ABSTRACT
A signer of the Declaration of Independence, William Paca served as the first Italian Ameri-can governor from 1782 to 1785. He was born 1740 at Abington, Harford County, Maryland, and died 1799 at his country home, Wye Hall. Paca’s ancestors originally came from Italy, moved to England, then migrated to Mary-land in the middle of the seventeenth century. The practice of using England as a way sta-tion en route to the American colonies was common to many Italians at that time.
