Stone, Thomas, 1743-1787

<ul><b>RACES</b>
<li>12/31/1783 MD Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1777 MD Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1776 MD Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1775 MD Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1774 MD Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
</ul>

<p>Thomas Stone (1743 – October 5, 1787) was an American Founding Father, planter, politician, and lawyer who signed the United States Declaration of Independence as a delegate for Maryland. He later worked on the committee that formed the Articles of Confederation in 1777. He acted as president of Congress for a short time in 1784. Stone was a member of the Maryland Senate from 1777 to 1780 and again from 1781 to 1787.</p>

<p>Stone was born into a prominent family at Poynton Manor in Charles County, Maryland. He was the second son in the large family of David (1709–1773) and Elizabeth Jenifer Stone. His brothers, Michael Jenifer Stone and John Hoskins Stone, were also prominent in politics. His uncle was Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer. Thomas read law at the office of Thomas Johnson in Annapolis, was admitted to the bar in 1764 and opened a practice in Frederick, Maryland.</p>

<p>As the American Revolution neared, Stone joined the Committee of correspondence for Charles County. From 1774 to 1776, he was a member of Maryland's Annapolis Convention. In 1775, the convention sent Stone as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was re-elected and attended regularly for several years. On May 15, 1776, he voted in favor of drafting a declaration of independence, in spite of restrictions from the Maryland convention that prevented their delegates from supporting it. In June the restriction was lifted, so Maryland's delegates were free to vote for Independence. Previously, Stone had been in favor of opening diplomatic relations with Great Britain and not going to war, as he was not only a pacifist but a conservative reluctant to start a gruesome war.</p>

<p>homas Stone was born at Poynton Manor in Charles County Maryland in 1743. He was educated by a Scottish school-master and later studied law at the office of Thomas Johnson. He was admitted to the Bar in 1764 and set up practice in Frederick Maryland. He was a prosperous landowner and moderately successful lawyer.</p>

<p>Stone was elected to Congress in 1775. He did not speak much in congress, so little is known of his service there, except that he was a member of the committee that framed the Articles of Confederation. He voted for Independence in 1776, and his name is affixed to the Declaration. He was elected to Congress again in 1783 and served as chairman, but retired at the end of his term. He was elected to attend the Constitutional Convention in 1787, but declined the office because of his wife's failing health. She died 1787, and Stone never got over the grief. He decided to travel to England, but died in Alexandria while waiting for the ship. He was forty-four years old. Little else is know about Thomas Stone, as no letters or papers accounting his life have ever been found.</p>