Henry Wisner

Henry Wisner (c. 1720 – March 4, 1790) was an American miller from Goshen, New York. He was a patriot leader during the American Revolution and represented New York in the Continental Congress.

Wisner was born around 1720 in Florida, New York and was a resident of Orange County. He built and operated a gristmill in Goshen and became one of the town's leading citizens.

His family originally came to America because his grandfather Johannes Weasner migrated to New York in 1710 along with other Swiss veterans of the English Army who fought under Marlborough in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Orange County first elected him as a representative to Province of New York Assembly in 1759 and returned him for eleven consecutive years. In 1768 he became a judge in the county's court of common pleas. When New York created a revolutionary government in 1775, Wisner was sent to the New York Provincial Congress. That body, in turn, named him as a delegate to the Continental Congress where he served through 1776. Wisner was in Congress when the Declaration of Independence adopted, but the New York delegation was not authorized to declare independence, and so Wisner could not take part in the voting. The claim made years later that Wisner was the only member of the New York delegation to vote in favor of independence seems to be without foundation; he did not vote because he could not vote. After the New York delegation was finally authorized to support the Declaration, a signing ceremony took place in August 1776, but Wisner was not present in Congress to sign.

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