Tag: Declaration Signers

Wife of Declaration of Independence Signer John Penn John Penn was born on May 17, 1741, in Caroline County, Virginia. He was the only child of Moses Penn, a moderately successful plantation owner, and Catherine Taylor Penn. He was educated at home with only a few years of formal schooling, although his parents could well afford to pay for his tuition. Penn was distant relative of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. John Penn Moses Penn died in 1759, and John inherited an ample estate, but he was dissatisfied with the prospects it offered, and decided to continue his education. He began to study law under his cousin and neighbor, Edmund Pendleton, a lawyer, a Patriot, and one of the most…

Wife of Declaration Signer William Williams Mary Trumbull was born on July 16, 1745, in Lebanon, Connecticut, the second daughter of Jonathan Trumbull, Royal Governor of Connecticut, who was the only Colonial governor to remain true to the cause of the Colonies. He served as governor in both a pre-Revolutionary colony and a post-Revolutionary state, and patriots from all parts of New England came to consult with him and lay plans for future action. Trumbull was in constant correspondence with Samuel Adams and other patriots of Massachusetts, and the confidant and adviser of General Washington. William Williams Mary Trumbull was also the sister of patriots Jonathan, Jr. and Joseph Trumbull and of the painter John Trumbull, daughter of Connecticut governor…

Wife of Declaration Signer Francis Hopkinson Ann Borden was born on May 9, 1747, at Middleton, Monmouth County, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Colonel Joseph and Elizabeth Rogers Borden, members of a well-to-do family who had founded Bordentown, New Jersey. Ann and her older sister Mary were said to be the handsomest girls in New Jersey. Joseph Borden had a line of stage coaches and boats traveling between New York and Philadelphia. Francis Hopkinson, the son of Thomas Hopkinson and Mary Johnson Hopkinson, was born on October 2, 1737, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thomas’s early death in 1751 left his wife to care for the children, the oldest of whom, Francis, had just turned fourteen. Mrs. Hopkinson was a…

Wife of Declaration of Independence Signer James Smith Eleanor Armor of Newcastle, Delaware, was born in 1729. She was described as “a young woman of many accomplishments and good family connection.” James Smith was born in Ireland, the second son in a large family, most likely in 1719, and came to Pennsylvania as a boy of ten or twelve years of age. His family settled in York County, Pennsylvania, on acreage west of the Susquehanna River. His father was a successful farmer, and James received a good education at Reverend Francis Alison’s academy in New London, PA, where he learned Greek, Latin, and mathematics, including land surveying. He later studied law at the office of his older brother George, in…

Wife of Signer: Thomas Stone Margaret Brown, born in 1751, was the youngest of Dr. Gustavus Brown’s fourteen children. Her mother, Margaret Boyd Brown, was Dr. Brown’s second wife. His Scottish lordship, Edinburgh education, and property holdings in Scotland and Maryland placed Dr. Brown in a social position unparalleled in the colony. Dr. Brown was also thought to be the richest man in Charles County. He provided for the wealth and education of all his children, not just his sons. Upon marriage or attaining the age of twenty-four, Margaret was to receive 300 pounds sterling. Thomas Stone was born into an old and influential colonial family at Pointon Manor near Port Tobacco in Charles County, Maryland, in 1743. He was…