Delegates to the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 56 delegates who signed the formal break from Britain are all considered Founding Fathers; three represented Delaware.
The Delaware delegates were Thomas McKean, George Read and Caesar Rodney. Their signatures are grouped in the bottom-left, fourth column of the document.
Thomas McKean
Thomas McKean was born on March 19, 1734, in Chester County, Pennsylvania. His parents were William McKean, a tavern owner and farmer, and Letitia Finney.
Although McKean's mother died when he was a child, she stressed the importance of education to her children. So, as a teenager, McKean moved to Delaware to study law under his cousin and was admitted to the bar in 1754, at age 20.
In 1763, he married Mary Borden, and the couple had six children. Following her death a decade later, he married Sarah Armitage in 1774, and they had five children.
McKean held several political appointments in Delaware and Pennsylvania and contributed to both states' constitutions.
In 1777, he became chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, a position he held for 22 years. He was also a colonel in the militia during the Revolutionary War, participating in the New York and New Jersey campaigns.
In 1799, he was elected governor of Pennsylvania and was in the process of being impeached when he retired in 1808.
McKean signed the Articles of Confederation in 1781 and helped to ratify the U.S. Constitution. However, there is some dispute over the exact timing of the signing of the Declaration of Independence; many historians still question the legitimacy of McKean's signature. He is believed to be the last person to sign the document, either in early 1777 or as late as 1781.
McKean died June 24, 1817, and was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.
McKean County, Pennsylvania, is named for him, as is Thomas McKean High School in Delaware.
In 1942, one of the 2,711 Liberty ships designed by the U.S. Maritime Commission for use during World War II was the Liberty ship Thomas McKean.
George Read
George Read was born on Sept. 18, 1733, in Cecil County, Maryland, but his family moved to New Castle County, Delaware, shortly after his birth. His parents were John Read and Mary Howell Read, and he was the oldest of six boys.
As a boy, he studied at the Academy of Reverend Francis Alison. He also studied law at a young age, was admitted to the bar at age 19, and went on to practice law in Delaware. In 1753, he married Gertrude Ross Till, and they had five children.
In 1763, Read was appointed attorney general for Lower Delaware, and a few years later, he was elected to the Lower Delaware assembly. Although serving in the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1777, Read voted against independence on July 2, 1776, hoping to reconcile with Great Britain; regardless, he later signed the Declaration of Independence.
Read drafted Delaware's first constitution, and in 1777, he served as acting governor after British soldiers captured his predecessor. He was later part of Delaware's delegation at the Constitutional Convention, where he lobbied for the interests of small states, like Delaware, to prevent larger states, like Virginia and Pennsylvania, from taking over. He also urged Delaware to become the first state to ratify the Constitution, which it did on Dec. 7, 1787.
Read served in the first U.S. Senate from 1789 to 1793, when he resigned to become chief justice of Delaware, a role he held until his death on Sept. 21, 1798.
He is buried in Immanuel Episcopal Church Cemetery in New Castle, Delaware.
George Read Middle School in New Castle, Delaware, is named for him, as are several parks and streets in his home state.
Caesar Rodney
Caesar Rodney was born Oct. 7, 1728, on a sprawling farm in Kent County, Delaware, to Caesar Rodney Sr. and Elizabeth Crawford. He was the oldest of eight children; he had four brothers and three sisters.
As a teenager, Rodney attended the College of Philadelphia, the predecessor of the University of Pennsylvania. He never married nor had children; he was elected sheriff of Kent County at 27 and spent the rest of his short life as a public servant.
Rodney was a militia captain during the French and Indian War, after which he held several political positions, including serving as an associate justice of the Lower Delaware Supreme Court.
Although in poor health, Rodney rode his horse during a thunderstorm throughout the night of July 1, 1776. Traveling from Dover, Delaware, to Philadelphia, he was determined to cast the deciding vote in favor of the Declaration of Independence the next day.
During the Revolutionary War in 1778, Rodney was elected president of Delaware, a title preceding governor. He also served as a brigadier general and later, a major general, in the state's militia.
After suffering from facial cancer for 15 years, in addition to his lifelong battle with asthma, Rodney died June 26, 1784, at the age of 55, and was buried on his family farm in Delaware.
This is the seventh installment in a series of articles about the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. The 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress, representing the 13 colonies, are all considered Founding Fathers.