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.
Philip Livingston
Wikicommons Philip Livingston was a wealthy businessman, amassing his fortune via trade in the British West Indies. Livingston used his personal wealth for organizing the first New York Public Library in 1754. Furthermore, Livingston was a major proponent for founding Kings College, now Columbia College, the oldest undergraduate school of Columbia University in New York City. He also founded New York’s first Chamber of Commerce in 1770.
Livingston despite his business ties with the British, was a delegate at the pre-revolution Stamp Act Congress, assembled in protest to the highly unpopular Stamp Act passed by British parliament in 1765. Livingston’s personal involvement in the Stamp Act Congress was his initial act of formal protest against the Crown; an act of rebellion growing eventually to his signing the Declaration of Independence.
As thanks for his earlier work for the Crown, Livingston had his home in Kingston, New York used as a British barracks while his residence in Brooklyn Heights was utilized as a British Army hospital.
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William Hooper
Public Domain William Hooper, an eminent lawyer from South Carolina, was a late-comer to the cause of colonial independence from Great Britain. Considered a Loyalist due to his past collaboration with the British colonial government, Hooper eventually won over the skeptics at the Continental Congress.
Hooper’s Loyalist past was not forgotten by his former friends, however. The British tried to apprehend Hooper throughout the conflict. When the British captured Wilmington, Hooper became separated from his family. All while the incoming troops destroyed his estates in Finian and Wilmington, North Carolina.
It wasn’t until one year later, after relying heavily on the support of friends and neighbors, Hooper was able to reunite with his family in Hillsborough, North Carolina, only then able to begin rebuilding his law practice and his life.
