Thomas Mifflin was born January 10, 1744 in Philadelphia. He began his career as a merchant, but then entered the Provisional Assembly of Pennsylvania from 1772–1776. He also served as a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774–1775, but left to join the Continental Army after the start of the Revolutionary War. Although Mifflin came from a Quaker family, he was expelled from the Society of Friends because of his involvement in the military. Mifflin then embraced the Lutheran tradition. He was commissioned as a major, then served an aide-de-camp to George Washington and, on August 14, 1775, became the army’s first Quartermaster General. Mifflin eventually rose to the rank of major general before resigning to serve another term in the Continental Congress from 1782–1784, where he was elected President of Congress and signed the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution. In 1787 he attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and was a signer of the U.S. Constitution. The following year Mifflin was elected the 7th President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania (under the 1776 State Constitution), succeeding Benjamin Franklin. Under the new State Constitution of 1790, Mifflin was elected the 1st Governor of Pennsylvania. He held that post until December 17, 1799, and then returned to the state legislature, where he served until his death the following month on January 20, 1800.