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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