In 1776, William White was the senior and presiding bishop of the Anglican Church in America. He lived with his large family just across the green from Independence hall. A man of importance in the Church of England, he was nevertheless an American patriot; and it was Bishop White who, during the Revolution, established the ecclesiastical independence of the American Church from Great Britain.

The original pair of bow-backed settees was crafted by John Letchworth, the master Philadelphia chairmaker of the Revolutionary period.

We have faithfully reproduced this master's graceful style - nineteen bamboo-turned hickory spindles which extend through an 80-inch long ash steam bent back in continuous form - both sides must be hand spoke shaved to their final form for entry through the full popular plank seat. The S-shaped arm support and the S-shaped solid cherry arms terminate in deeply carved volutes, all carefully fitted to both seat and back rail.

All six bamboo-turned legs in solid hard maple are wedged through the full saddled seat and five bold turned bamboo stretchers tie together the unusual base. The Bishop White Settee is bonded together with glue and twenty-nine separate wedges. Seventy individually-drilled holes are required at various angles to accept the accurately hand-crafted parts.