Abraham Clark

Abraham Clark (February 15, 1725 – September 15, 1794), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey.

Abraham was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey and became a surveyor and lawyer. He became clerk of the Provincial Assembly, High Sheriff of Essex County, and was elected to the Provincial Congress in 1775. He was a member of the Committee of Public Safety.

Early in 1776 the New Jersey delegation to the Continental Congress was opposed to independnce from Great Britain. When the issue became most important, the state convention replaced all their delegates with men favoring the separation. On June 21, they appointed Clark, alomg with John Hart, Francis Hopkinson, Richard Stockton, and John Witherspoon as their new delegates. They arrived in Phildelphia on June 28 and were seated, to vote for independance on July 4.

Clark remained in the Continental Congress through 1778. New Jersey returned him twice more, in 1780-1783 and 1786-1788.

Clark retired before the state's Constitutional Convention in 1794. Clark Township in Union County, New Jersey is named for him.