English-born Button Gwinnett had a high profile among Savannah’s early political leaders. Among other things, he represented Georgia in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1776, the session of colonial leaders that produced the Declaration of Independence.
On Aug. 2, 1776, he added his signature to the document.
Gwinnett wanted a brigadier general position to lead the 1st Regiment in the Continental Army, but lost out to Lachlan McIntosh.
He went on to serve in the Georgia legislature and 1777 wrote the first draft of the state’s first constitution. Gwinnett became the speaker of the assembly and eventually was named governor of the state when his predecessor, Arthur Bulloch, died.
He tried to use that position to undermine McIntosh’s leadership, a feud that ended on May 19, 1777, when McIntosh killed Gwinnett in a duel.
Now, 235 years later, Gwinnett is treasured for one thing among a select group of people — his signature.
His signature was the key piece in a collection that contains all 56 declaration signers and was auctioned over the weekend by a New Hampshire firm.
The firm’s vice president, Bobby Livingston, said Gwinnett’s signature is the rarest signature sought by collectors and helds more than half the value of the Proctor-Sang-Newell collection that was expected to bring more than $1.2 million.
In 2010, a 1776 Gwinnett-signed document sold for more than $720,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.
The reason for the high prices. He just didn’t sign too many things, Livingston said.
“You can’t get your hands on a Button Gwinnett (signature),” Livingston told the Savannah Morning News.
“Our auction has been selling autographs and manuscripts for 32 years, and this is the absolute first time we’ve ever had the opportunity to offer a Gwinnett signature. We’re very proud of this.”
Only 51 of Gwinnett’s signatures are known to have survived, Livingston said, and only 11 of those are privately owned,
“He just didn’t live long enough to sign a lot of things,” said Scott Deaton, senior historian at the Savannah-based Georgia Historical Society.
But he did become ‘number one’ even if it took a couple of centuries to get there. There’s been no mention of anyone wanting a Lachlan McIntosh autograph.