John Morton

John Morton was born about 1724 in Ridley Township, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, into a family of Finnish and Swedish descent from the old New Sweden settlement. He was a farmer and surveyor, served many years in the colonial assembly, and became a judge. In the Continental Congress the Pennsylvania delegation was divided over independence. Morton voted for it, and his vote helped the delegation join the majority of the colonies; he then signed the Declaration. He also helped see the Articles of Confederation through Congress. Morton died in 1777, about a year after the signing, one of the first of the fifty-six to be gone. A later inscription at his grave says that he hoped posterity would remember that he had voted for independence; whether or not those exact words are his, they fit the record of a cautious, local man who made a hard choice and did not live to enjoy its fruits.

See also: Signers of the Declaration · Robert Morris · Benjamin Rush · Benjamin Franklin · George Clymer · James Wilson