William Paca

William Paca was born in 1740 in Abingdon, Maryland, studied law in Annapolis and in England, and became a leading attorney and planter. With Samuel Chase and others he opposed the Stamp Act and later served in the Continental Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence. He helped write Maryland's first state constitution and became governor of Maryland late in the war, working to raise men and supplies. After ratification of the federal Constitution, President Washington appointed him a federal district judge, a post he held until his death in 1799. Paca was a wealthy planter who held people in slavery, like many of the Maryland and Virginia signers. The contrast between the language he signed in 1776 and the labor system that supported his household is part of his story, not a footnote to be added later.

See also: Signers of the Declaration · Samuel Chase · Thomas Stone · Charles Carroll of Carrollton