James Smith of Pennsylvania

James Smith was born in northern Ireland about 1719 and came to Pennsylvania as a boy. He studied law, settled at York, and practiced there for decades, also taking part in local militia organization as the break with Britain approached. In the summer of 1776, after Pennsylvania changed its delegation, he was sent to the Continental Congress. He arrived too late for the July vote but signed the engrossed Declaration and later signed the Articles of Confederation. He returned to York, resumed his law practice, and served briefly as a judge. Smith lived to a great age and died in York in 1806. He was not a national figure, but his life shows how the Declaration was signed not only by famous authors and orators but also by local lawyers who accepted a dangerous public trust and then went home to ordinary work.

See also: Signers of the Declaration · John Morton · George Clymer · George Taylor · James Wilson · George Ross