CLARK, ABRAHAM (1726-1794), American patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born in Elizabeth town, N.J., on Feb. 15, 17 26. After receiving his education in mathematics and civil law, he engaged in conveyancing and sur veying. Though he did not enter the professional practice of law, he gave legal advice gratuitously to his neighbours, earning the title, "the poor man's counsellor." He served as clerk of the New Jersey colonial assembly, and later was appointed high sheriff of Essex county. As an active Whig, he served on the committees of vigilance and public safety in his native State, and in June 1776 was appointed a representative to the general Congress, where he voted for separation from England and signed the Declaration of Independence. Eight times in the following 12 years he was elected a member of that body, and he was chosen a delegate to the Con stitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, but illness pre vented his attendance. In Congress, on Wednesday, July 2, 1788, he made the motion by which the Federal Constitution became effective. The State legislature appointed him, in the winter of 1789-90, a commissioner to settle debts of New Jersey contracted during the Revolution, which duties he discharged until elected a member of the second Congress. This office he held until June 1794. He died at Elizabethtown, N.J., on Sept. See A. C. Hart, ed., Abraham Clark (San Francisco, 1923) .