Matthew Thornton (1714 – June 24, 1803), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Hampshire. He was born in Ireland: his family immigrated to North America when he was three years old, settling first at Wiscasset, Maine, and removing shortly thereafter to Worcester, Massachusetts. Thornton became a physician and was appointed surgeon to the New Hampshire Militia troops in an expedition against Fortress Louisbourg. He had royal commissions as justice of the peace and colonel of militia.
Philemon Dickinson (April 5, 1739 – February 4, 1809) was an American lawyer and politician from Trenton, New Jersey. As a brigadier general of the New Jersey militia, he was one of the most effective militia officers of the American Revolutionary War. He was also a Continental Congressman from Delaware and a United States Senator from New Jersey. Dickinson was born in Maryland. When he was one, his family moved to Delaware. He was educated by a private tutor until he went to the University of Pennsylvania, from where he graduated in the first class in 1759.
Oliver Wolcott (December 1, 1726 – December 1, 1797) was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and also the Articles of Confederation as a representative of Connecticut. Oliver Wolcott was born in Windsor, Connecticut, the youngest of fourteen children of the royal governor Roger Wolcott. He attended Yale College, graduating in 1747. He was commissioned to raise a militia company to fight in the French and Indian War, and he served the King as Captain in this unit on the northern frontier. At the end of the war, Wolcott studied medicine, then was appointed sheriff of the newly created Litchfield County, Connecticut, serving from about 1751 to 1771.
Benjamin Contee (1755 – November 30, 1815) was an American Episcopal priest and statesman from Maryland. He was an officer in the American Revolutionary War, a delegate to the Confederation Congress, and member of the first United States House of Representatives. At beginning of the Revolutionary War, Contee entered the Continental Army, rising to the rank of captain of the 3rd Maryland Regiment, which proved to be one of the army's elite units until its near annihilation at the Battle of Camden.
William Livingston (November 30, 1723 – July 25, 1790) served as the Governor of New Jersey (1776–1790) during the American Revolutionary War and was a signer of the United States Constitution. Livingston was the son of Philip Livingston and was born in Albany. He was raised by his grandmother until the age of 14. He graduated from Yale University in 1741 and then studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1748 and began his practice in New York. He moved to Elizabethtown, today Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1772, where he built a large country home to house his growing family. The house, known as Liberty Hall, still stands today.