Famous People we are related to
Signer of the Decloration of Independence
Josiah BARTLETT

Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949
Biographies B page 822

PBARTLETT, Josiah, a Delegate from New Hampshire; born in Amesbury, Mass., November 21, 1729; attended the public schools; studied medicine, and commenced practice in Kingston, N.H., in 1750; was medical agent to Gen. John Stark at Bennington; member of the colonial legislature of New Hampshire 1765-1775; Member of the Continental Congress in 1775 and 1776; signer of the Articles of Confederation and second signer of the Declaration of Independence; again elected to the Continental Congress, in 1778, but resigned the same year and became chief justice of the court of common pleas; became justice of the superior court in 1784 and chief justice in 1788; member of the convention which framed the Federal Constitution in 1788; in 1789 was elected to the United States Senate from New Hampshire, but declined, and at the same time resigned as chief justice; Governor of the State of New Hampshire 1790-1794; member of the constitutional convention of 1792 which changed the title from president to that of Governor; presidential elector in 1792; retired in 1794; died in Kingston, N.H., May 19, 1795; interment in the First Cemetery, in rear of the Universalist Church.

The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans:
Volume I A
page 211

BARTLETT, Josiah, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born at Amesbury, Mass., Nov. 21, 1729. He received an academic education and a thorough course in medicine, and in 1750 began practice in Kingston, N.H. His methods of medical treatment were original, and largely acquired while doctoring himself through a protracted fever. His experience being in direct opposition to the usages of the profession, he departed from the "old school," and his success won him a large practice. He introduced Peruvian bark into use in 1754. In 1765 he became a member of the colonial legislature of New Hampshire and held the office by annual re-election until the revolution. While in the legislature he opposed the royalists, and the governor made an unsuccessful attempt to win him over to his support by appointing him a magistrate and commissioned him a lieutenant-colonel of militia. His zeal in the cause of the colonies was not abated, however, and in 1775 he was deposed from both offices. He was a member of the committee of safety which conducted the affairs of government after the departure of Governor Wentworth from the colony in 1775, and he was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1775 and 1776, being the first to cast a vote for the Declaration of Independence and the second to sign it. He resigned as delegate to Congress shortly after he was appointed general naval agent, and later accompanied General Stark to Bennington, having been charged with the medical supplies of the New Hampshire troops. In 1778-'79 he was again a delegate to Congress, and in November, 1779, resigned his seat to accept the office of chief justice of the court of common pleas of New Hampshire. He became muster-master in 1780; justice of the superior court of the state in 1782; chief justice in 1788, and in the latter year served as a delegate to the convention called to ratify the federal constitution. Though declining an election to the first United States Congress as a senator in 1789 on the plea of age, he accepted the presidency of the state when it was offered him by the legislature in 1790, and after serving for three years, being re-elected by popular vote each year, he became in 1793 the first governor of the state under its new constitution. He received the honorary degree of A.M. and M.D. from Dartmouth college, and was for many years the president of the New Hampshire medical society. He died at Kingston, N.H., May 19, 1795.[p.211]

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