JOSEPH HEWES-PATRIOT-1730-1779

Joseph's parents were natives of Connecticut and were members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers.  As soon as they married they moved to New Jeresy and bought a small farm at Kingston, near Princeton.  Joseph was born there in 1730 and educated at Princeton College.  When he finished there he apprenticed to a merchant in Philadelphia and learned the skills to be a merchant.
His father provided him a little cash to get a start in the mercantile trade and with his good reputation and solid learning in the trades he soon amassed a small fortune.
When he was thirty years old he moved to North Carolina and settled in Edenton where he lived the rest of his life.  He went into business there and earned such a good reputation and became well known among the people as an upright citizen.
In 1763 he was elected to the State Legislature where he performed so well that the people sent him back to the legislature for several years.
Hewes was one of the first in North Carolina to take up the cause of the Patriots of North Carolina and used his influence to bring about a convention of the people to call for a General Congress.  The convention met in the summer of  1774 and elected him to one of the delegates for the state.
He tok his seat on the fourteenth of September and was immediately placed on the commettiee to right the Declaration of Rights.  During that session he set about to draw up a non-importation agreement for the States to sign.  Of course this kind of declaration would put an end to his business and he knew it, but his act was out of patriotism and he made the sacrifice gladly.
Hewes was elected again in 1775 and although he did not enter into much of the debates or discussion his mind was adroit and he was placed on the naval committee and effectively became the first Secretary of the Navy (although we had very little Navy).
Hewes was in Philadelphia in 1776 to vote for and to sign the Declaration of Independence but he soon had to return home to straighten his affairs and save his fortune from being scattered to the four winds.  He stayed until 1779 when he returned to Congress but found himself too ill to remain so he resigned his seat.  He never left Philadelphia, he was too weak and Joseph Hewes was the first and only signer to die at his desk.....Medicineman!