William Patterson (Maryland)

William Patterson (November 1, 1752, in Fanand, County Donegal, Ireland -July 7, 1835, in Baltimore, Baltimore County, Maryland) was a businessman, a gun-runner during the American Revolution, and a founder of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.[1] His many business dealings included shipping,[2] banking, and the Baltimore Water Company.[3] He was reputed to be the second-wealthiest man in Maryland, after Charles Carroll of Carrollton.[4]

In 1792, he married Dorcus Spear.[5] His daughter, Elizabeth, married the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte.

In 1827, he donated the first five acres of land that became Baltimore's Patterson Park.

Notes

  1. ↑ Stover, John F. (1987). History of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
  2. ↑ Baltimore: Past and Present. With Biographical Sketches of Its Representative Men. Baltimore: Richardson & Bennett. 1871.
  3. ↑ Scharf, John Thomas (1881). History of Baltimore City and County, from the Earliest Period to the Present Day. Baltimore: L.H. Everts.
  4. ↑ Bond, Pamela (February 17, 2012). "Really and truly: a Baltimore femme fatale". Baltimore. Examiner.
  5. ↑ "Marriage References". Maryland State Archives. May 23, 2001. Retrieved July 3, 2014.