| HANCOCK | *First to sign Declaration of Independence |
| SUPPER | First to sign up for every meal (6) |
| SIR | Teacher, first to sign in register |
| INITIAL | First to sign? (7) |
| ADAMS | Samuel ___ (1722-1803), US statesman; an instigator of the Boston Tea Party and one of the 56 signatories of the Declaration of Independence (5) |
| LIBERTY | The _ Bell, said (wrongly) to have been rung on 4 July 1776 to celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence (7) |
| PHILADELPHIA | City in South East Pennsylvania, scene of the signing of the Declaration of Independence (12) |
| FRANKLIN | Benjamin ---, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who helped draw up the Declaration of Independence (8) |
| EVENTS | "When in the course of human ___ ..." (start of the Declaration of Independence) |
| THOMAS | - Jefferson, principal author of the US Declaration of Independence (6) |
| ARGONGAS | Substance used to preserve the Declaration of Independence |
| NEHRU | Drafter of a 1929 declaration of independence |
| 1776 | Year of the US Declaration of Independence |
| JOHNHANCOCK | Signatory of the US Declaration of Independence whose name has become a synonym for a signature (4,7 |
| SAMUELADAMS | Declaration of Independence signer for whom a brand of beer is named: 2 wds. |
| IANSMITH | Prime minister of Rhodesia responsible for the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965 |
| THOMASJEFFERSON | Draughtsman of the Declaration of Independence, who nevertheless has been criticised as a slave- owner with racist views (6,9) |
| PAINE | American Revolutionary leader and signer of the Declaration of Independence (1731-1814). |
| FOUNDING | The _ Fathers, a loosely defined group of US statesmen including those behind the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (8) |
| TRUTHS | "We hold these ... to be self-evident" (US Declaration of Independence) (6) |
