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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.