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(1724-1792), was a member of the first South Carolina Provincial Congress in 1775. He was a delegate from South Carolina to the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1780, and was its president from 1777 to 1778. He was appointed Minister to Holland in 1779; was captured during the voyage by the British, and confined in prison for fifteen months. In 1781 he was appointed one of the commissioners to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain. In 1782 he signed the preliminary Treaty of Paris. Impaired health forced him to retire from public life.