Josiah Bartlett (1729–1795)

Physician and statesman, first governor of New Hampshire, born at Amesbury, MA, on the 21st of November 1729; died in New Hampshire on the 19th of May 1795. He studied and practiced medicine; discovered and applied new remedies. In 1765 he was delegate to the legislature. He was a zealous Whig, and as a member of the Continental Congress, was the first to vote for the Declaration of Independence and the second to sign it. Dr. Bartlett was appointed general naval agent (1776); elected to Congress (1778); successively chief justice of the court of common pleas, muster-master of troops, justice of the superior court, chief justice, and was three times chosen president of New Hampshire, the governorship of which state was his last office.