William Ellery

William Ellery was born in 1727 in Newport, Rhode Island, graduated from Harvard, and worked as a merchant and then as a lawyer. He entered the Continental Congress in 1776, in time to sign the Declaration of Independence, and remained a steady member through much of the war, also signing the Articles of Confederation. The British occupation of Newport cost him property, and he had to begin again when the enemy left. After the war he became customs collector for the port of Newport, a post he held for many years. Ellery lived to the age of ninety-two, one of the last surviving signers, and in later life supported the cause of ending slavery in Rhode Island. He died in Newport in 1820.

See also: Signers of the Declaration · Stephen Hopkins