re-commissioned in 1761 and again in 1764. He was the first clerk to the Trustees of the Academy, resigning in 1755, and its first Treasurer, resigning this office in 1764 being succeeded by Edward Shippen, jr. The last meeting of the Trustees he attended—and no one was more constant in attendance than he—was on 10 July, 1764; and on 21 February, 1769, John Allen, Esquire, was elected to succeed him. His death occurred 11 January, 1769, and on 19 January following, we find in the Pennsylvania Gazette this obituary notice of him:
On Wednesday, the Eleventh instant, died at the age of 64, The Honourable William Coleman, Esq., an Assistant Judge of our Supreme Court He was always esteemed a valuable and useful citizen, and a Gentleman of great good sense, and unblemished Virtue. Tho' much pleased with Study and Retirement, he possessed many social Virtues, and was ever fond of those Subjects which were most likely to render him serviceable to his Neighbor. He was an able and an upright Judge, and in that character gave the greatest Satisfaction to his Country. And we may say, with much Reason, that this Province has few such Men, and that few Men will be so much missed as Mr. Coleman.[1]
He married Hannah, daughter of George Fitzwater, whom he survived and without children. By his will he freed his slaves, and including his Books and Mathematical Instruments, he left his residuary estate, which was rich in realty, to his wife's favorite nephew, George Clymer, the Signer, who had been left an orphan at an early age, and whose care had devolved upon William Coleman and his wife. Judge Coleman superintended young Clymer's education, and with his cultivated mind instilled into him a love of reading, which better fitted him for his later political duties. George Clymer became a Trustee of the College and Academy in 1779.
- ↑ "Upon the whole I proposed to them to leave the matter to Reference, which was accordingly done by mutual consent to a very honest judicious man, Mr. William Coleman, a merchant of the place," Chief Justice Allen, 5 November, 1753. And again in a later letter to David and John Barclay of London he speaks of him as "Our Mutual Friend." The Burd Papers, 1897, pp. 9 and 75.
