Matthew Thornton: The Last Man to Sign

Matthew Thornton was born in Ireland in seventeen fourteen and came to America as a child. He trained as a physician and opened his practice in Derry in seventeen forty, living in this house until seventeen seventy-nine. Along the way he became one of New Hampshire's most prominent patriots, agitating against the Stamp Act, presiding over the Provincial Congress in seventeen seventy-five, and serving as a judge on the state's Superior Court.

When he was elected to the Continental Congress, the debate over independence had already concluded and the Declaration had already been signed. Thornton arrived in Philadelphia in November seventeen seventy-six, about four months late, and was granted special permission to add his name. He was the last of the fifty-six signers to put pen to paper. The house in Derry is a National Historic Landmark and one of the few surviving homes of a Declaration signer.