Button Gwinnett

Common card · No. 233986

Button Gwinnett ( gwin-ET; March 3, 1735 – May 19, 1777) was a British-born American Founding Father who, as a representative of Georgia to the Continental Congress, was one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence (first signature on the left). Gwinnett was briefly the provisional president of Georgia in 1777, and Gwinnett County (now a major suburb of metropolitan Atlanta) was named for him. He was named in honor of his mother’s cousin, Barbara Button, who became his godmother. Gwinnett was killed by a wound sustained in a duel against rival general Lachlan McIntosh following a dispute after a failed invasion of East Florida.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Thought to be by Jeremiah Theus (Charleston, South Carolina/Swiss, 1719-1774), Public domain