Via Kottke, we find this article that details the ages of the key participants in the American Revolution as of July 4, 1776.
- Marquis de Lafayette was 18; so was James Monroe
- Gilbert Stuart was 20, as was Aaron Burr
- Alexander Hamilton, 21
- James Madison, 25
- Thomas Jefferson, 33
- John Adams, 40
- Paul Revere, 41
- George Washington, 44
- Samuel Adams, 53
You sort of expect that they were all older men at the time, but that’s really not the case at all.