William Bingham was born on April 8, 1752, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of William and Mary (Stamper) Bingham. The family had been prominent in England. James (great-grandfather of William), who died in December 1714, was the first Pennsylvania representative. William's father served in the French wars 1748-1762 and was a vestryman at St. Peter's church until his death in 1769.
William graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1768.
In 1770 Bingham was appointed British consul at St. Pierre, Martinique. He continued until 1776, after which he served four years as Continental agent in the West Indies. This experience determined Bingham's future. Joint ownership of privateers and constant trade gave him unusual wealth for that period. Upon his return to Philadelphia he married Anne, daughter ofThomas and Anne (McCall) Willing. Certainly she was a leader in Philadelphia society and the Bingham mansion became at once an important political and social center of the national capital. Washington writes frequently in his diary of having tea at this house, and later of promising Mrs. Bingham to sit for his portrait to Gilbert Stuart.
In 1780 Bingham enlisted in the Philadelphia "Associators, " later becoming captain in the city cavalry, but his effective national service was as a founder and director of the Pennsylvania Bank under President Willing. Incorporated May 26, 1781, and chartered December 31 as the Bank of North America, it was the first bank in the country and gave increased stability to American finance. During 1784-1786 Bingham was in Europe.
His real-estate interests made him an advocate of internal improvements. He was the founder of Binghamton, New York, and the owner of considerable oil lands in Pennsylvania. His two million acres of timberland in New England, pictured in his Description of Certain Tracts in the District of Maine (1793), and his West Indian experience made him see the importance of American shipping. He was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and a frequent host to Presidents Washington and Adams, as to other American and foreign statesmen.
William Bingham was a major land developer, purchasing lands in new York and Maine, later known as the Bingham Purchase. Bingham also was director of several enterprises, including the Company of the Lancaster and Turnpike Road, which built the earliest and for years the best turnpike in the United States.
Bingham was a member of the Continental Congress, (1786-1788), a member Pennsylvania State House of Representatives, (1790-1791) and president of the Pennsylvania State Senate, (1794-1795). In 1795, he was elected as a Federalist to the United States Senate, serving until 1801.
Bingham was vice-president of the Society for Political Inquiries; a leading member of the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and Useful Arts; a member of the Society of Roads and Inland Navigation.
Bingham married Anne, daughter of Thomas and Anne (McCall) Willing on October 26, 1780, the bride being described by Anna Rawle, her neighbor, as one who "might set for the Queen of Beauty. " They had two daughters and a son. She died in Bermuda, May 11, 1801.
