Charles B. Penrose

Charles Bingham Penrose (October 6, 1798 – April 6, 1857) was a Pennsylvania attorney and politician. He served in the Pennsylvania Senate and as Solicitor of the United States Treasury.

For this subject's eponymous grandson, a Philadelphia gynecologist, see Charles Bingham Penrose.
Charles B. Penrose, Pennsylvania Senate President and Solicitor of the U.S. Treasury

Early life

Charles Bingham Penrose was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 6, 1798, son of Clement Biddle Penrose and Anne Howard née Bingham, a member of the Irish Bingham family (see Earl of Lucan and Baron Clanmorris). His mother was the half-sister of Sir James Douglas Hamilton Hay, 6th Baronet of Alderston, while his great-uncles included Clement Biddle, Owen Biddle Sr., and General James Wilkinson. His paternal grandmother, Sarah Biddle, was a member of the prominent Biddle family who, after the death of her first two husbands, went on to marry Bernese patrician Rudolph Tillier.

Penrose studied law and attained admission to the bar in 1821, afterwards establishing a practice in Carlisle.[1] He married a distant cousin, Valeria Fullerton Biddle, a granddaughter of early American clergyman and patriot Elihu Spencer and a niece of Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, another prominent lawyer.

Political career

A member of the Whig party who was identified as an Antimason, in 1833 Penrose was elected to the Pennsylvania Senate. He was reelected to a second term and served as Speaker of the Senate in 1838 and 1841.[2][3]

In 1841 Penrose was appointed Solicitor of the Treasury in the William Henry Harrison administration.[4]

After leaving the Solicitor's position at the close of the John Tyler administration in 1845 Penrose relocated to Philadelphia, where he continued to practice law.[5]

In 1856 Penrose was again elected to the Pennsylvania Senate, this time as a Republican, and he served until his death.[6]

During his second tenure in the State Senate, Penrose was accused of using bribes to arrange the election of Simon Cameron to the United States Senate, but nothing was proved and he was not charged with wrongdoing.[7]

Death and legacy

Penrose died of pneumonia in Harrisburg on April 6, 1857.[8] He is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.[9] Another man of the same name, who died in 1875, is also buried at that same cemetery, and may be the commissary officer, Captain Charles B. Penrose, who accompanied President Abraham Lincoln as he toured City Point shortly before the fall of Richmond, Virginia.[10][11]

Several of Penrose's grandsons became notable within their fields. Charles Bingham Penrose was a Philadelphia gynecologist who became widely known for his surgical skill.[12] Boies Penrose became a U.S. Senator.[13][14] Grandsons R.A.F. Penrose and Spencer Penrose also achieved distinction, the former for his geologic surveys and entrepreneurial activity in Texas, Arkansas and Colorado as well as founding of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the latter for founding many mining and financial companies in Colorado as well as the Pike's Peak Chapter of the American Red Cross.

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References
  1. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cumberland, York, and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania, published by Heritage Society of Pennsylvania, 1986, page 100
  2. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, published by Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Volume 23, 1899, page 144
  3. Smull's legislative hand book and manual of the state of Pennsylvania, published by E.K. Meyers, Harrisburg, 1888, page 263
  4. Colonial families of the United States of America, by edited by George Norbury Mackenzie, Volume 6, 1917, page 375
  5. History of the Penrose family of Philadelphia, by Josiah Granville Leach and George Hoffman Penrose, 1903, pages 83 to 86
  6. Men of Mark of Cumberland Valley, Pa., 1776-1876, by Alfred Nevin, 1876, page 323
  7. Boies Penrose, Symbol of an Era, by Robert Douglas Bowden, 1971, page 82
  8. History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, published by Cumberland County Historical Society, 1982, page 169
  9. Charles B. Penrose at Find a Grave
  10. Charles B. Penrose (d. 1875) at Find a Grave
  11. Michael D. Gorman, A Conqueror or a Peacemaker" Abraham Lincoln in Richmond The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 123.1 (2015), p. 3
  12. Beers, Paul B. (2010). Pennsylvania Politics Today and Yesterday: The Tolerable Accommodation. Penn State Press. p. 52. ISBN 0271044985.
  13. Pennsylvania Politics Today and Yesterday: The Tolerable Accommodation, by Paul B. Beers, 1980, page 52
  14. Boies Penrose entry, Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Biography of Pennsylvania, Volume 3, 1898, page 79
Legal offices
Preceded by
Matthew Birchard		 Solicitor of the United States Treasury
1841–1845		 Succeeded by
Seth Barton
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