Timothy Matlack, Scribe of the Declaration of Independence

On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read aloud to a crowd gathered outside the Pennsylvania State House. It was engrossed on vellum later in the month, and delegates began signing the finely penned document in early August. The man who read the Declaration and later embossed it—the man with perhaps the most famous penmanship in American history—was Timothy Matlack, a Philadelphia beer bottler who strongly believed in the American cause. A disowned Quaker and the grandson of an indentured servant, he rose from obscurity to become a delegate to Congress. He led a militia battalion at Princeton during the Revolutionary War; his unflagging dedication earned him the admiration of men like Thomas Jefferson and Richard Henry Lee. Also in 1776 Matlack and his radical allies drafted the Pennsylvania Constitution, which has been described as the most democratic in America. This biography is a full account of an American patriot.

History writer Chris Coelho lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Chris Coelho
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 232
Bibliographic Info: 17 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7443-1
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0564-7
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Preface 1
Introduction 5
One. The Failed Crossing 7
Two. Haddonfield and Philadelphia 12
Three. The March of the Paxton Boys 23
Four. Revolution 34
Five. Independence 49
Six. Democracy 57
Seven. The Winter Campaign 69
Eight. The British Occupation 81
Nine. Benedict Arnold Part One (Illicit Affairs) 100
Ten. The Fort Wilson Riot 116
Eleven. Benedict Arnold Part Two ­(Court-­martial) 125
Twelve. A Brief Term in Congress 140
Thirteen. Savannah, Georgia 158
Fourteen. The Revolution of 1800 171
Fifteen. Common Sense Revisited 180
Epilogue 193
Chapter Notes 199
Bibliography 209
Index 215