William Ellery

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William Ellery

William Ellery (December 22, 1727–February 15, 1820), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Rhode Island.

He was the son of William Ellery, born in Newport, and graduated from Harvard College at the age of 15. He worked successively as a merchant, a customs collector, and Clerk of the Rhode Island General Assembly. He started the practice of law in 1770. He was active in the Rhode Island Sons of Liberty, and replaced Samuel Ward, who had died, in the Continental Congress in 1776, and served on the Marine committee and the committee for foreign relations. He became judge of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. By 1785 he had become an abolitionist. He was the first customs collector of the port of Newport under the Constitution, serving there until his death. Of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence, Ellery was one of the seventeen who was also a Freemason.

John Trumbull's famous painting is usually incorrectly identified as a depiction of the signing of the Declaration. What the painting actually depicts is the five-man drafting committee presenting their work to the Congress. Trumbull's painting can also be found on the back of the U.S. $2 bill.^[1]

[edit] External link

• Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress