Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and the Useful Arts
| William Bingham | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President pro tempore of the United states Senate | |
| In office February 16, 1797 – July 6, 1797 | |
| Preceded by | Samuel Livermore |
| Succeeded by | William Bradford |
| Usa Senator from Pennsylvania | |
| In office March 4, 1795 – March 3, 1801 | |
| Preceded past | Robert Morris |
| Succeeded by | Peter Muhlenberg |
| 37th and 38th Speaker of the Pennsylvania Business firm of Representatives | |
| In part December four, 1801 – Apr 10, 1802 | |
| Preceded by | Himself (as Speaker of the Assembly) |
| Succeeded by | Gerardus Wynkoop II |
| Fellow member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives | |
| In office 1793–1794 | |
| Personal details | |
| Built-in | (1752-03-08)March eight, 1752 Philadelphia, Province of Pennsylvania, British America |
| Died | February 7, 1804(1804-02-07) (aged 51) Bath, England |
| Resting place | New York Urban center |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Federalist |
| Spouse(s) | Ann Willing |
| Children | Maria Matilda Anne Louisa William |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania |
| Profession | Broker |
William Bingham (March 8, 1752 – February 7, 1804) was an American statesman from Philadelphia. He was a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress from 1786 to 1788 and served in the United States Senate from 1795 to 1801.[1] Bingham was 1 of the wealthiest men in the United States during his lifetime, and was considered to be the richest person in the U.S. in 1780.[2]
Early on life [edit]
William Bingham was born on March 8, 1752, in Philadelphia.[3] He graduated from the College of Philadelphia (at present the University of Pennsylvania) in 1768.
Philadelphia Society [edit]
Bingham first travelled to Europe in 1773 and, upon, returning to America joined the Philadelphia Club. Sent by the Committee of Secret Correspondence to Martinico (today's Martinique), to reside ostensibly as a merchant and to establish communications through that colony with Silas Deane,[4] the committee'south agent in France. He departed America aboard the frigate Reprisal on July three, 1776. During his voyages, he established links with French merchants at Martinique, captured several British ships, and returned in 1777 to America with several full loads of munitions, guns, and other vital goods necessary for the fighting of a war.[5]
Business interests [edit]
Share of the "Company of the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road", issued March 16, 1795, signed by William Bingham
Toward the end of the American Revolution, Bingham was regarded as the richest men in the United States.[2] He had made his fortune through articulation ownership of privateers and trading.[one] He became a major land developer, purchasing lands in upstate New York (present-day Binghamton) and 2 million acres (8,000 kmtwo) in Maine (later known as the Bingham Purchase).[6] He helped banker the Louisiana Purchase with Francis Baring and Henry Hope.[7] Their amanuensis Alexander Baring married his girl Anne.
He was the founder and the offset president of the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike.
Bingham was manager of several other enterprises. He maintained shipping ventures afterward the Revolutionary state of war, through his mercantile firm Bingham, Inglis, and Gilmore. He was a leading member of the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and Useful Arts and donated a Philadelphia property to be converted into a textile factory.[eight]
Mounted general [edit]
During the 1780s, Bingham marshaled the Second Troop of Philadelphia Light Horse, an outfit of 50 dragoons. They were glamorously clad and saw lilliputian action. William Jackson was first major and later became Bingham'due south land agent. Bingham escorted President-elect George Washington through Pennsylvania with his troop on his April 1789 journey from Valley Forge to New York Urban center to presume the presidency.[9]
Bingham was elected to the American Philosophical Order in 1787.[x]
Politics [edit]
During the provisional regime of the United states at Philadelphia, he wrote the past-laws for the national Bank of Northward America. He saw the national debt as beneficial in that it attracted interest into the diplomacy of the regime. During the outset presidency, Treasurer Alexander Hamilton sought Bingham as his mentor in managing taxes, tariffs, and in amalgam a national banking concern.[11]
Speaker of Pennsylvania House [edit]
In America, he represented Pennsylvania as a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1786 to 1788. In 1790 and 1791 he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, serving every bit its beginning speaker in 1791. He oversaw evolution of the land during a fledgling period of America as a fellow member of the Society of Roads and Inland Navigation, where he worked closely with Albert Gallatin of western Pennsylvania.[12] He later served in the Pennsylvania State Senate from 1793 through 1794.[thirteen] He built roads and a span from Philadelphia to Lancaster, Pennsylvania called the Lancaster Expressway.
U.South. Senator [edit]
By 1795, he was elected to the United States Senate where he served as a Federalist and Nationalist while it was originally at Philadelphia, merely he left for England in 1801 when his married woman had taken ill. He was an agile supporter of John Adams and when Adams was elected president, Bingham served as the Senate's President pro tempore in the Quaternary Congress. On March 4, 1797, with the showtime of the 5th Congress he administered the oath of office to Vice President Thomas Jefferson.[14] He was criticized by Jeffersonian politicians for "extravagance, ostentation and dissipation".[1] In 1813, nearly 10 years afterward his decease, John Quincy Adams said that the Presidency, the Capital and the Country had been governed by Bingham and his family connections.[1]
The several Bingham estates were renowned for hosting many prominent aristocrats from Europe as well as Federalist meetings. At the Bingham estate, Federalists agreed to hold preliminary votings before propositions were brought before Congress publicly, thus creating unanimity among party lines.[fifteen]
Binghamton [edit]
He was also a land surveyor, and looked to develop areas currently a part of Southern New York, and Northern Pennsylvania. One of his prime number prospects was at the confluence of the Chenango River and Susquehanna River. Judge Joshua Whitney Jr., settler and Bingham's agent, chosen this town Binghamton to accolade him. Furthermore, Binghamton'southward resident university Binghamton University recognizes Bingham through the naming of Bingham Hall.
Family [edit]
He married Anne Willing, girl of Thomas Willing, President of the First Bank of the United States, and they had 2 daughters and a son.
- Ann Louisa Bingham (1782–1848).[16] In 1798, she married Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton. They were the parents of nine children.
- Maria Matilda Bingham (1783–1849), who, at the age of 15, was briefly married to a French aristocrat, Jacques Alexandre, Comte de Tilly. Later on she married her sister's brother-in-law, Henry Baring. They were the parents of 5 children. Maria and Henry were divorced in 1824; she married the Marquis de Blaisel in 1826.[ citation needed ]
- William Bingham (1800–1852), who married Marie-Charlotte Chartier de Lotbinière (1805-1866), Seigneuresse de Rigaud, in 1822. She was the second of the three daughters and heiresses of Michel-Eustache-Gaspard-Alain Chartier de Lotbinière, by his 2d wife Mary, girl of Captain John Munro. They lived in Montreal, Paris and London; and were the parents of six children. William Bingham settled in England and died in Kent in 1852.
Although his married woman and ii daughters factored prominently in the social affairs of American politics, Bingham'due south married woman Anne died while his only son William was one year quondam. William Sr. left William Jr. to abound upward in America with his grandpa Thomas Willing.
Bingham died on February 7, 1804, in Bath,[17] England and is interred in Bath Abbey. His estate remained in the family until the decease of William Alexander Baring Bingham (1858-1915) simply it was non settled until 1964.[xviii]
Portraits [edit]
Bingham commissioned artist Gilbert Stuart to paint the Lansdowne portrait, a 1796 full-length portrait of President George Washington that became a souvenir to Lord Lansdowne. As British Prime Minister, Lansdowne had secured a peaceful cease to the American Revolutionary War, and the portrait was commissioned soon after the American approving of the Jay Treaty. Stuart besides painted portraits of Bingham, his wife and children.
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William Bingham (1797), past Gilbert Stuart, Baring annal, ING Bank NV, London.
See also [edit]
- Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
- List of wealthiest historical figures
- List of richest Americans in history
References [edit]
- ^ a b c d Maine League of Historical Societies and Museums (1970). Isaacson, Doris A. (ed.). Maine: A Guide 'Down Eastward' . Rockland, Me: Courier-Gazette, Inc. pp. 381–382.
- ^ a b Spingola, Deanna (2011). The Ruling Elite: a Report in Imperialism, Genocide and Emancipation. Bloomington, IN: Trafford Publishing. p. 48. ISBN978-1-4269-5462-seven . Retrieved August 13, 2021.
- ^ Thou. Due east. Cokayne, with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors. The Consummate Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in fourteen (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume I, page 277.
- ^ The Committee of Cloak-and-dagger Correspondence to Silas Deane, July 8, 1776, franklinpapers.org
- ^ Hinman, Marjory Barnum, Bingham'southward Land, Whitney's Boondocks. p.14 (1996) Broome Canton Historical Guild.
- ^ http://newenglandtowns.org/maine/franklin-canton "Franklin County, Maine", New England Towns. Retrieved November 22, 2007
- ^ Hinman, Marjory Barnum (1996). Pages 17-21, Bingham'due south Country, Whitney'south Town. Broome County Historical Society.
- ^ Alberts, folio 222.
- ^ Alberts, page 166.
- ^ "William Bingham". American Philosophical Society Member History. American Philosophical Society. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
- ^ Alberts, page 195.
- ^ Alberts, page 239.
- ^ Cox, Harold. "Senate Members B". Wilkes University Election Statistics Project. Wilkes University.
- ^ The proceedings of the Senate at a session specially called on March 4, 1797, Periodical of the Senate of the United States of America, 1789-1873
- ^ Alberts, folio 337.
- ^ "Lady Ashburton". Maine Retentivity Network.
- ^ Alberts, page 427.
- ^ Associated Printing. "Heirs of 1804 Trust to Split up $840,000." New York Times. November 15, 1964. Page One.
Farther reading [edit]
- Robert C. Alberts, The Golden Voyage: The Life and Times of William Bingham, 1969, Houghton Mifflin.
External links [edit]
Archival Collections [edit]
- Guide to the Land Grant to William Bingham, Esq., for Property in Lycoming County from Thomas Mifflin, Governor of Pennsylvania. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
Other [edit]
- The states Congress. "William Bingham (id: B000474)". Biographical Directory of the United states Congress.
- Biography at Virtualology.com
- Biography and portrait at the Academy of Pennsylvania
- The William Bingham Correspondence , including letters from 1791 to 1803, are available for research use at the Historical Guild of Pennsylvania.
- The Political Graveyard
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bingham