George Clymer: PA Signer of the Declaration of Independence

George Clymer was born on March 13, 1739, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Christopher and Deborah (Fitzwater) Clymer. He was the youngest of three children, two of whom passed away. His family’s ancestry traces back to England on both sides. His paternal grandfather, Richard, came to America in 1710 and was a successful trader. He would pass away in 1734. His maternal grandfather, George Fitzwater, came with William Penn and the first settlers to Welcome and was a successful merchant.

 Clymer’s mother passed away before he was two years old, and he was the only surviving child of his parents. He was put into the care of his maternal aunt, Hannah, and her husband, William Coleman. By age seven, his father had passed away and left him a small inheritance, which consisted of a few personal items and a Negro servant, who would die by the time Clymer turned eight years old. His maternal grandfather, however, favors him in his will and leaves Clymer with enough money when the grandfather died in 1750. His aunt Hannah and her husband have a home, Woodford, which is still standing in the Fairmount Park area of Philadelphia. It was built around 1756. His Uncle William was friends with Benjamin Franklin, who had helped him set up his printing business. Uncle William would leave the bulk of his estate to Clymer. According to the terms of the Uncle’s will, the home would be sold, his slaves freed, and a fund was to be set up to help the slave children seek apprenticeships.

            Clymer would not receive a formal education and would instead be educated at home. His favorite author was Jonathan Swift. Ironically, this Uncle was a trustee and founder of the College of Philadelphia, which makes it puzzling as to why he was not sent to formal schooling. The Uncle appears to have planned for Clymer to enter the trading business, because he began working in his Uncle’s business around 1753. By 1759, he set out on his own to start a trading company. The firm was highly successful, but it is unknown why he did this, as he was on very good terms with his Uncle.

            On March 18, 1765, he married Elizabeth Meredith, daughter of Reese Meredith, the second-richest man in Philadelphia after Robert Morris. Her father was friends with George Washington, who stayed with them when he was in Philadelphia. Clymer then enters into business with his father and brother-in-law. Through the Meredith family, he was connected to the highest political figures in Philadelphia. His brother-in-law, Samuel, marries Margaret Cadwalader, who was the daughter of a prominent merchant. His sister-in-law, Ann, marries Henry Hill, another prominent wine merchant, who counted George Washington among his clients. It was through these connections that Clymer began to explore his political options.

            Elizabeth and Clymer would have eight children, with five surviving to adulthood. The three children who died young were William Coleman, their firstborn, who was born in 1766, and their second daughter, Elizabeth, who was born in 1774. The other child to pass was Julian, who was born in 1780. Henry, their second son, was born on July 31, 1767, and he passed away in April of 1830. He married Mary Wiling in 1794 and had eight children. John Meredith was born in 1769, and he was killed on November 18, 1794, during the Whiskey Rebellion. Margaret, their first daughter, was born in 1772 and passed away in 1799. She marries George McCall in 1794 and has two sons before her death. The next surviving child was George, who was born in 1782. He marries Maria Gratiot and has one son that we know of, named Meredith, who was born in 1817 and passed away in 1902. George died in July of 1848. Their final child, Ann, was born in 1784. She marries Charles Lewis in 1807, and they have no children. His wife, Elizabeth, would pass away in 1815.

            In 1765, during the Stamp Act crisis, Clymer signed the non-importation agreement, along with 400 other Philadelphia merchants. It was around this time that his views on the British government began to change. Over the next several years, he wrote many pamphlets and broadsides, using a pseudonym while remaining outspoken about liberty and British tyranny. However, the Quakers control Philadelphia and are urging caution and reconciliation. He was very open about his views, and yet, he advanced in his political life. Just two years later, in 1767, he would help organize a boycott of the Townshend Acts. By 1769, he was serving on the Philadelphia Common Council, a position he would hold until 1775, and in 1772, he was appointed Justice of the Peace and held that office until 1776.

            1773 would be a fruitful year for him as he went to Boston to seek medical attention for a problem with his chest. During his visit to Boston, he meets Josiah Quincy, who has a letter of introduction from John Dickinson. Through this meeting, he was able to meet other Boston Revolutionaries. Clymer would write home to Philadelphia supporting the Bostonians but disparaging the Philadelphia and New York merchants, who were being too cautious in the fight against Britain. While he was in Boston, the Committee of Correspondence was established in Philadelphia. By December of 1773, Clymer was back in Philadelphia, and a cargo ship of tea had arrived from Boston. Clymer convinces the captain of the ship to return to England.

            Clymer was appointed Associate Justice of the City Court in 1774. Paul Revere arrives in Philadelphia around this time with news of the Boston Port Closure and a Circular letter detailing the political climate and the port closure. Clymer continues to be outspoken in his support for Boston and his displeasure with the Philadelphia merchants. He says the merchants are being selfish rather than looking out for the common good. Unfortunately, Pennsylvanians did not listen, and moderates were selected as Pennsylvania delegates for the First Continental Congress. Fortunately for Clymer, radicals would win the day in this Congress, and it was beneficial. He would help establish local committees to enforce this Congress’s decisions. He was also elected to the Philadelphia City Committee.

            City Troops were formed after the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775. Clymer was made a Captain in the Silk Stockings Brigade, but he resigned the commission to work on securing munitions for the Continental Army. He was then appointed Joint Treasurer of the Colonies by Congress. His co-treasurer was Michael Hillegas, and Clymer served until August 6, 1776. He continues to be active with the Philadelphia City Committee, especially now that it has become the governing body of Pennsylvania. He joins the Committee of Safety in June of 1775. All his efforts this year are geared towards the war effort, including enlistments, munitions procurement, and fortifications, among other issues.

            In May of 1776, he was elected to the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly and helped to rewrite the instructions to the state’s Congressional delegates, which allowed them to vote for independence. The Pennsylvania delegates voted for independence by a slim margin. Clymer was not part of the delegation at this time. He was elected as a member of the Pennsylvania delegation on July 20, 1776. Those who had voted against independence were removed from the delegation and replaced with independence friendly delegates. Just after becoming a delegate, but before he joined the Second Continental Congress, he worked on the new state constitution, which was ultimately defeated, with Clymer among those who voted against it.

            Immediately after his appointment to Congress, he was sent to Fort Ticonderoga to see its condition. Richard Stockton travels with him, and they report on the Army’s conditions, including the wounded and sick, as well as its supplies. The hospital conditions are deplorable, and he details the condition of the hospitals, down to the minutest detail. The result of this investigation enables Congress to grant General Washington broader powers over the condition of the Army. He returns from this trip to find he has been elected to the Provincial Assembly and the Council again. He signed the Declaration on August 2 but resigned his state seats in 1777, when the state government was formed, and reforms were not instituted.

            He was one of the 3 members of the Executive Committee, which remained in Philadelphia after the Congress fled to Baltimore as the British advanced on Philadelphia. Robert Morris and George Walton are the other two members who stayed with him. The executive committee was charged with making sure the army was well supplied. He moved his family from Philadelphia to Chester, PA, and would ride 25 miles each day to see them. They would then move to York when the Congress met there. During this time, the British arrived in Philadelphia after the Battle of Brandywine, and they began to damage and loot Clymer’s home. The losses from this damage would not hurt Clymer financially.

            Clymer was then sent to Fort Pitt to deal with the Frontiersmen and convince the Indians of the Shawnee and Delaware tribes to join the patriots. He succeeds in getting them to agree not to fight with the British. His experience with the Indians was particularly good, but he has an extremely bad opinion of the frontiersmen. During this trip, Clymer would turn down a wrong road; thus, he avoided a road that was full of hostile Indians, who had killed another man traveling on the road Clymer was supposed to take. Later in July of 1776, he, along with Philip Livingston and Elbridge Gerry, was sent to Valley Forge to investigate allegations of abuse in the Commissary Department. After this trip, he has to take some time off for health reasons, because he was exhausted from all the work. He was out of the office between 1777 and 1780due to the political climate in Pennsylvania and devoted his time to his business interests.

            In 1778, he returned to Philadelphia with his family. His affairs at this time concerned mostly various land tracts he owned. By 1780, he, along with others, chartered a bank to raise private money to supply the army. At this point in the war, supplies are running out, paper money is worthless, and states are refusing to send supplies or money to support the war effort. The bank becomes a huge operation, and Clymer is the co-director. The funds are raised and supplied to the army as a loan to Congress, to be repaid when Congress can collect the funds to pay the bank back. But rumors began to surface and circulate that the bank was engaging in profiteering. Since the bank had been chartered as a non-profit, these rumors were unfounded. None of the partners could or did make a profit.

            Clymer was reappointed to Congress in 1780 and joined the Finance Committee, where he once again served with Robert Morris. He returns to field work to solicit subscriptions for funds in the Southern states. Like his Northern counterpart, he was unsuccessful. One of the committees he served on during this tenure in Congress would consider admitting Vermont as a state. However, nothing came of this issue because the lands considered for Vermont were still part of Massachusetts, New York, and New Hampshire. Clymer would leave Congress in 1782.

            After he retires from Congress, Clymer moves his family to Princeton, New Jersey. He left Philadelphia to give his children a better education. He returned to Philadelphia in 1784 and rejoined his former political life. He was appointed to the Standing Committee of 13 in 1785 and then was elected a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He voices his support for a strong national government and helps ratify the Constitution in Pennsylvania. After the Constitution was passed, he went over to the Legislative side of the State House of Representatives. He used a maneuver that produced legislation authorizing a state ratifying convention before the Pennsylvania legislature adjourned.

            He was a representative in the first United States Congress, which convened in 1789. He was a member of the Federalist Party and a strong supporter of President Washington and strengthening the finances of the new government through the chartering of the Bank of the United States. It was during this Congress that Vermont was admitted as a state, and Clymer voted in favor of its admission. He did not run for re-election in 1791 and was appointed Supervisor of Revenue for Pennsylvania. He served in this office until 1794 and left just before the Whiskey Rebellion. He does not engage with the frontiersmen, as his opinion of them had not changed since 1776. He had absolutely no use for those men.

            His opinion of the Indians differed, and in 1796, he, along with Colonels Hawkins and Pickens, negotiated a treaty with the Creek and Seminole Indians. His dealings with the Indians during the war had been good, and he was on their side when arguing against the taking of land by certain states. This treaty helped to turn the Indians’ allegiance from Spain to the United States. His wife would travel with him on this trip, which proved difficult. As they traveled down to Savannah, they encountered storms the entire way.[1]

            Between 1804 and his death in 1813, Clymer participated in founding or helping to organize several different organizations. He was one of the Founders of the Philadelphia Bank and served as its president from 1804 to 1813. He also helped organize the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and served as its president from 1805 to 1813. In 1805, he sold 250 acres of land to Indiana County, Pennsylvania, for five shillings, for a courthouse to be built and a town to grow up around it. In addition, he helped organize the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture and served as its Vice-President.

            Clymer passed away on January 23, 1813, at Summerseat, his home in Morrisville, PA. He was briefly ill and had been staying at his son’s home. He was buried at Friend’s Burying Ground in Trenton, New Jersey, and his gravestone makes no mention that he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His home, called Somerset, was once owned by Robert Morris.

Tidbits

One of six signers who signed both the Declaration and the Constitution.

In 1905, a coal mining town northeast of Indiana, PA, was named for him.

He still has descendants living today.

Exchanges some gold and silver for continental money, but not all of it.

He is described as being quiet, unassuming, and handsome with an aquiline (curved like an eagle’s beak) nose, wispy hair, and fine features.

He was warm and open-hearted and a fervent supporter of the patriot cause, but he gave the impression of being lazy, which was the polar opposite of who he was, according to Dr. Rush.

Trustee of the College and Academy of Philadelphia for 22 years.

[1] Goodrich, Charles A., Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence (New York, William Reed & Co., 1856) 289