Charles B. Penrose

Charles Bingham Penrose (October 6, 1798 – April 6, 1857) was an American attorney and politician. He served as Speaker of the Pennsylvania Senate, Solicitor of the United States Treasury, and the first Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Zachary Taylor's administration. Family and early life Charles Bingham Penrose was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 6, 1798, to a prominent Old Philadelphian family. His father, Clement Biddle Penrose, was Chairman of the Board of Land Commissioners for the Louisiana Territory under President Thomas Jefferson, and the neighborhood of Penrose, St. Louis is named in his honor. Penrose's mother, Anne Howard née Bingham, was a member of the Anglo-Irish branch of the Bingham family (see Earl of Lucan and Baron Clanmorris). His grandfather, Charles Bingham of Castlebar, Ireland, was a captain in the Volunteers of Ireland, a British Provincial military unit raised for Loyalist service during the American Revolutionary War. Bingham was divorced from Penrose's grandmother, Loyalist New Yorker Anna Howard, later Lady Hay through her second marriage to Sir Thomas Hay, 5th Baronet of Alderston. Penrose's mother was thus the half-sister of Sir James Douglas Hamilton Hay, the 6th baronet. Penrose's paternal grandmother, Sarah Biddle, was a member of the prominent Biddle family who, after the death of her first two husbands, went on to marry Bernese patrician Rudolph . His great-uncles included Clement Biddle, Owen Biddle Sr., and General James Wilkinson. Penrose studied law and attained admission to the bar in 1821, afterwards establishing a practice in Carlisle. He married a cousin, Valeria Fullerton Biddle. She was a granddaughter of early American clergyman and patriot Elihu Spencer, niece of lawyer Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, and grand-niece of 7th Vice-President of Pennsylvania Charles Biddle and his brothers Edward and Nicholas. Political career A member of the Whig party who was identified as an Antimason, in 1833 Penrose was elected to the Pennsylvania Senate. He was reelected to a second term and served as Speaker of the Senate in 1838 and 1841.