Jacob Shallus

Who was Jacob Shallus?

Jacob Shallus was the engrosser or penman of the original copy of the United States Constitution. The handwritten document that Shallus engrossed is on display at the National Archives Building in Washington.

Shallus was the son of German immigrants, Valentine Schallus and Frederica Catherina. His brother Thomas Shallus was a mapmaker. He was born a year after his father Valentine immigrated to Pennsylvania and was a volunteer in the Revolutionary War. During the war Shallus fought in Canada and became a quartermaster of Pennsylvania's 1st Battalion. Shallus also assisted in the outfitting a privateering vessel, the Retrieve. At the time of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Shallus served as Assistant Clerk to the Pennsylvania General Assembly, which met at the Pennsylvania State House. The convention's desire for speedy drafting and Shallus' convenience to the convention's meeting may have influenced his choice as engrosser.

Shallus' name appears nowhere on the document itself, but an investigation into the identity of the Penman in 1937 for the 150th anniversary of the Constitution revealed the identity of the transcriber.