“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
A rare pledge, even in 1776 – but they meant every word.
We often think of the familiar names: Franklin, Jefferson, Hancock, and John Adams (no offense to Sam). But what about William Floyd, Richard Stockton, George Clymer, or Francis Lewis?
Fifty-six men from thirteen colonies signed the Declaration of Independence. They wrote their names on treated sheepskin parchment fully aware of the consequences and costs. It was an act of treason against the Crown of England — effectively a death warrant. If death didn’t follow, devastation often did.
William Floyd, a wealthy landowner from Long Island, became one of the Revolution’s unsung heroes. While he sat in Philadelphia, British troops landed on Long Island, overran his estate, and forced his wife and children to flee across Long Island Sound. They lived in exile for seven years, dependent on friends and stripped of their home. British soldiers turned Floyd’s house into a barracks and loyalists plundered the land. His wife, Mary, never lived to return – she died in exile in 1781. When Floyd came home in 1783, he hardly recognized the place.
Richard Stockton, was a respected New Jersey judge and lawyer captured by the British. In late 1776, loyalists betrayed his whereabouts, and British forces dragged him from his home, threw him in a common jail, and left him in filth and freezing cold. Ill and weakened, he eventually signed an oath of neutrality — likely under duress — to be released. Though he remained a patriot in word and spirit, his health never returned. His estate was burned, his fortune ruined, and his reputation damaged. He died in 1781 at just 51, a once-knighted man now a shadow of himself.
George Clymer, a Philadelphia merchant and financier, was one of only three members of Congress who stayed behind when the British approached the city. That act of bravery made his home a target – British troops looted and vandalized it, his wife and children barely escaping into the woods. Later, Clymer accepted nearly worthless Continental currency as payment for goods to supply the army – knowing he’d likely never be made whole. He later joked that his fortune had been “coined into bullets.” By war’s end, much of his wealth was gone.
Francis Lewis, a successful merchant born in Wales, also suffered deeply. In September 1776, British troops burned his Long Island home and took his wife, Elizabeth, prisoner. She was held for months in filthy conditions – without a bed, a change of clothes, or decent food. Though she was eventually freed in a prisoner exchange, her health never recovered. She died in 1779, three years after her capture.
The stories go on. More homes burned, more families uprooted, more lives shattered. Many signers never saw compensation or restoration. The price of liberty wasn’t paid only in battle – it was paid in sacrifice, separation, and silent suffering and deeply so.
As July 4 approaches, allow a moment to reflect not only on the celebrated names, but on those lesser known as well – all 56 listed below.
Then ask yourself, 249 years later: Would I do the same?
Georgia
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
North Carolina
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Maryland
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Pennsylvania
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
New York
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
John Hancock
Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott