Who could ever defy a Founding Father in death? Not every architect of the United
States was buried according to his specifications.
John Adams signed two of the four founding documents of the United States history, served
as the second president, and had a son who also became president. With impeccable timing,
Adams died at age 90 on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the date traditionally
considered the signing of the Declaration of Independence. His last words reportedly were,
The news was even slower arriving to Adams' son John Quincy Adams, who was president at
the time. The elder Adams had reportedly been dead five days before his son even learned that
he was unwell, let alone that he'd died. By that point, he'd already been laid to rest.
The Columbian Centinel reported on Adams' death at the time, and while his son might
not have been there, it seemed like most of the people of Quincy, Massachusetts were.
He was ultimately entombed in a crypt at the United First Parish Church. His wife Abigail,
son John Quincy, and daughter-in-law Louisa would eventually join him there.
Benjamin Franklin was never a president,
but he was important enough to get his face on the $100 bill.
“Let’s keep it 100.”
After an exciting and eventful life, Franklin became extremely ill in 1790 from empyema,
which made breathing almost impossible. He died on April 17 at the age of 84.
Four days later, Philadelphia saw the largest funeral in its history, with
20,000 people estimated to have attended, out of just a population of just 28,000.
Franklin was laid to rest in the same city in Christ Church Burial Ground,
which already held the bodies of his wife Deborah Read, who predeceased her husband
by 15 years, and their son Francis, who had died at just 4 years old.
Always a humorist, Franklin had written his own epitaph as a joke way back in 1728:
This fitting epitaph can now be found on a plaque near Franklin's final resting
place. Tourists are known for throwing pennies on his grave for good luck.
Alexander Hamilton might have only signed one of the four founding documents of the United States,
but his writing and his time as the first Secretary of the Treasury definitely makes him
one of the most important Founding Fathers. And thanks to a 1990s milk commercial and a certain
21st century musical, he's probably one of the most well-known nowadays.
“Who shot Alexander Hamilton in that famous duel?”
Hamilton was killed in 1804 in a duel with then-Vice President Aaron
Burr. This meant his death was unlike that of most other Founding Fathers,
coming suddenly and unexpectedly. His precise year of birth is debated, but he was in his late
40s when he was killed. Hamilton's funeral took place in New York City on July 14,
1804, and the procession was lengthy. The New York Evening Post reported,
Hamilton was interred at Trinity Church in New York City, and his
grave was eventually marked by a massive monument. His wife would join him there
after she outlived him by 50 years, with her grave marked only by a plain stone.
John Jay was a force to be reckoned with. The CIA recognizes him as "the first national-level
American counterintelligence chief," and he was also the first chief justice of
the United States Supreme Court. He died in 1829 at the age of 83.
According to the Journal of the American Revolution, Jay is the
only Founding Father buried in a private family cemetery, which is located in Rye,
New York. It's reportedly unknown why exactly the Jay family decided to keep the cemetery private.
The burial ground's official website emphasizes that it's not open to the public, and you can
only be buried there if you can prove that you're a direct descendent of the Founding Father. But
maybe this is exactly how Jay himself wanted it. As his biographer Walter Stahr has noted,
It's still a mind-blowing fact that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on the
50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
“I must say, this Declaration of Independence is coming along nicely.”
And people were no less amazed at the time that it
happened. A statement from the Secretary of War noted,
Jefferson had specific instructions for his gravesite, which included the exact wording
of his epitaph. He wanted only three of his many achievements in life to be mentioned:
that he wrote both the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom,
and that he founded the University of Virginia. You might notice that
this list does not include the fact he was the third president of the United States.
Jefferson's funeral was held the day after he died, July 5,
1826. He was buried in the graveyard of his estate Monticello in Virginia,
with only a few dozen people attending the simple service. He even asked that his
monument be made of cheap stone so that people wouldn't be tempted to take it.
James Madison was the fourth president of the United States, but his biggest accomplishment
was probably drafting the Constitution. He also contributed to The Federalist Papers,
led the country through the War of 1812, and served on the board of the University of Virginia.
Madison was quite long-lived, even by modern standards, as he made it
to 85 years old. He outlived all the other Founding Fathers when he died on June 28,
1836, after being bedbound for six months.
He was buried in the family cemetery at Montpelier, his estate in Virginia. However,
despite his importance to the country, his grave was not marked at the time,
and it would in fact be 21 years before a monument was added to mark the spot.
George Washington wasn't exactly a young man when he died, although he wasn't that old. His
death at 67 in 1799 happened so suddenly that the country had no time to mentally prepare for
the loss of the first president or literally prepare for a funeral. His cause of death
was noted at the time as "an inflammatory sore throat," which historians now think
was probably pneumonia or a strep infection. Before he died, Washington left instructions
for what to do with his body at his Mount Vernon plantation in Virginia. As he wrote,
Unfortunately, those repairs didn't happen,
because politicians planned to ignore his wishes and bury Washington in the Capitol. Until then,
they just kept his remains in the rundown crypt, which meant it was easy for a disgruntled
ex-employee of Mount Vernon to break into and attempt to steal Washington's skull,
though he ended up with the skull of a different Washington relative. After the
theft, a new tomb was finally constructed, and Washington got his wish to be interred there.
“God bless George Washington, President of the United States!”
Samuel Adams signed one more founding document than even his second cousin
John Adams, as he put his name on all but the Constitution. He also
served as governor of Massachusetts and ran for various other offices.
By the time he reached his 80s, he knew that his time was limited. According to the book Sam Adams:
The Father of American Independence, he was failing physically but was still there
mentally. So when he got his family together and told them very specifically that he did
not want a big funeral and insisted on a plain coffin, they surely knew he was
serious. But once he died on October 2, 1803, his wishes went out the window.
Ideas thrown around for Adams' funeral included a procession accompanying the coffin,
perhaps made up of schoolchildren or survivors of the Battle of Lexington. In the end,
the funeral was even bigger than that, as it became a parade to Boston's Granary Burying
Ground. There was a large procession that included a bunch of politicians.
Perhaps feeling guilty that they ignored what he wanted, his loved ones did end up
burying him in a simple coffin, although other people weren't very happy about that. In fact,
54 years later, it was still such a sticking point for his admirers
that they dug him up and put him in a much nicer coffin before re-interring his body.
John Hancock was able to sign his name so large on the Declaration of Independence
because at the time, he was the president of the Continental Congress. He would later go
on to serve as the governor of Massachusetts. However, he also missed out on some big gigs,
including the command of the Continental Army and the first American vice presidency.
Towards the end of his life, Hancock suffered from gout that was so extreme that he had to
be carried around. But his death reportedly still came as a shock to his loved ones. He
passed away October 8, 1793 at the age of 56. He left instructions for a simple funeral,
although that didn't happen. Thousands of people reportedly came to pay their respects before he
was buried. On the day of his funeral, the church bells in Boston tolled for an hour
straight. He was buried at the Granary Burying Ground, alongside many other famous patriots.
If you know one thing about Patrick Henry, it's probably that he said,
“Patrick Henry. Give me liberty or give me death. Death please! Next!”
And that wasn't the only impressive thing he said in his time. According to the Historical
Marker Database, Henry was "the most famous orator of his day." His silver
tongue helped him become a successful lawyer, and he also served as governor of Virginia.
On top of that, his issues with the U.S. Constitution led to the inclusion of the
Bill of Rights. Towards the end of his life, Henry was offered some significant positions,
but he kept turning them down, including a seat in the Senate,
the chief justiceship of the Supreme Court, and ambassador to France. He might not
have had time for anything so time-consuming, considering he fathered a whopping 17 children.
He died on June 6, 1799 at the age of 63. He was buried on the estate he'd purchased only
five years before in Red Hill, Virginia. It's a small family graveyard, and his second wife is
buried next to him. His loved ones clearly knew that his name would go down in history, as his
gravestone is etched with the simple but extremely grand pronouncement: "His fame his best epitaph."
Roger Sherman might not be the most famous Founding Father,
but he was the only person to sign all four of the founding documents: the Continental Association,
the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.
Besides signing all those important documents, Sherman was instrumental in
coming up with "The Great Compromise," which invented the idea of two houses in Congress.
This is still the same system that American government has today, in which one house has
proportional representation based on the states' populations, and in the other house, all states
have two representatives. This made both big and little states happy, or at least happy enough.
Sherman went on to serve in both houses of Congress and as the treasurer of Yale College.
Sherman died on July 23, 1793 at the age of 72,
and he was buried at the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut.
His epitaph tries to fit in seemingly all his achievements, as it runs to nearly 200 words.