William Trent of Philadelphia

Trent as a Man of Business and Politics

Exactly when Trent emigrated to the American colonies is unknown. However, based on Philadelphia tax rolls in 1693, we know that he had followed his brother James to the American Colonies. ​

William Trent became a very successful and wealthy merchant in Philadelphia, trading with Great Britain and the English colonies on the mainland and in the West Indies. At one time he owned an interest in over forty ships, exporting such products as tobacco, flour, and furs, while importing wine, rum, molasses, and dry goods. He also bought and sold enslaved people, as described in more detail in the next section.

While a resident of the New Jersey colony, Trent was elected to the Assembly, commissioned a colonel in one of the militia regiments, and in 1723 became New Jersey’s first resident Chief Justice.

Trent's Family

In the 1690s Trent married his first wife, Mary Burge, with whom he had three children, James, John, and Maurice. Apparently it was through her family connections that William Trent eventually acquired the land at the Falls of the Delaware River where he would build his country seat. Marge Burge Trent died, perhaps in childbirth, in 1708, and a contemporary noted in a letter to William Penn that Trent was greatly affected by her death.

In 1710 Trent married his second wife, Mary Coddington, who was in her late teens at the time of her marriage. Born into a wealthy family and well connected Quaker family, she was the stepdaughter of Anthony Morris, a prosperous Philadelphia brewer and merchant who was a business associate and contemporary of her new husband.

​​This video imagines Mary Coddington Trent, widowed after Trent’s sudden death, reflecting on her life and uncertain future. Worried about her future, this video, first aired on December 20, 2020, shows her explaining her personal history and describing her concerns.

In 1711, Mary Coddington Trent gave birth to a son, Thomas, who died that same year. A surviving son, William, was born in the 1720s, perhaps in the Trent House. The couple and Trent’s children from his previous marriage continued to live in Philadelphia as their primary residence until 1721, when Trent made his plantation on the Falls of the Delaware his permanent home for himself, his second wife, and his youngest son.

Wealth Created from Slavery

Slavery was central to Trent's wealth. Trent was active in the domestic slave trade, buying and selling enslaved people of African descent. We know of thirteen such transactions with other prominent Philadelphia men in just the few years (1703-1708) covered by trade ledgers in the archives of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Trent owned several enterprises on his New Jersey plantation, including a grist mill, saw mill, fulling mill, and bakehouse and had part interest in an ironworks. These enterprises produced goods for shipment to market in Philadelphia. We know that enslaved workers contributed to Trent's income through their labor in those enterprises. And after his death, Trent's probate inventory listed eleven enslaved people, assessed at almost one-third of the market value of Trent's movable property other than the land and buildings. ​