George Taylor of Ireland arrived in America as an indentured laborer at a Pennsylvania iron furnace. He became one of three men born in Ireland to sign the Declaration of Independence.
George Taylor was the Founding Father who earned his keep in America by sweating over hot coals. He arrived in Pennsylvania from Ireland in 1736, an indentured servant to an iron foundry owner who paid for his passage to America. He shoveled coal into a blast furnace, melting the abundant ore of the Lehigh Valley into pig, wrought and cast iron – later into musket and cannon shot, an arsenal of independence.
Taylor rose to become a wealthy foundry owner himself. In 1776, he joined a short list of just 56 men who propelled humanity out of darkness when he inked his name upon the Declaration of Independence. Three of those men — Taylor, James Smith and Matthew Thornton — were born in Ireland, according to the National Archives. The Irish are the most represented people, other than those born in America, on the daring but triumphant call for a new world order.
am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.' Congress approved the language and sent it to the printer two days later. Splashed in bold across the top of the document was this: 'In Congress, July 4, 1776.' The Declaration of Independence that we picture today, headlined by the dramatic signature of John Hancock, was not signed until Aug. 2.
Fox News Digital requested comment from the Embassy of the Republic of Ireland in Washington, D.C. Signers Thomas McKean, George Reed and Edward Rutledge were the children of Irish immigrants. Lt. Col. John Nixon, the first man to read the Declaration of Independence in public in Philadelphia on July 8, was also the son of an Irish immigrant.