William Jackson ( secretary ) William Jackson ( March 9 , 1759 – December 17 , 1828 ) was a figure in the American Revolution , most noteworthy as the secretary to the United States Constitutional Convention . He also served with distinction in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War . After the war he served as one of President George Washington ' s personal secretaries . Early life and military career . Born in the county of Cumberland in England , Jackson was sent to Charleston in South Carolina after the death of his parents . He was raised by a family friend and prominent merchant , Owen Roberts , who was the commander of a militia battalion . After the war broke out in 1775 , Roberts joined the Patriot side , and the teenaged Jackson followed ; Roberts probably helped Jackson to obtain a position as a cadet in the 1st South Carolina Regiment . In May 1776 Jackson was commissioned as a second lieutenant . Jackson first saw action near Charleston in June 1776 , when his regiment fought off General Sir Henry Clinton ' s attempted attack on Fort Sullivan . The unit then spent a long period garrisoning the city of Charleston , during which Charles Cotesworth Pinckney assumed command of the 1st South Carolina . Late in 1777 , Jackson was part of the detachment that made an ill - conceived and worse conducted expedition against St . Augustine in British East Florida under Major - General Robert Howe . The expedition was a colossal failure , and the American force was struck down by disease . Jackson survived , and returned to South Carolina in 1778 . After the return from Florida , the Southern regiments were placed under the command of Major - General Benjamin Lincoln , from Massachusetts . Pinckney convinced Lincoln that as a Northerner , he needed an aide to assist him in relating to his Southern troops . Jackson was chosen for this position and was temporarily promoted to the rank of major . As Lincoln ' s aide he saw action in the Battle of Stono Ferry and the Siege of Savannah in 1779 . In 1780 General Lincoln surrendered his troops after the lengthy Siege of Charleston . As a captured officer , Jackson was shipped to Philadelphia , then held by the British . After a few months he was returned to the Continental Army in an exchange of prisoners . A skilled staff officer , Jackson was then assigned to General Washington ' s staff , serving as secretary to the general ' s aide John Laurens , son of Henry Laurens of South Carolina . When Laurens was sent to France in 1781 to buy supplies with money loaned by the French Government , he took Jackson along , and the job was handed over to Jackson when Laurens returned to America after a short and undiplomatic stay in France ; Jackson made extensive purchases , beyond his budget , and had a discussion with Benjamin Franklin after spending some of the money Franklin had reserved for unpaid bills . Jackson himself returned to the United States in February 1782 , and was assistant secretary of war to Benjamin Lincoln . The Confederation ' s Department of War , like the British , was a financial liaison with the Army ; Jackson helped settle the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783 . In October 1783 , he resigned his office , and his commission , to become Robert Morris ' s agent in England ; when he returned the next year , he studied law with the Philadelphia lawyer William Lewis . Constitutional Convention . As an impoverished law student , in 1787 , Jackson wrote to Washington applying for the post as secretary to the Philadelphia Convention . On the Convention ' s first day of business , May 25 , 1787 , Alexander Hamilton nominated Jackson to the post , and the delegates chose him over William Temple Franklin , Benjamin Franklin ' s grandson , despite the latter ' s experience serving as his grandfather ' s secretary during the Treaty of Paris negotiations . As the Convention secretary , Jackson had a number of duties , including maintaining the secrecy of the Convention ' s proceedings , keeping official minutes , and destroying many of the proceedings ' other records . He signed the document " Attest William Jackson Secretary " to attest to the delegates ' signing . With his signature Jackson became the fortieth signer of the U . S . Constitution . Jackson was sent to the Congress of the Confederation , assembled in New York City , with a copy of the Constitution , and was honored to read it out to the Congress just days after the signing , on September 20 , 1787 . Life after the Convention . Major Jackson was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1788 , but in those days , he had to wait two years to practice before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court , the most lucrative branch of the law ; besides this , he was an ( unpaid ) volunteer in the Second Philadelphia Light Horse . He applied to be secretary of the United States Senate , but Samuel Allyne Otis was appointed . He then applied to be personal secretary to George Washington , now first President of the United States , writing that he had unpaid expenses as a Continental officer , and that business was " not congenial to [ his ] temper . " He resigned in 1791 to restart his law practice , and work as agent for William Bingham and Henry Knox ( then Secretary of War ) , who were selling off a large land grant in Maine first acquired by William Duer , first Undersecretary of the Treasury and now bankrupt . Jackson ' s job was selling land on commission in England and France ; among his potential customers was the Committee of Public Safety . They declined to invest their scanty funds in Maine land ; but Jackson wrote a very favorable report on them back to the United States . He returned to the United States in the summer of 1795 , and married Elizabeth Willing , Mrs . Bingham ' s sister , in November ; they were the oldest daughters of Thomas Willing , a rich Philadelphia merchant , related to the Shippens . In January 1796 ( during his last months in office ) , Washington , who had gone to the wedding , appointed Jackson Collector for the Port of Philadelphia ; Jefferson , another wedding guest , dismissed him in 1801 for politicizing his office ; Jackson then started a Federalist newspaper , the " Political and Commercial Register " , in Philadelphia , and edited it until 1815 . He was , after his marriage , a leader of society , with Charleston manners , and his father - in - law ' s wealth ; John Adams compared him to Sir Charles Grandison . Cincinnati . Jackson succeeded Henry Knox as President of the Society of the Cincinnati , a group of former Continental Army officers , in 1799 . As such , he headed an unsuccessful effort to lobby Congress to grant all veteran Revolutionary officers half - pay for life , in 1816 . Congress was to pass such a bill in 1826 , fifty years after independence , but Jackson was not associated with it ; his last public appearance was welcoming the Marquis de Lafayette to Philadelphia in 1824 . He remained titular president of the Cincinnati until his death , December 18 , 1828 , at the age of 69 , in Philadelphia .