Thomas Stone

Born:	1743
Birthplace:	Charles County, Md.
Education:	Parish School, Law Studies. (Lawyer)
Work:	Admitted to the Maryland Bar, 1764; Elected to the Continental Congress, 1775-78, 1783; Elected to Constitutional Convention (declined), 1785.
Died:	October 5, 1787

Thomas Stone was born at Poynton Manor in Charles County Maryland in 1743. He was educated by a Scottish school-master and later studied law at the office of Thomas Johnson. He was admitted to the Bar in 1764 and set up practice in Frederick Maryland. He was a prosperous landowner and moderately successful lawyer.

Stone was elected to Congress in 1775. He did not speak much in congress, so little is known of his service there, except that he was a member of the committee that framed the Articles of Confederation. He voted for Independence in 1776, and his name is affixed to the Declaration. He was elected to Congress again in 1783 and served as chairman, but retired at the end of his term. He was elected to attend the Constitutional Convention in 1787, but declined the office because of his wife’s failing health. She died 1787, and Stone never got over the grief. He decided to travel to England, but died in Alexandria while waiting for the ship. He was forty-four years old. Little else is know about Thomas Stone, as no letters or papers accounting his life have ever been found.