APPENDIX. 5 1 1 



present notice was entered a student of law in that venerable seat of 

 legal learning, and pursued for several months with great assiduity the 

 studies of a barrister. Returning to his native city, the opulence, pow- 

 erful connections and established reputation of his father's commercial 

 house, pointed to commerce as a profession. And on the death of his 

 father, in 1754, he assumed the exclusive control of that gentleman's 

 large concerns. He associated with himself the late Hon. Robert 

 Morris, Esq., afterwards well known as "the Financier of the Revolu- 

 tion," but separated himself from that gentleman upon Mr. Morris's 

 great enterprises of landed purchase, which, ending disastrously, clouded 

 the latter years of his distinguished and useful life. Mr. Willing was 

 in many places of public trust in the Province, occupying among them 

 a seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court. He was among the 

 persons who early opposed the unconstitutional measures of Great 

 Britain. His name stands at the head of that great list of merchants 

 and traders who signed the non-importation resolutions of 1764. He 

 was President of the Provincial Meeting of Deputies, chosen by the 

 several counties of Pennsylvania, which met in Philadelphia, July 15, 

 1774, one of whose resolves was in these memorable words: 



That, although a suspension of the commerce of this large trading Province with 

 Great Britain would greatly distress multitudes of our industrious inhabitants, yel that 

 sacrifice and a much greater we are ready to offer for the preservation of our liberties. 

 But in tenderness to the people of Great Britain as well as of this country, and in 

 hopes that our just remonstrances will at length reach the ears of our gracious sover- 

 eign, and be no longer treated with contempt by any of our fellow-subjects in England, 

 it is our earnest desire that the Congress should first try the gentler mode of stating 

 our grievances and malting a firm and decent claim of redress. 



Mr. Willing was in the Congress of 1775, and in that one more cele- 

 brated, though composed of less able men, of i 776. He voted steadily 

 and fearlessly against the Declaration of Independence, considering 

 that he had not received power from the assembly, by whom he was 

 appointed a delegate, to vote for a revolution; and that, whether or not, 

 the time had not arrived in which Pennsylvania should come into the 

 measure. He remained also in the city during the occupation of it by 

 the British army. But when Sir William Howe sent a person to ad- 

 minister the oath of allegiance to George HI., he refused to take it. 

 For all this no one ever questioned his political integrity; though many 

 did that of men about him who were vigorous in declaring their devo- 

 tion to the cause of independence. During the session of the Congress 

 of 1774 he was in constant and confidential intercourse of the great 

 men who strove to make Great Britain yield to the solicitations of the 



