Button Gwinnett

Button Gwinnett was born in Gloucester, England, about 1735, came to America as a merchant, and settled in Georgia, where he bought land on St. Catherine's Island. He sat in the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. Returning to Georgia, he became a leader of one faction in a bitter local struggle and, in 1777, serving as acting president of the state, he quarreled with the general Lachlan McIntosh over a failed expedition into East Florida. The two men fought a duel in May 1777; both were wounded, and Gwinnett died of his wound a few days later. Sources differ on the exact day of his death, some giving 15 May and others 19 May. He was a planter who held people in slavery, and his short American career ended not on a battlefield against the British but in a quarrel with a fellow patriot. He was about forty-two.

See also: Signers of the Declaration · Lyman Hall · George Walton