WILLING, Thomas, lawyer, born in Philadelphia, 19 December, 1731; died there, 19 January, 1821. He was carefully educated at Bath, England, and, after reading law in the Temple, London, in 1754, became the head of the mercantile house of Willing and Morris, one of the largest in the country, his partner being Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution. This partnership continued until 1793. During the Revolution this firm were the agents of congress for supplying naval and rail flaw stores. In 1755 he was elected a member of the common council of Philadelphia, and in 1759 was made alderman, but did not accept until 1761. On 2 October, 1759, he was made an associate justice of the city court, and on 28 February, 1761, became justice of the peace of the court of common pleas, quarter sessions, and orphans' court, and was reappointed in 1764. On 4 October, 1763, he was elected by the common council mayor of the city, and from 14 September, 1767, till 1774 was an associate justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, and justice of the oyer and terminer, and general jail delivery. He was a leader in the movement against the stamp-act, and one of the committee to enforce the non-importation agreement of 1765. He presided at a mass-meeting held in Philadelphia, 18 June, 1774, to take action for a general congress of all the colonies, and was appointed one of the committee of correspondence. On 15 July he was chairman of a patriotic meeting in Carpenters' hall. He was afterward a member of the committee of safety, was elected a representative to the assembly on the "moderate men's" ticket in April, 1775, and was a delegate to the Continental congress in 1775-'6, being elected in the place of Joseph Galloway. In congress he voted against Richard Henry Lee's preliminary resolutions and the Declaration of Independence, because he considered the act premature and unnecessary, and the colonies not ready for independence. When the British took possession of Philadelphia in 1777, he remained during their occupation and held communication with Lord Howe. At a critical period of the war, in 1780, when there was great danger of the dissolution of the American army for want of provisions to keep it together, Willing and others in Philadelphia subscribed £260,000 toward the foundation of the Pennsylvania bank to procure the necessary supplies and to promote the recruiting service. Of this amount he subscribed £5,000. Upon the formation of the Bank of North America in 1781, which was the first bank chartered in this country, he was elected its president, and continued to serve until he resigned, 9 January, 1792. He was also first president of the Bank of the United States, which was organized in 1791. With his many public duties he united the business of an active and successful merchant.