Why was Thomas Stone important enough to be one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence?

Answer 1

I think you misunderstand just who it was that signed the Declaration. It wasn't as if someone went around looking for a random group of "important" or popular people to "endorse" it.

Rather this document was an official statement of the Second Continental Congress. And so it was to be signed by all the delegates sent by the legislatures of the thirteen colonies (or "states" after independence had been declared).

Thomas Stone happened to be one of the delegates Maryland sent. Therefore it was altogether proper and expected that he would sign it.

We DO know that Stone was a wealthy landowner and moderately successful lawyer... not at all a surprising sort to end up sitting in a legislature... or Congresss.

Answer 2

Your question would be like why would Senator X be important enough to be a co-sponsor of some important bill? Every delegate was eligible to sign the Declaration by virtue of the fact they were delegates, like every Senator is eligible to co-sponsor a bill by virtue of the fact they are Senators. And he was important enough because he was a delegate.

Another thing is, how do you guage the importance of a person? At the signing of the Declaration, Stone was a youngster in his mid-30's. Was he too young to be there? Not really. It is good to have a cross section of delegates. Ben Franklin, the oldest delegate was 70 at the signing. There were a couple delegates in their 20's! So the ages ranged.

Had Stone not died at the young age of 44 (he was born the same year as Jefferson), who knows what he might have gone on to achieve? But again, the fact that he was appointed as a delegate made someone think he was important enough. Also, he did get elected and re-elected later, so others thought he did a good job while he was there.

Check out these two websites for brief biographies. You might especially like the first one, colonialhall.com, as they give biographies of all the signers.