Abraham Clark represented New Jersey at the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence.
While working as a surveyor near Elizabethtown, New Jersey, Abraham Clark taught himself law and went into practice. He became quite popular and was known as "the poor man's councilor" because he offered to defend poor men when they couldn't afford a lawyer. In succeeding years he served as the clerk of the Provincial Assembly, High Sheriff of Essex (now divided into Essex and Union) County.
He was elected to the Provincial Congress, and then represented New Jersey at the Second Continental Congress. Early in 1776, the New Jersey delegation to the Continental Congress was opposed to independence from Great Britain. As the issue heated up, the state convention replaced all their delegates with those favoring the separation. Because Clark was highly vocal on his opinion that the colonies should have their independence, on June 21, 1776, they appointed him, along with John Hart, Francis Hopkinson, Richard Stockton, and John Witherspoon as new delegates. They arrived in Philadelphia on June 28, 1776, and signed the Declaration of Independence in early July. He later served in the United States House of Representatives in both the Second and Third United States Congress.