John Rhea Barton Willing

John Rhea Barton Willing (December 21, 1864 – September 2, 1913) was an American socialite and violin collector who was prominent in New York and Philadelphia society during the Gilded Age. His siblings included Susan Ridgway Willing, who married Francis C. Lawrance Jr.; Edward Shippen Willing Jr. who died at age six; and Ava Lowle Willing who was married to John Jacob Astor IV and Thomas Lister, 4th Baron Ribblesdale.

His maternal grandfather, and namesake, was Dr. John Rhea Barton, an orthopedic surgeon known for describing Barton's fracture. His paternal great-grandfather was Thomas Willing, mayor of Philadelphia and the first president of First Bank of the United States. There, he was a member of the Fraternity of Delta Psi (St. Anthony Hall). He graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1886.

Career In 1892, Willing was included in Ward McAllister's The Four Hundred purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times. Willing moved in the "highest social circles" and was considered an accomplished athlete. He also made and collected violins, including several instruments considered the finest known. After several years of prominence in society in New York, Philadelphia and Newport, around 1893 he "gave up the usual social gayeties" to travel around the United States and Europe "in search of violins and violin lore. His passion for music and for the violin especially soon grew until he gave most of his time to its indulgence." He was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. Willing did not marry and had no children. In his will, he left a Stradivarius violin to his longtime friend, A. Lanfear Norrie, who predeceased him.