Thomas Wistar (or Wister), 1764-1851, was a Philadelphia merchant. The Wistar family was a well-known one in Pennsylvania: Thomas' grandfather, Caspar Wistar, was a maker of brass buttons and later founded the first successful American glass house in Alloway Township, New Jersey in 1739, while Thomas' brother Caspar Wistar was a renowned physician, an early proponent of vaccination, and President of the American Philosophical Society. The Wistars were members of the Society of Friends.
About Wistar's partner, Richard Adams, little is know other than that he was taken on in late 1785 ("I have recently taken on a Partner in Trade [and] the Business in future will be carried on under the Firm of Adams and Wistar," 12 Nov 1785) and that by Sept of 1792 the partnership had been dissolved ("...closing the general accounts of the late Partnership of Adams and Wistar," 3 Sep 1792).
From the guide to the Adams & Wistar Records, 1785-1793, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)
