History
The Forgotten Declaration of Independence Signers Who Lost Everything for Signing
July 4th celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Yet these men lost most everything for signing and defying the British Crown.
John Hart
Public Domain John Hart was effectively a career politician for over 25 years prior to signing the Declaration of Independence. Hart inhabited roles that encompassed serving as a delegate of both the First and Second Continental Congresses.
As speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, Hart hid in the Sourland mountains for a time when the British Army advanced as far into New Jersey as Hunterdon county. Meanwhile, Hessian troops attacked and pillaged Hart’s farm.
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John Witherspoon
Wikicommons The Witherspoons emigrated to the colony of New Jersey in 1768 by invitation for John Witherspoon to become the sixth president of Princeton. Witherspoon successfully overhauled the floundering college, making it an equal of Yale or Harvard.
Familiar with Crown oppression in his native Scotland, Witherspoon joined the revolutionary cause eagerly. John Witherspoon sought election to the Continental Congress, serving as the bodies official chaplain. These plaudits came with a heavy price, however. John Witherspoon lost his son during the Revolution in 1777, fighting at the Battle of Germantown.
