Thomas Willing

Thomas Willing (December 19, 1731 – January 19, 1821) was an American merchant, politician, and slave trader. He served as mayor of Philadelphia and as a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress. He was also the first president of the Bank of North America and later of the First Bank of the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

During his career, Willing accumulated considerable wealth, and some accounts have described him as the richest man in America around 1800.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Early life

Thomas Willing was born in Philadelphia, the son of Charles Willing (1710–1754), who twice served as mayor of Philadelphia, and Anne Shippen (1710-1791), granddaughter of Edward Shippen, who was the second mayor of Philadelphia. His brother, James Willing, was a Philadelphia merchant who later served as a representative of the Continental Congress and led a 1778 military expedition to raid holdings of British loyalists in Natchez, Mississippi.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Thomas completed preparatory studies in Bath, England, then studied law in London at the Inner Temple.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

In 1749, after studying in England, he returned to Philadelphia, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits in partnership with Robert Morris.<ref name="Balch">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Wright">Template:Cite web</ref> They established the firm Willing, Morris and Company in 1757, which exported flour, lumber and tobacco to Europe while importing sugar, rum, molasses, and slaves from the West Indies and Africa.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Their partnership continued until 1793.<ref name="Balch"/> Willing himself owned slaves, three in 1779, but none in 1782.

He was elected to the revived American Philosophical Society in 1768.<ref>Bell, Whitfield J., and Charles Greifenstein, Jr. Patriot-Improvers: Biographical Sketches of Members of the American Philosophical Society. 3 vols. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1997, I: 32, 33, 199, III: 27, 117–23, 118, 179.</ref> According to Pennsylvania tax records, Willing owned three enslaved people in 1769, but none as of 1782.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Political career

A member of the common council in 1755, he became an alderman in 1759, associate justice of the city court on October 2, 1759, and then justice of the court of common pleas February 28, 1761. Willing then became Mayor of Philadelphia in 1763. In 1767, the Pennsylvania Assembly, with Governor Thomas Penn's assent, had authorized a Supreme Court justice (always a lawyer) to sit with local justices of the peace (judges of county courts, but laymen) in a system of Nisi Prius courts. Governor Penn appointed two new Supreme Court justices, John Lawrence and Thomas Willing. Willing served until 1767, the last under the colonial government.<ref Name="Konkle"/>Template:Rp<ref name="Balch"/>

A member of the Committee of Correspondence in 1774 and of the Committee of Safety in 1775, he served in the Continental Congress. In 1775 and 1776 he voted against the Declaration of Independence,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but later subscribed £5,000 to supply the revolutionary cause.<ref name="Balch"/>

Banker

From 1781 to 1791, Willing served as president of the Bank of North America, preceding John Nixon. In 1791, President George Washington appointed Willing along with two others as commissioners of the newly created First Bank of the United States. He was elected president of the bank later that year, and during his tenure, he became the richest man in America.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In August 1807, Willing suffered a slight stroke, and within a few months, he resigned his position with the bank for health reasons.<ref name=Konkle>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Personal life

File:Mrs. Thomas Willing (Ann McCall) and Her Son William Shippen Willing.jpg

Anne McCall Willing and William Shippen Willing, by Charles Willson Peale

File:Charles Willson Peale - Portrait of Thomas Willing.jpg

Portrait of Willing, by Charles Willson Peale

In 1763, Willing married Anne McCall (1745–1781), daughter of Samuel McCall (1721–1762) and Anne Searle (1724–1757). Together, they had thirteen children, including:<ref name="Balch"/>

• Anne Willing (1764–1801), who married William Bingham (1752–1804)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Thomas Mayne Willing (1767–1822), who married Jane Nixon (1775–1823)<ref name="Balch"/>
• Elizabeth Willing (1768–1858), who married William Jackson (1759–1828)<ref name="Balch"/>
• Mary Willing (1770–1852), who married Henry Clymer (1767–1830)<ref name="Balch"/>
• Dorothy Willing (1772–1842), who married Thomas Willing Francis, a cousin<ref name="Balch"/>
• George Willing (1774–1827), who married Rebecca Harrison Blackwell (1782–1852)<ref name="Balch"/>
• Richard Willing (1775–1858), who married Eliza Moore (1786–1823)<ref name="Balch"/>
• Abigail Willing (1777–1841), who married Richard Peters (1780–1848).<ref name="Balch"/>

Willing died in 1821 in Philadelphia, where he is interred in Christ Church Burial Ground.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Descendants

Willing was the great-uncle of John Brown Francis (1791–1864), who was a governor and United States Senator from Rhode Island.<ref name="JBFbioguide">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="FrancisFamPapers">Template:Cite web</ref>

Willing was also the grandfather of Ann Louisa Bingham (b. 1782),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> who married Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton (1774–1848), in 1798, and Maria Matilda Bingham (1783–1849), who was briefly married to Jacques Alexandre, Comte de Tilly, a French aristocrat and later married her sister's brother-in-law, Henry Baring (1777–1848), until their divorce in 1824. Maria later married the Marquis de Blaisel in 1826.Template:Citation needed Their brother, and Willing's grandson, William Bingham (1800–1852) married Marie-Charlotte Chartier de Lotbiniere (1805–1866), the second of the three daughters and heiresses of Michel-Eustache-Gaspard-Alain Chartier de Lotbinière by his second wife Mary, daughter of Captain John Munro, in 1822.<ref name="Balch"/>

See also

• Stephen Simpson, an outspoken journalist and fierce critic of the First National Bank and its practices.
• List of richest Americans in history

References

Sources

• Wright, Robert E. "Thomas Willing (1731–1821): Philadelphia Financier and Forgotten Founding Father". Pennsylvania History, 63 (Autumn 1996): 525–60.

• Columbia Encyclopedia article

Further reading

• Template:Cite book

External links

• Biographical sketch and portrait at the University of Pennsylvania
• The Willings and Francis Records, including correspondence, deeds and legal documents of Thomas Willings' mercantile firm (Willings and Francis), are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.