How old were they really?? - Granite Grok

How old were they really??

founding-fathers-declaration-of-independenceI always thought that they were relatively old – or as my sons now say – my age.  Progressives denigrate them as old white guys (have have no moral standing because of slavery or kicking the American Indians off their land or something) – emphasis on Old.  Founding Fathers kinda denotes “older” but here’s a list from the Journal of the American Revolution that gives us the ages of those from our history and their ages on July 4, 1776 (er, corrected from type of 1774, thx to LoneStarGrok) -surprised the heck out of me!

Signers of the Declaration up first and after the jump; some other “names” you might recognize after the jump.

  • Thomas Lynch, Jr., 26
  • Edward Rutledge, 26
  • George Walton, 27
  • Thomas Heyward, Jr., 29
  • Benjamin Rush, 30
  • Elbridge Gerry, 31
  • Thomas Jefferson, 33
  • Thomas Stone, 33
  • William Hooper, 34
  • Arthur Middleton, 34
  • James Wilson, 34
  • Samuel Chase, 35
  • William Paca, 35
  • John Penn, 35
  • George Clymer, 37
  • Thomas Nelson, Jr., 37
  • Charles Carroll, 38
  • Francis Hopkinson, 38
  • Carter Braxton, 39
  • John Hancock, 39
  • John Adams, 40

  • William Floyd, 41
  • Button Gwinnett, 41*
  • Francis Lightfoot Lee, 41
  • Robert Morris, 42
  • Thomas McKean, 42
  • George Read, 42
  • Samuel Huntington, 44
  • Richard Henry Lee, 44
  • Robert Treat Paine, 45
  • Richard Stockton, 45
  • William Williams, 45
  • Josiah Bartlett, 46
  • Joseph Hewes, 46
  • George Ross, 46
  • William Whipple, 46
  • Caesar Rodney, 47
  • William Ellery, 48
  • Oliver Wolcott, 49
  • Abraham Clark, 50
  • Benjamin Harrison, 50
  • Lewis Morris, 50
  • George Wythe, 50
  • John Morton, 51
  • Lyman Hall, 52
  • Samuel Adams, 53
  • John Witherspoon, 53
  • Roger Sherman, 55
  • James Smith, 56
  • Philip Livingston, 60
  • George Taylor, 60
  • Matthew Thornton, 62
  • Francis Lewis, 63
  • John Hart, 65
  • Stephen Hopkins, 69
  • Benjamin Franklin, 70

More names over at the Journal of the American Revolution, but here are some you might recognize

  • Andrew Jackson, 9
  • Marquis de Lafayette, 18
  • James Monroe, 18
  • John Trumbull, 20
  • Aaron Burr, 20
  • John Marshall, 20
  • Nathan Hale, 21
  • Alexander Hamilton, 21
  • Betsy Ross, 24
  • William Washington, 24
  • James Madison, 25
  • Henry Knox, 25
  • John Paul Jones, 28
  • John Jay, 30
  • Abigail Adams, 31
  • Casimir Pulaski, 31
  • Nathanael Greene, 33
  • Benedict Arnold, 35
  • Charles Cornwallis, 37
  • Ethan Allen, 38
  • King George III, 38
  • Thomas Paine, 39
  • Patrick Henry, 40
  • Daniel Boone, 41
  • Paul Revere, 41
  • Thomas Sumter, 41
  • Lord North, 44
  • George Washington, 44
  • Martha Washington, 45
  • William Howe, 46
  • John Stark, 47 (yes, OUR’s “Live Free or Die”)
  • Thomas Gage, 56

(H/T:  The Volokh Conspiracy)

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