Episode 1 of 4
Willing's Presidency and Franklin's Token Share
- When
- 1781–1791
- Where
- Bank of North America, Philadelphia
Thomas Willing became the bank's first president, serving 1781–1791, while Benjamin Franklin bought a single token share in a gesture of good faith.
Thomas Willing, a two-term mayor of Philadelphia and former partner of Robert Morris in an import-export firm that once dominated the city's slave trade, was named the bank's first president. He held the office from 1781 to 1791, when John Nixon succeeded him. Benjamin Franklin purchased a single token share as a sign of good faith to Federalists and their new bank.
Sources
- Bank of North America Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-28
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.