Timothy Matlack, Scribe of the Declaration of Independence

by Chris Coelho

Overview

On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read aloud to a crowd gathered outside the Pennsylvania State House. It was engrossed on vellum later in the month, and delegates began signing the finely penned document in early August. The man who read the Declaration and later embossed it—the man with perhaps the most famous penmanship in American history—was Timothy Matlack, a Philadelphia beer bottler who strongly believed in the American cause. A disowned Quaker and the grandson of an indentured servant, he rose from obscurity to become a delegate to Congress. He led a militia battalion at Princeton during the Revolutionary War; his unflagging dedication earned him the admiration of men like Thomas Jefferson and Richard Henry Lee. Also in 1776 Matlack and his radical allies drafted the Pennsylvania Constitution, which has been described as the most democratic in America. This biography is a full account of an American patriot.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786474431
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	06/25/2013
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

History writer Chris Coelho lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Preface 1

Introduction 5

1 The Failed Crossing 7

2 Haddonfield and Philadelphia 12

3 The March of the Paxton Boys 23

4 Revolution 34

5 Independence 49

6 Democracy 57

7 The Winter Campaign 69

8 The British Occupation 81

9 Benedict Arnold Part One (Illicit Affairs) 100

10 The Fort Wilson Riot 116

11 Benedict Arnold Part Two (Court-martial) 125

12 A Brief Term in Congress 140

13 Savannah, Georgia 158

14 The Revolution of 1800 171

15 Common Sense Revisited 180

Epilogue 193

Chapter Notes 199

Bibliography 209

Index 215