Hooper early displayed marked
literary ability and entered Harvard University when fifteen years of
age. At twenty-six he was one of the leading lawyers of the colony of
North Carolina. George Ross (1730-79), was also of Scottish parentage.
His nephew's wife, Elizabeth (Griscom) Ross (1752-1832), better known
as "Betsy Ross," was maker of the first national flag. Matthew
Thornton (1714-1803), the distinguished New Hampshire statesman and
physician, was brought to this country from the north of Ireland by
his father when about three years of age. He accompanied the
expedition against Louisburg in 1745, was President of the Provincial
Convention in 1775 and Speaker in January, 1776. In September, 1776,
he was elected to Congress, and in November following signed the
Declaration of Independence, although he had not been one of the
framers. Thomas McKean (1734-1817), was a great-grandson of William
McKean of Argyllshire who moved to Ulster about the middle of the
seventeenth century. He was a member of Congress from Delaware
(1774-83), Chief Justice of Pennsylvania (1777-99), and Governor of
the state from 1799 to 1808. George Taylor (1716-81), described as the
son of a clergyman and "born in Ireland," was most probably an Ulster
Scot. He was a member of the Provincial Assembly of Pennsylvania from
1764 to 1770 and again in 1775. James Wilson (1742-1798), whose fame
was to become as wide and lasting as the nation, was born in St.
Andrews, the old university city of Fifeshire.
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