Speaker of Pennsylvania House
What was the position of William Bingham from Dec 1791 to Apr 1792?
William Bingham William Bingham ( March 8 , 1752February 7 , 1804 ) was an American statesman from Philadelphia . He was a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress from 1786 to 1788 and served in the United States Senate from 1795 to 1801 . Early life . William Bingham was born on March 8 , 1752 in Philadelphia . He graduated from the College of Philadelphia ( now the University of Pennsylvania ) in 1768 . Philadelphia Society . Bingham first travelled to Europe in 1773 and , upon , returning to America joined the Philadelphia Society . Sent by the Committee of Secret Correspondence to Martinico , to reside ostensibly as a merchant and to establish communications through that colony with Silas Deane , the committees agent in France . He departed America aboard the frigate Reprisal on July 3 , 1776 . During his voyages , he established links with French merchants at Martinique , captured several British ships , and returned in 1777 to America with several full loads of munitions , guns , and other vital goods necessary for the fighting of a war . Business interests . By the end of the American Revolution , Bingham was regarded as one of the richest men in Pennsylvania . He had made his fortune through joint ownership of privateers and trading . He became a major land developer , purchasing lands in upstate New York and 2 million acres ( 8,000 km² ) in Maine , later known as the Bingham Purchase . He helped broker the Louisiana Purchase with Francis Baring and Henry Hope . Their agent Alexander Baring married his daughter Anne . He was the founder and the first president of the Company of the Lancaster and Turnpike Road . Bingham was director of several other enterprises . He maintained shipping ventures after the Revolutionary war , through his mercantile house Bingham , Inglis , and Gilmore . He was a leading member of the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and Useful Arts and donated a Philadelphia property to be converted into a textile factory . Mounted general . During the 1780s , Bingham marshaled the Second Troop of Philadelphia Light Horse , an outfit of 50 dragoons . They were glamorously clad and saw little action . William Jackson was first major and later became Binghams land agent . Bingham escorted President-elect George Washington through Pennsylvania with his troop on his April 1789 journey from Valley Forge to New York City to assume the presidency . Bingham was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1787 . Politics . During the provisional government of the United States at Philadelphia , he wrote the by-laws for the national Bank of North America . He saw the national debt as beneficial in that it attracted interest into the affairs of the government . During the first presidency , Treasurer Alexander Hamilton sought Bingham as his mentor in managing taxes , tariffs , and in constructing a national bank . Speaker of Pennsylvania House . In America , he represented Pennsylvania as a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1786 to 1788 . In 1790 and 1791 he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives , serving as its first speaker in 1791 . He oversaw development of the land during a fledgling period of America as a member of the Society of Roads and Inland Navigation , where he worked closely with Albert Gallatin of western Pennsylvania . He later served in the Pennsylvania State Senate from 1793 through 1794 . He built roads and a bridge from Philadelphia to Lancaster , Pennsylvania called the Lancaster Pike . U.S . Senator . By 1795 , he was elected to the United States Senate where he served as a Federalist and Nationalist while it was originally at Philadelphia , but he left for England in 1801 when his wife had taken ill . He was an active supporter of John Adams and when Adams was elected President , Bingham served as the Senates President pro tempore in the Fourth Congress . On March 4 , 1797 , with the start of the Fifth Congress he administered the oath of office to Vice President Thomas Jefferson . He was criticized by Jeffersonian politicians for extravagance , ostentation and dissipation . In 1813 , nearly ten years after his death , John Quincy Adams said that the Presidency , the Capital and the Country had been governed by Bingham and his family connections . The several Bingham estates were renowned for hosting many prominent aristocrats from Europe as well as Federalist meetings . At the Bingham estate , Federalists agreed to hold preliminary votings before propositions were brought before Congress publicly , thus creating unanimity among party lines . Binghamton . He was also a land surveyor , and looked to develop areas currently a part of Southern New York , and Northern Pennsylvania . One of his prime prospects was at the confluence of the Chenango River and Susquehanna River . Judge Joshua Whitney Jr. , settler and Binghams agent , called this town Binghamton to honor him . Furthermore , Binghamtons resident university Binghamton University recognizes Bingham through the naming of Bingham Hall . Family . He married Anne Willing , daughter of Thomas Willing , President of the First Bank of the United States , and they had two daughters and a son . - Ann Louisa Bingham ( 1782–1848 ) . In 1798 , she married Alexander Baring , 1st Baron Ashburton . They were the parents of nine children . - Maria Matilda Bingham ( 1783–1849 ) , who , at the age of 15 , was briefly married to a French aristocrat , Jacques Alexandre , Comte de Tilly . Afterwards she married her sisters brother-in-law , Henry Baring . They were the parents of five children . Maria and Henry were divorced in 1824 ; she married the Marquis de Blaisel in 1826 . - William Bingham ( 1800–1852 ) , who married Marie-Charlotte Chartier de Lotbinière ( 1805-1866 ) , Seigneuresse de Rigaud , in 1822 . She was the second of the three daughters and heiresses of Michel-Eustache-Gaspard-Alain Chartier de Lotbinière , by his second wife Mary , daughter of Captain John Munro . They lived in Montreal , Paris and London ; and were the parents of six children . William Bingham settled in England and died in Kent in 1852 . Although his wife and two daughters factored prominently in the social affairs of American politics , Binghams wife Anne died while his only son William was one year old . William Sr . left William Jr . to grow up in America with his grandfather Thomas Willing . Bingham died on February 7 , 1804 in Bath , England and is interred in Bath Abbey . His estate remained in the family until the death of William Alexander Baring Bingham ( 1858-1915 ) but it was not settled until 1964 . Portraits . Bingham commissioned artist Gilbert Stuart to paint the Lansdowne portrait , a 1796 full-length portrait of President George Washington that became a gift to Lord Lansdowne . As British Prime Minister , Lansdowne had secured a peaceful end to the American Revolutionary War , and the portrait was commissioned soon after the American approval of the Jay Treaty . Stuart also painted portraits of Bingham , his wife and children .