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Jacob Broom (1752-1810), who, in addition to being a signer of the Constitution of the United States of America, was also a banker, entrepreneur, farmer, merchant and surveyor.  Jacob Broom is described in the Official Papers of Delaware, written in 1909 as follows:

“A fair example of the product of a sturdy, energetic, sagacious ancestry and evangelical Swedish orthodoxy, co-operating amid the trying environments of a struggling colony in an undeveloped land….

“He lived in one of the potential crises of history, in which and for which the sublime visions and words of prophets and apostles had developed and inspired a stalwart manhood….

“As it is an accepted fact that ‘the foundation of all permanent prosperity is a right regard for the Divine Being’, it is proper to say that Jacob Broom was a God-fearing man.” ¹

 Being a delegate from the State of Delaware, he would have complied with the requirements for office stipulated by that State’s Constitution, which included:

“Article XXII Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust… shall… make and subscribe the following declaration, to wit: ‘I, _____, do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore, and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.” ² 

In a letter to his son who was a senior at Princeton College, Jacob Broom wrote in 1794:

“Do not be so much flattered as to relax in your application; do not forget to be a Christian.  I have said much to you on this head, and I hope an indelible impression is made.” ³

¹ Rev. William Campbell, Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware (Wilmington: Historical Society of Delaware, 1909), p. 27, 35.  Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 153.

² Constitution of the State of Delaware.  Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S., 457, 469-470 (1892).  M.E. Bradford, A Worthy Company (NH: Plymouth Rock Foundation, 1982), p. x.  David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 23.

³ Rev. William Campbell, Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware (Wilmington: Historical Society of Delaware, 1909), p. 27.  Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 153.