Robert Morris known as the Financier of the American Revolution was born January 31st, 1734, in Liverpool, England to Robert Morris and his mother Elizebeth Murpheto. His father, came to Maryland, while Robert was still a toddler, prior to 1740, and took a position with the tobacco concern of: Foster Cunliffe, Esquire of England.

Young Robert went to Philadelphia at the age of 14 and took a job with the counting house of Mr. Charles Willing. Mr. Morris senior died two years later in 1750. At the age of twenty Robert formed a partnership with Willing’s son, Thomas. That relationship (Willing and Morris) lasted until 1793; becoming the best known and largest importing house in the colonies.

Morris made a few voyages, and on one occasion was captured by the French army during the Seven Year’s War, he ran out of money and earned his fare home, by repairing a watch. During the Seven Years' War, the usual supply of indentured servants was not available because most were conscripted to fight in Europe. Morris was a junior partner in Willing & Morris Company, when they sent out one ship on a slave trading voyage. They didn't carry enough to be profitable, and after a second trip, their ship was captured by French privateers. Later they both, Willing and Robert Morris supported the non-importation agreements that marked the end of the slave trade into Philadelphia.

As time went on Morris tried to tax the slave trade and to lay a head tax on the slaves payable by the owner. His efforts were not appreciated by some in the south, who then proceeded to fight all his measures. While Morris's fortune did not come from the slave trade or from slave labor, he did own slaves, who worked as household servants.

The business of Willing & Morris was that of general imports. They brought to the Philadelphia market, from around the globe any products, which were in demand. They conducted themselves in banking, buying and selling bills of exchange, in the absence of banks. It was these contacts as a merchant that Morris became so useful at the beginning of the Revolution.

Robert began his public career in 1765 by serving on a local committee of merchants organized to protest the Stamp Act. He believed that the new laws constituted taxation without representation and violated the colonists' rights as British citizens. In the end, the stamp tax was lifted.

On the 27th of February, 1769 Mr. Morris married Mary White, daughter of Col. Thomas White and here mother was the sister of the first bishop of Pennsylvania of the Episcopal Church; she was not quite twenty years old and was considered one of the belles of Philadelphia, coming from a prominent family in Maryland; her brother was the well-known Bishop, William White. Together Robert and Mary had five sons and two daughters.

The Morris  family worshiped in Philadelphia at St Peter's Church on Pine Street and Christ Church on 2nd Street, both of which were under the control of his brother-in-law, Bishop White. Morris was a life-long member at St. Peter’s Church.

In 1775 Robert Morris was appointed to the Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania, which imported arms and ammunition. In October of that same year he was elected a member of the Assembly of the Province, and in November he was appointed as one of the delegates to the Continental Congress.  Of his own report, Morris said that his duties in the Assembly, the Continental Congress and the Pennsylvania Safety Committee, damaged his business.

In April of 1776, Mr. Morris was commissioned to negotiate bills of exchange and to take other measures to procure money for the Congress. Robert took out loans upon his own credit, in of tens of thousands of dollars because Congress could not qualify for any amounts at all.

On July 2, 1776, Morris voted against the Declaration of Independence, and declined to vote when it was adopted on July 4, 1776. However, on August 2, Morris signed the Declaration saying "I am not one of those politicians that run testy when my own plans are not adopted. I think it is the duty of a good citizen to follow when he cannot lead." In November of 1776, Morris was elected as a member of the first Pennsylvania assembly, under the new constitution.

After his retirement from public life, Mr. Morris began a speculative group named the North American Land Company, with James Greenleaf and John Nicholson; through the dishonesty of Mr. Greenleaf, Morris came to a financial ruin and poverty.

Robert ended up in debtor’s prison, where he spent three and a half years. During this time the government which Robert Morris had carried on his financial-shoulders did not assist him in any way.

Mr. Morris lived nearly five years after his release from prison; he died on May 7^th, 1806.

Robert Morris, a flawed Christian, a signer of the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; the Financier of the American Revolution, founding father of the United States of America.

Resources for the biography of Robert Morris:

“Makers of America” Robert Morris, by William Graham Sumner, 1892.

Robert Morris “The Financier of the American Revolution”, A Sketch by Charles Henry Hart, 1877.