:Thomas Willing

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.{{cite book|title=The American Monthly Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xtIQAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA109|year=1902|publisher=National Society|pages=109–}}

Thomas completed preparatory studies in Bath, England, then studied law in London at the Inner Temple.{{cite web|title=Thomas Willing (1731–1821), University of Pennsylvania University Archives|url=http://www.archives.upenn.edu/people/1700s/willing_thos.html|website=www.archives.upenn.edu|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|access-date=February 11, 2017}}

In 1749, after studying in England, he returned to Philadelphia, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits in partnership with Robert Morris.{{cite book|last1=Balch|first1=Thomas Willing|title=Thomas Willing of Philadelphia (1731–1821)|date=January 1, 1922|publisher=The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography|url=https://archive.org/details/jstor-20086466|access-date=February 11, 2017}}{{cite web |last1=Wright |first1=Robert E. |title=Thomas Wllling (1731–1821): Philadelphia Financier and Forgotten Founding Father |url=https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/viewFile/25343/25112 |access-date=February 11, 2017 |website=journals.psu.edu |publisher=Biographical Directory of Early Pennsylvania Legislatures Project}} 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.{{cite web |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/20012081?rpp=60&pg=1&gallerynos=719&ft=*&pos=33#fullscreen |title=Thomas Willing |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=March 19, 2020}} Their partnership continued until 1793. Willing himself owned slaves, three in 1779, but none in 1782.

He was elected to the revived American Philosophical Society in 1768.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. According to Pennsylvania tax records, Willing owned three enslaved people in 1769, but none as of 1782.{{cite web |url=https://pennandslaveryproject.org/exhibits/show/slaveownership/earlytrustees/thomaswilling |title=Thomas Willing |website=pennandslaveryproject.org |publisher=Penn and Slavery Project, University of Pennsylvania |access-date=17 June 2024}}

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.{{rp|52}}

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,{{cite web|title=Thomas Willing {{!}} exhibits.hsp.org|url=http://digitalhistory.hsp.org/pafrm/person/thomas-willing|website=digitalhistory.hsp.org|access-date=February 11, 2017|language=en}} but later subscribed £5,000 to supply the revolutionary cause.

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.{{cite book |last=Burke |first=James |date=2007 |title=American Connections: The Founding Fathers. Networked |url=https://archive.org/details/americanconnecti00burk_0 |url-access=registration |quote=richest man america 1800. |location=New York, NY |publisher=Simon & Schuster |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanconnecti00burk_0/page/157 157]–58 |isbn=978-0-7432-8226-0}} In August 1807, Willing suffered a slight stroke, and within a few months, he resigned his position with the bank for health reasons.{{cite book | last = Konkle | first = Burton Alva | title = Thomas Willing and the First American Financial System | publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press | year = 1937 | location = Philadelphia, PA}}{{Cite journal | last1 = Wright | first1 = R. E. | title = Thomas Willing (1731–1821): Philadelphia Financier and Forgotten Founding Father | journal = Pennsylvania History | volume = 63 | issue = 4 | pages = 525–560 |jstor=27773931| year = 1996 }}

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

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

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:

• Anne Willing (1764–1801), who married William Bingham (1752–1804){{cite book|last=ALBERTS|first=ROBERT C|title=The Golden Voyage|url=https://archive.org/details/goldenvoyagelife00albe|url-access=registration|year=1969|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|location=Boston|pages=[https://archive.org/details/goldenvoyagelife00albe/page/435 435]}}
• Thomas Mayne Willing (1767–1822), who married Jane Nixon (1775–1823)
• Elizabeth Willing (1768–1858), who married William Jackson (1759–1828)
• Mary Willing (1770–1852), who married Henry Clymer (1767–1830)
• Dorothy Willing (1772–1842), who married Thomas Willing Francis, a cousin
• George Willing (1774–1827), who married Rebecca Harrison Blackwell (1782–1852)
• Richard Willing (1775–1858), who married Eliza Moore (1786–1823)
• Abigail Willing (1777–1841), who married Richard Peters (1780–1848).

Willing died in 1821 in Philadelphia, where he is interred in Christ Church Burial Ground.{{cite book|last1=Society|first1=Sons of the Revolution Pennsylvania|title=Decennial Register of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution: 1888–1898|publisher=F. B. Lippincott|url=https://archive.org/details/decennialregist00unkngoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/decennialregist00unkngoog/page/n60 44]|quote=Thomas Willing (1731–1821).|access-date=February 11, 2017|language=en|year=1898}}

Willing was the great-uncle of John Brown Francis (1791–1864), who was a governor and United States Senator from Rhode Island.{{cite web|title=FRANCIS, John Brown – Biographical Information|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=F000336|website=bioguide.congress.gov|publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|access-date=February 10, 2017}}{{cite web|title=Guide to the Francis Family Papers 1783–1901 (bulk 1783–1838)|url=http://library.brown.edu/riamco/xml2pdffiles/US-RHi-mss426.pdf|website=library.brown.edu|publisher=Rhode Island Historical Society|access-date=February 10, 2017|date=2009}}

Willing was also the grandfather of Ann Louisa Bingham (b. 1782),{{cite web|title=Lady Ashburton|url=http://www.mainememory.net/artifact/10122|publisher=Maine Memory Network}} 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.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}} 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.

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

{{Reflist|30em}}

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

{{CongBio|W000556}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060827182304/http://bartleby.com/65/wi/Willing.html Columbia Encyclopedia article]

• {{cite book|last=Rappleye|first=Charles|author-link=Charles Rappleye|title=Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution|year=2010|publisher=Simon & Schuster|place=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/robertm_rap_2010_00_1148/page/289 289–488]|isbn=978-1416570912|url=https://archive.org/details/robertm_rap_2010_00_1148/page/229}}

• [http://www.archives.upenn.edu/people/1700s/willing_thos.html Biographical sketch and portrait at the University of Pennsylvania]
• The [http://www.hsp.org/files/findingaid1874willingsandfrancis.pdf 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.

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Category:1731 births

Category:1821 deaths

Category:18th-century mayors of places in Pennsylvania

Category:American slave owners

Category:Burials at Christ Church, Philadelphia

Category:Merchants from colonial Pennsylvania

Category:18th-century American merchants

Category:Continental Congressmen from Pennsylvania

Category:Mayors of Philadelphia

Category:Politicians from Philadelphia

Category:19th-century American slave traders

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society