Introduction

John Morton was born in 1725 in Chester County, Pennsylvania. His father died before his birth, and he was raised by his mother and stepfather. Largely self-taught, he became a surveyor and farmer. He married Ann Justis and had eight children.

In 1756, Morton was elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly, serving 19 terms and helping write 72 bills, 50 of which became law. In 1775, he was unanimously elected Speaker. He also served as justice of the peace, sheriff, road commissioner, Stamp Act Congress delegate, and associate justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Morton served in both Continental Congresses and chaired the committee reporting the Articles of Confederation. His most crucial act came in July 1776 when Pennsylvania’s delegation was split on independence—two for, two against, two abstaining. Morton cast the deciding vote for independence. He died in April 1777 at age 51 from tuberculosis, the first signer to die. His final message to detractors: “Tell them they shall live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it to have been the most glorious service I ever rendered to my country.”

Contribution to Independence: Morton’s deciding vote secured Pennsylvania’s support for independence, ensuring the crucial state would join the revolution. His early death made him a martyr to the cause.

A Brief Biography

John Morton was born in 1725 in Ridley Township, Pennsylvania and died April 1, 1777 at the age of 51 of tuberculosis. He was the son of John Morton senior and Mary Archer. Mary Archer’s family is traced back to Bartle Eschellson, whose name was first found in the records of 1644. He may have immigrated to Pennsylvania earlier making him one of first settlers in this region. The Morton side of the family arrived shortly thereafter. His great, great grandfather Martti Martitsen, or as in Swedish style, known as Martin Martinsen was born in Rautalampi, Finland and arrived in Pennsylvania on the ship the Eagle in the 1650’s. Both sides of John Morton’s family immigrated from “Sweden and/or Finland.” He was the first of the fifty-six signers to die and cut short what was promising to be a much greater role in Pennsylvania and national politics.

John Morton’s father died in 1725, the same year in which John Morton was born. His mother remarried an Englishman, John Sketchley. It was his stepfather who played an important role in John Morton’s youthful development. John Morton had little formal education, perhaps as little as three months. It was his stepfather who gave him the schooling he needed which included surveying, reading, math, and moral training. This enabled him to lead a very successful and productive life. John Morton thought so highly of Mr. Sketchley that he named one of his sons after him, Sketchley Morton. There are few written records of John Morton’s childhood other than that he was highly involved in his church. There is evidence, however, that as an adult John Morton, assisted neighbors by overseeing their books and maps as well as surveying their property. He acted as an advocate and advisor for them when necessary. It is remarkable that a man with such little formal education would play such an important role in Pennsylvania’s legal affair and in our country’s development.

In 1756, at the age of 31, John Morton was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly. This was due to citizen trust in his sound judgment and pleasant temperament. After ten years of service as a representative, John Morton’s good friend, Phillip Ford, the sheriff of Chester County, died. John Morton was appointed to take his place, thus voluntarily giving up his Assembly position. He was re-elected to the sheriff’s position in 1767 and again in 1768. In 1769, after he had fulfilled all the obligations placed upon him by Phillip Ford, he gave up the sheriff’s position and was re-elected as a representative to the Pennsylvania Assembly from Chester County.

John Morton’s legal career commenced in 1757 and continued through 1774. His positions included Justice of the Peace, High Sheriff of the County of Chester, presiding Judge of the Court of General Quarters Session, Common Pleas of the County of Chester, and Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. In 1770 John Morton’s name appears as the Justice of Orphan’s Court where he was the presiding officer until March 25, 1774. John Morton’s common-sense approach to legal matters bought him the necessary public respect that these positions required.

As the Chester County representative to the Pennsylvania Assembly John Morton served in a variety of position. In 1765, John Morton was one of three delegates appointed by the Pennsylvania Assembly to attend the Stamp Act Congress and it was he who brought that report back. In 1774, while serving as Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, he was voted to be a delegate to the First Continental Congress held in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia. On November 4, 1775, he was elected to the Second Continental Congress which was held in the State House, later renamed Independence Hall. The delegation to the Second Continental Congress, with Robert Morris and John Dickenson, absenting themselves and with Willing and Humphreys voting nay and with Franklin and James Wilson voting aye, it fell upon John Morton to cast the deciding vote for independence and he did so on July 4, 1776. He returned to the statehouse on August 2, to affix his name to the Declaration of Independence. It is said that Pennsylvania, because of John Morton’s deciding vote is nicknamed the “Keystone State”. For without Pennsylvania’s vote for independence the probability of it being adopted was doubtful. In 1776 and 1777, John Morton became Chairman of the Committee of the Whole and was heavily involved in writing the Articles of Confederation, the new nation’s first form of government. Unfortunately, he did not live to see his efforts realized.

Although Philadelphia was approximately 14 miles from his farm in Ridley Township, it required at least half a day to make that trip thus adding to his many burdens. Serving on so many colonial and then national committees Mr. Morton had to have spent many days and weeks away from home.

During his long tenure as a public official of Pennsylvania, he was also heavily involved in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chester as well as in the Swedish church. When John Morton died, he was buried at St. Paul’s Church yard.

Two and a half months after his death on June 18, 1777, Benjamin Rush wrote a letter to Anthony Wayne in which he discussed problems concerning the state’s new Constitution. In that letter he wrote, “Honest John Morton, your old correspondent, it is said, died of grief at the prospect of the misery he foresaw would be brought upon Pennsylvania by her present form of government.” Many historians have misinterpreted this quote as a rejection of his vote for independence as well as his signing of the Declaration of Independence. A careful reading of the entire letter deals with Pennsylvania’s new form of government and this new government is about which John Morton was referring. Also, the claim that John Morton had a death bed scene in which he purportedly said “tell them that they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it to have been the most glorious service that I ever rendered my country.” This alleged quote began to appear sometime in the early 1900’s. However, there is no factual foundation for this alleged quote made by him.

John Morton showed his fervor for independence in a letter written by him to Thomas Powell, a merchant in London, dated June 8, 1775. In this letter he expressed not only his resolves for independence but his concerns for the coming war. These sentiments reflected the feelings of many people in the colonies. “We are really preparing for the worst that can happen viz, a civil war.” He goes on to say “I hope Time will manifest to the World that a steady Perseverance in the Cause of Freedom will triumph over all the deep lay’d Schemes of Tyranny, & that Britain & America will again be united on the solid Foundation of Commerce & the Constitution.” In what appears to be righteous anger John Morton writes, “You have declared the New England People Rebels, & the other Provinces Aiders & Abettors, this is putting the Halter about our Necks, & we may as well die by the Sword as be hang’d like Rebels, this has made the People desperate.” These same sentiments are reflected in the Declaration of Independence.

Some individuals have suggested that the concluding sentence “I sincerely wish a Reconciliation, the Contest is horrid, Parents against Children, & Children against Parents, the longer the wound is left in the present state the worse it will be to heal at last” indicates a lack of support for the road leading to independence. However, many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence harbored the same concerns and fears, as in fact civil war did break out in many of the colonies during the Revolutionary War.

John Morton, as Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, on April 6, 1776, in further testimony to independence signed a resolution appointing Ludowick Sprogle as “muster master of the forces of this province for the protection there of against all hostile enterprises and for the defense of American Liberty.” This suggests a man who is leading cautiously, but inexorability towards affixing his signature on the Declaration of Independence.

In September 1777, after the Battle of Brandywine which the British won, Anne Morton, John Morton’s wife, fled across the Delaware River with what valuables she could take to Billingsport, New Jersey. It was during this time that many of the papers that belonged to John Morton, as well as household possessions were destroyed. On November 18, 1782, Anne Morton filed an accounting of the losses she suffered in compliance with an act of the General Assembly. This is unfortunate because this documentary evidence could have broadened our understanding of John Morton’s private and public life.

John Morton with his wife, Anne, had nine children: Aaron, the eldest child, Sketchley, a major in the Pennsylvania line of the Continental Line, Rebecca, John, who became a surgeon and died while a prisoner of war on the British ship, Falmouth in New York Harbor, Sarah, Lydia, Elizabeth, Mary, and Anne, whose husband, Captain John Davis fought in the Revolutionary War as an officer in the Pennsylvania line.

Biography credit here.

Final Thoughts

John Morton’s story embodies the profound personal sacrifices made by those who chose independence. As a self-educated farmer who rose to become one of Pennsylvania’s most trusted public servants, Morton represented the American ideal that wisdom and leadership could emerge from humble beginnings. His deciding vote for independence came at tremendous personal cost—friends and neighbors turned against him, viewing his choice as treasonous rather than patriotic. The fact that he died just nine months after signing the Declaration, never witnessing the ultimate success of the cause he championed, makes his sacrifice all the more poignant.

Morton’s legacy extends beyond his crucial vote. His life demonstrates how colonial Americans built functioning democratic institutions from the ground up, with men like Morton serving simultaneously as surveyors, judges, legislators, and church leaders. Despite having only three months of formal education, he helped draft 72 bills in the Pennsylvania Assembly and played a key role in creating the Articles of Confederation. This speaks to both the democratic spirit of early America and the extraordinary burden placed on its citizen-leaders, who often traveled for days to fulfill their duties while maintaining farms and raising large families.

The destruction of Morton’s papers during the war and the myths that grew around his deathbed words remind us how much of our founding story remains shrouded in uncertainty. Yet what we do know—that a Finnish-American farmer cast the vote that brought the crucial state of Pennsylvania into the revolutionary cause—tells us something essential about the American experiment. Morton’s willingness to risk everything for principles of self-governance, despite knowing it would cost him dearly, exemplifies the courage required not just to declare independence, but to transform thirteen disparate colonies into a unified nation.

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