My first stop was somewhere I had seen and heard about before especially while I worked for Ravenchase, but I had never visited it before. Christ Church. Christ Church is a very impressive old Georgian style church located at the very end of Old City on 2nd Street, Philadelphia. Founded in 1695 and built around 1727 this Episcopalian Church is known (according to its own flyer) as "The Nation's Church" because of the famous people who have worshipped here! Just the list of Revolutionary-era figures is amazing and include George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross (just a side note, while I was visiting today the two people in the gift shop of the church were debating whether or not Betsy Ross was married in the church, apparently they were talking about her THIRD marriage!), Robert Morris, Absalom Jones, Benjamin Rush as well as many others.
My post today is going to focus on one of these men, Robert Morris, financier of the American Revolution. Robert Morris was born on January 20, 1734 in Liverpool, UK however, at a early age he immigrated to Maryland to join his father. He studied in Philadelphia and was apprenticed to the shipping and banking firm of Philadelphia merchant Charles Willing. After Charles passed his son Thomas made Morris a partner, Morris married Mary White and together they had five children.
Morris first entered public office because of the hated Stamp Act of 1765-1766, he was then elected to the Pennsylvania Council of Safety, then the Committee of Correspondence, Provincial Legislature and in 1775 was selected to attend the Second Continental Congress. At first Morris voted against declaring independence from Briton, however, when he saw which way the wind was blowing he 'excused' himself from the vote and Pennsylvania voted yes, he was not shy from signing the Declaration however!
Morris is one of only six me to sign both the Declaration as well as the Constitution and was known as the Financier of the Revolution! During the war he even paid the countries debt from his own funds, he even personally paid £10,000 to George Washington right before the famous crossing of the Delaware River so that he could pay the Continental Army and keep the Revolution alive.
After the war Morris was the Superintendent of Finance and along with Alexander Hamilton he helped establish the first ever National Bank of the United States. Morris was not as good as handling his own finances as he was of handing the countries and after the war he invested heavily into land speculation. When Napoleon started running loose throughout Europe the market for land plummeted and Morris as well as a lot of other people went bankrupt, Morris even had to spend three years in debtors prison! After being released Morris suffered from poor health until his eventual death on May 9, 1806.
According to Charles Rappleye in his 2010 book 'Robert Morris: Financier of the Revolution' Next to George Washington, Robert Morris was the most powerful man in America. (Page 4)
So that is Robert Morris, a great historical figure that sadly spent his last years in debt, the town of Morrisville in PA is named for him as well as other honors, but he is forced to share eternity with his brother in-law William White in a tomb on the grounds here at Christ Church!
So onto the next one! Thanks again for reading, follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Tombtours or Twitter @tombtours for more regular posts including additional graves and tombs I have yet to talk about here.
