Meet the Signers of the Declaration of Independence

Putting Everything on the Line

Reading from left to right, the signatories’ names appear as follows. The states they represented also have been provided below. You can access a one-minute biographical video for each man in a state’s delegation by clicking on the hyperlink associated with that state.

First Column

Georgia
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton;

Second Column

North Carolina
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn;

South Carolina
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton;

Third Column

John Hancock of Massachusetts, President of the Congress

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;

Fourth Column

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;

Fifth Column

New York
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris;

New Jersey
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark;

Sixth Column

New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple;

Massachusetts
Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry;

Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott;

Matthew Thornton of New Hampshire, who could not be present for the signing on August 2, signed on November 19, 1776.³