 Members of the Wharton family served in the Continental Congress and the State Legislature, as Mayor of Philadelphia and on the City Council, in positions of military leadership, and in other offices.Wharton became a merchant and was well respected for his character as well as his business acumen.Like many other colonial merchants, Wharton signed petitions and joined boycotts in protest of the 1765 Stamp Act and the 1767 Townshend Acts, but he was not an early leader of the resistance movement.