age. At twenty-six he was one of the leading lawyers of the colony of
North Carolina. George Ross (1730-79), was also of Scottish parentage.
His nephew's wife, Elizabeth (Griscom) Ross (1752-1832), better known
as "Betsy Ross," was maker of the first national flag. Matthew
Thornton (1714-1803), the distinguished New Hampshire statesman and
physician, was brought to this country from the north of Ireland by
his father when about three years of age. He accompanied the
expedition against Louisburg in 1745, was President of the Provincial
Convention in 1775 and Speaker in January, 1776. In September, 1776,
he was elected to Congress, and in November following signed the
Declaration of Independence, although he had not been one of the
framers. Thomas McKean (1734-1817), was a great-grandson of William
McKean of Argyllshire who moved to Ulster about the middle of the
seventeenth century. He was a member of Congress from Delaware
(1774-83), Chief Justice of Pennsylvania (1777-99), and Governor of
the state from 1799 to 1808. George Taylor (1716-81), described as the
son of a clergyman and "born in Ireland," was most probably an Ulster
Scot. He was a member of the Provincial Assembly of Pennsylvania from
1764 to 1770 and again in 1775. James Wilson (1742-1798), whose fame
was to become as wide and lasting as the nation, was born in St.
Andrews, the old university city of Fifeshire. He was a Delegate to
Congress from Pennsylvania in 1776, Member of the Constitutional
Convention of 1787, and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme
Court from 1789 till his death. He strongly advocated independence as
the only possible means of escape from the evils which had brought
the various commonwealths into such a state of turmoil and
dissatisfaction. Philip Livingston (1716-1778), grandson of Robert
Livingston, the first of the American family of the name, was Member
of Congress from New York in 1776. "His life was distinguished for
inflexible rectitude and devotion to the interests of his country."