Three Who Pledged
The final sentence of the Declaration of Independence reads thusly: ” And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our scared honor” . Stirring words are they not and ones that should be read and pondered periodically, along with the remainder of the document.I suspect that most of us are woefully inadequate when pressed for knowledge of our declaration, much less those who wrote and signed it. Sure, we know of Jefferson and Franklin and Washington among others. But each of those 13 colonies had at least one and usually more than one representative.
For today, I want to briefly mention those from my home state of North Carolina. They were John Penn(who I had completely forgotten) William Hooper and Joseph Hewes.None of course was born in North Carolina. Penn came from Virginia to Granville County, Hooper from Boston to Wilmington and Hewes from New Jersey to Edenton.
There is so much one could say but I just want to illuminate them a bit and help assure that they are not totally forgotten. Penn and Hooper were in their mid 30’s when they signed , with Hewes about 10 years older. None lived very long afterwards. Hewes died first in 1779, Penn in 1788 and Hooper in 1790. One can safely assume that the rigors of the Revolution had to play a role in this. In fact, Hewes was serving the Department of Naval Affairs when he died .
Penn and Hooper were lawyers while Hewes was a wealthy merchant and sponsor of one John Paul Jones. Hooper for his trouble was disowned by his father and barred from the practice of law. he also had property destroyed and barely escaped British capture.
There is not a wealth of information about them as after the revolution they really were not around to make a visible impact. But they were there at the beginning and for that, along 53 other men, we owe them much.

Joseph Hewes

William Hooper

John Penn
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Dear Friends!
From may 2009, (insted the old – “nikotev.wordpress.com”)I have a new blog for modern and contemporary world history – “Nikolaykotev’s Blog” with URL: http://nikolaykotev.wordpress.com/ . If you want, you can see it on this adress!
Best wishes
Nikolay Kotev
NEWS: approximately 1600 pictures and photos from the Second World War
On July 4, 2009 Guilford Courthouse National Military Park had a service to honor the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Two of the signers, William Hooper and John Penn are buried in the park. We attended this event and the Nathanael Greene Color Guard members took part in the event. The event was on TV 14, 8 and 12 on the 11:00 pm news. Big honor for Color Guard member.