American merchant, patriot, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, known chiefly because his autographs are of extreme rarity and collectors have forced their value to a high figure. (In 1927 one of his 36 autographs sold at public auction for $51,100.)

Gwinnett emigrated from England to Georgia sometime before 1765. In January 1776 he was elected a delegate from that colony to the Continental Congress and, as such, signed the Declaration. Returning to Georgia, Gwinnett was a member of the convention to frame a new state constitution. He died from wounds received in a duel with Lachlan McIntosh, a Continental general, whose brother Gwinnett had arrested.