* Born on October 7, 1728 – June 26, 1784 on his family's farm on St. Jones Neck, in Dover Hundred, Kent County, Delaware.
* An American lawyer.
* He was an officer of the Delaware militia during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a Continental Congressman from Delaware, and President of Delaware during most of the American Revolution.
* He deserves to go down in history because when Rodney served in the Continental Congress along with Thomas McKean and George Read from 1774 through 1776 Rodney was in Dover attending to Loyalist activity in Sussex County when he received word from Thomas McKean that he and George Read were deadlocked on the vote for independence to break that deadlock Rodney rode eighty miles through a thunderstorm on the night of July 1, 1776 dramatically arriving in Philadelphia July 2 just as the voting was beginning At least part of Rodney's famous ride was probably made in a carriage he voted with McKean and thereby allowed Delaware to join eleven other states in voting in favor of the resolution of independence the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved two days later and Rodney signed the famous parchment copy on August 2.
