Background
Thomas Willing was born on December 19, 1731, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the eldest of eleven children of Charles Willing, Sr. , a prosperous merchant of English birth, and Anne Shippen.
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Thomas Willing was born on December 19, 1731, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the eldest of eleven children of Charles Willing, Sr. , a prosperous merchant of English birth, and Anne Shippen.
In 1740 "Tommy" was sent to England, where, under the supervision of his paternal grandparents, he was educated at schools in Bath and Wells, Somersetshire.
In September 1748 he went to London, where he studied for six months at Watt's Academy and also entered the Inner Temple to read law on October 5, 1748.
Returning to Philadelphia on May 19, 1749, he entered his father's counting-house and was taken into partnership in 1751. Upon the untimely death of his father in 1754, during a yellow fever epidemic to which he was particularly exposed by his active exertions as mayor of the city, the son assumed control of the business.
With Robert Morris, Jr. he formed the partnership of Willing, Morris & Company, eventually perhaps the leading mercantile firm in Philadelphia. Willing's diligent application to business did not preclude his engaging in public activities.
In 1754 he served as assistant secretary to the Pennsylvania delegation at the Albany Congress; in 1757 he was elected to the common council of Philadelphia; in 1758 he was appointed one of the Pennsylvania commissioners for trade with the western Indians, serving for about seven years; in 1760 he was elected a trustee of the Academy and Charitable School of the Province of Pennsylvania, now the University of Pennsylvania, and served until 1791; he was one of seven commissioners appointed to supervise the surveying of the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary line; in 1761 he was appointed judge of the orphans' court of Philadelphia; in 1763 he was elected mayor of Philadelphia; a year later he was elected to the provincial Assembly and served until 1767, when he resigned to accept appointment as justice of the supreme court of the province.
In 1765 he signed the Philadelphia non-importation agreement directed against the Stamp Act. During the years 1774 - 1776 he firmly championed colonial rights, but he stoutly resisted the "radical" elements that were working for an internal revolution within Pennsylvania as well as a complete break with the mother country. He served as president of the first Provincial Congress of Pennsylvania in 1774, kept in intimate touch with the members of the First Continental Congress, and in 1775 was elected to the Second Continental Congress. He voted against the resolution of Richard Henry Lee for independence in July 1776.
When a new Pennsylvania delegation to Congress was chosen in 1776, he was not reappointed; and in 1777 he ceased to be justice of the supreme court. Throughout the War for Independence he remained in Philadelphia, but during the British occupation he declined to take the oath of allegiance to the King. He worked unceasingly to maintain the financial standing of his firm in its successive forms of Willing, Morris & Co. ; Willing, Morris & Inglis; and Willing, Morris & Swanwick. The credit and prestige of this firm was perhaps the most solid support of Robert Morris in his patriotic financial activities during the war.
In 1781 Willing was chosen president of the newly organized Bank of North America. His judgment and diligence were in no small degree responsible for the success of the institution, especially during the economic depression of 1785 - 1786 and the contemporaneous "bank war. " He was a cordial supporter of the movement for the new constitution of 1787 and likewise of the fiscal measures of Alexander Hamilton.
He was appointed by President Washington as one of the commissioners to receive subscriptions to the first Bank of the United States, and he served as its president from 1791 to 1797. Although the board of directors, over which he presided, had final authority over the bank's policy, Willing personally exercised a very solid influence. All during these years he continued in private business, steadily augmenting his fortune until it aggregated about one million dollars. After having enjoyed unusually good health throughout his earlier life, he was suddenly rendered inarticulate by a paralytic stroke on Augгые 10, 1807.
He resigned the presidency of the Bank on November 10, 1807. He subsequently recovered his health but never returned to active banking. He died on May 8, 1806, at his home in Philadelphia.
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
On June 9, 1763, Thomas Willing married Anne McCall, the eldest daughter of Samuel McCall. They had thirteen children.
Charles Willing, Sr. was an American merchant, trader and politician.
Anne Bingham (Willing) was an American socialite from Philadelphia, regarded as one of the most beautiful women of her day.
Mary Clymer (Willing) was an American socialite during the time when that city was the capital of the United States
Robert Morris, Jr. was an American merchant, who financed the American Revolution, oversaw the striking of the first coins of the United States and signed the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, and the United States Constitution.
