Five episodes on what signing the Declaration actually cost. Stockton was captured and broken. Clark's sons were taken prisoner. Lewis's wife was seized by the British. Hart lost his farm and died before the war ended. Braxton spent a fortune and died in debt. The primary documents are in the archive.
On August 2, 1776, Richard Stockton signed the Declaration of Independence. On November 30, Loyalists dragged him from his bed in the middle of the night.
Abraham Clark signed the Declaration of Independence. Then the British captured two of his sons and put them on the most deadly prison ship in the harbor. Then they made him an offer.
Elizabeth Lewis never signed anything. She never voted, never held office, never stood before a congress or a court. She was home on Long Island when the British came.
John Hart was sixty-five years old when he signed the Declaration of Independence. He had built everything he had over a lifetime — a farm, a family, a name.
Carter Braxton of Virginia was among the wealthiest men in the colonies when he signed the Declaration. He funded the Revolution out of his own pocket — ships, loans, provisions.