I don't know where/when I learned this, but since we have a signer in the family (signed as "Step Hopkins") I thought I would add what these Harvardians seem not to know: The original documents were NOT signed in state order. The Congress traveled back and forth to their Colonies and homes all throughout the Congress and were not all there at the same time. The signing did not take place all on one day, either.
you're mostly correct, but I don't think you're addressing the point that the Harvard researchers were making.
On the original Declaration of Independence, the signers added their names in six columns. For the most part, they were grouped by the Colonies that they represented in the Second Continental Congress. Column 1 has the 3 signers from Georgia. Column 2 starts with the 3 signers from North Carolina. Lower in the same column are the 4 signatures from the South Carolina representatives. If we go over to the 6th column, about half-way down are the 2 signatures from the Rhode Island representatives, including your ancestor.
On the parchment copy that was recently found and authenticated by the Harvard researchers, the signatures are not in columns. They are written in 6 rows, at the bottom of the copy. I can't make out all of the signatures on the copy to determine if the signatures are grouped for each of the colonies, but it appears that the signatures of the New Jersey representatives are on the same row.
As for the signing of the original Declaration, it did, for the most part, take place on one day -- August 2, 1776. The draft copy, which the Second Continental Congress adopted on July 4, 1776, was signed by John Hancock, the President of the Congress, and Charles Thompson, the secretary of the Congress (though not a representative of his state, Pennsylvania). On July 19, 1776, Congress decided a more formal version of the document was needed. Timothy Matlack, who was Secretary Thompson's assistant, took 2 weeks to pen on parchment what we now call the original Declaration of Independence. Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean, and Matthew Thornton were not in attendance at Congress on August 2nd, so they added their signatures at later dates. Two representatives, John Dickinson and Robert Livingston, never signed the Declaration.
It seems to me that if you are going to declare independence from the mother country you should let them know in writing! Maybe we sent an original to King George just to make it official.
The 1st part of your post is accurate, and is in fact what the Declaration of Independence is. The 2nd part of your post is incorrect.
The reason the draft was signed on July 4th by President Hancock and Secretary Thompson was so that it could be rushed to printers, so that the information could be widely disseminated. The broadside versions were sent to each colony, and published in newspapers throughout the colonies.
If you read the Declaration, you'll find that beyond "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." and a few other sentences, pretty much the entire Declaration lays out the case against King George III, and explains why the colonies are declaring independence from Great Britain.
Reports about the Declaration of Independence, and the text of it, reached London by boat on August 10, 1776. The Second Continental Congress did not send an official version of the document to the King to inform him of what they had adopted.
