We’ve discussed the signers from Virginia and Pennsylvania, so make sure to check those out if you haven’t already. Today, we’ll look at signers from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Maryland.
North Carolina
Joseph had a bit of a tragic start to his adult life, becoming engaged to a woman who died before they could be married. He never pursued romantic interests after her. He was a man of honor, and was a member of the Colonial Legislature and later the Continental Congress. He helped write the Halifax Resolves for his state of NC. Being a shipping merchant, when war started he refused to trade with Britain, which brought great financial loss. He had grown up a Quaker and when the Quakers denounced what the Continental Congress had declared, Joseph left the Society of Friends (the Quakers) and promoted a war with Britain. The Continental Congress established a Naval Committee, which was the beginning of the U.S. Navy. Joseph chaired the committee to create the first American Warships, and put his entire fleet at the disposal of the Continental Armed Forces. Joseph read the Halifax Resolves to the Continental Congress, and voted for independence from Britain. Growing up, I heard of John Paul Jones, turns out he and Joseph were good friends. John Paul Jones became the most honored Naval hero of the American Revolution, and Joseph fought for him to be the Naval commander, although John Adams did not let that happen. After all, the South already had a military commander – George Washington. The other had to be from New England, and Joseph eventually relented. Joseph fell ill and was the only signer to die in office. No one knows where he is buried, and he does not have any direct descendants. He did have two ships in our Navy named after him, one in WWII and the other in Vietnam.
William was known as the “Prophet of Independence”, as he wrote a letter to a friend in 1774 about how he knew the Colonies would successfully become independent from Britain. William served with Governor Tryon’s militia and won the battle of Alamance in 1771, considered to be the first Battle of the Revolution. Will’s two brothers were wealthy merchants, and the Patriots suspected they were Tories and seized their property. Eventually, it was restored. William was one of the youngest members of the Continental Congress, and one of the best orators according to John Adams, along with Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee. William was absent July 4th, but when the signing happened in August, he was present. While William served on the General Assembly, he stepped back from politics during the war, having contracted malaria. He was often battling malaria and the British – with the British having burned his home. His wife and children fled to her brother, General Clark, who provided a safe place for them. He continued his law practice, and sought fair treatment for Loyalists, which put him at odds with his friends and other signers. He died the day before his daughter was to be married due to poor health.
Is not the son of the Pennsylvania founder. This is another Penn, and he is often forgotten. He moved to North Carolina from Virginia because he did not lower his standards. He made certain remarks about the king of England and was reported to the royal authorities. He was tried and convicted. The judge only charged him a penny fine. John refused to pay it, and moved his whole family to North Carolina. John was in Congress for nearly 6 years, and joined his fellow North Carolinians on horseback over 400 miles to reach Congress each time, taking nearly two weeks going one direction among dangerous terrain and people. John nearly found himself in a duel at one point, but he and his antagonist decided against it. John died in 1788 due to poor health, contributed by all of the time he spent travelling to and from Congress for six years during war.
South Carolina
Thomas’s father was a Royalist, and was royally upset when he learned his son signed the Declaration. Thomas said he should be hung for treason, but luckily they reconciled before his father died that next year. Thomas also signed the Articles of Confederation, served as a Captain of Artillery for the SC militia, and received a gunshot wound in 1779. He was seized as a POW when Charleston was captured, and was not released until the war ended. During this time, he wrote a parody of God Save the King, which he called God Save the Thirteen States. The British destroyed his property and nearly died on the POW ship to Philadelphia. He eventually passed in 1809, after a life full of adventure and near death.
Thomas graduated from Cambridge and returned to the Colonies when rumors of war were breaking out. He helped draft SC’s state constitution, and chose planter as his occupation, after his father. He also received a captain’s commission in the SC militia, where he contracted malaria and fever, and never fully recovered. Thomas’s father was in Congress when he fell ill, and Thomas took his place. When he signed the Declaration, he left a space hoping his father would become well enough to sign, but he never did – his father never made it back home, and died when they were in Maryland. When he arrived home in SC from that trip, he also was not doing well. In 1779, the doctors suggested he move to France, but he and his wife never did, with the war and risk of his capture. Instead, they embarked for the West Indies, and would travel to France from there. They were never seen again, and it is assumed the ship hit a storm and everyone drowned. He was the youngest of the signers at their death.
Arthur was strictly anti-Loyalist, and was in favor of tarring and feathering. He took his father’s place in the Second Continental Congress when he fell ill, and signed the Declaration. He was a member of the SC militia and fought to defend Charleston. He was captured along with Thomas Heyward, although he was freed before Thomas in a prisoner exchange. He died in 1787. His family, however, carried on his legacy, with one son negotiating a treaty between Russia and the U.S., another signing for SC to secede from the union, and had a ship named after him in WWII. His home still stands, having survived attacks from both the Revolutionary and Civil wars.
Due to Edward, SC changed the vote for independence from no to yes, after a trial vote July 1st. Edward was 26 when he signed the Declaration. Edward became a lieutenant colonel for the Charleston Battalion of Artillery, and as you may suspect, was also taken as a POW, but was released the same year as Arthur during a prisoner exchange. He held office in various legislatures and conventions for the state of South Carolina, voting against opening the African slave trade. He became SC governor in 1798, after rejecting a position on the Supreme Court. He died two years after becoming governor, while still holding the office.
Maryland
Like many of his fellow signers, Charles attended university abroad and returned home when rumors of revolution were stirring. Charles tried to attend law school in England, but since he was Catholic, he was not allowed to address the court. In 1763 he wrote that the colonies “will, and must be independent.” Upon his return, Charles began debating via print under First Citizen, although people knew who he was. He maintained his decorum through personal attacks, and when asked how Maryland should respond in their own version of the Boston tea party:
“Gentlemen, set fire to the vessel and burn her, with her cargo, to the water’s edge.”
He was asked to seek aid from Canada, who refused (surprising, I know). However, he was instrumental in persuading Maryland to vote for independence, and signed the Declaration. John Hancock suggested that Charles Carroll was enough of a common name that Charles could escape persecution by the British if it were to occur. This is why Charles’ signature reads Charles Carroll of Carrollton. He was the last living signer, passing in 1832 at 96 years old.
Massachusetts had found a loophole with the Stamp Act – it couldn’t happen if there was no paper to print. When Maryland heard of this, Samuel was the ringleader to ensure the merchant in charge of distributing the paper would have no paper to destroy. The merchant fled to NY in fear of his life. Samuel was a member of the General Assembly at this time, and remained one until 1784. Samuel walked a fine line, but when the British imposed The Intolerable Acts in 1774, he no longer walked that tightrope and his actions were construed as sedition to his British overseers. The First Continental Congress was divided, with Virginia and Massachusetts demanding total independence, and New York saying they could have it both ways. Samuel did not pick a side, although he did think a boycott should occur immediately. In a letter to a New York delegate in 1775, Samuel was making up his mind:
When I reflect on the enormous Influence of the Crown, the System of Corruption introduced as the Art of Government, the Venality of the Electors (the radical Source of every other Evil), the open and repeated violations, by Parliament of the Constitution… I have not the least Dawn of Hope in the Justice, Humanity, Wisdom or Virtue of the British Nation. I consider them as one of the most abandoned and wicked People under the Sun…. Our Dependence must be on God and ourselves.
After Lexington and Concord, he went to the Second Continental Congress, where his state was divided on independence. Samuel joined with Charles to inflame and rouse the middling sort of their citizens, and in June 1776, the citizens authorized the delegates to unanimously vote for independence. His wife fell ill, and he was not present for the vote on July 2nd, or the adoption of the Declaration on the 4th. His wife died at some time between 1776-1779, but he returned to sign on August 2nd. He helped write Maryland’s Constitution and the Articles of Confederation. He used his fortune to pay Maryland’s war debts. He passed in 1811 in debt, ill, and disgraced in the eyes of Jefferson’s Republican party.
William and Samuel were good friends during their rabble-rousing years, staging many protests. His wife passed during childbirth in 1774, but he realized he was needed in the First Continental Congress, where he became friends with John Adams. He voted and signed for the Declaration. He voted for the Constitution, and many of his proposed amendments are in the Bill of Rights. He was appointed by President Washington to be the Court of Maryland’s judge in 1789, and he died 10 years later.
Thomas hated war, and wanted reconciliation with Britain, and in a letter he wrote in 1775, he stated:
I wish to conduct affairs so that a just and honorable reconciliation should take place, or that we should be unanimous in a resolution to fight it out for independence. The proper way to affect this is not to move too quick. But then we must take care to do everything which is necessary for our security and defense, not suffer ourselves to be lulled or wheedled by any deceptions, declarations, or giving’s out. You know my heart wishes for peace upon terms of security and justice to America. But war, anything, is preferable to a surrender of our rights.
He served in several continental congresses, after signing the Declaration. When his wife passed in 1787 due to mercury poison, he died a couple months later, grief seeming to have taken him to his grave. While he was not the most outspoken of his fellow Maryland signers, everyone had good words to say about him and that he was very clear on his stance for the Colonial independence.
Looking at the signers from these three states, we can see how much they gave for our freedoms. They were signing their death warrants when they signed the Declaration. They were captured, fell into debt trying to provide for their state’s war efforts, and that lead most of them to an early grave. Freedom is never free, and these men started it all.
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