Declaration of Independence Signer. Born in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, to a wealthy family, he received little formal training, but instead, was trained to run the family estate, which he began to do at the age of 18, when his father died. Several years later, he married Hannah Jones, with whom he had three children. He was considered a simple man whose greatest pleasures were hunting and hosting parties for his friends. In 1769, Floyd became an official of Brookhaven, the Long Island town where his estate stood, and for the most part, he occupied himself with local politics. In the early 1770s, as troubles with Great Britain became more heated, he spoke up strongly against the British taxes, and for this, he was elected to the Continental Congress in 1774. He served in the First and Second Continental Congresses, from 1774 to 1777, and from 1778 to 1781. He continued to serve in the Congress of the Confederation, from 1781 to 1783. Neither a self-serving lawyer nor a politician, he would sit in the Congress listening to the debates, but contributing little except to work hard on the various committees. In 1776, he led a New York militia unit, and in one skirmish, his men drove off British invaders attempting to land on Long Island. The British soon returned in strong numbers, and took the island. Local fishermen took Hannah Floyd and the children across Long Island Sound to Connecticut and safety, eventually to hide in Middletown, Connecticut until the end of the war. Hannah died in Middletown in 1781. When peace was made in 1783, Floyd returned to the family home in Long Island only to discover that during the seven-year occupation, British Cavalry had turned his home into a stable, and had ruined it. Floyd rebuilt the house and the next year, he married Joanna Strong. He was elected to the first US House of Representatives, serving from 1789 to 1791, and ten years later, in 1801, he helped rewrite the New York State Constitution. He was a strong supporter of the movement that made Thomas Jefferson the third President of the United States. In 1803, at the age of 69, he decided to move to the frontier region of New York’s Mohawk River. There he was elected in 1808 to represent that region in the NY State Senate. Floyd would die on his farm on the NY frontier at the age of 86 in 1821.