William Whipple

William Whipple
Born: January 14, 1730
Died: November 28, 1785
Colony/State: New Hampshire
Occupation / Public Role: Merchant, sea captain, legislator, military officer, judge
Contribution to the Founding Era: Delegate to the Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary War officer, and later a New Hampshire judge.

William Whipple was born in Kittery, Maine (then part of Massachusetts) and went to sea while still young. He later became a ship’s master and then established himself as a merchant in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Before the Revolution, he built his career in Atlantic trade and became a prominent figure in New Hampshire public life.

As tensions with Great Britain grew, Whipple entered revolutionary politics. He served in New Hampshire’s Provincial Congress and was chosen as a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence as one of New Hampshire’s representatives. The National Archives lists him among the signers from New Hampshire and gives his age in 1776 as forty-six.

Whipple also served in the war itself. He became a brigadier general in the New Hampshire militia and took part in the Saratoga campaign, where American forces won one of the most important victories of the Revolution. His career made him more than just a man with a famous signature at the bottom of a parchment; he was involved in both the politics and the fighting.

One of the most discussed parts of Whipple’s story involves Prince Whipple, an enslaved man associated with his household and wartime service. The National Park Service identifies Prince Whipple as an enslaved aide, bodyguard, and soldier to General William Whipple, tying William Whipple’s biography to the larger contradiction of liberty and slavery in the Revolutionary era.

After the Revolution, Whipple continued in public service and later became a judge in New Hampshire. He died in 1785 at the age of fifty-five. Though he is less famous today than Jefferson, Adams, or Franklin, he was one of the men who publicly backed independence and then kept serving the new nation afterward.

William Whipple Biography | Signer of the Declaration of Independence

William Whipple

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