Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/479

Rh adopted the profession of law, and settled in Ten- nessee. He served in congress in 1807-'9, and in the U. S. senate in 1814-'lo, having been appointed by the governor to fill the place of George W. Campbell, who had resigned. In 1832 he was one of the board of visitors to the United States military academy at West Point.

WHARTON, Thomas, governor of Pennsylva- nia, b. in Chester county, Pa., in 1733 ; d. in Lancas- ter, Pa., 22 May, 1778. He was the son of John, some time coroner of Chester county, Pa., whose father, Thomas, of Westmoreland, England, emi- f rated to Pennsylvania about 1083, served in the hiladelphia common council in 1713— '18, and was the founder of the Wharton family of Philadelphia. Thomas became a merchant, was for a time a part- ner of Anthony Stocker, and was highly esteemed for his virtue and patriotism. On the passage of the stamp-act he took a resolute stand on the side of the opposition, and his name, with that of his grandfather and other members of the family, was among the first that were affixed to the non- importation resolutions and agreements of 1765. When the news of the closing of the Boston harbor reached Philadelphia a public meeting was held on 20 May, 1774, and Thomas Wharton was chosen a member of the committee of correspondence. On 22 June, 1774, he was placed on a committee with Joseph Reed and John Nixon to request the speaker of the assembly to summon its members to meet on 1 Aug. and consult on public affairs. He was a deputy to the convention that was called by patriotic citizens of Philadelphia, to meet on 15 July, 1774, and was one of the twenty-five citizens that formed the committee of safety in 1775. On 24 July, 1776, he became president of the council of safety, in which the executive authority of the government was temporarily vested, and in 1777 he was elected president of Pennsylvania, which office he held till his death. He was inaugurated on 5 March, with much display, and under the title of " His Excellency Thomas Wharton, junior, esquire, president of the supreme executive council of Penn- sylvania, captain-general and commander-in-chief in and over the same." During the Revolution he discharged his duties with ability and success. He owned a country-seat called " Twickenham " in Montgomery county. He removed to Lancaster with the executive council on the British occupation of Philadelphia, died there, and was buried with military honors. At the request of the vestry of the Evangelical Trinity church, of Lancaster, Pa., his body was interred within the walls of that edifice. — His brother, John, was a member of the Continen- tal navy board in 1778-'80, and built two ships, the " Experiment " and the '• Washington," for the Pennsylvania navy. — Thomas's uncle, Joseph, merchant, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 4 Aug., 1707: d. there in July, 1776, was a successful merchant, and the owner of " Walnut Grove," a country place on Fifth street, near Washington avenue, Philadel- phia, on which the Mischianza of 1778 was held. (See Howe, William.) The house, which is shown in the illustration on page 448, was the finest of its day near that city. It was torn down in 1862, to make room for a school-house. Joseph Wharton was called " Duke Wharton," because of his stately bearing. — Joseph's son, Samuel, merchant, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 3 May, 1732 ; d. there in March, 1800, was a partner in the house of Baynton Whar- ton and Morgan. At one time the Indians de- stroyed nearly £40,000 worth of goods, and as in- demnification the chiefs of the Six Nations made over to the firm a large tract of land at the treaty of Fort Stanwix. The land bordered on Ohio river above the Little Kanawha, and included about one fourth of the present state of West Virginia. To this grant the traders gave the name of Indiana. Mr. Wharton was sent by the firm to England to solicit confirmation of this grant, in which he so far succeeded that a day was appointed for him to attend court. Some of his correspondence with Benjamin Franklin having been discovered in the mean time, he was obliged to fly for his life, and reaching France, was joined by Dr. Franklin. In 1780 he returned to Philadelphia. He was a mem- ber of the city councils, of the committee of safety of the Revolution, of the colonial and state legisla- tures, and of the Ohio company, whose plan of forming a settlement on Ohio river was projected by Sir William Johnson, Gov. Franklin, and others. On 9 Feb., 1781, he took the oath of allegiance to the state, and he was a member of the Continental congress in 1782-'3. In 1784 he was chosen a justice of the peace for the district of Southwark, in which suburb he owned a country-seat. — An- other son of Joseph, Joseph, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 21 March, 1733 ; d. there, 25 Dec, 1816, went to England about 1775, and while there wrote a number of letters on the attitude of Great Britain to the colonies. Some of these were published in the " Pennsylvania Journal," others in British jour- nals, and attracted so much attention that when their authorship was discovered Wharton was forced to leave the country, and fled to France. During his residence abroad he was much with Benjamin West, and it is said that the suggestion that West's painting of " Christ Healing the Sick " should be given to the Pennsylvania hospital in Philadelphia was made by him. He corresponded with West regarding the removal of the picture to the hospital, which was accomplished in 1817. — Another son of Joseph, Robert, mayor of Phila- delphia, b. in Philadelphia, 12 Jan., 1757; d. there, 7 March, 1834, at an early age left his studies, and was apprenticed to a hatter. He entered the counting - house of his brother Charles, a mer- chant of Phil- adelphia, but spent much of his time in out-door sports, and until 1818 was presi- dent of the fa- mous fox-hunt- ing club of Glou- cesterthatwasor- ganized in 1766. In 1790 he be- came a member of the Schuylkill fishing company, of which he was governor from 1812 till 1828. He was a member of city councils from 1792 till 1795 man of Philadelphia In 1796 he was made alder- and in that year quelled a riot among the sailors, who had organized themselves into a body and demanded exorbitant wages. After reading the riot act he requested them to disperse, and, being received with shouts of defiance, Mr. Wharton ordered each of his men " to take his man," and 'the sailors were captured and imprisoned. He quelled the Walnut street prison riot in 1798. and also took part in suppressing others. He was fifteen times elected mayor of Philadelphia be-