Thomas Willing

Thomas Willing was an American merchant, banker, and politician. He served as mayor of Philadelphia and as a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress. He was also the first president of the Bank of North America and later of the First Bank of the United States. During his career, Willing amassed considerable wealth as a transatlantic merchant trading in "wheat, sugar, rum, and occasionally enslaved Africans". One account credits him with bankrolling the American Revolution. Another describes him as the richest man in America around 1800.