Background
Robert Waln was born in Philadelphia, Pa. , the youngest son of Robert and Rebecca (Coffin) Waln and a great-grandson of Nicholas Waln who settled in Pennsylvania in 1682.
manufacturer merchant politician
Robert Waln was born in Philadelphia, Pa. , the youngest son of Robert and Rebecca (Coffin) Waln and a great-grandson of Nicholas Waln who settled in Pennsylvania in 1682.
He received a limited schooling.
He entered his father's counting-house at an early age. Upon his father's death in 1791 he entered into a joint partnership at 57 South Wharves with Jesse Waln, his cousin, who had also been trading in foreign merchandise. Together they built up a thriving business in the West India and English trades, and later concentrated upon the East India and Chinese trades. Their enterprises were on a large scale, Stephen Girard being the only one who exceeded them in their business ventures. He was very active in civic and national affairs, especially during the exciting period between the adoption of the Constitution and the War of 1812. He was a member of the Pennsylvania state legislature (1794 - 98) and of the House of Representatives, where he first filled a vacancy and then served a term from December 3, 1798, to March 3, 1801. Like all substantial shipowners at that time, he was a Federalist and therefore opposed to the ruling party because of the restrictions placed upon shipping. He was one of the Federal leaders who engaged a thousand sailors to protect their political meeting in January 1809 from being interrupted by the Republicans, the result of which was an extensive riot. He also entered into a violent debate with John Rutledge of South Carolina and John Randolph of Virginia, when he presented a petition in the Sixth Congress regarding the slave trade and the Fugitive Slave Law. During the War of 1812 he constructed one of the first cotton textile mills at Trenton, N. J. He also had an extensive interest in the Phoenixville iron-works. Because of these two connections, he became an ardent protectionist and became strongly identified with the high tariff acts of 1816, 1824, and 1828. When the famous Boston Report was published exerting a strong influence for free trade, Waln was selected by the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and Arts as best fitted to reply. His report of over one hundred pages, An Examination of the Boston Report (1828), was considered as having successfully countered all the assertions made by the free traders. Waln's other offices included those of vice-president of the Philadelphia chamber of commerce (1809), director of the Philadelphia Insurance Company (1804 - 13), first president of the Mercantile Library (1821 - 24), and trustee of the University of Pennsylvania (1829). He was a member of the common council of the city of Philadelphia (1794, 1796) and of the select council (1807, 1809, 1811). He was an orthodox Quaker and actively entered into the controversy against Elias Hicks, who was advocating the liberalization of the Quaker rules and regulations.
On October 10, 1787, Waln married Phebe Lewis, by whom he had nine children. One of his sons was Robert Waln.