Thomas Heyward Jr. was a patriot, statesman, soldier, and jurist who was born in 1746 and died in 1809. He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1775 and of the Council of Safety of S.C. in 1775, signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th 1776, and signed the Articles of American Confederation on behalf of the state of S.C. on July 9th 1778. He served as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas beginning in 1778. At the siege of Charleston on May 12, 1780, he commanded the Charleston Battalion of volunteers, and when the city surrendered he was taken prisoner and confined at St. Augustine, Fla. for one year. He was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of S.C. in 1790 and was the son of Col. Daniel Heyward and Maria, daughter of William Miles, Esq.