelphia with John Moland. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1753, and a year later he returned home to establish a practice at New Castle.

In 1763 he married Gertrude Ross Till, daughter of the Rev. George Ross, the Anglican rector of Immanuel Church in New Castle and widowed sister of George Ross, also a future signer of the Declaration of Independence. They had four children, John, George Jr., William, and Mary, who married Matthew Pearce (she is often confused with her paternal aunt, Mary Read, who in 1769 married Gunning Bedford, Sr., a future Governor of Delaware). They lived on The Strand in New Castle, and their house was in what is now the garden of the present Read House and Gardens, owned by the Delaware Historical Society. They were members of Immanuel Episcopal Church.

In 1763 John Penn, the proprietary governor, appointed Read crown attorney general for the three Delaware counties, and he served in that position until leaving for the Continental Congress in 1774. He also served in the Colonial Assembly of the lower Delaware counties for twelve sessions, from 1764/65 through 1775/76.

American Revolution
Eighteenth-century Delaware was politically divided into loose factions known as the "Court Party" and the "Country Party." The majority Court Party was generally Anglican, strongest in Kent and Sussex Counties, worked well with the colonial proprietary government and was in favor of reconciliation with the British government. The minority Country Party was largely Ulster-Scot, centered in New Castle County, and quickly advocated independence from the British. Read was often the leader of the Court party faction, and as such he generally worked in opposition to Caesar Rodney and his friend and neighbor Thomas McKean.

Read, like most other people in Delaware, was in favor of trying to reconcile differences with Great Britain. He opposed the Stamp Act and similar measures of Parliament but supported anti-importation measures and dignified protests. He was quite reluctant to pursue the option of outright independence. Nevertheless, from 1764 he led the Delaware Committee of Correspondence and was elected to serve along with the more radical McKean and Rodney in the First and Second Continental Congress from 1774 to 1777. He was frequently absent, and when the Congress voted on American Independence on July 2, 1776, Read surprised many by voting against it. That meant that Rodney had to ride overnight to Philadelphia to break the deadlock in Delaware's delegation for independence. However, when the Declaration of Independence was finally adopted, Read signed it despite his caution.

Government of Delaware
Anticipating the Declaration of Independence, the General Assembly of the lower counties declared its separation from the British government on June 15, 1776, in the New Castle Court House. Once the Declaration of Independence was actually adopted, the General Assembly called for elections to a Delaware constitutional convention to draft a constitution for the new state. Read was elected to this convention, became its president, and guided the passage of the McKean-drafted document, which became the Delaware Constitution of 1776.

Read was elected to the first Legislative Council of the Delaware General Assembly and was selected as the speaker in both the 1776/77 and 1777/78 sessions. At the time of the capture of President John McKinly, Read was in Philadelphia attending Congress; after narrowly escaping capture himself while he was returning home, he became president on October 20, 1777, serving until March 31, 1778. The British occupied Philadelphia and were in control of the Delaware River. Read tried, mostly in vain, to recruit additional soldiers and to protect the state from raiders from Philadelphia and off ships in the Delaware River. The Delaware General Assembly session of 1777/78 had to be moved to Dover, Delaware, for safety, and the Sussex County General Assembly delegation was never seated because disruptions at the polls had negated the election results.

After Rodney was elected to replace him as president, Read continued to serve in the Legislative Council until the 1778–79 session. After a one-year rest nursing ill health, he was elected to the House of Assembly for the 1780/81 and 1781/82 sessions. He returned to the Legislative Council in the 1782/83 session and served two terms until the 1787/88 session. On December 5, 1782, he was elected judge of the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture.

Federalist
Read was again called to national service in 1786 when he represented Delaware at the Annapolis Convention. Because so few states were represented, this meeting produced only a report calling for a broader convention to be held in Philadelphia the next year. At what became the Constitutional Convention, Read again represented Delaware. Quoting from Wright & Morris in their Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution,

"Read immediately argued for a new national government under a new Constitution, saying 'to amend the Articles was simply putting old cloth on a new garment.' He was a leader in the fight for a strong central government, advocating, at one time, the abolition of the states altogether and the consolidation of the country under one powerful national government. 'Let no one fear the states, the people are with us;' he declared to a Convention shocked by this radical proposal. With no one to support his motion, he settled for protecting the rights of the small states against the infringements of their larger, more populous neighbors who, he feared, would 'probably combine to swallow up the smaller ones by addition, division or impoverishment.' He warned that Delaware 'would become at once a cipher in the union' if the principle of equal representation embodied in the New Jersey (small-state) Plan was not adopted and if the method of amendment in the Articles was not retained. He favored giving Congress the power to veto state laws, making the federal legislature immune to popular whims by having senators hold office for nine years or during good behavior, and granting the U.S. President broad appointive powers. Outspoken, he threatened to lead the Delaware delegation out of the Convention if the rights of the small states were not specifically guaranteed in the new Constitution."

Once the rights were assured, he led the ratification movement in Delaware, which, partly as a result of his efforts, became the first state to ratify and did so unanimously.

Senator
Following the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, the Delaware General Assembly elected Read as one of its two U.S. Senators. His term began on March 4, 1789, and he was reelected in 1791 but resigned on September 18, 1793. Read served with the Pro-Administration Party majority in the First and Second Congress, under President Washington. He supported the assumption of state debts, establishment of a national bank, and the imposition of excise taxes. He resigned to accept an appointment as chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court and served in that capacity until his death.

Read's resignation from the Senate was before the first session of the Third Congress assembled, but it was not until February 7, 1795, four weeks before it adjourned, that Henry Latimer was elected to replace him. One of Delaware's Senate seats was, therefore, vacant from September 18, 1793, until February 7, 1795.

Death and legacy
Read died at New Castle on September 21, 1798, from heart problems and is buried there in the Immanuel Episcopal Church Cemetery.

William T. Read in his Life and Correspondence describes Read as "tall, slightly and gracefully formed, with pleasing features and lustrous brown eyes. His manners were dignified, bordering upon austerity, but courteous, and at times captivating. He commanded entire confidence, not only from his profound legal knowledge, sound judgment, and impartial decisions but from his severe integrity and the purity of his private character." However, a fellow delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 noted that "his legal abilities are said to be very great, but his powers of oratory are fatiguing and tiresome to the last degree; his voice is feeble and his articulation so bad that few can have patience to attend him." Historians like John Monroe have generally recognized that all in all, Read was the dominating figure in Delaware politics during his career, directly or indirectly providing consistent and reliable leadership to the new state.

His home, Stonum, is a historic landmark. There is a school in New Castle and a dorm at the University of Delaware named for Read.

In popular culture
In the Broadway musical 1776, Read is portrayed in a minor role as a proper, conservative, somewhat effete, and wealthy planter who has difficulty getting along with the other two members of the Delaware contingent who are for Independence. Duane Bodin played the character in the original Broadway cast and Leo Leyden appeared in the film version.

Family
Read's brother Thomas was an officer in the Continental Navy during the war. Another brother, James, was an officer in the Continental Army and was later active in managing the navy under the Articles of Confederation. Read's son George Read Jr. served as the first U.S. Attorney for Delaware, and his grandson George Read III served as the second. Another son, John Read, was a noted lawyer and banker of Philadelphia. Read's great-granddaughter, Louisa, married Major Benjamin Kendrick Pierce, the brother of future President Franklin Pierce.

 * John Read (1688-1756) - married Mary (Howell) Read
 * George Read (1733-1798) - married (Jan 11, 1763) Gertrude Ross Till (1735-1802)
 * George Read Jr. (1765-1836) - married (Oct 30, 1786) his cousin Mary Thompson (1767-1815), the daughter of General William Thompson.
 * George Read III (1788-1836) - married (April 19, 1810) Louisa Ridgeley Dorsey (1792-1835)
 * George Read IV (1812-1859) - married (Nov 9, 1843) Susan Chapman (-1872)
 * William Thompson Read (1857-1896) - married (Jan 7, 1879) Antonia Pettit Saunders (1857-1940)
 * William Saunders Read (1880-1916) - married (Jan 9, 1905) Estella C. Cook (1882-1968)
 * William Thane Read (1912-1996) - married (Dec 23, 1938) Mabel Gertrude Gill (1912-1999)
 * Catherine Anne (Read) McLane (1794-1826)
 * William Thompson Read (1792-1873) - married Sally Thomas Read and founded the Delaware Historical Society
 * John Dickinson Read (1803-1831) - never married
 * Mary Gertrude Read (1805-1877)
 * John Read (1769-1854) - married (1796) Martha Meredith Read
 * John Meredith Read Sr. (1797-1874) - married (1828) Priscilla Marshall (–1841) and (1855) Amelia Thompson
 * John Meredith Read Jr. (1837-1896) - married (April 7, 1859) Delphine Marie Pumpelly (1833–1902)
 * Thomas Read (1740-1788)
 * James Read (1743-1822)

Positions held
Elections for the Delaware General Assembly were held on October 1, and members took office on October 20 or the following weekday. The colonial attorney general was appointed by the Crown. The Legislative Council was created in 1776, and its councilmen had a three-year term. State assemblymen had a one-year term. The whole General Assembly chose the Continental Congressmen for a one-year term and the state president for a three-year term. Read served as interim state president, filling the vacancy created by the resignation of McKean. The chief justice of the state Supreme Court was also selected by the General Assembly for the life of the person appointed. The General Assembly chose the U.S. Senators, who took office March 4 for a six-year term. However, Read's first term was only two years to establish a rotation.


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Caesar Rodney

Caesar Rodney (October 7, 1728 – June 26, 1784) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, and politician from St. Jones Neck in Dover Hundred, Kent County, Delaware. He was an officer of the Delaware militia during the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War, a Continental Congressman from Delaware, a signer of the Continental Association and Declaration of Independence, and president of Delaware during most of the American Revolution.

Rodney family and early years
Rodney was born on October 7, 1728, on his family's plantation, "Byfield", on St. Jones Neck in East Dover Hundred, Kent County, Delaware. Caesar was the eldest son of 2 children of Caesar and Elizabeth Crawford Rodney and grandson of William Rodney. William Rodney emigrated to the American colonies in 1681–1682, along with William Penn, and was speaker of the Colonial Assembly of the Delaware Counties in 1704. Rodney's mother was the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Crawford, Anglican rector of Christ Church at Dover. Among the Rodney family ancestors were the prominent Adelmare family in Treviso, Italy, as attested by genealogy studies.

Byfield was an 849-acre farm worked by enslaved labor. The Rodneys were, by the standards of the day, prosperous members of the local gentry. The farm earned sufficient income from the sale of wheat and barley to the Philadelphia and West Indies markets to provide enough cash and leisure to allow members of the family to participate in the social and political life of Kent County. At Rodney's death, he enslaved 18 people. His will manumitted three of advanced age upon his death, and held the others to a manumission schedule he devised.

Caesar was educated when he was 13 or 14 years old. He attended The Latin School, part of the academy and the College of Philadelphia (now known as University of Pennsylvania) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania until his father's death. Caesar was the only one of the Rodney children to receive anything approaching a formal education. Caesar Rodney's father died in 1746, and Caesar's guardianship was entrusted to Delaware Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Ridgely by the Delaware Orphan's Court.

Professional and political career
Thomas Rodney described his brother at this time as having a "great fund of wit and humor of the pleasing kind, so that his conversation was always bright and strong and conducted by wisdom..." He lived as a bachelor, was generally esteemed and was indeed very popular. He had professed his love and affection for several Delaware ladies at various times but was never a successful suitor. Accordingly, he easily moved into the political world formerly occupied by his father and guardian.

At age twenty-seven in 1755, he was elected sheriff of Kent County and served the maximum three years allowed. This was a powerful and financially rewarding position, in that it supervised elections and chose the grand jurors who set the county tax rate. After serving his three years, he was appointed to a series of positions including Register of Wills, Recorder of Deeds, Clerk of the Orphan's Court, Justice of the Peace, and judge in the lower courts. During the French and Indian War, he was commissioned captain of the Dover Hundred company in Col. John Vining's regiment of the Delaware militia. They never saw active service. From 1769 through 1777, he was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Lower Counties.

Eighteenth-century Delaware was politically divided into loose factions known as the "Court Party" and the "Country Party." The majority Court Party was generally Anglican, strongest in Kent and Sussex Counties, worked well with the colonial proprietary government, and was in favor of reconciliation with the British government. The minority Country Party was largely Ulster-Scot, centered in New Castle County, and quickly advocated independence from the British. In spite of being members of the Anglican Kent County gentry, Rodney and his brother Thomas increasingly aligned themselves with the Country Party, a distinct minority in Kent County. As such, he generally worked in partnership with Thomas McKean from New Castle County and in opposition to George Read.

American Revolution
Rodney joined McKean as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 and was a leader of the Delaware Committee of Correspondence. He began his service in the Assembly of Delaware in the 1761/1762 session and continued in office through the 1775/1776 session. Several times he served as speaker, including the momentous day of June 15, 1776, when "with Rodney in the chair and Thomas McKean leading the debate on the floor," the Assembly of Delaware voted to sever all ties with the British Parliament and King.

Rodney served in the Continental Congress along with McKean and Read from 1774 through 1776. Rodney was in Dover tending to Loyalist activity in Sussex County when he received word from McKean that he and Read were deadlocked on the vote for independence. To break the deadlock, Rodney rode 70 miles through a thunderstorm on the night of July 1, 1776, arriving in Philadelphia "in his boots and spurs" on July 2, just as the voting had begun. He voted with McKean and thereby allowed Delaware to join eleven other states in voting in favor of the resolution of independence. The wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved two days later; Rodney signed it on August 2. Backlash in Delaware led to Rodney's electoral defeat in Kent County for a seat in the upcoming Delaware Constitutional Convention and the new Delaware General Assembly.

Upon learning of the death of his friend John Haslet at the Battle of Princeton, Rodney rushed to the Continental Army to try to fill his place. Haslet was succeeded as colonel by David Hall as General George Washington returned Rodney home to be Delaware's wartime governor and major-general of Delaware militia. The regiment Haslet had built was virtually destroyed at the Battle of Camden in 1780. Rodney, as major-general of the Delaware militia, protected the state from British military intrusions and controlled continued Loyalist activity, particularly in Sussex County, site of the 1780 Black Camp Rebellion.

Amidst the catastrophic events following the Battle of Brandywine and the British occupation of Wilmington and Philadelphia, a new General Assembly was elected in October 1777. First, it promptly put Rodney and McKean back into the Continental Congress. Then, with state President John McKinly in captivity and President George Read completely exhausted, they elected Rodney as President of Delaware on March 31, 1778. The office did not have the authority of a modern governor in the United States, so Rodney's success came from his popularity with the General Assembly, where the real authority lay, and from the loyalty of the Delaware militia, which was the only means of enforcing that authority. Via his distant Italian heritage, one source has identified Rodney as the first Italian-American governor of a U.S. state.

Meanwhile, Rodney scoured the state for money, supplies and soldiers to support the national war effort. Delaware Continentals had fought well in many battles from the Battle of Long Island to the Battle of Monmouth, but in 1780 the army suffered its worst defeat at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina. The regiment was nearly destroyed and the remnant was so reduced it could only fight with a Maryland regiment for the remainder of the war. Rodney had done much to stabilize the situation, but his health was worsening, and he resigned his office on November 6, 1781, just after the conclusive Battle of Yorktown.

Rodney was elected by the Delaware General Assembly to the United States Congress under the Articles of Confederation in 1782 and 1783 but was unable to attend because of ill health. However, two years after leaving the state presidency he was elected to the 1783/84 session of the Legislative Council and, as a final gesture of respect, the council selected him to be their speaker. His health was now in rapid decline and even though the Legislative Council met at his home for a short time, he died before the session ended.

Death and legacy
Rodney was tormented throughout his life by asthma, and his adult years were plagued by a facial cancer. He experienced expensive, painful, and futile medical treatments for the cancer. Caesar wore a green scarf to hide his disfigured face. He died from the disease after eight years. His body is buried at an unmarked grave on his beloved farm, "Poplar Grove" (known as "Byfield" today). While there is a marker that appears to be a gravestone for Caesar Rodney at Christ Episcopal Church, this is merely a monument. Many sources cite that he is buried there; however, most Delaware historians believe that the remains of one of Rodney's unidentified relatives is buried there instead. Rodney actually is buried in an unmarked grave in his family's unmarked plot on their former 800-acre farm east of Dover Air Force Base.

The Caesar Rodney School District in Delaware is named after him.

Positions held
Elections were held October 1 and members of the General Assembly took office on October 20 or the following weekday. The State Legislative Council was created in 1776 and its Legislative Councilmen had a three-year term. State Assemblymen had a one-year term. The whole General Assembly chose the Continental Congressmen for a one-year term and the State President for a three-year term. The county sheriff also had a three-year term. Associate Justices of the state Supreme Court were also selected by the General Assembly for the life of the person appointed.

In popular culture
Caesar Rodney appears in the Broadway musical 1776 and its film adaptation. He is portrayed as an elderly man suffering severely from facial cancer, and he has to be taken home by fellow Delaware delegate Thomas McKean. Later, John Adams sends McKean back to Delaware to bring back Rodney to break the deadlock over independence between pro-independence McKean and anti-independence George Read. He is portrayed in the musical by Robert Gaus and in the film by William Hansen.

title: Caesar Rodney


text:
George Ross (American politician)

George Ross Jr (May 10, 1730 – July 14, 1779) was a Founding Father of the United States who signed the Continental Association and the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Pennsylvania. He was also the uncle of the man who married Betsy Griscom in 1773, more famous under her married name, Betsy Ross. In 1952, Ross, George Washington, and Robert Morris appeared on a three-cent stamp commemorating Betsy Ross.

Early life and family
Ross was born on May 10, 1730, in New Castle, Delaware. He was educated at home and later studied law with his brother, before being admitted to the bar in Philadelphia.

His father was Rev. George Ross (1679–1754), who had 2 wives and 16 children, and was an Anglican clergyman who had emigrated from Scotland. Their paternal line goes back to Farquhar Ó Beólláin (1173–1251) whom King Alexander II of Scotland named 1st Earl of Ross in 1226 after great victories in battle.

George's sister Gertrude married Thomas Till, the son of William Till, a prominent Sussex County judge and politician; after his death, she married George Read, another signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Career
Ross was a member of the committee of safety and was elected to the Continental Congress. He was a colonel in the Pennsylvania militia (1775–1776) and vice-president of the first constitutional convention for Pennsylvania. Ross was the last of the Pennsylvania delegation to affix his signature to the Declaration of Independence. He had been loyal to the king, but he became disgusted with Tory politics and began to support the cause of the Patriots. In 1750, he was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar (member of Pennsylvania) when he was 20 years old, and he established his own practice in Lancaster, where he married Ann Lawler in 1751. Together they had two sons and a daughter.

Initially a Tory, he served as Crown prosecutor for 12 years from 1768 to 1776. His sympathies began to change, and he became a strong supporter of the colonial assemblies in their disputes with Parliament. In 1768 he was elected to the provincial legislature of Pennsylvania. He was elected to Continental Congress in 1774, 1776, and 1777. He was a colonel in the Continental Army in 1776. In 1776, he undertook negotiations with the northwestern Indians on behalf of his colony, and that year he acted as vice president of the state constitutional convention, so then that led to helping draft a declaration of rights. He was re-elected to the Continental Congress in January 1777 but resigned that same year because of poor health. He was vice president of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention and was the Judge of the Admiralty Court of Pennsylvania in 1779. In 1778, while he was acting as admiralty judge, a congressional court of appeals overruled his decision in a case involving a dispute between a citizen of Connecticut and the state of Pennsylvania. He refused to acknowledge the authority of the higher court to counter state decisions, which initiated a dispute between manifestation of the states' rights controversy and did not subside until 1809.

He resigned from the Continental Congress in 1777 because of poor health and was appointed to the Pennsylvania Court of Admiralty where he died in 1779 at age 49. He was buried at Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia.

title: George Ross (American politician)


text:
James Smith

James Smith may refer to:

Sports figures

 * James Smith (Australian rules footballer) (1899–1974), Australian rules footballer for Richmond Football Club
 * James Smith (boxer) (born 1953), American boxer, nicknamed "Bonecrusher"
 * James Smith (footballer, born 1844) (1844–1876), Scottish footballer, played in the first official international football match
 * James Smith (footballer, born 1873) (1873–?), footballer
 * James Smith (footballer, born 1908) (1908–1956), English left back who played for Doncaster Rovers, Lincoln City and Bradford City
 * James Smith (footballer, born 1930) (1930–2022), English footballer for Chelsea and Leyton Orient
 * James Smith (footballer, born 1985), English football player (Southport)
 * James Smith (Scottish footballer) (fl. 1922), Scottish football player (Port Vale)
 * James Smith (sports media figure) (born 1959), American boxer and host of In This Corner
 * James Aikman Smith (1859–1931), Scottish rugby union player and referee
 * James Crosbie Smith (1894–1980), English cricketer
 * James R. Smith (1904–1986), American water polo player and coach
 * Steve Smith (ice hockey, born in Scotland) (born 1963), Scottish-born Canadian ice hockey player
 * James W. Smith (horse trainer) (1908–1969), American horse trainer
 * James Smith (Leicestershire cricketer) (born 1977), English cricketer
 * James Smith (New South Wales cricketer) (1880–1958), Australian cricketer
 * James Smith (South Australia cricketer) (born 1988), Australian cricketer
 * James Smith (Kent cricketer) (fl. 1792–1796), English cricketer
 * James Smith (New Zealand cricketer) (1891–1971), New Zealand cricketer
 * James Smith (sport shooter) (1931–2021), American Olympic shooter
 * Jimmy Snuka (James Wiley Smith, 1943–2017), Fijian wrestler
 * James Smith (Gaelic footballer) (born 1999), Irish Gaelic footballer

Military personnel

 * James Smith (Medal of Honor, 1864) (1826–1881), Medal of Honor recipient in the American Civil War
 * James Smith (Medal of Honor, 1872) (1838–?), Medal of Honor recipient for peacetime actions
 * James A. Smith (Medal of Honor) (1880–1944), Medal of Honor recipient in the Boxer Rebellion
 * James Smith (VC) (1871–1946), English recipient of the Victoria Cross
 * James Argyle Smith (1831–1901), Confederate general in the American Civil War
 * James Alexander Smith (1881–1968), English recipient of the Victoria Cross
 * James C. Smith (general) (1923–2016), U.S. Army general
 * James Dunlop Smith (1858–1921), British official in the Indian Army
 * James E. Smith (general) (born 1973), U.S. Space Force general
 * James Floyd Smith (1884–1956), American test pilot and instructor for Glenn Martin
 * James Robert Smith (RAF officer) (1891–?), World War I flying ace
 * James Thomas Smith (1908–1990), U.S. Navy admiral
 * James Smith (Texas general) (1792–1855), general in the Revolutionary Army of Texas
 * James Smith (frontiersman) (1737–1813), American leader of the Black Boys Rebellion against British rule in colonial America
 * James Webber Smith (1778–1853), British Royal Artillery officer
 * James Webster Smith (1850–1876), first black cadet at West Point

Entertainers

 * James Smith, British singer and member of Hadouken!
 * James Marcus Smith, singer, better known as P. J. Proby
 * James Prince (James Andre Smith, born 1965), American founder of Texas-based Rap-A-Lot Records
 * LL Cool J (James Todd Smith, born 1968), American rapper
 * James Smith (actor) (born 1948), English actor
 * James Smith, American guitarist for the band Underoath
 * James Smith (born 1999), finalist in Britain's Got Talent
 * James Thomas Smith, British musician and member of The xx, better known as Jamie xx

Scientists and academics

 * James Smith (anaesthetist) (1917–1986), Scottish anaesthetist
 * James Smith (Scottish botanist) (1763–1848), Scottish botanist
 * James Smith (university principal) (1681–1736), Scottish principal of the University of Edinburgh, 1732–1736
 * James Ernest Smith (1881–1973), founder and first president of the National Radio Institute in Washington, D.C.
 * James Smith of Jordanhill (1782–1867), Scottish merchant, antiquarian, architect, geologist and biblical critic
 * James Cuthbert Smith (born 1954), Director of Research at the Francis Crick Institute in London
 * James Edward Smith (botanist) (1759–1828), English botanist and founder of the Linnean Society of London
 * James Eric Smith (1909–1990), British zoologist
 * James George Smith (1819–1849), American founder of Beta Theta Pi, a prominent college fraternity
 * James Greig Smith (1854–1897), Scottish surgeon and medical author
 * James K. A. Smith (born 1970), Canadian-born philosopher
 * J. L. B. Smith (James Leonard Brierley Smith, 1897–1968), South African ichthyologist
 * James Lorrain Smith (1862–1931), Scottish pathologist
 * James Morton Smith (1919–2012), American historian
 * James Perrin Smith (1864–1931), American geologist and paleontologist
 * James Monroe Smith (academic administrator) (1888–1949), American educator and academic administrator in Louisiana
 * James M. Smith, president of Eastern Michigan University

United States

 * James Smith (Pennsylvania politician) (1720–1806), Pennsylvania delegate who signed the United States Declaration of Independence
 * James Strudwick Smith (1790–1859), U.S. Representative from North Carolina
 * James Smith, 19th-century Canadian Cree Chief, founder of the James Smith First Nation in Saskatchewan
 * James W. Smith Jr. (born 1943), American judge, Chief of the Supreme Court of Mississippi
 * James Y. Smith (1809–1876), American, governor of Rhode Island
 * James Monroe Smith (Georgia planter) (1839–1915), planter and state legislator in Georgia, U.S.
 * James M. Smith (c. 1810–1898), New York City politician and judge
 * James Smith Jr. (1851–1927), U.S. senator from New Jersey
 * James A. Smith (mayor), first mayor of the city of Ridgefield, Washington
 * James Smith (Kansas politician), Kansas secretary of state
 * James H. Smith Jr. (1909–1982), U.S. assistant secretary of the Navy (AIR), 1953–1956, sailor and Olympic champion
 * James Horace Smith (1852–1931), mayor of Orlando
 * James Peyton Smith (1925–2006), Louisiana politician
 * James Vernon Smith (1926–1973), U.S. representative from Oklahoma
 * James C. Smith (politician) (born 1940), former Florida attorney general
 * James T. Smith Jr. (born 1942), American, county executive of Baltimore County, Maryland
 * James E. Smith (politician, born 1930) (1930–2020), comptroller of the currency of the United States, 1973–1976
 * James E. Smith (Montana politician) (born 1948)
 * James E. Smith Jr. (born 1967), member of the South Carolina House of Representatives
 * James Smith (New Mexico politician), member of the New Mexico House of Representatives
 * James F. Smith (Michigan politician) (1923–2007), member of the Michigan House of Representatives

Canada

 * James Smith (1806–1868), lawyer, judge and political figure in Quebec
 * James Smith (Canada West politician) (1811–1874), lawyer, judge and politician in Canada West
 * James Sinclair Smith (1816–1897), Scottish-born Canadian politician
 * James Edward Smith (politician) (1831–1892), mayor of Toronto
 * James A. Smith (Canadian politician) (1911–1993), Canadian member of parliament
 * James Smith (Yukon politician) (1919–2017), former commissioner of the Yukon Territory, 1966–1976

Australia

 * James Smith (New South Wales politician) (1887–1962), former member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
 * James Thorneloe Smith (1825–1902), engineer and politician in Queensland, Australia
 * James Francis Smith (politician) (1844–1908), New South Wales politician
 * James Joynton Smith (1858–1943), Australian politician
 * James MacCallum Smith (1868–1939), Australian politician, newspaper proprietor and stock breeder
 * James Norton Smith (1846–1911), Tasmanian politician
 * James Vinton Smith (1897–1952), Australian politician

United Kingdom

 * James Smith (1587–1667), alderman of the City of London
 * James Masterton-Smith (1878–1938), British civil servant
 * James Parker Smith (1854–1929), British member of parliament for Glasgow Partick, 1890–1906

Other countries

 * James Francis Smith (1859–1928), U.S. administrator, governor of the Philippines, 1906–1909
 * James Skivring Smith (1825–1892), U.S.-born vice president, 1870–1872, and interim president, 1871–1872, of Liberia
 * James Skivring Smith Jr. (1891–1950), Liberian politician
 * James Alfred Smith (1913–1993), British diplomat, chief justice of the Bahamas

Religious scholars and leaders

 * James Smith (archdeacon of Barnstaple) (died 1667), archdeacon of Barnstaple
 * James Smith (archdeacon of Connor) (1800–1865), Anglican priest in Ireland
 * James Smith (vicar-apostolic of the Northern District) (1645–1711), English Roman Catholic vicar-apostolic
 * James Smith (moderator) (1803–1897), Church of Scotland minister and moderator of the General Assembly
 * James Elishama Smith (1801–1857), British journalist and religious writer
 * James Allwood Smith (1806–1882), American minister and state legislator
 * James Smith (archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh) (1841–1928), Roman Catholic archbishop in Scotland
 * James E. Smith (biblical scholar) (born 1939), American biblical scholar
 * James K. A. Smith (born 1970), Canadian-American proponent of radical orthodoxy
 * James Tuttle Smith (1870–1910), rector of the Church of the Resurrection in Manhattan

Other

 * James Smith, a character in the film 8 Mile
 * James Smith (writer) (1775–1839), British humorist
 * James Smith (gardener) (died 1789), gardener who journeyed to New Holland (Australia) in 1789
 * James Smith (architect, died 1731) (c. 1645–1731), Scottish architect
 * James Smith (Glasgow architect) (1808–1863), Scottish architect and father of Madeleine Smith
 * James Smith (inventor) (1789–1850), British
 * James Smith (journalist) (1820–1910), Australian journalist
 * James Smith (miner) (1827–1897), Australian miner
 * James Smith (draper) (1765–1823), close friend of Robert Burns
 * James Smith (murderer) (1936–1962), English murderer
 * James Smith (sculptor) (1775–1815), English sculptor
 * James Allan Smith (1841–1918), dean of St David's
 * James B. Smith (born 1952), dean of engineering, technology, and aeronautics at Southern New Hampshire University; former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia
 * James Burrell Smith (1822–1897), English watercolour and landscape artist
 * James Carmichael Smith (postmaster) (1852 – after 1914), postmaster in the Bahamas and Sierra Leone
 * James Cooray Smith (born 1978), British writer, critic and columnist
 * James E. Smith (engineer), computer engineer and professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
 * James Edward Smith (murderer) (1952–1990), American murderer executed in Texas
 * James J. Smith, American law enforcement officer
 * James Kellum Smith (1893–1961), American architect
 * James Lawrence Smith (1889–1950), co-owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team
 * James Lindsay Smith (c. 1816–c. 1883), American slave narrative author and minister
 * James Martin Smith (1892–1970), American civic, business, and religious leader in Arizona
 * James McCune Smith (1813–1865), American physician & activist
 * James Milton Smith (1823–1890), American soldier & politician
 * James Robert Smith (author) (born 1957), American author
 * James Thorne Smith (1892–1934), American author
 * James W. Smith (trade unionist) (1838–1903), American labor unionist
 * James John Smith (1892–1983), Irish applied mathematician and electrical engineer
 * James Charles Smith, engineer
 * James Cowan Smith (1843–1919), British civil engineer and philanthropist
 * James Reuel Smith (1852–1935), American photographer and amateur historian
 * James Smith (fitness influencer) (born 1989), England-born personal trainer and social media influencer
 * James Smith, film editor, see James and Rose Smith

Other uses

 * James Smith Cree Nation, Saskatchewan, Canada
 * James Smith 100, an Indian reserve
 * James Smith & Sons, an umbrella shop in London
 * Sir James Smith's School, a secondary school in Camelford, North Cornwall, England

title: James Smith


text:
Thomas Stone

Thomas Stone (1743 – October 5, 1787) was an American Founding Father, planter, politician, and lawyer who signed the United States Declaration of Independence as a delegate for Maryland. He later worked on the committee that formed the Articles of Confederation in 1777. He acted as president of Congress for a short time in 1784. Stone was a member of the Maryland Senate from 1777 to 1780 and again from 1781 to 1787.

Early life and education
Stone was born into a prominent family at Poynton Manor in Charles County, Maryland. He was the second son in the large family of David (1709–1773) and Elizabeth Jenifer Stone. His brothers, Michael Jenifer Stone and John Hoskins Stone, were also prominent in politics. His uncle was Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer. Thomas read law at the office of Thomas Johnson in Annapolis, was admitted to the bar in 1764, and opened a practice in Frederick, Maryland. The Jenifer family was of Swedish origin.

Career
As the American Revolution neared, Stone joined the committee of correspondence for Charles County. From 1774 to 1776, he was a member of Maryland's Annapolis Convention. In 1775, the convention sent Stone as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was re-elected and attended regularly for several years. On May 15, 1776, he voted in favor of drafting a declaration of independence, in spite of restrictions from the Maryland convention that prevented their delegates from supporting it. In June the restriction was lifted, so Maryland's delegates were free to vote for Independence. Previously, Stone had been in favor of opening diplomatic relations with Great Britain and not going to war, as he was not only a pacifist but a conservative reluctant to start a gruesome war.

That same year Stone was assigned to the committee that drafted the Articles of Confederation, and he was struck with a personal tragedy. His wife Margaret visited him in Philadelphia, which was in the midst of a smallpox epidemic. She was inoculated for the disease, but an adverse reaction to the treatment made her ill. Her health continued to decline for the rest of her life. After Stone signed the Declaration of Independence, he took his wife home and declined future appointment to the Congress, except for part of 1784, when the meetings were at Annapolis.

Stone accepted election to the Maryland Senate from 1779 until 1785, at first in order to promote the Articles of Confederation, which Maryland was the last state to approve. But he gave up the practice of law to care for his wife and children. As her health continued to decline, he gradually withdrew from public life. When Margaret died in 1787, he became depressed and died less than four months later in Alexandria, Virginia, reportedly of a "broken heart".

Stone was buried at his plantation home, which still stands. After his death, the plantation remained in the family for five generations until 1936 when it sold privately. In 1977 the main structure was severely damaged by fire. The National Park Service purchased the property and restored it to its original plans. Habredeventure today is the centerpiece of the Thomas Stone National Historic Site and is operated as a museum by the National Park Service.

Personal life
In 1768, Stone married Margaret Brown (1751–1787), the younger sister of Gustavus R. Brown (see Rose Hill), thought to be the richest man in the county. Soon after, Stone purchased his first 400 acres (1.6 km2) and began the construction of his estate named Habre de Venture. The family made their home there, and they had three children: Margaret (1771–1809), Mildred (1773–1837) and Fredrik (1774–1793). Stone's law practice kept him away from home, so he brought in his younger brother Michael to manage development of the plantation, which utilized slaves for generations.

Legacy and honors

 * The World War II Liberty Ship SS Thomas Stone was named in his honor.
 * Thomas Stone High School – Charles County, Maryland public high school
 * Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence

title: Thomas Stone