William Rawle was an American lawyer from Philadelphia, who served as United States district attorney in Pennsylvania from 1791 to 1800.
22 Facts About William Rawle
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William Rawle was the first chancellor of the Philadelphia bar association and published several influential legal texts including A View of the Constitution of the United States.
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William Rawle was the first to argue for secession in the United States.
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William Rawle was a founder and president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society and president of the Maryland Society for the Abolition of Society.
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William Rawle argued before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1805 against the constitutionality of slavery.
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William Rawle was a civic leader in Philadelphia as a founder and first president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a founder of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, board member of the Library Company of Philadelphia, and a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania for forty years.
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William Rawle read law in New York under its last Loyalist, Attorney General John T Kempe, who had succeeded his father, William Kempe.
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William Rawle sailed to Europe in 1781 to continue his legal education and attended the Middle Temple in London at the recommendation of William Eden.
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William Rawle returned to Philadelphia in 1783 and his admission was aided by a hand-written passport from Benjamin Franklin in his role as United States Ambassador to France.
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William Rawle was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1783.
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William Rawle founded The Rawle Law Offices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1783.
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William Rawle was offered the position of United States Attorney General by Washington, but declined.
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William Rawle served from 1791 to 1800 and was instrumental in the prosecution of the leaders of the Whiskey Insurrection and the Fries's Rebellion.
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William Rawle was the first chancellor of the Pennsylvania bar association.
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William Rawle served as counsel for the First Bank of the United States and the American Philosophical Society.
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In 1830, William Rawle assisted in revisions to the civil code of Pennsylvania.
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William Rawle was interested in science, philanthropy, and education, and was active in groups supporting these areas.
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William Rawle was a founder and first president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a member of the American Philosophical Society, a member of the Board of Directors of the Library Company of Philadelphia, a founder of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and for forty years served as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania.
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William Rawle was an abolitionist and a founding member of the Quaker Society that in 1775 advocated for slavery to be abolished.
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William Rawle's great-grandfather was Francis Rawle, who authored some early pamphlets printed by Benjamin Franklin before he started his own business.
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William Rawle's family were Cornish American members of the Religious Society of Friends, originating in the parish of St Juliot, Cornwall.
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The collection is displayed in the William Rawle Reading Room in the Temple Law Library.