Founding Fathers of the United States

The Founding Fathers refers to certain men who lived during the American Revolutionary War era. These men signed the Declaration of Independence, either helped write the Constitution of the United States, or helped win the American Revolutionary War. Many of these men were members of the Continental Congress at some point. The term "Founding Fathers" was first used for these people in 1916.^[1]

John Trumbull's painting, Declaration of Independence, depicting the five-man committee who wrote the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Congress.

There were many people who were Founding Fathers. Some scholars like to limit them to a small number, such as seven: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison.^[2]

Most of the Founding Fathers were large landowners or rich merchants. Most of them owned slaves. After the Constitution, many of the Founding Fathers became leaders in the federal government. Five of them, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and James Monroe, were later elected president of the United States.

List of Founding Fathers

Name	Province/state	DI (1776)	AC (1777)	USC (1787)
Andrew Adams	Connecticut		Yes
John Adams	Massachusetts	Yes
Samuel Adams	Massachusetts	Yes	Yes
Thomas Adams	Virginia		Yes
Abraham Baldwin	Georgia			Yes
John Banister	Virginia		Yes
Josiah Bartlett	New Hampshire	Yes	Yes
Richard Bassett	Delaware			Yes
Gunning Bedford Jr.	Delaware			Yes
John Blair Jr.	Virginia			Yes
William Blount	North Carolina			Yes
Carter Braxton	Virginia	Yes
David Brearley	New Jersey			Yes
Jacob Broom	Delaware			Yes
Pierce Butler	South Carolina			Yes
Charles Carroll	Maryland	Yes
Daniel Carroll	Maryland		Yes	Yes
Samuel Chase	Maryland	Yes
Abraham Clark	New Jersey	Yes
William Clingan	Pennsylvania		Yes
George Clymer	Pennsylvania	Yes		Yes
John Collins	Rhode Island		Yes
Francis Dana	Massachusetts		Yes
Jonathan Dayton	New Jersey			Yes
John Dickinson	Delaware		Yes	Yes
William Henry Drayton	South Carolina		Yes
James Duane	New York		Yes
William Duer	New York		Yes
William Ellery	Rhode Island	Yes	Yes
William Few	Georgia			Yes
Thomas Fitzsimons	Pennsylvania			Yes
William Floyd	New York	Yes
Benjamin Franklin	Pennsylvania	Yes		Yes
Elbridge Gerry	Massachusetts	Yes	Yes
Nicholas Gilman	New Hampshire			Yes
Nathaniel Gorham	Massachusetts			Yes
Button Gwinnett	Georgia	Yes
Lyman Hall	Georgia	Yes
Alexander Hamilton	New York			Yes
John Hancock	Massachusetts	Yes	Yes
John Hanson	Maryland		Yes
Cornelius Harnett	North Carolina		Yes
Benjamin Harrison V	Virginia	Yes
John Hart	New Jersey	Yes
John Harvie	Virginia		Yes
Joseph Hewes	North Carolina	Yes
Thomas Heyward Jr.	South Carolina	Yes	Yes
Samuel Holten	Massachusetts		Yes
William Hooper	North Carolina	Yes
Stephen Hopkins	Rhode Island	Yes
Francis Hopkinson	New Jersey	Yes
Titus Hosmer	Connecticut		Yes
Samuel Huntington	Connecticut	Yes	Yes
Richard Hutson	South Carolina		Yes
Jared Ingersoll	Pennsylvania			Yes
William Jackson	South Carolina			Yes
Thomas Jefferson	Virginia	Yes
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer	Maryland			Yes
William Samuel Johnson	Connecticut			Yes
Rufus King	Massachusetts			Yes
John Langdon	New Hampshire			Yes
Edward Langworthy	Georgia		Yes
Henry Laurens	South Carolina		Yes
Francis Lightfoot Lee	Virginia	Yes	Yes
Richard Henry Lee	Virginia	Yes	Yes
Francis Lewis	New York	Yes	Yes
Philip Livingston	New York	Yes
William Livingston	New Jersey			Yes
James Lovell	Massachusetts		Yes
Thomas Lynch Jr.	South Carolina	Yes
James Madison	Virginia			Yes
Henry Marchant	Rhode Island		Yes
John Mathews	South Carolina		Yes
James McHenry	Maryland			Yes
Thomas McKean	Delaware	Yes	Yes
Arthur Middleton	South Carolina	Yes
Thomas Mifflin	Pennsylvania			Yes
Gouverneur Morris[a]	New York		Yes
	Pennsylvania			Yes
Lewis Morris	New York	Yes
Robert Morris	Pennsylvania	Yes	Yes	Yes
John Morton	Pennsylvania	Yes
Thomas Nelson Jr.	Virginia	Yes
William Paca	Maryland	Yes
Robert Treat Paine	Massachusetts	Yes
William Paterson	New Jersey			Yes
John Penn	North Carolina	Yes	Yes
Charles Pinckney	South Carolina			Yes
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney	South Carolina			Yes
George Read	Delaware	Yes		Yes
Joseph Reed	Pennsylvania		Yes
Daniel Roberdeau	Pennsylvania		Yes
Caesar Rodney	Delaware	Yes
George Ross	Pennsylvania	Yes
Benjamin Rush	Pennsylvania	Yes
Edward Rutledge	South Carolina	Yes
John Rutledge	South Carolina			Yes
Nathaniel Scudder	New Jersey		Yes
Roger Sherman	Connecticut	Yes	Yes	Yes
James Smith	Pennsylvania	Yes
Jonathan Bayard Smith	Pennsylvania		Yes
Richard Dobbs Spaight	North Carolina			Yes
Richard Stockton	New Jersey	Yes
Thomas Stone	Maryland	Yes
George Taylor	Pennsylvania	Yes
Edward Telfair	Georgia		Yes
Matthew Thornton	New Hampshire	Yes
Nicholas Van Dyke	Delaware		Yes
George Walton	Georgia	Yes
John Walton	Georgia		Yes
George Washington	Virginia			Yes
John Wentworth Jr.	New Hampshire		Yes
William Whipple	New Hampshire	Yes
John Williams	North Carolina		Yes
William Williams	Connecticut	Yes
Hugh Williamson	North Carolina			Yes
James Wilson	Pennsylvania	Yes		Yes
John Witherspoon	New Jersey	Yes	Yes
Oliver Wolcott	Connecticut	Yes	Yes
George Wythe	Virginia	Yes

Other delegates

The 55 delegates who attended the Constitutional Convention are referred to as framers. Of these, the 16 listed below did not sign the document.^[3] Three refused, while the remainder left early, either in protest of the proceedings or for personal reasons.^[4][5] Nevertheless, some sources regard all framers as founders, including those who did not sign:^[6][7]

• William Richardson Davie, North Carolina
• Oliver Ellsworth, Connecticut
• Elbridge Gerry, Massachusetts *
• William Houston, New Jersey
• William Houstoun, Georgia
• John Lansing Jr., New York
• Alexander Martin, North Carolina
• Luther Martin, Maryland
• George Mason, Virginia *
• James McClurg, Virginia
• John Francis Mercer, Maryland
• William Pierce, Georgia
• Edmund Randolph, Virginia *
• Caleb Strong, Massachusetts
• George Wythe, Virginia
• Robert Yates, New York

_{(*) Randolph, Mason, and Gerry were the only three present at the Constitution's adoption who refused to sign.}