Robert Blackwell (1748-1831)

He was born on Long Island, New York. He graduated from Princeton (1768) and entered the Episcopal Church serving most notably as the Rector of Christ Church, Philadelphia. During the Revolution, he served as both Surgeon and Chaplain to the 1st Pennsylvania Brigade. He became a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1785 and in 1788 Princeton conferred him as a Doctor of Divinity. He was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania from 1799 to 1822. By his first wife he had one daughter, Rebecca. His second wife was the wealthy and well-connected Hannah Bingham through whom he inherited 224 Pine Street (where he died in 1831) which had originally been built for her parents by her grandfather, John Stamper. His only daughter married Hannah's brother-in-law, George Willing, by whom she left a numerous family.