Timothy Matlack

Timothy Matlack (May 28, 1736 – April 14, 1826) was a brewer and beer bottler who emerged as a popular and powerful leader in the American Revolutionary War. Secretary of Pennsylvania during the war, and a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1780, he became one of Pennsylvania's most provocative and influential political figures. Removed from office by his political enemies at the end of the war, he returned to power in the Jeffersonian era.

Matlack, who was known for his excellent penmanship, was chosen to write the original United States Declaration of Independence on vellum.

Timothy Matlack was born in Haddonfield, New Jersey on May 28, 1736, to Elizabeth Martha Burr Haines and Timothy Matlack: a couple that had both lost their first spouses. His grandparents were William Matlack and Mary Hancock; and Henry Burr and Elizabeth Hudson. His siblings were Sybil, Elizabeth, Titus, Seth, Josiah and White Matlack. His half siblings were Reuben and Mary Haines. His first cousin was the Quaker abolitionist John Woolman. In 1738, the family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Timothy attended Friends' School. He likely studied under Anthony Benezet. In 1749 he was apprenticed to the prosperous Quaker merchant John Reynell. During his period of service Timothy was considered a strong candidate for the Quaker ministry. At the end of his term he married Ellen Yarnall, the daughter of the Quaker minister Mordecai Yarnall. The couple had five children: William, Mordecai, Sibyl, Catharine and Martha.

In 1760 Matlack opened a mercantile he called the Case Knife. Two years later he and Owen Biddle purchased the Petty's Run steel furnace in Trenton, New Jersey. In 1764, following the failure of his shop, Timothy was disowned by the Quakers. The Quakers complained that he had been “frequenting company in such a manner as to spend too much of his time from home.” In 1768, and again in 1769, he was confined to debtors' prison. By this time Timothy Matlack had set up a new business selling bottled beer. In 1769 he opened his own brewery, located near the State House, or Independence Hall. A horse racing enthusiast,in 1770 he pitted his gamecocks against those owned by the New York aristocrat James Delancey in an infamous main.

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