#Freedom250# Signers of the Declaration of Independence: William Whipple (1730-1785) William Whipple was born in 1730 in Kittery, Massachusetts (now Kittery, Maine) into a seafaring family. After finishing school, he went to sea and became a ship captain by age 21, eventually amassing a small fortune. In 1759, he left maritime life and opened a mercantile firm in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with two of his brothers. In 1776, Whipple won a seat in the Continental Congress. That January, he wrote to Josiah Bartlett, “Nothing less than the fate of America depends on the virtue of her sons…” He voted for independence on July 2 and signed the Declaration of Independence on August 2.

#Freedom250# Signers of the Declaration of Independence: Thomas Stone (1743-1787) Thomas Stone was born in 1743, in Charles County, Maryland, to a wealthy planter family. After completing preparatory studies in classics, he pursued law in Annapolis under Thomas Johnson, who would become Maryland’s first state governor.

#Freedom250# Signers of the Declaration of Independence: James Smith (1719-1806) James Smith was born in Ireland around 1719. His family fled the landlords of the Old World for the freedom of Pennsylvania around 1727, settling as farmers on the Susquehanna in Chester County. Receiving a classical education from a local minister, Smith continued his studies in classics, adding land surveying, at the Philadelphia Academy, now known as the University of Pennsylvania. Smith was appointed to the provincial convention in Philadelphia in 1775 where he declared, “If the British administration should determine by force to effect a submission to the late arbitrary acts of the British parliament, in such a situation, we hold it our indispensable duty to resist such force, and at every hazard to defend the rights and liberties of America.” He was then elected to the Second Continental Congress. He represented Pennsylvania in the Congress until 1778, going on to serve a term in the State Assembly, as a judge of the state High Court of Appeals, and as Brigadier General of the Pennsylvania militia in 1781.

#Freedom250# Signers of the Declaration of Independence: Roger Sherman (1721-1793) Roger Sherman, born on April 19, 1721, in Newton, Massachusetts, was the only person to have signed all four of the most significant documents in our nation’s early history: the Continental Association from the first Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution.

#Freedom250# Signers of the Declaration of Independence: Dr. Benjamin Rush (1746-1813) A Physician, an abolitionist, and an early adopter of the cause for independence, Dr. Benjamin Rush was one of the most influential founding fathers. Rush’s medical contributions were groundbreaking, albeit controversial. He pioneered American psychiatric mental health treatment and is often referred to as the “father of American psychiatry.”

#Freedom250# Signers of the Declaration of Independence: Caesar Rodney (1728-1784) Caesar Rodney was born October 7, 1728 on a sprawling farm in Kent County, Delaware. After losing his father in his youth, Rodney inherited wealth and responsibility that he used for the good of the new nation.