mr. binghams: William Bingham (1752–1804), scion of an old Pennsylvania family, was born in Philadelphia, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (1768), and was a British consul in Martinique before the Revolution and an American commercial agent in the West Indies during the Revolution. In 1780 he returned to Philadelphia with a large fortune and married Anne Willing (1764–1801), a daughter of Thomas Willing and renowned as a great beauty and a brilliant hostess. After spending several years in Europe the Willings returned to Philadelphia to build an elaborate town house on the west side of Third Street above Spruce Street, where they entertained extensively during the 1790s.