Button Gwinnett was the son of a Welsh clergyman, the Reverend Samuel Gwinnett, and his English wife Anne. Button was born in Down Hatherley, Gloucestershire in England. The date of his birth is uncertain, but was sometime between 1732 and 1735. He was baptized in St. Catherine's Church in Gloucester on April 10, 1735.
Button received the best education his parent's circumstances would allow and afterward started a small export firm in Bristol. In 1755 he moved to Wolverhampton where he married a local girl, Ann Bourne, in 1757 at the age of 22. In 1762 they emigrated to America.
Button first settled in Charleston, South Carolina, where he started a mercantile business. After about two years, at the age of 28, he moved to Savannah, Georgia, and engaged in general trade. Before long he sold off his trading concerns and purchased a large tract of land on St. Catherine's Island. He established a prosperous plantation and by 1769 was elected to the House of Commons.
Prior to 1775, Mr. Gwinnett was known to be a patriotic citizen, but he personally believed that it was an impossible task for the Americans to resist Great Britain and succeed. Around this time though, Mr. Gwinnett had a change of heart and began to publicly advocate confronting Britain about her conduct toward the American colonies and securing American rights. As a result, Mr. Gwinnett was elected to attend a Provincial Assembly which he attended on January 20, 1776, at Savannah.
