Something particular stood out about Timothy Matlack. Indeed, there were many things, like the fact he loved to gamble, engaged with the lower and ruffian classes, and brawled whenever necessary (and sometimes seemingly when it wasn’t), all while being a Quaker. Certainly these characteristics stood out, but it was actually his writing style that would ignite his rise to prominence. It wasn’t his rhetoric, though, but rather the “looping flourishes” and the elegant style of his penmanship.
Matlack (1736–1829) was born in Haddonfield, New Jersey, into a family of Quakers. His father made a living as a merchant and brewer. A decade after his birth, the family moved to Philadelphia, where this revolutionary firebrand would find his place among a hotbed of revolutionaries.
