"What Happened to the Signers?"

Five signers were captured by the British and

brutally tortured as traitors. Nine fought in the

War for Independence and died from wounds

or from hardships they suffered. Two lost their

sons in the Continental Army. Another two had

sons captured. At least a dozen Of the fifty-six

had their homes pillaged and burned.

What kind of men were they? Twenty-five

were lawyers or jurists. Eleven were merchants.

Nine were farmers or large plantation owners.

One was a teacher, one a musician, and one

a printer. These were men of means and

education, yet they signed the Declaration of

Independence, knowing full well that the

penalty could be death if they were captured.

In the face of the advancing British Army, the

Continental Congress fled from Philadelphia

to Baltimore on December 12, 1776. It was

an especially anxious time for John Hancock,

the President, as his wife had just given

birth to a baby girl. Due to the complications

stemming from the trip to Baltimore, the

child lived only a few months.

William Ellery's signing at the risk of his fortune

proved only too realistic. In December 1776,

during three days of British occupation of

Newport, Rhode Island, Ellery's house was

burned, and all his property destroyed.

Richard Stockton, a New Jersey State

Supreme Court Justice, had rushed back

to his estate near Princeton after signing

the Declaration of Independence to find

that his wife and children were living like

refugees with friends. They had been

betrayed by a Tory sympathizer who also

revealed Stockton's own whereabouts.

British troops pulled him from his bed one

night, beat him and threw him in jail where

he almost starved to death. When he was

finally released, he went home to find his

estate had been looted, his possessions

burned, and his horses stolen. Judge

Stockton had been so badly treated in

prison that his health was ruined and he

died before the war's end. His surviving

family had to live the remainder of their

lives off charity.

Carter Braxton was a wealthy planter and

trader. One by one his ships were captured

by the British navy. He loaned a large sum

of money to the American cause; it was

never paid back. He was forced to sell his

plantations and mortgage his other properties

to pay his debts.

Thomas McKean was so hounded by the

British that he had to move his family almost

constantly. He served in the Continental

Congress without pay, and kept his family in

hiding. Vandals or soldiers or both looted the

properties of Clymer, Hall, Harrison, Hopkinson

and Livingston. Seventeen lost everything they

owned.

Thomas Heyward, Jr., Edward Rutledge and

Arthur Middleton, all of South Carolina, were

captured by the British during the Charleston

Campaign in 1780. They were kept in dungeons

at the St. Augustine Prison until exchanged a

year later.

At the Battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr.

noted that the British General Cornwallis had

taken over the family home for his headquarters.

Nelson urged General George Washington to

open fire on his own home. This was done,

and the home was destroyed. Nelson later

died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis also had his home and

properties destroyed. The British jailed his

wife for two months, and that and other

hardships from the war so affected her

health that she died only two years later.

"Honest John" Hart, a New Jersey farmer,

was driven from his wife's bedside when

she was near death. Their thirteen children

fled for their lives. Hart's fields and his

gristmill were laid waste. For over a year

he eluded capture by hiding in nearby forests.

He never knew where his bed would be the

next night and often slept in caves. When

he finally returned home, he found that his

wife had died, his children disappeared,

and his farm and stock were completely

destroyed. Hart himself died in 1779 without

ever seeing any of his family again.

Such were the stories and sacrifices typical

of those who risked everything to sign the

Declaration of Independence. These men

were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians.

They were soft-spoken men of means and

education. They had security, but they

valued liberty more.

Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they

pledged:

"For the support of this declaration, with a

firm reliance on the protection of the Divine

Providence, we mutually pledge to each

other, our lives, our fortunes, and our

sacred honor."