Timothy Matlack

Timothy Matlack
A 1790 portrait of Matlack by Charles Willson Peale on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
Born(1736-03-28)March 28, 1736
Haddonfield, Province of New Jersey, British America
DiedApril 14, 1829(1829-04-14) (aged 93)
Holmesburg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Resting placeWetherills Cemetery in Audubon, Pennsylvania
NationalityAmerican
Known for"Scribe of the Declaration of Independence"
Spouses
Eleanor Yarnell
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(m. 1758; died 1791)​
Elizabeth Claypoole
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(m. 1797)​

Timothy Matlack (March 28, 1736 – April 14, 1829) was an American politician, military officer and businessman who was chosen in 1776 to inscribe the original United States Declaration of Independence on vellum.[1] A brewer and beer bottler who emerged as a popular and powerful leader in the American Revolutionary War, Matlack served as Secretary of Pennsylvania during the conflict and a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1780. Matlack was known for his excellent penmanship, and his handwritten copy of the Declaration is on public display in the Rotunda of the Charters of Freedom at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.

Matlack became one of Pennsylvania's most provocative and influential political figures. He was removed from office by his political enemies at the end of the Revolutionary War, but returned to power in the Jeffersonian era.[2]

  1. ^ Brubaker, Jack (2016-06-28). "The Scribbler: The man who really wrote the Declaration of Independence". (LNP) Lancaster Online. Retrieved 2016-07-06.
  2. ^ Coelho, Chris. Timothy Matlack: Scribe of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2013, p. 55.