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Delegates to the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776. The 56 delegates who signed the formal break from Britain are all considered Founding Fathers; nine represented Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania had the most delegates of the colonies. This week's profile features James Smith, George Taylor and James Wilson. Their signatures are grouped in the top third column from the right of the document.
James Smith
Smith was born in Ireland around 1719 to farming family. Around 1727, they moved to Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Smith attended the Philadelphia Academy, now the University of Pennsylvania, pursing classical studies, surveying and law and gaining admission to the bar in 1745. He practiced law in Shippensburg and York, Pennsylvania, while also making money as a surveyor.
A man of many occupations, Smith also founded an iron manufacturing company, a venture that was ultimately unsuccessful.
Smith married Eleanor Armor in 1760 and had five children.
During the Revolutionary War, he was a brigadier general in the state militia.
For his notable accomplishments, a dormitory at the University of Delaware bears his name.
He died July 11, 1806, and his wife died five years later. They are buried in the cemetery at the First Presbyterian Church in York.
George Taylor
Taylor, also an Irishman, was probably born in 1716. He immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1736 and was an ironworker near Philadelphia. He later took over an ironworks business with a partner, which would produce munitions during the Revolutionary War.
In 1743, he married Ann Taylor and they had two children. Four years later, he commissioned as a captain of a militia group Benjamin Franklin organized.
In 1764, he became a delegate to the provincial assembly.
In 1777, Taylor led an Indian treaty conference in Easton, Pennsylvania, and was also elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council. However, he served only six weeks before retiring due to illness and financial straits.
Taylor died Feb. 23, 1781, and his wife died in 1768. He was buried in St. John's Lutheran Church Cemetery in Easton. A monument and memorial are at his gravesite.
James Wilson
Wilson was born Sept. 14, 1742, in Carskerdo, Scotland, and had six siblings.
He studied philosophy at three universities in Scotland before immigrating to Pennsylvania in 1765, where he studied law and then practiced it.
In 1774, he published a pamphlet that influenced the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Wilson lobbied for change, noting that all men are equal and free, and that one has a right to any authority over another without consent.
In 1771, he married Rachel Bird, and they had six children. Bird died in 1786. He later married Hannah Gray and had another child.
In 1789, President George Washington appointed Wilson to serve as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. He's the only Founding Father to have served on the high court and also signed both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
Wilson died Aug. 21, 1798, and is buried at Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia.
The University of Pennsylvania dedicated a hall in his name for helping found its law school.
This is the sixth 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.
