William Coleman

William Coleman (1704 – January 11, 1769) was a merchant, lawyer, municipal official, and judge in colonial Philadelphia. Coleman was born in Philadelphia, where he was educated and studied law. His parents were Quakers; his mother, Rebecca Bradford, had arrived in the new colony of Pennsylvania as a child in 1683, and his father, also William Coleman, was a carpenter and one of the earliest members of the Carpenter's Company of Philadelphia. After he was admitted to the bar, Coleman held a variety of municipal offices, beginning as Town Clerk and Clerk of the City Court. He became a Judge of various local courts including the Orphan's Court, Court of Common Pleas, and Quarter Sessions. In 1758 he was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He was also a merchant, in partnership with Thomas Hopkinson. He was also active in Philadelphia's emerging cultural institutions. By 1727 Coleman was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and member of Franklin's Junto. He was a founder and first treasurer of the American Philosophical Society, one of the first directors of the Philadelphia Contributionship, and an early supporter of Pennsylvania Hospital. Benjamin Franklin was a close friend of Colman, and said of him, "He has the coolest, clearest head, the best heart, and the best morals of almost any man I ever met."