GWINNETT, BUTTON

born c. 1735, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, Eng. died May 16, 1777, St. Catherine's Island, off Savannah, Ga., U.S. American merchant, patriot, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, known chiefly because his autographs are of extreme rarity and collectors have forced their value to a high figure. (In 1927 one of his 36 autographs sold at public auction for $51,100.) Gwinnett emigrated from England to Georgia sometime before 1765. In January 1776 he was elected a delegate from that colony to the Continental Congress and, as such, signed the Declaration. Returning to Georgia, Gwinnett was a member of the convention to frame a new state constitution. He died from wounds received in a duel with Lachlan McIntosh, a Continental general, whose brother Gwinnett had arrested.