Known for

• Secretary of the Continental Congress (1774–1789)​

  • ​Prepared the Journals of the Continental Congress: papers, letters, treaties, reports and assorted records—famous and obscure—relating to the formation of the United States government

• Co-designed the Great Seal of the United States

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During 1776

• Secretary of the Second Continental Congress

• Age: 47

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Background

• Born: 1729 in Maghera, County Londonderry, Ireland

  • After his mother died in 1739, John (Thomson's father) migrated with the family to North America

  • John Thomson died at sea, his possessions stolen, and the penniless boys were separated on arrival at New Castle, Delaware

  • Charles was first cared for by a blacksmith in New Castle and was educated in New London, Pennsylvania

• Spouse: Ruth Mather (m. 1758, d. 1769), Hannah Harrison (m. 1774)

• ​Children: 2 twin daughters (died in infancy)

• Slaveowning

  • An ardent abolitionist who managed his farm with paid labor and by letting his land on shares with his workers

  • 1785 letter to Thomas Jefferson: "[Slavery] is a cancer that we must get rid of. It is a blot in our character that must be wiped out. If it cannot be done by religion, reason and philosophy, confident I am that it will one day be by blood."

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Personal beliefs

• Politics: Patriot/Whig

  • A leader in the revolution of the early 1770s; John Adams called him the "Samuel Adams of Philadelphia"

  • Pennsylvania conservatives kept him from being elected a delegate to the Continental Congress

  • Unanimously selected by the delegates to be Secretary of Congress

  • Delegates came and went, but Thomson remained, faithfully recording the debates and decisions that shaped the infant government

• Religion: Presbyterian