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 delegates represented New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, Matthew Thornton and William Whipple.
Josiah Bartlett
Bartlett was born to Stephen Bartlett, a shoemaker, and Hannah Webster, Nov. 21, 1729, in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Bartlett was the youngest of seven children. In 1745, at the age of 16, Bartlett began studying medicine as an apprentice under two doctors and moved to Kingston, New Hampshire, where he set up a medical practice and purchased land for a farm in 1750.
He married Mary Bartlett, his first cousin, Jan. 15, 1754. It was common practice in colonial New England to marry within extended family networks to maintain social, economic and property connections. The couple had eight children.
Bartlett became known as a skilled physician after developing new treatments for fevers, diphtheria and other ailments that included cool liquids and quinine, rather than the traditional hot liquids and bloodletting. He also rejected common practices such as induced vomiting, which he said had no proven basis for medical effectiveness.
He entered politics in 1765 as a member of the New Hampshire Provincial Assembly, where he served until the beginning of the Revolutionary War. In 1767, the royal governor appointed Bartlett justice of the peace, and later, a colonel to the royal militia. As tensions grew between Britain and the colonies, he was removed in February 1775 from both offices because of his staunch support of the patriot cause.
As a delegate in the Second Continental Congress, Bartlett was the first to vote for independence from Britain and the second to sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776. In addition to serving in the Continental Congress, he was a colonel in the New Hampshire militia from 1777-1779.
Bartlett later served on the 13-member committee responsible for drafting the Articles of Confederation and was the first to vote for and sign the document, July 9, 1778.
After returning to New Hampshire, Bartlett was appointed chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1779, and in 1782, he became an associate justice of the Superior Court and served as the state's chief justice beginning in 1788.
Bartlett was elected president of New Hampshire in 1790. An amendment to the state's constitution in 1792 changed the title of president to governor. He served until 1794, when he retired from public life.
In 1791, Bartlett founded the New Hampshire Medical Society and was elected its first president. Today, the association advocates for New Hampshire physicians, physician associates and their patients.
He died May 19, 1795, and was buried in the Plains Cemetery in Kingston alongside his wife, who died July 14, 1789.
Bartlett, New Hampshire, bears his name. In his birthplace of Amesbury, there is a statue at the center of town and the Bartlett Museum. The Josiah Bartlett Elementary School in Bartlett is named for him. And his home in Kingston, rebuilt after loyalists burned it down in 1774, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971 and has been owned and continuously occupied by Bartlett's descendants since its construction.
Matthew Thornton
Thornton was born to James and Elizabeth Thornton in Ireland, March 3, 1714. He had eight siblings.
He was 3 years old when his family immigrated to the American colonies, settling in Wiscasset, Maine, then part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, a frontier area at the time. Native Americans attacked the Wiscasset settlement in the summer of 1722, and the Thornton home was burned. The family escaped and relocated to Worcester, Massachusetts, a safer, more established community.
Thornton attended the Worcester Academy that prepared him for his later medical apprenticeship in Leicester, Massachusetts. He became a respected physician in Londonderry, New Hampshire.
In 1745, Thornton was appointed surgeon of the New Hampshire militia and accompanied the troops on the British-led campaign against the French-held Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, part of King George's War from 1744-1748. He also held a royal commission as a justice of the peace.
In 1758, he was elected to the New Hampshire Provincial Assembly, which initiated his involvement in colonial, and later, state politics that lasted three decades.
In 1760, he married Hannah Jack, and they had five children.
Thornton joined the patriot movement after Britain imposed the Stamp Act of 1765 on the colonies. The act required that printed materials, including legal documents, newspapers, pamphlets, playing cards and almanacs, be produced on stamped paper purchased from London.
After the New Hampshire Provincial Assembly was dissolved in 1775, the state formed a congress. Thornton was elected as a delegate to the New Hampshire Provincial Congress in January 1775 and president in May 1775.
Thornton led a committee to draft New Hampshire's constitution in 1775, and it passed the following year.
He signed the Declaration of Independence Nov. 4, 1776, at the age of 62, making him one of the older signers.
Following a brief one-year term in the Continental Congress, Thornton returned to New Hampshire and served as an associate justice of the Superior Court, a position he took on in 1776 and continued until he resigned in 1782. During that time, he also served as chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas.
Thornton stayed active in state politics. In 1783, he served as a member of the New Hampshire General Assembly and became a state senator in 1784 and a state councilor in 1785.
After retiring from his medical practice in 1780, Thornton purchased a large farm in Merrimack, New Hampshire, where he focused on agriculture and operating Thornton's Ferry with his family. The ferry was historically significant because a loyalist owned it before Thornton purchased it.
Thornton died June 24, 1803, at 89 years old, while visiting his daughter in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and was buried in Thornton Cemetery in Merrimack alongside his wife, who died in 1786. The state of New Hampshire dedicated a granite obelisk to Thornton across the street from the cemetery, May 22, 1892.
The town of Thornton, New Hampshire, bears his name. The Matthew Thornton House in Derry, New Hampshire, where he lived while practicing medicine, was designated a National Historic Landmark — the original town of Londonderry was split into two towns, Londonderry and Derry, in 1827.
William Whipple
William Whipple was born to William Whipple Sr., a merchant ship captain, and Mary Cutt, Jan. 14, 1730, in Kittery Province of Massachusetts Bay, an area that became Maine in 1820. Exact records vary as to how many siblings Whipple had, although he had at least two brothers.
Whipple attended a common school and received additional tutoring from a relative of his mother. Following his education, at 21 he became a ship's master overseeing the transport of goods and enslaved people between North America, the West Indies and Africa. From 1759 to 1775, he operated a successful mercantile firm in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with his brother, Joseph.
Whipple married Catherine Moffatt, his first cousin, in 1767. They had a son who died as an infant.
He became active in politics in 1775 after the dissolution of the British royal government and was elected to the New Hampshire Provincial Congress. He represented New Hampshire in the Second Continental Congress from 1776-1779.
In 1777, he was commissioned as a brigadier general in the New Hampshire militia, leading multiple regiments into combat, including at the Battles of Saratoga and Rhode Island. He served until approximately 1781.
After the war, Whipple resumed his involvement in commerce and participated in rebuilding the economy after wartime disruptions. In 1780, he was elected as a state representative to the New Hampshire General Assembly and served until 1784, when his health began to decline.
He also held other state government offices, including associate justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court from 1782 until his death in 1785, where he helped shape the New Hampshire judicial system.
Whipple died of a heart condition Nov. 28, 1785, and was buried in the North Cemetery in Portsmouth, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. His wife, who died in 1821, is buried alongside Whipple.
The William Whipple House in Kittery, Maine, is his birthplace. The Moffatt-Ladd House in Portsmouth, also referred to as the William Whipple House, where Whipple lived with his wife, is a National Historic Landmark and open to the public, showcasing the life of Whipple and his family. Additionally, a 250-year-old horse chestnut tree planted by Whipple stands outside the Moffatt-Ladd House.
This is the 14th 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.