Josiah Bartlett — The First Vote

Four confirmed primary documents from the New Hampshire physician who cast the first vote for independence on July 2, 1776, and went on to serve as Chief Justice and Governor of the state he had helped create.

Josiah Bartlett was born in Amesbury, Massachusetts on November 21, 1729. He had no formal medical training, in the eighteenth century, most physicians learned through apprenticeship. Bartlett read under a physician in Amesbury, completed his apprenticeship, and moved to Kingston, New Hampshire in 1750 to open his practice. He developed a reputation as an effective physician, reportedly introducing the use of Peruvian bark (quinine) to treat fevers in New Hampshire.

He entered public life through the New Hampshire colonial assembly. When the royal governor dissolved the assembly for its support of Massachusetts following the Boston Port Act, the New Hampshire members reconvened as an extralegal provincial congress, with Bartlett among them. In 1775, British loyalists burned his house in retaliation for his Patriot activities.

The vote on independence on July 2, 1776 followed the geographical order of the states, from north to south. New Hampshire was called first. Josiah Bartlett cast the first affirmative vote for independence of any delegation, the first vote in the room, on the day the United States declared itself independent.

New Hampshire had authorized its delegates to vote for independence in January 1776, one of the first states to do so, months before most other colonies had reached that position. Bartlett signed the Declaration of Independence, with his signature appearing first among the New Hampshire delegates at the top left of the parchment. The parchment is at the National Archives.

Bartlett served in the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1779, with breaks to attend to his medical practice in New Hampshire. He served on committees for naval affairs and for the Articles of Confederation. His correspondence from the congressional years is at the New Hampshire Historical Society and in the published Letters of Delegates to Congress at the Library of Congress.

He wrote regularly to John Langdon, New Hampshire's leading merchant and political figure, describing conditions in Congress and the progress of the war. Bartlett's letters to Langdon are among the primary sources for New Hampshire's perspective on the Revolution in Congress. Selected letters are at Founders Online.

After leaving Congress, Bartlett served as a judge on the New Hampshire Superior Court (1779–1790) and as Chief Justice (1788–1790). He was elected Governor of New Hampshire in 1790 and re-elected in 1791 and 1792. In 1793, the state ratified a new constitution and Bartlett became the first President of New Hampshire under it, a title that functioned as governor, before the title reverted to "Governor" in subsequent terms.

He resigned as governor in 1794 due to poor health and died on May 19, 1795, at sixty-five. He was buried in Kingston, New Hampshire. His medical practice, his congressional service, his role in founding the New Hampshire Medical Society, and his gubernatorial career made him one of the most consequential figures in New Hampshire's history. The New Hampshire Historical Society holds his papers. Selected correspondence is at Founders Online.