Dictionary.net

(1742-1798), an American statesman, was born in Scotland, received a University education, and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1766. He became an able lawyer, and was a delegate to the Continental Congress. He signed the Declaration of Independence, and was one of the signers who also sat in the Federal Convention of 1787. Of this body he was one of the foremost members, and was on the Committee which drafted the Constitution. On him fell the burden of its defence in the ensuing ratifying convention of Pennsylvania. In 1789 he was appointed by Washington as Associate Justice for the U.S. Supreme Court.