Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Robert WHARTON
Mayor of Phila., Captain of First Troop Phila. City Cavalry.
WHARTON, Robert, mayor of Philadelphia, was born at "Walnut Grove," Southwark Pa., (where the Meschianza was held by the British in May, 1795); son of Joseph and Hannah (Carpenter) Wharton and grandson of Thomas Wharton, who came from Westmorelandshire, England, prior to 1688, and married Rachel Thomas at Bank Meeting in Philadelphia. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a hatter, and after serving his term he entered the counting-house of his half brother Charles. He appears in the Philadelphia Directory of 1785 as a flour merchant. He was married, Dec. 17, 1789, to Salome, daughter of William and Salome (Wistar) Chancellor of Philadelphia. He was a member of the city councils, 1792-95; alderman, 1796-98; and during the absence of Mayor Hillary Baker he was acting mayor and succeeded in quelling a formidable riot, which threatened the commercial interests of the city in 1796. In 1798, when the yellow fever epidemic occurred in the Walnut Street prison and the jailers resigned their positions, Alderman Wharton acted as jailer, and with a few selected men as assistants suppressed a mutiny of the prisoners by firing upon the mob, which act was commended by the grand jury as deserving the thanks of the citizens. He was unanimously elected mayor as successor to mayor Baker, who had died of the yellow fever, Sept. 25, 1798, and he was in office, 1798-99, 1806-07, 1809-10, 1814-19, 1820-24. His record establishes his place as one of the most useful mayors of the city. He was a Federalist in politics; was a member of the city troop from June 19, 1798; captain from Aug. 15, 1803; colonel from June 14, 1870, and was placed on the honorary roll of the troop. In 1811 he was elected brigadier-general of the 1st brigade, Pennsylvania militia, and in 1814 he served in the field as a private soldier under Captain Ross, his former lieutenant, and while in camp he was notified of his re-election as mayor. He was a charter member and vice-president of the Washington Benevolent society. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., March 7, 1834.
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