Signer of the Declaration of Independence, born in Caroline County, VA, on the 17th of May 1741; was almost entirely self-educated; admitted to the bar in 1762; removed to Greenville County, NC, in 1774; was a member of the Continental Congress, supplying a vacancy, in 1775; signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776; re-elected to the Continental Congress until 1780; in the latter year, on the invasion of North Carolina by Cornwallis, was given unlimited powers, discharging his trust with great credit; was for a short time in 1784 receiver of state taxes. He died in retirement in September 1788.
