Representing Pennsylvania at the Continental Congress
|Born:||January 17, 1706| |Education:||Self-taught, apprenticed
as a printer. Honorary Doctor of Laws, Universities of Edinburgh
and Oxford.| |Work:||Printer, Publisher, Scientist. Clerk of the
Pennsylvania Assembly, 1736; Founded the Library Company of
Philadelphia, 1731; Postmaster of Philadelphia, 1737-1753;
Member of Pennsylvania Assembly, 1751-1764; Deputy Postmaster
general of the British colonies in America, 1753; Founded
Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia, 1753; Agent to Europe for
Pennsylvania, 1757-1762, for Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Jersey,
Massachusetts, 1764-1775; Elected to Continental Congress, 1775;
Testified before Parliament concerning the Stamp Act, 1776;
Postmaster General of the united colonies, 1775; Commissioner to
the French Court, 1776; Minister plenipotentiary to the French
Court, 1779; Negotiator in and Member of the Treaties with
Gr.-Britain, 1781-1783; Member of the Supreme Executive Council
of Pennsylvania, President of Penn