Robert Morris (1734–1806), born in England, came in his youth to Maryland where his father was engaged in the tobacco export business. The younger Morris settled in Philadelphia and in 1754, as a partner in the firm of Willing, Morris & Co., eventually became one of America’s wealthiest merchants. Morris signed the nonimportation agreement in 1765 and in 1775 was a member of the council of safety. He was a member of the Continental Congress Nov. 1775–78, and he served as superintendent of finance 1781–84. After the Revolution, Morris and his wife, Mary White Morris of Maryland, became close friends of the Washingtons. At the convening of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, GW gratefully accepted the hospitality of the Morrises, and later they gave up their handsome town house for the use of GW and his family during the presidential years. Morris’s country home, called The Hills, where GW dined on this day, is located on the east side of the Schuylkill River, in what is now Fairmount Park.