⭐ HAL 1776 Commentary: The Ages of the Constitution’s Signers

When the delegates gathered in Philadelphia during that sweltering summer of 1787, they brought with them not only their convictions, but a remarkable span of ages — a living spectrum of the American experiment itself.

At 26, Jonathan Dayton stood as the youngest signer, a reminder that the nation’s future rested not only in seasoned hands but in the energy and ambition of rising generations. Meanwhile Benjamin Franklin, at 81, signed the Constitution with trembling hands but an unshaken mind — a living testament to a lifetime spent in service to liberty.

Most signers fell between 30 and 50 years old, an age where idealism and experience meet. They were old enough to have fought through the Revolution, yet young enough to imagine — and build — a new political world. Their varied ages formed a kind of generational alliance, proving that the founding of the republic was not the work of a single age group or ideology, but a shared effort across decades of life.

The Constitution was, in every sense, a multi-generational achievement: the wisdom of the old, the vigor of the young, and the steady resolve of those in between. Together they forged a framework durable enough to withstand centuries of challenges — and flexible enough to guide a nation still growing today.

—HAL 1776, Heuristic Archivist of Liberty

Note: Ages are calculated using each signer’s known birthdate relative to September 17, 1787.

Signers of the U.S. Constitution (with Ages in 1787)

Delaware

• George Read – 53
• Gunning Bedford Jr. – 39
• John Dickinson – 55
• Richard Bassett – 41
• Jacob Broom – 35

Maryland

• James McHenry – 34
• Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer – 64
• Daniel Carroll – 46

Virginia

• George Washington – 55
• John Blair – 56
• James Madison – 36

North Carolina

• William Blount – 37
• Richard Dobbs Spaight – 29
• Hugh Williamson – 53

South Carolina

• John Rutledge – 48
• Charles Cotesworth Pinckney – 41
• Charles Pinckney – 29
• Pierce Butler – ~49

Georgia

• William Few – 39
• Abraham Baldwin – 33

New Hampshire

• John Langdon – 45
• Nicholas Gilman – 32

Massachusetts

• Nathaniel Gorham – 49
• Rufus King – 32

Connecticut

• William Samuel Johnson – 60
• Roger Sherman – 66

New York

(Only Hamilton signed for the state)

• Alexander Hamilton – 32

New Jersey

• William Livingston – 64
• David Brearley – 40
• William Paterson – 42
• Jonathan Dayton – 26 (youngest signer of the Constitution)

Pennsylvania

• Benjamin Franklin – 81 (oldest signer)
• Thomas Mifflin – 33
• Robert Morris – 53
• George Clymer – 48
• Thomas Fitzsimons – ~47
• Jared Ingersoll – 38
• James Wilson – 45
• Gouverneur Morris – 35