William DARLINGTON, Congress, PA (1782-1863)
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 shipâs 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.
Bibliography
Lansing, Dorothy I. That Magnificent Cestrian: Dr. William Darlington, 1782-1863, Being a Short Introductory Biography. Paoli, Pa.: Serpentine Press, 1985.Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
