|
DARLINGTON, William, (cousin of Edward Darlington and Isaac Darlington),
a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Birmingham, Chester
County, Pa., April 28, 1782; attended Friends School at Birmingham; spent his
youth on a farm; became a botanist at an early age; studied medicine; was
graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania at
Philadelphia in 1804; went to the East Indies as ships surgeon in 1806;
returned to West Chester in 1807 and was a practicing physician there for a
number of years; raised a company of volunteers at the beginning of the War of
1812 and was major of a volunteer regiment; elected as a Republican to the
Fourteenth Congress (March 4, 1815-March 3, 1817); elected to the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Congresses (March 4, 1819-March 3, 1823); appointed canal
commissioner in 1825; president of the West Chester Railroad; established a
natural-history society in West Chester in 1826; published several works on
botany and natural history; director and president of the National Bank of
Chester County 1830-1863; died in West Chester, Chester County, Pa., on April
23, 1863; interment in Oakland Cemetery.
BibliographyLansing, Dorothy I.
That Magnificent Cestrian: Dr. William Darlington, 1782-1863, Being a
Short Introductory Biography. Paoli, Pa.: Serpentine Press,
1985.
|