SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION

We have quite a few Clymers who worship with us at Stillnaz. This is an outstanding family who love the Lord and who serve the present age. They are fine and good friends.

I do not know if they are direct descendants of George Clymer, or not. But I thought both Clymers and non-Clymers alike would enjoy this brief biographical sketch of a man who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Enjoy!

George Clymer, Pennsylvania

Clymer, a leading Philadelphia merchant, rendered long years of service to his City, State, and Nation. He signed the Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution, and applied his commercial acumen to the financial problems of the Colonies and the Confederation.

Clymer was orphaned in 1740, only a year after his birth in Philadelphia. A wealthy uncle reared and informally educated him and advance him from clerk to full-fledged partner in his mercantile firm, which on his deathbed he bequeathed to his ward. Later, Clymer merged operations with the Merediths, prominent businessmen, and cemented the relationship by marrying his senior partner's daughter, Elizabeth, in 1765.

Motivated at last partly by the impact of British economic restrictions on his business, Clymer early adopted the Revolutionary cause and was one of the first to recommend independence. He attended patriotic meetings, served on the Pennsylvans council of safety, and in 1773 headed a committ that forced the resignation of Philadelphia tea consignees appointed by Britain under the Tea Act. Inevitably, in light of his economic background, he channeled his energies into financial matters. In 1775-76 he acted as one fo the first two Continental treasurers, even personally underwriting the war by exchanging all his own specie fro Continental currency. 

In the Continental Congress (1776-77 and 1780-82) the quiet and unassuming Clymer rarely spoke in debate but made his mark in committee efforts, especially those pertaining to commerce, finance, and military affairs. During and between his two tours, he also served on a series of commissions that conducted important field investigation. In December 1776, when Congress fled from Philadelphia to Baltimore, he and George Walton and Robert Morris remained behind to carry on Congressional business. Within a year, after their victory at the Battle of Brandywine, PA (September 11, 1777), British troops advancing on Philadelphia detoured for the purpose of vandalizing Clymer's home in Chester County, about 25 miles outside the city, while his wife and children hid nearby in the woods.

After a brief retirement following his last tour in the Continental Congress, Clymer was reelected in the years 1784-88 to the Pennsylvania legislature, where he had also served part time in 1780-82 while still in Congress. As a State legislator, he advocated a bicameral legislature and reform of the penal code and opposed capital punishment. At the Constitutional Convention, where he rarely missed a meeting, he spoke seldom but effectively and played a modest role in shaping the final document.  

The next phase of Clymer's career consisted of service as a U. S. Representative in the First Congress (1789-91), followed by appointment as collector of excise taxes on alcoholic beverages in Pennsylvania commission that negotiated a treaty with the Cherokee and Creek Indians in Georgia. 

During his retirement, Clymer advanced various community project, including the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine arts, and served as the first president of the Philadelphia Bank. 

At the age of 73, in 1813, he died at "Summerseat", an estate a few miles outside of Philadelphia at Morrisville that he had purchased and moved to in 1806. His grave is in the Friends Meeting House Cemetery at Trenton, N.J.