Dana, Francis, 1743-1811

Francis Dana (June 13, 1743 – April 25, 1811) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, jurist, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1778 and 1784. He signed the Articles of Confederation.

Born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, Dana was educated at Harvard before reading law, being admitted to the bar, and commencing practice in Boston. Being an opponent of the British colonial policy, he became a leader of the Sons of Liberty and was first elected to Massachusetts' provincial (revolutionary) Congress in 1774. In 1775 the Continental Congress dispatched him to England in an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile the differences leading to the Revolutionary War. He returned the following year, convinced that a friendly settlement of the dispute was impossible, and was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1777, where he signed the Articles of Confederation in 1778.

Dana left the Congress to accompany John Adams to Paris as a secretary to the diplomatic delegation. In 1780, he was named as American minister to the Russian Empire, and while he never gained official recognition from Catherine the Great, he remained in Saint Petersburg until 1783. After his return, he was again elected to the national Congress in 1784. In 1785, Dana was appointed to the Supreme Court of Massachusetts and served there until 1806 as the chief justice after 1791. Dana generally retired from public life in 1806; after his death in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dana was buried in Cambridge's Old Burying Ground.