William Whipple

William Whipple was born in 1730 in Kittery, Maine, and spent his young adult years at sea, rising to become a ship captain in the Atlantic trade before settling in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as a merchant. His commercial success gave him standing in the colony's affairs, and by the early 1770s he had developed firm convictions about the injustice of British commercial and political policy. He entered politics as tensions escalated, joining the Continental Congress in 1776 as a New Hampshire delegate at a moment when the question of independence was forcing every colonial leader to declare himself.

Whipple was present in Philadelphia in August 1776 when he signed the Declaration of Independence, placing his name on a document whose principles would directly challenge practices he had himself been party to. He returned to active military duty after signing, commanding New Hampshire troops during the Saratoga campaign in the autumn of 1777, one of the war's pivotal engagements. The American victory at Saratoga, in which Whipple's forces participated, secured the French alliance that transformed the strategic character of the war. Whipple continued in military and legislative service through the later years of the conflict, navigating the administrative difficulties of supplying and organizing forces in New England. At some point during or after the war, he freed Prince Whipple, the enslaved man who had served in his household — an act reportedly prompted by Prince's challenge to his master's professed commitment to liberty.

Whipple's decision to free Prince Whipple made him one of the relatively rare signers of the Declaration to act on its stated principles in his own household. He went on to serve as a judge on the New Hampshire Superior Court after the war, applying to law the same methodical integrity that had characterized his public service. He died in 1785, leaving behind a record that embodied both the achievements and the moral contradictions of the founding generation.