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- The chart was published in 1858 and examines the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Its creator combined biographical statistics into a single visual, allowing readers to compare the signers’ origins, education, professions, ages, marriages, children, deaths, and longevity. The presenter uses the chart both for its aesthetic appeal and as an example of how people in the nineteenth century organized and interpreted historical information.
- John Hancock appears first because of his prominent signature and position as president of the Continental Congress. The chart initially lists all 56 signers individually, arranged by state in an approximate north-to-south order. Pennsylvania had the most signers, with nine, while Rhode Island had the fewest, with two. All 13 colonies were represented.
- Six nearby British colonies did not sign the Declaration. Four lay to the north: Quebec, Nova Scotia, St. John’s Island, and Newfoundland, all now part of Canada. East Florida and West Florida lay to the south; they were subsequently ceded back to Spain and eventually became part of the United States.
- Eight signers were born outside the American colonies. Of the 56 individuals, 48 were born in the colonies, while three were born in Ireland, two in Scotland, two in England, and one in Wales. The chart therefore documents the signers’ varied geographical origins.
- The signers had varied educational backgrounds, with higher education or formal academic preparation the largest category. The chart classifies 31 as having received a collegiate, academic, or classical education. Another 12 had a liberal education, meaning, according to the chart’s explanatory note, that they were well educated but had not graduated from a particular institution. Nine had completed only common schooling, while four were homeschooled or self-taught.
- Law was the most common profession among the signers, followed by commerce. The chart also identifies four physicians, two clergymen, and several farmers. These occupations show that the signers came from multiple professional backgrounds, although lawyers predominated.
- The chart reorganizes the signers by age, using connecting lines to link each person’s original position to their new position. The oldest appears at the top and the youngest at the bottom, making age comparisons possible without losing the connection to the original list. John Hancock, initially first, falls to position 39 in the age ranking, meaning 38 signers were older than him.
- Benjamin Franklin was the oldest signer, aged 70 when he signed the Declaration. Stephen Hopkins was the second oldest, at 69. Hopkins was in poor health, which the presenter identifies as the reason his signature appears unusually shaky.
- Edward Rutledge and Thomas Lynch Jr. were the youngest signers, both aged 26. Lynch Jr. signed because his father, Thomas Lynch Sr., who was supposed to sign the Declaration, became ill and could not do so. The circumstances surrounding Lynch Jr.’s substitution later became particularly significant because of his disappearance at sea.
- None of the signers married more than twice, and two never married. The chart records the number of marriages using dots. Caesar Rodney and Joseph Hewes are the two individuals with no marriages recorded. Hewes had been engaged, but his fiancée died suddenly just days before their planned wedding.
- Carter Braxton had the most children of any signer, with 18. The chart’s children column identifies him as the individual with the highest number of offspring. Braxton and fellow signer Benjamin Harrison were both grandsons of Robert King Carter and members of Virginia’s prominent Carter family.
- John Morton was the first signer to die after the Declaration was signed. He had married once and had eight children. He died less than nine months after the signing, probably from tuberculosis, according to the presenter.
- Button Gwinnett was the second signer to die, approximately one month after Morton. His signature occupies the first position when the Declaration’s signature layout is read from the upper left. Gwinnett is also distinguished as the only signer who died in a duel. The presenter contrasts his death with the more famous duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, noting that Hamilton was not a signer of the Declaration.
- Charles Carroll of Carrollton was the last surviving signer, dying in 1832 at the age of 95. He was the only Catholic to sign the Declaration and the longest-lived signer. His signature is distinctive because it includes his place of residence as part of his name, distinguishing him from his father, Charles Carroll of Annapolis.
- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day: July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the Declaration was signed. They were the second and third U.S. presidents, respectively, and the only signers of the Declaration who went on to serve as president. Their deaths on the Declaration’s semicentennial gave the anniversary an extraordinary historical coincidence.
- Neither George Washington nor James Madison signed the Declaration of Independence. Washington was the first U.S. president, while Madison was the fourth. Both later signed the U.S. Constitution, illustrating the distinction between the individuals who signed the Declaration and those who participated in creating the Constitution.
- The chart separately records whether each signer left behind a wife or children. Columns seven and eight indicate whether a signer left a wife and whether he left children, while the final two columns record the age to which each person lived. These details allow the chart to compare family circumstances with the signers’ deaths and longevity.
- Thomas Lynch Jr. was recorded as the signer who died youngest, at age 30, after disappearing at sea. He was both the second-youngest signer and the fourth to die. Four years after signing the Declaration, he sailed for the West Indies, but the ship disappeared. He was subsequently declared lost at sea at age 30; his precise fate was therefore unknown.
- The chart’s principal design feature is its use of connecting lines to link multiple biographical rankings. By tracing a line from a statistic back to the signer’s original row, readers can identify individuals by age, marriages, number of children, order of death, surviving family members, and lifespan. The design turns a dense collection of biographical information into a visual reference for comparing all 56 signers.