What kind of people were the Founding Fathers? Were they average Americans patriots or elite british colonists that decided to rebel and launch a power coup on their monarch?
This is an excellent question! Overwhelmingly, the vast majority of the Founders were members of the gentry, having at least moderate levels of wealth and some being the richest men in the United States at that time. It is important to realize what we mean by wealth isn't simply monetary amounts they had in their possession, but also their net worth based in both goods, land, and for many across the United States, value of their slaves. This can be seen by examining commonly known figures like George Washington, who was known as the richest American Presidents until January, 2017. Washington was a farmer, brewer, entrepreneur, and landlord, who utilized as many resources around his estates as possible. Washington was a micromanager, who sought to extract every dollar that he could from his business dealings. Much of his wealth by 1790 was in the value of his land (both in and around his estate in Mount Vernon, but also he was a land speculator who owned land as far as the Ohio Territories).
While Washington is just one example, the vast majority of the Founders were similar in wealth. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and all those men who were mixed up in American politics in the 1780s had at least some moderate measures of wealth, far above the average American at this time. It also is worth mentioning that during the 1780s, the United States was facing a horrible economic collapse that was causing one of the highest rates of property foreclosures and seizures ever seen in American history (1). The wealth of the founders can seen even for lesser known figures like Robert Morris, who was an American financier and greatly influential in 1770s - 1780s politics.
Even founders like Hamilton, who was not born into wealth, soon found themselves in financially prosperous situations by the time they were heavily involved in American politics (in Hamilton's case, he earned his wealth through both his own professional endeavors but also through the wealth of his wife's family.)
Now one final point. While it's evident that the founders were members of the gentry who had significant more wealth than typical Americans, the level of their wealth was significantly smaller than it is by today's standards.
Poverty or even being 'middle class' in America in the late 18th century was VERY different than how wealth is presented today. To put it simply, even the wealthiest were not as wealthy as the rich are in the 21st century and similarly, the poor are not as impoverished as they are today as well. Historians Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson argued in their book, Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality since 1700, that wealthiest 1% of households earned only 8.5 percent of total income in the late 18th century. Today however, the richest 1% earn almost three times that amount of total income. Gordon Wood's The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, also confirmed this, and also explained that the poor in America were not nearly as poor as impoverished people in Europe were.