Richard Henry Lee.

He was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He left Virginia at sixteen to study in Yorkshire, England to complete his formal eduction.

In 1757 he was appointed as justice of the peace in Westmoreland County. In 1758 he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgess where he met Patrick Henry. He was an early advocate of of independence and was the one of the first ones to create the the Committee of Correspondence.

In 1766, almost ten years before the American Revolutionary War, he was was credited with having authorized the Westmoreland County Revolution.

In August of 1774 he was chosen as a delegate to the first Continental Congress. He put forth the motion to declare independence from Great Britain. It read in part:

Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free, and independent states. That they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved.

He had returned to Virginia by the time congress voted on and adapted the Declaration of Independence, but he signed it when he returned to congress.