Edward Rutledge was the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, signing at age 26.
Rutledge represented South Carolina in the Second Continental Congress. Born in Charleston in 1749, he studied law in London and returned to South Carolina to practice. His youth did not prevent him from becoming an influential revolutionary politician.
Rutledge later served as a captain in the South Carolina militia. He was captured with fellow Declaration signers Arthur Middleton and Thomas Heyward during the 1780 siege of Charleston and held in St. Augustine until a prisoner exchange in 1781. He eventually became governor of South Carolina.
The age comparison is especially striking because Benjamin Franklin, the oldest signer, was 70. The Declaration’s 56 signers therefore represented a wide generational span. Rutledge’s status concerns the signers of the document, not every delegate who debated independence or every revolutionary leader associated with America’s founding.