The Lives and Times of Our Founding Fathers - 10
In this post: William Paca, Robert Treat Paine, Lyman Hall
Founding Fathers Series
Step into history like never before.
Starting today and on a daily basis (Mon thru Fri), we will be posting 2 to 3 videos, about 5 minutes worth of videos, presenting the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the ladies of the American Revolution come alive through vivid, first-person storytelling.
This Series will be tagged on the right column of our blog as Founding Father Series
You may not know some, that does not devalue the contributions they provided in the founding of our country.
Their courage, sacrifice, and triumph unfold in gripping moments that shaped America’s founding.
If you are finding this series informative, continue on with researching the Founding Fathers in the Library of Congress as well as the National Archives. Once there, feel free to hone the search down to a particular Founding Father as well.
William Paca
William Paca was a Founding Father of the United States, born on October 31, 1740, in Abingdon, Maryland. He was the second son of John and Elizabeth Smith Paca. His great-grandfather, Robert Paca, had emigrated from England, and the family became landowners, planters, and public servants in Maryland. Paca received a classical education, attending the Academy and College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania), where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1759 and a master's degree in 1762. He then studied law, including six months at the Inner Temple in London, and was admitted to the bar in 1761, establishing his practice in Annapolis in 1763.
Paca was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, approving it on July 4, 1776, and signing it on August 2, 1776, as a delegate from Maryland to the Continental Congress, a role he held from 1774 to 1779. He also served in the Maryland Legislature from 1771 to 1774. During the Revolutionary War, he used his own money to provision Maryland troops. Paca served as the third Governor of Maryland from 1782 to 1785. After his governorship, he was a member of the 1788 state convention that ratified the federal constitution. In his final position, he was appointed to the U.S. District Court for Maryland, serving from 1789 until his death on October 13, 1799, in Queen Anne's County, Maryland.
Several locations and institutions are named in his honor. His Annapolis residence, the Paca House and Garden, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971 and is now a popular venue for events. The William Paca Club in New Providence, New Jersey, is named after him, citing his Italian-American heritage. Additionally, William Paca Elementary Schools exist in Baltimore City and Landover, Maryland, and New York City, with a William Paca Middle School in Mastic Beach, New York.
Robert Treat Paine
Robert Treat Paine was a lawyer, politician, and a Founding Father of the United States, born on March 11, 1731, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was a descendant of early New England settlers and came from a family with a long history in the British colonies, with his Paine family tracing its lineage back to the Mayflower. His father, Reverend Thomas Paine, was a Harvard-educated minister who later became a merchant, and his mother was Eunice Treat, daughter of Reverend Samuel Treat and granddaughter of Governor Robert Treat of Connecticut. Paine attended Boston Latin School and graduated from Harvard College in 1749 at the age of 18. He was also the namesake of Robert Treat, a founder of Newark, New Jersey, and a governor of Connecticut.
Paine served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and was a signer of both the Continental Association and the Declaration of Independence, representing the colonial Province of Massachusetts Bay. He also served in the Massachusetts colonial house of representatives, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, and the Governor’s Council. In 1770, he was counsel for the prosecution in the Boston Massacre trials, and later became Massachusetts’ first Attorney General in 1777, a position he held until 1790. He then served as an Associate Justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Court from 1790 until his retirement in 1804. Paine died on May 11, 1814, at the age of 83.
Perspectives
Focus on his role as a Founding Father and public servant
Robert Treat Paine was a lawyer, politician, and a Founding Father of the United States, known for signing the Declaration of Independence.
His career included serving as a delegate to the Continental Congress, counsel in the Boston Massacre trials, and Massachusetts’ first Attorney General.
He also served as an Associate Justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Court until his retirement.
Focus on his social reform efforts and estate
Robert Treat Paine was a social reformer who worked to improve housing conditions for the poor and promote international peace.
He established institutes, modeled after English organizations, which provided social pleasures, reading rooms, and class instruction, addressing the needs of the working poor.
The Robert Treat Paine Estate, known as Stonehurst, is a country house in Waltham, Massachusetts, designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted for philanthropist Robert Treat Paine.
Lyman Hall
Lyman Hall was an American Founding Father, physician, clergyman, and statesman, born on April 12, 1724, in Wallingford, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale College in 1747, a tradition in his family, and also received a medical degree from Yale University in 1756. He was one of four physicians and one of three Georgians to sign the United States Declaration of Independence. Hall County in Georgia and Lyman Hall High School in Wallingford, Connecticut, are named in his honor.
Hall pursued a career as a Congregational minister, being called to the pulpit of Stratfield Parish in 1749. However, he eventually left the ministry to establish a medical career. He settled in Georgia, where he became a planter in St. John’s Parish, in addition to practicing medicine. St. John’s Parish was known for its radical sentiment in a largely Loyalist colony.
Lyman Hall was a leader in the Revolutionary movement and a strong supporter of the colonial cause. He served as a representative to the Continental Congress and, after the war, as governor of Georgia from 1783 to 1784. His property was burned by the British in 1779, and he was accused of high treason. Hall died on October 19, 1790, at the age of 66, on his plantation in Burke County, Georgia. His body was later reinterred in Augusta under the Signer’s Monument, where all three Georgia signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried.
Perspectives
Lyman Hall’s early ministerial career
Lyman Hall’s first wife, Abigail Burr, died within a year of their marriage, and he later married Mary Osborne, with whom he had one son.
Lyman Hall was ordained by the Fairfield West Consociation in 1749 to preach in Bridgeport, but he was dismissed by the Consociation in 1751 after a hearing on charges of immoral conduct.
He became a minister, but when he quarreled with his congregation, he was fired.