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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.
Maryland had four delegates. This week's profile features Samuel Chase, William Paca and Thomas Stone.
Samuel Chase
Samuel Chase was born April 17, 1741, near Princess Anne, Maryland. He was the only child of Thomas Chase and Matilda Walker. However, his mother died during childbirth, so his father, an Anglican priest, raised him alone.
His father married Ann Birch in 1744, and Chase went from being an only child to growing up with four half brothers and two half sisters.
Chase was homeschooled by his father until he was 18, when he left to study law in Annapolis, Maryland.
In May 1762, he married Ann Baldwin, and they had seven children; four survived to adulthood: Matilda, Thomas, Anne and Samuel Chase Jr. His wife died in 1776, and he married Hannah Kitty Giles in 1784; they had two daughters, Hannah and Elisa.
Chase was admitted to the bar in 1763, and represented clients turned down by other attorneys. He often worked pro bono or for very small fees and developed an excellent reputation as an attorney.
In 1764, he was elected to the Maryland General Assembly, where he served for 20 years. During the Revolutionary War, he and fellow signers Benjamin Franklin and Charles Carroll tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade the Canadians to join the American side. Following the war, he served as chief justice of the district criminal court in Baltimore from 1788 to 1796 and chief justice of the Maryland General Court from 1791 until 1796.
In 1796, President George Washington appointed Chase to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, in 1804, he was impeached by the House of Representatives, which looked unfavorably upon his political views, which he promoted from the bench. The Senate acquitted him in 1805. The impeachment resulted in some good for the judicial branch, setting the precedent for judges not to advance partisan politics while serving; he stayed on the Supreme Court for 15 years.
Chase died June 19, 1811, and was buried at Old St. Paul's Church Cemetery in Baltimore; his second wife was buried beside him 37 years later when she died in 1848.
During World War II, the Coast Guard launched the USS attack transport ship Samuel Chase in August 1941. It was one of the ships used to transport troops during D-Day. A World War II Liberty ship was also named for him and launched in February 1942.
The Chase-Lloyd House in Annapolis, Maryland, is partially named for him. Chase began construction on the home in 1769, but due to financial struggles, he sold the unfinished home to Edward Lloyd IV, who finished building it in 1774. In April 1970, the house was designated a National Historic Landmark because it is the first 3-story brick Georgian mansion built in the colonies.
Chase Street in downtown Baltimore and Samuel Chase Elementary in Temple Hills, Maryland, are both named for him.
William Paca
William Paca was born Oct. 31, 1740, near Abingdon, Maryland, to John Paca and Elizabeth Smith. He was the second eldest son, and he had six siblings: Mary, Aquila, Elizabeth, Martha, Susannah and Frances. His father was a planter, and the family was wealthy, but Paca's older brother would inherit the estate.
When he was 12, Paca attended the Academy and Charity School of Philadelphia, followed by the College of Philadelphia, now known as the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in May 1759 with a bachelor's degree, which was later upgraded to a master's degree.
Following his graduation, he clerked for a local attorney in Annapolis, Maryland, before traveling to London in 1761 to study law at the Inner Temple. He returned to Annapolis two years later, where he set up a legal practice.
On May 26, 1763, Paca married Mary Lloyd Chew, known as Molly. They had three children, but only one, John Philemon Paca, survived to adulthood. Mary died Jan. 15, 1774, and Paca married Ann Harrison three years later. They had one son in 1778, but Ann Harrison Paca died in 1780, and their son died a few months later in 1781.
Between the two marriages, Paca had two children out of wedlock, and one survived to adulthood, Henrietta Maria Joice, whom he supported and included in his will.
Paca entered politics in 1767, when he was elected as a delegate to the colonial lower house of the proprietary assembly. He was a Maryland delegate to the First and Second Continental Congress, and he served in the Maryland state senate from 1776 to 1780. Paca was elected governor of Maryland in 1782 and remained in the position until 1785.
In 1786, he was elected to both the state senate and the state house of delegates. He chose the Maryland House of Delegates and stayed in the position until 1787. Two years later, President George Washington appointed him as a U.S district judge on the federal district court for Maryland, and he held the position until his death.
Paca died Oct. 13, 1799, two weeks before his 59th birthday; he was buried at the family cemetery at his Wye Island plantation in Queen Anne's County, Maryland.
The William Paca House and Garden in downtown Annapolis, where he once lived, is now a preserved National Historic Landmark and museum.
The Liberty ship SS William Paca launched in May 1942 to support World War II. Paca Street in Baltimore is named for him, as is Paca Creek on Wye Island.
Thomas Stone
Thomas Stone was born in 1743 in Charles County, Maryland, and raised on his family's tobacco plantation. His parents were David Stone Sr. and Elizabeth Jenifer, and he had eight siblings: Frederick, Catherine, John, Michael, Daniel, Elizabeth Ann, Walter and Grace.
He also had four half brothers and half sisters from his father's first marriage: David Stone Jr., Samuel, Mary and Anne.
When he was 15, Stone attended private school in Charles County, Maryland, where he studied Latin and classical Greek. He later studied law in Annapolis and was admitted to the bar when he was 21. He moved to Frederick, Maryland, to practice law.
Stone married Margaret Brown in 1768, and they had three children: Margaret, Mildred and Frederick. Shortly after their marriage, Stone built a 400-acre estate near Port Tobacco, Maryland, called Haberdeventure. The family lived there until 1783, when they moved to Annapolis to be closer to his work.
Stone was known for being quiet and reserved, and he wanted to reconcile with Great Britain. However, he voted in favor of independence at the Second Continental Congress. He served in the Maryland state senate from 1777 to 1787, and he helped write the state's first constitution.
Stone declined his election to the Constitutional Convention in May 1787 to spend time with his sick wife; Margaret Stone died June 3, 1787. Four months later, Stone died Oct. 5, 1787. He was 44 and it was said that he died of a broken heart. They were buried together in the family cemetery at the Thomas Stone National Historic Site in Port Tobacco, Maryland.
The attack transport ship USS Thomas Stone and the Liberty ship SS Thomas Stone were both in service during World War II.
In 1969, a public high school in Waldorf, Maryland, was named for him: Thomas Stone High School.
The National Park Service acquired the Stone family home, Harberdeventure, in November 1978; it was fully restored and opened to the public in 1997.
This is the 16th 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.
