Button Gwinnett
Born: 1735
Died: May 16, 1777
Colony/State: Georgia
Occupation / Public Role: Merchant, planter, legislator, delegate to the Continental Congress, president of Georgia
Contribution to the Founding Era: Delegate to the Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, member of Georgia’s revolutionary leadership, and later president of Georgia’s provisional government.
Button Gwinnett was born in Gloucestershire, England, and came to Georgia in the 1760s after working in trade. He first settled in Savannah and later moved to St. Catherines Island, where he tried plantation life after merchant business went poorly. He was not one of the old colonial grandees who had been sitting in power forever; he was more of a late-arriving, ambitious climber trying to force his way into Georgia’s upper tier.
Before independence, Gwinnett entered Georgia politics through the Commons House of Assembly and then rose into the Revolutionary movement. The U.S. House and Georgia Encyclopedia both place him in Georgia’s revolutionary leadership and note that he served in the Second Continental Congress in 1776. He signed the Declaration of Independence as one of Georgia’s three signers.
Gwinnett’s political career after the Declaration was brief but intense. After the death of Archibald Bulloch, he became president of Georgia in 1777, the office then functioning as the head of the state’s government. Britannica and the National Governors Association both identify him as president, and Georgia later honored him by giving his name to Gwinnett County.
He is also one of the most dramatic figures among the signers because of the feud that ended his life. After a failed Georgia expedition against British East Florida, Gwinnett quarreled bitterly with Lachlan McIntosh, who publicly called him “a scoundrel and lying rascal.” Gwinnett challenged McIntosh to a duel. The two men fought on May 16, 1777, and both were wounded, but Gwinnett died from his injuries a few days later. It is one of the wildest endings in the signer list — not exactly a calm retirement on the porch.
Button Gwinnett is remembered today for more than politics. Because he died young and left behind very few signed documents, his autograph became one of the rarest and most valuable of all the Declaration signers. Britannica notes that his name is especially famous among collectors for that reason. But even without the autograph legend, he would still be worth remembering: immigrant, signer, Georgia leader, and one of the founding generation’s most combustible political casualties.
Related Links
- Signers of the Declaration of Independence
- Declaration of Independence
- Lyman Hall
- George Walton
- Edward Rutledge