Nicholas Biddle (1786-1844)
State Senator & President of the Second Bank of the United States, Philadelphia
He was born at Philadelphia and graduated from Princeton (1801). In 1804, he went to Europe as Secretary to General John Armstrong, U.S. Minister to France, and was present at the coronation of Napoleon in Paris. He was later Secretary to James Monroe when Minister to the Court of St. James in London before returning to Philadelphia in 1807. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature (1810) and the State Senate (1812). He was President of the Bank of the United States from 1823 to 1836. Outside of his work, he was noted as a writer and horticulturist. His political opponent, Charles J. Ingersoll, said of him: "Nicholas Biddle was as iron nerved as his great antagonist, Andrew Jackson, loved his country not less - and money as little". He died at his estate "Andalusia" on the Delaware River in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which he developed from 1830s. In 1811, he married Jane, daughter of John Craig, of Philadelphia who first acquired "Andalusia" in 1795. They had 6-children (listed).
