Hooper-Penn Monument & Graves

The final resting place for two of the three signers of the Declaration of Independence from North Carolina. The wreaths in the above photo were laid during an Independence Day service in 2002. Buried beneath the monument are:

William Hooper

Born in Boston on June 17, 1742 he moved to Wilmington, NC in about 1765. He died in Hillsborough, North Carolina, on October 4, 1790.

John Penn

Born in Caroline County, Virginia, May 17, 1741. He died near Stovall, North Carolina in 1788.

Also remembered is North Carolina's third signer of the Declaration of Independence, Joseph Hewes. Hewes was born in Kingston, New Jersey, in 1720 and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 10, 1799. He is buried in an unknown location in Christ Churchyard in Philadelphia.

The inscription on the monument reads:

IN MEMORIAM
WILLIAM HOOPER AND JOHN PENN
DELEGATES FROM
NORTH CAROLINA 1776 TO THE
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS AND SIGNERS
OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
THEIR REMAINS WERE REINTERRED
HERE 1894. HEWES GRAVE IS LOST
HE WAS THE THIRD SIGNER

"LEE, HENRY AND HOOPER WERE THE
ORATORS OF THE CONGRESS"
JOHN ADAMS' DIARY VOL. 2. P. 396, 1774