William Rawle (April 28, 1759 – April 12, 1836) was an American lawyer in Philadelphia, who in 1791 was appointed as

United States district attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. He was a founder and first president of the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a long-established research facility, based in Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chronicles, maps, press reports and v ...

, president of the

Pennsylvania Abolition Society The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was the first American abolition society. It was founded April 14, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and held four meetings. Seventeen of the 24 men who attended initia ...

, and for 40 years a

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to ...

of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Early life and education

Rawle was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, where he studied at the Friends' Academy. His father was Francis Rawle (1729–1761) and mother was Rebecca Warner (1730–1819). His grandfather was William Rawle (1694–1741) and his great-grandfather was Francis Rawle (1663–1727), who authored some early pamphlets printed by

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

before he started his own business. Rawle's family were Cornish American members of the

Religious Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

(known as "Quakers"), originating in the parish of St Juliot,

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

Career

Rawle studied law in New York and at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, and was admitted to the bar in 1783. William Rawle founded The Rawle Law Offices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1783, and this firm has continued to the present day as the oldest law firm in continuous practice in the United States, Rawle & Henderson LLP. In 1791

President Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of t ...

appointed him

for

, in which capacity he prosecuted the leaders of the Whiskey Insurrection. He also served as counsel for the First Bank of the United States. In 1830, Rawle assisted in revising the civil code of Pennsylvania. He took much interest in

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

, philanthropy, and

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

, and was active in groups supporting these. He was a founder and first president of the

, president of the

, a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

, and for forty years served as a

of the

Personal life

In 1783, he was married to Sarah Coates Burge (1761–1824). Together, they were the parents of twelve children, Elizabeth Margaret, Francis William, Samuel Burge, William, Beulah, Rebecca Shoemaker, Sarah, Francis William, Edward, Henry, Horatio, and Juliet. Their son William Rawle, Jr. (1788–1858), followed his father into the legal profession and married Mary Anna Tilghman, was the daughter of prominent Philadelphia lawyer Edward Tilghman and the granddaughter of Chief Justice

Benjamin Chew Benjamin Chew (November 19, 1722 – January 20, 1810) was a fifth-generation American, a Quaker-born legal scholar, a prominent and successful Philadelphia lawyer, slaveowner, head of the Pennsylvania Judiciary System under both Colony and Com ...

. Rawle died on April 12, 1836, in Philadelphia,

. In 1844, his 27-acre estate in Philadelphia was purchased by

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

and used as an extension of the cemetery originally named South Laurel Hill., Aaron V. Wunsch, National Park Service, 1998.

Descendants

Through his son William, he was the grandfather of attorney William Henry Rawle (1823–1889), who married Mary Binney Cadwalader (1829–1861), whose father was the

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

and Judge John Cadwalader. Their daughter, novelist Mary Cadwalader Rawle (1850–1923), was married to Frederic Rhinelander Jones, the brother of the novelist Edith (Jones) Wharton, and their daughter was renowned landscape architect

Beatrix Farrand Beatrix Cadwalader Farrand (née Jones; June 19, 1872 – February 28, 1959) was an American landscape gardener and landscape architect. Her career included commissions to design about 110 gardens for private residences, estates and country ho ...

(1872–1959).

Published works

* ''Vindication of Rev. Mr. Heckewelder's 'History of the Indian Nations (1818) * ''A View of the Constitution of the United States'' (1825; second edition, 1829) * ''Discourse on the Nature and Study of the Law'' (1832) * "An Address before the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture" (1819) * "Two Addresses to the Associated Members of the Bar of Philadelphia" (1824) * "The Study of the Law" (1832) * "Biographical Sketch of Sir William Keith" * "A Sketch of the Life of

Thomas Mifflin Thomas Mifflin (January 10, 1744January 20, 1800) was an American merchant, soldier, and politician from Pennsylvania, who is regarded as a Founding Father of the United States for his roles during and after the American Revolution. Mifflin wa ...

" * "Essay on Angelic Influences"

References

External links

Biography and portrait

''A View of the Constitution of the United States of America (Second Edition)''
in its entirety (free PDF download) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rawle, William American abolitionists American legal writers American people of Cornish descent United States Attorneys for the District of Pennsylvania American people of English descent Lawyers from Philadelphia 1759 births 1836 deaths University of Pennsylvania people People of colonial Pennsylvania Members of the American Philosophical Society 19th-century American lawyers