Some were older, like Thomas Jefferson who was 33, John Hancock who was 39, or Benjamin Franklin who was 70. Others were shockingly young - even teenagers. James Monroe, for example, was 18 and Alexander Hamilton was 21.
All Things Liberty compiled a list of the ages of key people during the American Revolution (a period spanning from 1765-1783) when the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Here's everyone who was younger than 30 on July 4, 1776, including a few signers of the nation-changing document:
- Andrew Jackson, 9
- (Major) Thomas Young, 12
- Deborah Sampson, 15
- James Armistead, 15
- Sybil Ludington, 15
- Joseph Plumb Martin, 15
- Peter Salem, 16
- Peggy Shippen, 16
- Marquis de Lafayette, 18
- James Monroe, 18
- Charles Pinckney, 18
- Henry Lee III, 20
- Gilbert Stuart, 20
- John Trumbull, 20
- Aaron Burr, 20
- John Marshall, 20
- Nathan Hale, 21
- Banastre Tarleton, 21
- Alexander Hamilton, 21
- John Laurens, 21
- Benjamin Tallmadge, 22
- Robert Townsend, 22
- George Rogers Clark, 23
- David Humphreys, 23
- Gouveneur Morris, 24
- Betsy Ross, 24
- William Washington, 24
- James Madison, 25
- Henry Knox, 25
- John Andre, 26
- Thomas Lynch, Jr., 26
- Edward Rutledge, 26
- Abraham Woodhull, 26
- Isaiah Thomas, 27
- George Walton, 27
- John Paul Jones, 28
- Bernardo de Galvez, 29
- Thomas Heyward, Jr., 29
- Robert R. Livingston, 29