TODAY'S TWD: JOSIAH BARTLETT

November 21, 1729:
Josiah Bartlett is born.

Today marks the birth date of Josiah Bartlett. He was a physician in New Hampshire back in the mid-1770's, who became the state's governor and served as the Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court. But his greatest claim to fame was that he worked as a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he was the second man to affirm his signature to the Declaration of Independence.

When the question of declaring independence from Great Britain was officially brought up in 1776, as a representative of the northernmost colony Bartlett was the first to be asked, and answered in the affirmative. On August 2, 1776 when delegates signed the formal copy of the Declaration of Independence, his position made him the second to sign, just after John Hancock, the president of the Congress.
[from Wikipedia]

In Toobworld, he is also noted for the virility of his sperm.....

He and his wife had twelve children: Mary, Lois, Miriam, Rhoda, Hannah, Levi, Josiah, Josiah, Ezra, Sarah, Hannah, and a child that was never registered. As you'll have noticed, there were two children named Josiah and two named Hannah. Both Hannahs died as infants, and the first Josiah died in the same year he was born. Levi, Ezra, and the second Josiah followed their father into the field of medicine.

And it was from one of those three lads that the Bartlett family trees of Toobworld began. On 'St. Elsewhere', the greatest hub in the TV Universe, two characters were named after Josiah Bartlett, with the inference that they were descended from the original patriot. (I'm not sure, but it could be that Ben Piazza and John Christy Ewing were playing the same man.)

Meanwhile, over in another TV dimension, the family name was altered slightly over the generations so that it now only carried the one "t" at the end of "Bartlet". And the name of Josiah Bartlet was borne by the President of the United States in that TV dimension. However, "Jed" Bartlet would be the last of his line to carry that name as he had three daughters with his wife Abby.

I'm surprised to find that Josiah Bartlett was not represented in the recent mini-series 'John Adams', especially since he held such a prominent place among the signators of the Declaration. Perhaps he was seen affixing his name to the document after Hancock, but his identity wasn't noted.

Josiah Bartlett died May 19, 1795.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

PS:
In a perfect Toobworld, Button Gwinnet would have been a Muppet.......