William Barton
William Barton (1754-1817) is best known for co-designing the Great Seal of the United States which still graces the American dollar bill. Born in Philadelphia on April 11, 1754, William Barton was the son of the Reverend Thomas Barton and Ester Rittenhouse. In 1774, at the age of twenty, the young Barton would move to England where it would appear that he undertook legal training, and possibly training in heraldry. Barton would eventually return to America in 1779, during which time, Britain and the United States were in the midst of War. Later that year, Barton would be admitted to the Bar in Pennsylvania. In 1782, Barton’s services would then be requested in the field of heraldry. In collaboration with the heraldist Charles Thomson, Barton produced the Great Seal of the United States, which was adopted by Congress on June 20, 1782.
It was during the 1780s that Barton took more of an interest in political economy. His first work was a pamphlet which appeared in 1781 entitled Observations on the Nature and Use of Paper Credit. He would then turn his attention more to the question of protection and the encouragement of manufactures. Most of his tracts of this nature would appear in Mathew Carey’s American Museum. These tracts include On American Manufactures (1786), The True Interest of the United States, and Particularly Pennsylvania, Considered (1787), Essays on the Promotion of Manufactures (1787), and On the Propriety of Investing Congress with the Power to Regulate the Trade of the United States (1787). Later in 1791, Barton would produce a small book on population entitled Observations on the Progress of Population. Finally, although more of a legal treatise than one on political economy, in 1802, Barton produced A Dissertation on the Freedom of Navigation and Maritime Commerce. In addition to these literary efforts, Barton would also serve as the chief clerk of the Treasury Department under Alexander Hamilton and Tench Coxe. In this capacity, it is plausible that Barton may have had some influence on the direction of The Report on Manufactures, since several of the arguments contained in the Report were featured in Barton’s earlier tracts. After a life as a heraldist, lawyer, and public official, William Barton would pass away in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on October 22, 1817.
