10 Facts About Thomas Willing

Thomas Willing served as the first president of the Bank of North America and the First Bank of the United States.

Thomas Willing's 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.

Thomas Willing himself owned slaves, three in 1779, but none in 1782.

Thomas Willing was elected to the revived American Philosophical Society in 1768.

Thomas Willing served until 1767, the last under the colonial government.

From 1781 to 1791, Thomas Willing served as president of the Bank of North America, preceding John Nixon.

Thomas Willing was elected president of the bank later that year, and during his tenure, he became the richest man in America.

In 1763, Thomas Willing married Anne McCall, daughter of Samuel McCall and Anne Searle.

Thomas Willing died in 1821 in Philadelphia, where he is interred in Christ Church Burial Ground.

Thomas Willing was the great-uncle of John Brown Francis, who was a governor and United States Senator from Rhode Island.