Hooper-Penn Monument and Grave
Click image to enlarge
T
he most historically significant graves in Guilford Courthouse National Military Park are those of William Hooper and John Penn, two of North Carolina's signers of the Declaration of Independence.
W
illiam Hooper, born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1742, practiced law in that city until he moved to Wilmington, North Carolina about 1765. Hooper served with Governor Tryon's militia that smashed the Regulator movement at the Battle of Alamance in 1771. In 1774, he was elected head of the North Carolina delegation to the Continental Congress, serving until 1777. He then returned to North Carolina where he served in the state legislature until the end of the war. Hooper died in Hillsborough, North Carolina on October 4, 1790.
J
ohn Penn was born in Caroline County, Virginia in1741. He moved to Granville County, North Carolina in 1774, and the following year was elected to the Continen¬tal Congress. In 1780, Penn was named to the North Carolina Board of War and in that capacity helped supply the state's militia units and partisan forces. He died at his estate near Stovall, North Carolina in 1788.
N
orth Carolina's third signer, Joseph Hewes, was born in Kingston, New Jersey in 1730. About 1760 he moved to Edenton, North Carolina where he became a successful merchant. Hewes was a member of the North Carolina Committee of Safety and the Continental Congress, where he chaired the committee that was responsible for fitting out the first American warships. As such he is considered the first civilian head of the United States Navy. Joseph Hewes died in Philadelphia on November 10, 1779. After a state funeral, he was buried in Christ Churchyard in that city.
I
n 1894, the Guilford Battle Ground Company decided to reinter the remains and erect a monument to North Carolina's three signers. Hooper and Penn were reburied in the park in 1894, but Hewes' unmarked grave could not be located. The monument to the three signers was erected over the new graves of Hooper and Penn and was dedicated on July 3, 1897.
The Monument is inscribed:
IN MEMORIAM
WILLIAM HOOPER AND JOHN PENN
DELEGATES FROM NORTH CAROLINA 1776 TO THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS AND SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. THEIR REMAINS WERE REINTERRED HERE 1894, HEWES GRAVE IS LOST. HE WAS THE THIRD SIGNER
"LEE, HENRY, AND HOOPER WERE THE ORATORS OF THE CONGRESS" JOHN ADAMS' DIARY VOL. 2. P. 396, 1774