Charles Biddle

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American politician

title: "Charles Biddle" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["biddle-family", "1745-births", "1821-deaths", "pennsylvania-state-senators"] description: "American politician" topic_path: "people/1740s" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Biddle" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Charles Biddle
image	File:Charles Biddle. Vice Pres't of the Supreme Exece. Counl. of Pennsylvania - DMS (monogram). LCCN2016649133.jpg
order	7th
office	Vice-President of Pennsylvania
president	John Dickinson
Benjamin Franklin
term_start	10 October 1785
term_end	31 October 1787
predecessor	James Irvine
successor	Peter Muhlenberg
birth_date	December 24, 1745
birth_place	Philadelphia, Province of Pennsylvania, British America
death_date
death_place	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
parents	William Biddle III
Mary Scull Biddle
spouse
children	10, including James, Nicholas, Thomas, John, Richard
relatives	See Biddle family
::

Early life

Biddle was born to a wealthy old Quaker family on December 24, 1745, in Philadelphia, Province of Pennsylvania in what was then British America. He was the son of William Biddle, 3rd (1698–1756) and Mary (née Scull) Biddle (1709–1789). His siblings included: Lydia Biddle, who married William Macfunn; John ”Jacky” Biddle, who married Sophia Boone; Edward Biddle, a lawyer, soldier, delegate to the Continental Congress, who married Elizabeth Ross, sister of George Ross; Charles Biddle, and Nicholas Biddle, Revolutionary War Navy captain.

As a youth, Biddle was a schoolmate and close friend of Mathias Aspden and Founding Father Benjamin Rush.

Career

American Revolutionary War

During the American Revolutionary War, Biddle was a captain in the merchant service and participated in the work around of the British fleet's blockade of American ports. He volunteered in the Quaker Light Infantry and, in 1778, he served under his brother, Commodore Nicholas Biddle, aboard the USS Randolph.

Political career

Biddle served as Vice President of Pennsylvania, also known as Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, from October 10, 1785, until October 31, 1787. He served under John Dickinson and Benjamin Franklin and hosted George Washington.

During his term, he was an ex officio trustee of the University of the State of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pennsylvania). He was a member of the Pennsylvania Senate from 1810 to 1814. He also was an associate of Aaron Burr, having introduced Burr to his wife Theodosia shortly after the death of her first husband, Jacques Marcus Prevost.

Although Biddle vacated his seat at Council on October 13, 1787, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania records that his Vice-Presidential term extended to October 31, the date of the next Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections. Biddle was elected Secretary of the Council on October 23.

Personal life

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Thomas_Sully_-_Portrait_of_Major_John_Biddle.jpg" caption="John Biddle]], Biddle's son, by [[Thomas Sully"] ::

On November 24, 1778, he was married to Hannah Shepard (d. 1825), the daughter of merchant Jacob Shepard and Sara (née Lewis) Shepard, in Beaufort, North Carolina. The Biddle family had a summer home outside of Philadelphia that was furnished sumptuously with English furniture and paintings. Together, they were the parents of ten children, including:

Mary Biddle (d. 1854), who married John Gideon Biddle (1793–1826), the fourth son of Clement Biddle, in 1820.
Nicholas Biddle (b. 1779), who died in infancy.
William Shephard Biddle (1781–1835), who married Circe Deroneray. After her death, he married Elizabeth Bordeon Hopkinson, daughter of Joseph Hopkinson.
James Biddle (1783–1848), a commodore with the U.S. Navy who died unmarried.
Edward Biddle (1784–1800), a midshipman with the U.S. Navy who died at sea.
Nicholas Biddle (1786–1844), president of the Second Bank of the United States who married Jane Craig.
Charles Biddle Jr. (1787–1836), who married Anna H. Stokes in 1808.
Ann Biddle (1788-1789)
Thomas Biddle (1790–1831), a War of 1812 hero who died after a duel with a Missouri Congressman over a perceived insult to his brother Nicholas. He married M. Ann Mulllanphy.
John Biddle (1792–1859), Michigan politician who married Eliza Falconer Bradish.
Richard Biddle (1796–1847), a U.S. Representative who married Ann Anderson.
Ann Biddle (1800-1863), who married Francis Hopkinson (1796-1870), the son of Joseph Hopkinson in 1829.

Biddle died on April 4, 1821, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His widow died almost four years later on January 4, 1825.

References

"BIDDLE, Edward - Biographical Information". [[Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]].
(1883). "Autobiography of Charles Biddle, vice-president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. 1745-1821". E. Claxton and Company.
(1981). "Benjamin Rush's Lectures on the Mind". [[American Philosophical Society]].
"Charles Biddle (1745-1821)". [[University of Pennsylvania.
(2007). "The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution". [[Simon and Schuster]].
Cox, Harold. "Senate Members C". Wilkes University.
(2013). "Aaron Burr - Adventurer". AuthorHouse.
(2000). "Dictionary of North Carolina Biography: Vol. 5, P-S". [[Univ of North Carolina Press]].
(2004). "Colonial And Revolutionary Families Of Pennsylvania". Genealogical Publishing Com.
(1975). "A Genealogical and Personal History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania". Genealogical Publishing Com.
(1970). "Merion in the Welsh Tract: With Sketches of the Townships of Haverford and Radnor. Historical and Genealogical Collections Concerning the Welsh Barony in the Province of Pennsylvania, Settled by the Cymric Quakers in 1682". Genealogical Publishing Com.
(1904). "Lineage Book - National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution". Daughters of the American Revolution.
[https://archive.org/details/biddlefamilygene00gayp/page/n11/mode/2up Gay, Paul ''The Biddle Family A Genealogy of the Descendants of William III and John Biddle of Phila., Pa.'' Entries No. 19, 51, 55; Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Antiquarean Books, Inc. 1934.]
"Hopkinson Family".
(1895). "Notes on the Genealogy of the Biddle Family: Together with Abstracts of Some Early Deeds". W.S. Fortescue & Company.

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