Gorham, Nathaniel, 1738-1796

Nathaniel Gorham (May 27, 1738 – June 11, 1796) was a Founding Father of the United States, politician, and merchant from Massachusetts. He was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress and for six months served as the presiding officer of that body. He also attended the Constitutional Convention, served on its Committee of Detail, and was one of the signers of the United States Constitution.

Starting at 15, Gorham served an apprenticeship with a merchant in New London, Connecticut, after which he opened a merchant house in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1759. He took part in public affairs at the beginning of the American Revolution: he was a member of the Massachusetts General Court from 1771 until 1775, a delegate to the Provincial congress from 1774 until 1775, and a member of the Board of War from 1778 until its dissolution in 1781. In 1779, he served in the state constitutional convention. He was a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation from 1782 until 1783, and also from 1785 until 1787, serving as its president for five months from June 6 to November 5, 1786, after the resignation of John Hancock. Gorham also served a term as judge of the Middlesex County Court of Common Pleas.

For several months in 1787, Gorham served as one of the Massachusetts delegates to the United States Constitutional Convention. Gorham frequently served as chairman of the Convention's Committee of the whole, meaning that he (rather than the president of the Convention, George Washington) presided over convention sessions during the delegates' first deliberations on the structure of the new government in late May and June 1787. After the convention, he worked hard to see that the Constitution was approved in his home state. Gorham died in Charlestown in 1796 and was buried in the Phipps Street Cemetery there.