James Willing

His older brother Thomas Willing was an American merchant and a delegate to the Continental Congress from Pennsylvania, and the first president of the First Bank of the United States.

[1] In his early life, Willing was a merchant and operated a general store in the colonial British West Florida settlement of Natchez.

[4] Oliver Pollock and Bernardo de Gálvez, the Governor of Spanish Louisiana and Commander of the troops of his Catholic Majesty began organizing military raids against British West Florida and sent over US$70,000 worth of munitions to Fort Pitt.

[5] Pollock received a letter from Robert Morris and William Smith who were members of the Committee of Secret Correspondence stating that Willing would be leading an expedition against loyalist settlements along the river above New Orleans.

[6] Willing along with twenty-nine men of the 13th Virginia Regiment left Fort Pitt on January 11, 1778 and sailed down the Ohio River on board the gunboat USS Rattletrap.

Those who swore the oath (the signatories included William Hiern, Charles Percy, and plantation owner Samuel Wells) agreed not to take up arms against the United States of America, in exchange for assurances that the people they enslaved would not be seized nor freed, and that Willing would treat with Choctaws nearby to prevent attacks.