ling's Town now Wilmington, Delaware. Charles entered into mercantile business and took charge of the house his elder brother Thomas, who returned to England, had founded in 1726. He was successful in his operations and speculations, and established a credit at home and abroad which redounded to the welfare and influence of his adopted city. He was very active in the formation of the Philadelphia Associators in 1747, and must here have been much with Franklin in his efforts to make this defensive association a success. He was Mayor of the City in 1748, and again in 1754, dying 30 November, 1754, of ship fever contracted it is said whilst in the discharge of some of his official duties. Mr. Willing married 21 January, 1731, Anne, daughter of Joseph Shippen, son of the Councillor, and sister of William Shippen, M. D., the Elder, a Trustee. Of his children, his eldest son Thomas became a Trustee in 1760, and in 1761 a Justice of the Supreme Court, and married Anne, daughter of Samuel M'Call junior, also a Trustee, and was father of Thomas Mayne Willing a Trustee of the University in 1800, and of Anne who married William Bingham, a Trustee in 1789; Anne, married Tench Francis, son of Tench Francis a Trustee; Mary, married Col. William Byrd of Westover, Virginia; Elizabeth, married Samuel Powel, a Trustee in 1773; and Margaret, married to Robert Hare, a Trustee in 1789, and became the mother of Charles Willing Hare, whose son Rev. George Emlen Hare, D. D. was Assistant Professor of the Greek and Latin Languages in the University in 1844, and of Dr. Robert Hare, Professor of Chemistry in the University from 1818 to 1848, whose son John Innes Clark Hare, a graduate of the University in 1834, was a Trustee in 1858, resigning in 1868, to take the Professorship of the Institute of Law which he held until 1889, when he became Emeritus Professor.
The following obituary notice by Franklin of Mr. Willing appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 5 December, 1754. The portion which is a quotation, is by the Rev. William Smith.
Last Saturday, after a short Illness, departed this Life, in the 45th Year of his age, Charles Willing, Esqre; Mayor of this City. As it may be truly said that this Community had not a more useful Member, his
