iron with hollowback; red similar to house paint; drainage knob at top probably #92 in Alwin Blulaw; Footprints of Home Assurance Company, 1953 given by Rose Weiss in memory of her husband in April 2010
2 coins; tie tac; metal pin; found in office closet in 1991
John Henmarsh was a master builder and one of the earliest members of The Carpenters' Company, although no Company records prior to the 1760s survive to establish a date for his election. He is recorded as having been admitted to freedom of the city in 1717. biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
James was a master buider who came to Philadelphia in the service of William Wade, yeoman of the parish of Hankton, Sussex, who died on board on Welcome bound for Pennsylvania in 1682. Under the terms of Wade's will, Porteus (the name is variously spelled Portis, Poultis, Porteus, Portuous, Porties, Portius, Porteus, and Portus) was remanded for the balance of his term to John Songhurst, carpenter, in whose will he is mentioned as a servant in 1687. By the time of the 1693 Philadelphia tax, he was listed as one of the freeman "who have been out of their servitude by the space of 6 mos.," and worth less than 100 pounds. He applied for his headland in 1704. Scharf and Westcott give the construction of Samuel Carpenter's "Slate Roof House" of c. 1698 (Second above Walnut Streets) to Portues, although no contemporary documentation for this oft-repeated attribution has been discovered. Extensive payments for work and materials as Christ Church, c. 1711-1714, do survive and he appears to have built Isaac Norris's "Fair Hill" of c. 1716-17. Like most of his contemporaries, Portues is recorded as having been responsible for a number of minor civic improvements and served as a City Commissioner, 1723-26. The Carpenters' Company listed him as an early member in 1786, but no Company records prior to the 1760s survive to confirm that claim. By the time of his death, Porteus was a man of property with two Negro and two Indian slaves. William Rakestraw was his apprentice and Edward Warner and Joseph Fox his heirs and executors. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Samuel Powell came to Philadelphia as a child in 1685 and was probably apprenticed to his uncle John Parsons, carpenter from Somersetshire. Powell's marriage in 1700/1 to the prosperous orphan Abigail Wilcox was witnessed by William Penn, Edward Shippen, Samuel Carpenter, and David Lloyd (among others) and he inherited substantially from the Parsons--hardly a rags to riches story. Powell became a Regulator of Party Walls and Partition Fences in 1712 and, "being a Man remarkable for his Care in promoting Regularity in the Buildings" (quoted by Bridenbaugh in Rebels and Gentlemen), was soon elected to the Common Council (1717 and 1729). A founder or early member of The Carpenters' Company, he was known--according to a long-time resident of the city--as the "rich carpenter." (This observation appears to originate in Watson's Annals, v.1, p. 9.) Indeed, Powell made speculative building a big business, moved into foreign trade, and accumulated a vast estate for the time consisting of over ninety properties (according to Joseph Jackson) in and around Philadelphia. The only building that can be firmly attributed to him is the Philadelphia Court House of 1710, although he was responsible for the Dock Street bridge of 1718, a bridge over Cobb's Creek c.1732, and another bridge over Dock Street in 1735-37. Powell's son of the same name followed the trade of carpentry and was also elected to the Common Council and later became an Alderman; he pre-deceased his father, however, and the accumulated wealth of Samuel Powell the elder passed to Samuel Powel, III. Of him one historian of Philadelphia has written, "the benefits of inherited wealth, superior education and ample leisure, the experiences of extended travel and the effects of changing tastes produced a rounded, urban and cultivated person." Unfortunately, Samuel Powel, III, gentleman (1738-1793), has been confused with another Samuel Powel (see above, d.1815). Biography by Roger Moss, from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.
Born: c. 1679, Died: 1738 The trail of early master builder Jacob Usher is faint at best. He is traditionally listed by The Carpenters' Company as one of its earliest members, although no Company records prior to the 1760s survive to confirm the date or fact of his election. He first appears in Philadelphia as a servant of one Thomas Hooton in 1693 and was not yet of age when his stepfather, Nathaniel Harding--Jacob Usher's mother having reversed the usual pre-modern pattern by outliving at least two of her three known husbands--wrote his will in 1699/1700. Usher was probably of age the next year, however, when he declared his intention to marry Ruth Wood (b.1680). In 1708/09, Pentecost Teague reported to the Philadelphia Monthly meeting that he had provided a place for James West with Jacob Usher, carpenter. In 1721 Usher advertised in the American Weekly Mercury that he wished to sell 250 acres of land in Chester County, and in 1723 and 1724 he was paid for measuring the carpenters' work at the new Philadelphia prison and work house. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
The master builder Edmund Woolley is chiefly remembered as the master builder-architect of the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall). Named for his father, Woolley was probably born in England and is known to have been in Philadelphia by 1705. The name of his master is not recorded but Woolley was admitted a freeman of Philadelphia in 1717. (From time to time the Common Council of Philadelphia had attempted to enforce the freedom law, 1717 being one of those, but ever-increasing population placed enforcement beyond the limited capabilities of the Philadelphia government. So little was freedom of the city honored that it was necessary on occasion to admit newly elected members of the Common Council as freemen before they could be seated!) Woolley was an early member of The Carpenters' Company, although the loss of all Company records prior to the 1760s makes it impossible to determine exactly when he was elected. By 1732, Woolley (assisted by master builder Ebenezer Tomlinson) was at work on the Pennsylvania State House. This project would involve Woolley and his apprentices (see Thomas Nevell) off and on into the 1750s. Woolley's accounts with the Province of Pennsylvania included "drawing drafts," and a receipt of his from 1735 survives, "To drawing the Elivation of the Frount one End the Roof Balconey Chimneys and Torret of the State House With the fronts and Plans of the Two offiscis And Piazzas Allso the Plans of the first and Second floors of the State House," for which a fee of five pounds was charged. Traditionally credit for the design of the State House has been given to Andrew Hamilton, who supervised the work, but contemporary scholarship has gradually reduced the importance of such supervisors--John Kearsley being the classic example--as more has been learned of the building trades during the colonial period. When the great hunt for the architects of Philadelphia's colonial buildings began in the late nineteenth century, it was the supervisor whose name was discovered in the archives and vestry minutes as receiving and distribution funds. Consequently these men were dubbed "architect" in popular accounts. Hamilton was doubtless consulted and he probably carried the plans back to his principals for discussion and approval. But the ultimate form, and, especially, the final details, were the result of the knowledge and skill of the master builder and his crew of workmen. Fortunately both the receipt quoted above and Woolley's drawing survive at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Woolley owned a library of architectural books that he ordered to be sold after his death. Unfortunately no list of these has been discovered, and his copy of William Halfpenny's Practical Architecture (London, 1730) at the Library Company is the only work that firmly can be proven to have been his. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
The master builder Joseph Harrison was the son of John I and Mary Harrison and the brother of John II and Daniel Harrison. According to Pastor Eric Bjork, Joseph and John II helped their father complete Holy Trinity Church, Wilmington, DE in 1698, and both are known to have worked at Gloria Dei Church, Philadelphia, the following year. In 1702 he married Mary Van Luvening, and in 1710 he married Katharine Noble. In 1719, Joseph Harrison was working for James Logan at his country house, Stenton, although the amounts and dates of payments do not suggest an attribution of that important structure to him. In the early 1720s, Harrison--together with William Gray and the brick layer Joseph Redman--agreed to remove the arch at the end of Mulberry and Front Streets. In 1722, Harrison and Thomas Redman presented the Common Council with a "Compleat Draught" of a New Prison and Work House that they erected over the following year. The structure was measured for carpentry in August of 1724; it is the only building that may be firmly attributed to Harrison. Like his brother John II, Joseph Harrison was an early member and possible founder of The Carpenters' Company. The loss of Company records during the Revolution makes it impossible to prove the fact or date of his membership. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
The master builder John Nicholas was the son of Samuel (d. 1709) and Margaret (Moore) Nicholas (d. 1743) of Philadelphia. He was one of the earliest members and a possible founder of The Carpenters' Company, although no Company records prior to the 1760s survive to confirm the date of his election or, for that matter, the actual founding date of The Company. Nicholas married Jane Roberts in 1723, and in 1731 he was an original subscriber to Benjamin Franklin's Library Company. He served as a Director of the Library Company, 1732-1733. (Nicholas was not the only master builder among the twenty-five founders of the Library Company; see Reese Lloyd.) Between 1723 and 1743, Nicholas was working for James Logan at his country house, Stenton. The surviving records are not adequate, however, to attribute that important house to Nicholas. He is also recorded as having measured the State House (Independence Hall) in 1741, the same year he measured (with Joseph Rakestraw) the new stone bridge over Pennypack Creek and joined the Thornhills on Christ Church steeple. In 1736 he received forty pounds as a legatee of James Portues. Like most leading builders of the colonial period, Nicholas served as a witness, executor, or appraisor for the wills and estates of his fellow craftsmen. He was, for example, executor (with Edward Warner) of the will of Philip Johns, tavernkeeper, in 1735; an overseer of the estate of Reese Lloyd in 1743; performed (with Joseph Fox) the inventory of the estate of Thomas Rush, carpenter, in 1745; and was appointed executor of the will of John Ingram, bricklayer, in 1747. Nicholas died in 1756. In his will he provided for the manumission of a lad by the name of Richard Read, "and I gave & Bequeath unto him, all his Working Tools & Utensils of his Trade & Mystery to hold to him...." Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
The master builder John Harrison II was the son of John I and Mary Harrison and the brother of Joseph and Daniel Harrison. According to Paster Eric Bjork, John II and Joseph helped their father complete Holy Trinity Church, Wilmington, DE in 1698, and both are known to have worked at Gloria Dei Church, Philadelphia the following year. Like his father, John Harrison appears to have specialized in finer carpentry. He received substantial payments for work at Christ Church in 1711 and for "Inside Work of the State-house" in 1741. Admitted a freeman of Philadelphia in 1717, John Harrison II may have been a founder of The Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia. Doubtless familiar with the London craft companies from discussions with his father, Harrison would have favored the 1705 ordinance "for restraining those that are not admitted freemen of this City to keep open Shopes, or be master workmen." However well intended, the freedom requirements appears to have been more honored in the breach. Since the freedom requirement was not or could not be inforced, the crafts petitioned "to be Incorporated the better the Serve ye Publick in their respective Capacities." In February of 1726/7, a group of master carpenters--including John and Joseph Harrison--formed The Carpenters' Company. Unfortunately all the early Company records were lost during the Revolution. What we know of The Company prior to the 1760s is but fragments from unofficial sources. Harrison died in 1760, and his friends and colleagues Thomas Boude and Joseph Thornhill inventoried his estate. They noted that he owned "Four Book of Devinety four of Architecture...2.0.0". Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Benjamin Clark was a master house carpenter claimed as an early member of The Carpenters' Company in 1786, although no Company records survive prior to the l760s. In 1724 he married Mary Hoston from the Haddonfield, West Jersey, Monthly Meeting, by whom he had several children, including William Clark. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
The leading Quaker master builder Isaac Zane was born in New Jersey, the son of Nathaniel and Grace (Rakestraw) Zane. In his early teens he had departed the family farm at the mouth of Newton Creek opposite what is now South Philadelphia to become an apprentice to a house carpenter. In 1734 he married Sarah Elfreth who bore him eight children; the most famous became the Valley of Virginia ironmaster, Isaac Zane, Jr. (1743-1795). Zane was free of his articles in the early 1730s, and he became an early member of The Carpenters' Company of Philadelphia. Unfortunately, no Company records prior to the early 1760s survive to provide a date for his membership. By the time of the earliest surviving records (c. 1763), Zane was no longer attending Company meetings. When The Company applied for incorporation in 1790, Zane was listed as the senior member although he had not been a practicing builder for many years. Zane was active in Philadelphia social and intellectual affairs, a moving force in the establishment of Quaker schools, and a contributor to the Pennsylvania Hospital. As a prominent Friend his name is often found associated with pronouncements by the Monthly Meeting; he headed, for example, a November 1788 petition protesting theater in Philadelphia, which would infest the city, it was alleged, with "jugglers, mountebanks, rope-dancers, and other immoral and irreligious entertainments." Late in a long life Isaac Zane, Sr., continued to lend his name to causes that a less vigorous person might have deferred to a younger generation. While no important buildings have as yet been assigned to Zane's hand, his ledger for the period 1748 through 1759 does survive at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania -- a ripe subject for future study. From Zane's accounts it is also possible to obtain a fair idea of income levels for journeymen and laborers engaged in the building trades in mid-eighteenth-century Philadelphia. This is a rare insight worth discussing at some length. Zane engaged the services of other master carpenters when their skill was needed on a particular job and made use of borrowed apprentices, journeymen hired by the day, week, month and year, and common laborers hired on a similar variety of terms. In 1748 Zane had been a free carpenter for approximately fifteen years. His children were still at home, and there were two apprentices living with the family--Nathaniel Goforth, grandson of the joiner, Aaron Goforth, and Restore Lippincott. In that year Zane's friend, the house-carpenter James Davis, Sr., died leaving a pregnant wife and two minor children. Davis was a fairly successful artisan. Assisted by four apprentices, Davis was building on speculation at the time of his death: two three-story houses on Vine Street, a house on Chestnut near Third, and another on Sixth Street near Market. Isaac Zane was appointed executor of the estate, and it became his lot to complete Davis's four houses and to supervise the apprentices Thomas Hollingshead, Isaac Attmore, William Crage and Francis Bollinger, all of whom had at least three years to serve. To complete these houses and several contracts of his own, Zane began expanding his crew. Frederick Sipole was first engaged as a laborer for 10 pounds 10 shillings per year, followed by Robert Jackson who came to work for two shillings & six pence a day wet & dry. & to pay Seven shillings and six pence pr week for his board--but soon after we agreed yt he should work for me by ye year for 18 pound a year and stayed a year. In 1750 one of Zane's own apprentices finished serving his time and was replaced by Samuel Burden, apprentice to Isaac Lobdell, who was then in the fourth year of a six year apprenticeship. Burden was to work for Zane at three shillings a day (to be paid to Lobdell), and Zane fed the lad at his table. Two years later the Davis apprentices were gone, and Zane began engaging the services of journeymen. The first of these was Robert Miller who was to be paid 27 pounds per year and board; however, Miller "left work for me I. Z. when he had workt one month and one week and two days," so Zane hired one of the former David apprentices, William Crage, who "agreed to work one year for the Sum of thirty five pounds & to have his Meet [sic] drink and washing & lodging." It is known that Zane valued room and board at 7s 6d to 8s per week which raises the value of this arrangement to approximately 55 pounds per year. The next year Zane hired Silas Engles at 4s per day with the journeyman supplying his own food and lodging. If it is assumed that Engles worked a six day week the year around, his salary would have amounted to approximately 62 pounds; of course, bad weather and illness could take a heavy toll of working days. By contracting on a per day rate a journeyman did not have the informal workman's compensation that Zane provided his yearly contract journeymen. When William Crage lost ten days "by a lame hand of which he Eate at my house 6 days," Zane did not dock his pay. Normally work losses were deducted from the final settlement along with the cost of clothing, broken tools and loans made during the year. Jacob Austin was docked when "he lost Some time about a law Site," and when "he & Clevil quarriled." Austin had been hired in 1754, "to work for me at 3 pounds a mo. and I to find him his board with washing," but he only stayed a short time: "by 3 mo. work wanting 5 days at 60/0 a month which time began ye 17th. of ye 6th mo. 1754 & Ended the 20th of ye 9th month following in ye Evaning out of which he lost 9 days....8 8 0." The sharp-eyed Quaker kept close track of time. Samuel Burden, too, had been docked 3/0 a day for "which time he was sick 4 Days and lost a Day at ye fair." During 1754 Zane hired five journeymen, four of them like Silas Engles at 4s per day. The journeyman carpenter Samuel Pennock, however, went to work "by ye year and to board at My house (Saving first day he is to eat at home)." Pennock was married with two minor sons to support. He did not own a house, and his 244 acre farm in Chester County was heavily mortgaged. Zane recorded, "I agreed to give him twenty five pounds a year & his rate 6 days in the week, ye year out, for his work & he allowing for lost time." Unfortunately, a few months later Samuel Pennock was dead. He left an estate appraised by his employer at 188 pounds and 12 shillings. Zane's journeymen were paid at different rates depending upon whether they assumed the risk of lost time or whether they were fed and housed. In the case of Samuel Pennock, "his rate" would probably have been four shillings a day that under ideal conditions might have netted him 62 pounds plus the 25 pounds flat rate, or a yearly income of 87 pounds. Here is the kind of example we need. Pennock is clearly a contract journeyman. Had he lived, it is reasonable to expect that he would have succeeded in gaining master status; one of the other Zane journeymen of the time, Silas Engles, eventually became a member of The Carpenters' Company. Unlike some journeymen, Pennock maintained a separate residence and the size of his estate would doubtless have qualified him as a tax payer Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
William Clark, son of master house carpenter Benjamin Clark, was also a member of the Carpenters' Company. In 1746 he married Beulah Coates at St. Michael's Lutheran Church. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Master builder Edward Warner may have been apprenticed as a house carpenter to James Porteus whose heir he was in 1736/37. Warner was admitted as a freeman of Philadelphia by the Common Council in 1717, and by the 1720s he was selling by lottery a house he had built on speculation. Warner married the daughter of the prominent master builder William Coleman in 1733. The Carpenters' Company listed him as an early member in 1786, but no Company records prior to the 1760s survive to confirm that claim. Nor can any buildings be firmly associated with him; most references to his professional work relate to his civic activity. He was elected a City Assessor in 1730, a County Commissioner in 1731, a Pennsylvania Assemblyman in 1735, a Regulator of Streets in 1737, and in 1741 was appointed one of the Superintendents of the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall). Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Ebenezer Tomlinson, son of Joseph Tomlinson (d. 1719), Gloucester Township, New Jersey, was a master house carpenter and an early member of The Carpenters' Company. He was in Philadelphia by 1728 when, together with Richard Armitt, he witnessed the wedding of Deborah Powell, daughter of Samuel Powell, to Joshua Emlen (PGSP, vol. 2, p. 71-72). In 1736 he contributed two pounds toward theconstruction of a bridge over Dock Creek at Walnut Street and in 1739 advertised a house and lot on Front Street for sale at 80 pounds. When Pennsylvania finally settled on a site for a State House in 1732, Tomlinson and Edmund Woolley were hired by Andrew Hamilton as "the two Carpenters employed in building the State-house." Tomlinson worked on the buildings now known as Independence Hall for eight years until 1740 when he and Woolley petitioned "to be excused from doing any more of the work of the State-house." In 1750 he reported that he planned to leave Pennsylvania, but in 1764-65 he was being paid a weekly allowance by The Carpenters' Company probably due to ill-health. No record of his death has been located, and the only building with which he can firmly be associated is Independence Hall. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
The Quaker Samuel Rhoads was one of the most influential master builders of the colonial period. Born in Philadelphia County, the son of John and Hannah (Willcox) Rhoads, he first appeared as a speculative builder flourishing in the 1730s and 1740s. Together with Samuel Powell, Joseph Fox, and John Nicholas, he measured Edmund Woolley's work at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in 1740-41. In the latter year he was elected to the Philadelphia Common Council, beginning a long period of public service. Together with Powell, William Logan, John Stamper, and Benjamin Franklin, he advised the city on "the best means of improving the Swamp between Budds Buildings & Society Hill" in 1747/8. His friendship with Franklin began about this time and would span over thirty years. Like the printer-statesman, Rhoads devoted increasing amounts of his time and wealth (derived largely from mercantile activity in later years) to charitable and educational works. He was a founding member of the Union Fire Company (1736), the American Philosophical Society (Vice-President, 1770-1776), a Director of the Library Company (1739-69, 1772-1774), a Manager of the Alms House, a founder and a Manager of the Pennsylvania Hospital (1751-1781), as well as a founding Director of the Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire (1752-1763). In 1761, Rhoads was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly to represent Philadelphia City; he served until 1764 and was re-elected in 1770. As tensions mounted between America and the Crown, Rhoads became politically more active; within a few months during 1774 he was Speaker of the Provincial Convention, a member of the First Continental Congress (meeting at Carpenters' Hall), and Mayor of Philadelphia. Clearly, by the time Rhoads had reached middle age he was no longer a "Carpinter(sic) Builder" -- as he once identified himself. This raises difficult questions for historians who must determine Rhoads's role in the design and construction of several buildings with which he was associated after c.1750 -- particularly the Pennsylvania Hospital. The master builder/architect Robert Smith was at Rhoads' elbow at the Alms House, the Hospital, and Franklin's house. Did Smith collaborate on these designs, or was he simply favored by Rhoads as operative builder? Ultimate credit for the design of these buildings must be left for future research. Rhoads was an early member of The Carpenters' Company; how early is impossible to tell because of the loss of all Company records prior to 1763. He did own books of architecture, and surviving bills suggest that Rhoads designed a number of as yet unidentified buildings for the Norris family. There is an interesting group of early architectural drawings among the Fairhill manuscripts at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania that have been attributed to him on rather thin grounds; these await more careful study. Rhoads's chief claim to fame as a designer is the monumental Pennsylvania Hospital (1754-56). The entire edifice was to consist of three parts, two symmetrical wings connected by a central building, as shown in Claypoole's "A South-East Prospect of the Pennsylvania Hostpial with the Elevation of the Intended Plan." Only the east wing was built prior to the Revolution, but David Evans, Sr. and David Evans, Jr. followed the basic Rhoads design when they later completed the structure (west wing, 1795-96; central pavilion, 1796-99). During this same period he was responsible for the Robert Barclay house (c.1758) at 217 Delancey Street, the John Cadwalader house (c.1760) on Second below Spruce, and the William Coleman house (1766) on the northwest corner of Second and Pine Streets. Also in the 1760s Rhoads designed the house for Benjamin Franklin that Robert Smith built. This house, Franklin wrote to Rhoads, should be "considered as a kind of Pattern House by future Builders, within the Power of Tradesmen & People of moderate circumstances to imitate and follow." Unfortunately, this building that combined the various talents of Franklin, Rhoads, and Smith was demolished in 1812. As a manager of the Alms House, Rhoads may also have designed that large, horseshoe-shaped, brick structure erected 1766-67. As in the case of the Franklin house, Robert Smith obtained the contract. There is no record that Rhoads was an active participant in Carpenters' Company debates or that he served on committees during the 1760s; understandably even his attendance at Company meetings during the early 1770s was irregular. On 17 January 1780, however, he became Master of The Company, serving until 1784. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Reese Loyd was a master builder and among the earliest Carpenters' Company members listed by The Company in 1786, although no Company records prior to the 1760s survive to confirm that date. He also was an early (1731) subscriber of the Library Company of Philadelphia and a charter member in 1742. Reese Loyd was a member of the Society of Friends. In 1735 he married Sarah Cox, daughter of Abraham Cox, as recorded in the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting minutes. In 1736, Reese advertised a plantation in Lower Merion totaling 155 acres and complete with a new dwelling house. His will bequeathed a house and lot in High street to his son Samuel and a house and lot, in which Reese himself dwelled, in Church Alley to another son Robert. He left his wife the Plantation in Merion, likely the same one advertised in 1736. His estate included a set of carpenter’s tools valued at 10 pounds and a slave woman. Without his real estate, his estate was worth around 213 pounds. One of the overseers of his will, John Nicholas, was another founder of the Library Company. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss and Thomas Stokes.
Joseph Rakestraw was a master builder listed as an early member of The Carpenters' Company in 1786, but no Company records prior to the 1760s survive to confirm that claim. He married Elizabeth Fox, the sister of Joseph Fox and granddaughter of Joseph Yard, by which he had a son Joseph Rakestraw who also became a member of The Company, as did his nephew by the same name. Together with John Nicholas, Rakestraw measured a new stone bridge erected over Pennypack Creek in 1741. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Tobias Griscom was a master builder and an early member of The Carpenters' Company, although no Company records prior to the 1760s survive to provide an exact date. In 1736 he became a shareholder of the Library Company and transferred the share to Benjamin Loxley in 1749. That same year the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting recorded that "Whereas Tobias Griscom, late of this city Carpenter, was educated and made profession among us the people called Quakers, but hath for some Time past accustomed himself to keep loose and Idle company to the neglecting of his business & by that to repeated breaches of his promises, for which he hath been often treated with and advised to reform his conduct notwithstanding which he hath since absconded privately from his Family to the prejudice of his creditors, therefore this meeting doth testify against him and disown him to be a member of our religious society. . . And the clerk is desired to send a copy to some Friend at Duck Creek meeting, where it is said he now is . . ." Griscom appears to have moved to Kent County, Delaware, to the Duck Creek area (now Smyrna) where he died in 1751. Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss, and Sandra L. Tatman.
Master builder and merchant John Mifflin was the son of John Mifflin of Kent County (DE) who married Hannah Taylor in 1747. Elected to The Carpenters' Company well before the date of earliest surviving records, Mifflin was totally inactive in Company affairs by the 1760s, although his name appears on the rolls and he is listed as a petitioner for The Company's incorporation in 1790. Unfortunately, there are several John Mifflins in Philadelphia at this time, one of whom was a member of the Common Council and an Alderman with Benjamin Franklin. It is not clear if this is the the same John Mifflin who was a member of the Carpenters' Company. Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Biography written by Roger W. Moss and Thomas Stokes.
William Coleman was a master builder listed as an early member of The Carpenters' Company in 1786, but no Company records prior to the l760s survive to confirm the dates of his membership. Typical of early building trade craftsmen, Coleman married Rebecca Bradford, daughter of the early Philadelphia house carpenter Thomas Bradford; and his daughter, Ann, married master builder Edward Warner. This William Coleman may be the same who was apprenticed to Edmond Chesmore in the Worshipful Company of Carpenters, London, 1686-1693. In 1724-1725, Coleman was a Philadelphia Commissioner overseeing work on the Court House. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Master builder John Price was elected to The Carpenters' Company prior to the earliest surviving records. He may be the same John Price granted letters of administration for the estate of Reese Price of Bristol Township, Philadelphia County, yeoman (father?) on August 18, 1704. A John Price, carpenter, had two daughters baptized at the First Presbyterian Church on March 19, 1735/36, although no such daughters are mentioned in his will of 1739. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss and Thomas Stokes.
Joseph Hitchcock was a master builder elected to The Carpenters' Company prior to the earliest surviving records. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Jacob Lewis was a master builder who came to Philadelphia from Chester County in 1741 and by 1763 (the date of earliest extant records) was a member of The Carpenters' Company of Philadelphia. The traces of his growing prominence in the building trades community are faint. In 1745 he took one Abraham Wood as an apprentice; in 1748 he became a member of the "Colony in Schuylkill"; and in 1750, together with Edmond Woolley, Samuel Rhoads, and Benjamin Franklin, he was appointed by the Pennsylvania Assembly "to view the River Schuylkill, and consider where a Bridge over that River may be most conventiently built." By 1753 Lewis had been appointed a city assessor and in 1758 he became--together with Samuel Rhoads and Joseph Fox--a Regulator of Streets and Water Courses in Philadelphia, a coveted civic position usually held by the leading master builder/architects of The Carpenters' Company. From 1756 to 1762 Lewis was a director of the Philadelphia Contributionship and from 1764 to 1769 he was a director of the Library Company. An active supporter of the Pennsylvania Hospital, Lewis made several donations toward construction costs and served as a manager from 1759 until his death. At his death his estate, exclusive of several houses, a country "plantation" and twelve ground rents, was 3162 pounds. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Joseph Fox was a master builder and one of the most prominent leaders among the craftsmen of Philadelphia on the eve of the Revolution. The son of Justinian and Elizabeth (Yard) Fox, Joseph Fox was apprenticed to James Portues and became one of his heirs when the prosperous master builder died in 1737. An early member of The Carpenters' Company, he was already Master of The Company by 1763 when the earliest surviving minutes begin. (The earliest Company records were kept at Fox's home and were probably destroyed when the British burned his house during the occupation of Philadelphia.) Although Fox's wealth made it possible for him to spend most of his time in public service, he maintained his trade connections, was regular in his attendance to Company affairs, and stood ready on occasion to make personal loans to assist the brotherhood when treasury funds were low. Unlike most of his colleagues, there is no evidence that Fox designed any Philadelphia buildings after 1750. He did lay out a lot for Isaac Zane, Sr. (see Zane account books) on which was to be built a house for John Smith, and measured two houses on Market Street, in 1754. Four years later he measured Zane's carpentry on a house just built for Samuel Powell. As Master of The Company and surveyor for the Contributionship, most of his professional activity appears to have centered on measuring and surveying. His investments in land and trade provide additional income, and, from 1758 until the Revolution, he was Barrack Master, "with full power to do and perform every manner and thing which may be requisite for the comfortable accomodation of his Majestye's troops." (Scharf & Westcott, 2, 1006) This doubtless was a lucrative post as it involved provisioning the troops and maintaining a large physical plant. Fox was considered "a man of wealth, but no way avaritious, of great spirit, and esteemed a very honest man." (Letter from William Allen to Thomas Penn, quoted in Cresson, "Biographical Sketch," PMHB, 2, 1908) Consequently he was in great demand as executor and trustee of the estates of numerous tradesmen. Even among his political foes of the Governor's party he was considered "a person of some influence in the city." (Letter from James Tilghman to Thomas Penn, quoted in Cresson, "Biographical Sketch," PMHB) He became a Regulator of Streets in 1748, the same year that his friend Benjamin Franklin was elected to the Common Council, and within two years both men had entered the Assembly as representatives of Philadelphia City. In 1752 both were defeated, whereupon they stood from the County. This time Franklin was elected and Fox defeated. The following year Fox was able to gain a Philadelphia County seat that he held without interruption for the next eight years. Fox's tenure in the Assembly spanned the Albany Convention, the French and Indian War, the Pontiac Conspiracy and Paxton Boys, and the Stamp Act controversy. During the War he was particularly involved with problems of defense and supply, for which he was disowned by the Philadelphia Meeting. He was also singled out by the Paxton Boys as a particular target for threats. To Governor Thomas Penn and his party, Fox was one of the "veriest Partisans against the Proprs and moderate measures as could be picked out of the Town." All the more reason for Penn to object when, in October 1764, Fox was appointed Speaker of the Assembly. Once seated, Fox presided over the Assembly that dispatched Franklin to England as an agent to lobby against the Proprietary Government. It was also during Fox's speakership that delegates were selected for the Stamp Act Congress. As the Colonies moved toward Revolution, Joseph Fox was at the center of the American cause organizing the craftmen. (The role of Fox and The Carpenters' Company in the Revolution is discussed in Moss, Master Builders.) He was Master of The Carpenters' Company at the time of his death during the British occupation of Philadelphia; the distruction of his papers has deprived Fox of his rightful place in history as a revolutionary leader. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Joseph Thornhill was the son of John and Elizabeth Thornhill, elder brother of master builder John Thornhill and uncle of master builder Joseph Thornhill, Jr.. As early as 1756 he was a resident of Philadelphia's Mulberry Ward and continued to live in that district throughout the Revolution. Prior to 1760 he married Martha Hubbs of Philadelphia, and prior to 1763 he had become a member of The Carpenters' Company. In the latter year he was appointed to the important Company committee that set the prices for carpentry work in Philadelphia. A parishioner of Christ Church, Joseph together with John Thornhill was asked in 1741 if he would undertake the new steeple then to be erected. Christ Church journal records payments to Joseph Thornhill in 1744 and 1745. In 1775, Thornhill was a subscriber to the Philadelphia edition of Abraham Swan, The British Architect, the first book of architecture printed in America. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
John Thornhill, "one of the most celebrated mechanicks in this or any other state...particulary distinguished for his abilities as an Architect," was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Thornhill. In 1741 he married Jane Cook at Christ Church who the next year gave birth to Joseph Thornhill. In 1746 he appears as the witnesses to the will of the carpenter William Russell, in 1748 as the executor of the estate of the painter John Winckles, and in 1753 he preformed the inventory of the estate of the carpenter Andrew Jolley. A long-time resident of the Mulberry Ward of the city, Thornhill was elected to membership in The Carpenters' Company prior to the date of the earliest surviving records. In 1763 he was elected to the important "Committee to Sett prises" and to a committee to locate a lot for the future Carpenters' Hall. In 1770 he was one of the largest contributors toward the construction of the Hall. In 1776 he was elected Assistant of The Company and as late as 1781 was serving on Company committees. As so often is the case with colonial master builders--even those of such obvious important as John Thornhill--virtually nothing is known of his work. As a parishioner of Christ Church, Thornhill was asked in 1741 if he would undertake the new steeple then to be erected. According to the building committee, Thornhill "would cheerfully serve the Church," but was unfamiliar with that sort of work and would need the help of other craftsmen. Between 1746 and 1763 Thornhill received payments for work at Christ Church, including the final steeple account in 1759. (See Robert Smith) Thornhill was also asked to measure the work of Jacob Knorr, the builder of Cliveden (1767). Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Characterized as "among the most important and skilled archiect-builders in colonial America" by his biographer Charles Peterson, the chief Philadelphia claimant for the title of America's first architect is the master builder Robert Smith who was born in Dalkeith Parish, Midlothian, Scotland, near Edinburgh, the fourth son of John and Martha (Lowrie) Smith. His father was a baker, but Robert was apprenticed to a builder. This is not particularly surprising for the younger son in a family already prominent as masons. Robert Smith may, in fact, have been distantly related to the leading Scottish architect, James Smith (c. 1645-1731) who employed several of Robert's relatives as masons at Dalkeith House (1702-1710), a property of Anne, Duchess of Buccleuch. It is also thought that late in the lad's apprenticeship he encountered William Adam (1689-1748) who also was engaged at Dalkeith House and other nearby estates, c. 1740. Whether or not Smith was employed by Adam may never be known; it is probably happenstance that Smith first appeared in Philadelphia a few months after Adam's death. Whatever his immediate background, Smith was already in command of his craft by 1749. In that year he began remodelling Governor James Hamilton's "Bush Hill" overlooking the Schuylkill and, together with Gunning Bedford, was commissioned to erect the Second Presbyterian Church at Third and Arch streets. It has been suggested that Hamilton may have recruited Smith during a trip to Britain, and certainly Hamilton was involved--at least as a donor--with several of Smith's early commissions. By 1752-1753, Smith had designed the Christ Church steeple (Second Street above Market) and both Nassau Hall and the President's House at Princeton. The latter project may have led to his being commissioned to provide plans for the College Edifice at the College of Rhode Island (now Brown University), c. 1770-1772. In fact, Smith's reputation as designer of large public buildings spread throughout the colonies. In 1770 he was responsible for the design of the new public hospital for the insane in Williamsburg, VA, and in Philadelphia he designed Carpenters' Hall--certainly a mark of esteem among his fellows of the Carpenters' Company--and the large, fireproof Walnut Street Prison (Sixth and Walnut streets), 1773-1774. Smith was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and he assisted in erecting the platform in State House Square from which the philosophers could observe the Transit of Venus. He was also a member of the St. Andrew's Society and by the City of Philadelphia was appointed a Regulator of Party Walls and Partition Fences. Like most building trades craftsmen, Smith was warmly supportive of the Revolution. He was a member of the Committee of Correspondence from the First Continental Congress (1774), and in 1775 presented to the Committee of Safety "a model of a machine for obstructing the Navigation of the River Delaware." He freely offered his services to construct these "chavaux-de-frise" and other defences for the city. Supervising this work during the bitter winter of 1776-1777 probably contributed to his early death. The Pennsylvania Evening Post reported on 13 February 1777, "last Tuesday morning Mr. Robert Smith, architect, died at his house in Second-street, in the fifty-fifth year of his age.... Several public buildings in this city, and its environs, are ornaments of his great abilities." The inventory of Smith's estate shows that he owned "Sundrey Books of Architecture and Drawing Instrumts" valued at nearly twenty-four pounds. Of these books we only know the titles of three: Colin Campbell, Vitruvius Brittannicus; or, the British Architect (London, 1731) purchased by Smith in 1756; Batty Langley, The City and Country Builder's Treasury of Designs (London, 1750) purchased in 1751, and Andrea Palladio, The Four Books of Andrea Palladio's Architecture (London, 1738), purchased in 1754. It is likely that Smith owned other books of architecture; he was a friend of David Hall who impored large numbers of pattern books in the 1760s, and through Hall Smith sent cash to his mother in the late 1750s and 1760s. Smith was recognized as a leader of his profession. Owen Biddle discussed his design for the Christ Church steeple in his Young Carpenters' Assistant (Philadelphia, 1805); he featured the design in a large folding plate (perhaps based on Smith's original drawing), and wrote, "for the justness of its proportions, simplicity and symmetry of its parts is allowed by good judges to be equal if not superior in beauty to any Steeple of the spire kind, either in Europe or America." Nearly two decades after his death, the Columbianum or American Academy of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture sponsored an exhibition that included several architectural drawings by Smith, John Sproul, Abraham Colladay and Smith's son-in-law, William Williams. So far as is known this was the first exhibition of architectural drawings ever held in the United States. Unfortunately, no drawings by Smith are known to survive. biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Benjamin Loxley was a prominent master builder who, according to his obituary, was conspicuous for talents, ingenuity and industry; as a citizen, distinguished for active participation and usefulness; and as a man, for integrity and the faithful discharge of the various duties of social life. . . . His disinterested services, aided by his skill and ingenuity in casting of cannon, and conducting the public laboratory in the early stages of the revolution, when the knowledge of those arts were confined to a few, were of the highest importance to our country. Born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Pullen) Loxley, he came to Pennsylvania in 1734 to live with his maternal uncle who placed him as an apprentice to W. Joseph Watkins to learn the "Carpenter's, Joiner's and plain Cabinet making trades," according to Loxley's autobiographical manuscript. Free of his articles in 1742, Loxley promptly married his former master's sister, and armed with--as he later recalled--"a choice chest of tools, books of architecture, a bible and Psalm book..., I went on right well and got plenty of work and good pay." Although Loxley briefly joined in a partnership with carpenter William Henderson, a timely inheritance and successful investments gradually made Loxley prosperous (he would later claim losses of $60,000 from the British occupation of Philadelphia), and like Joseph Fox, Robert Smith, and Thomas Nevell, he became one of the leading members of The Carpenters' Company which he served on committees or as an officer through the years prior to the Revolution. No structures can specifically be associated with Loxley. Like most senior members of The Carpenters' Company, he realized the bulk of his income from dealing in lumber, speculative building, and measurings the work of other craftsmen. Most of the surviving documents refer to these business activities. In 1768 Loxley, Nevell, and Robert Smith were appointed a committee to acquire the lot on which Carpenters' Hall (Chestnut below Fourth Street) would ultimately be erected to Smith's design. That same year, Loxley and Smith were jointly proposed for membership in the American Society but were not elected, "being members of the American Philosophical Society." Loxley was an "encourager" to the Philadelphia edition of Abraham Swan, The British Architect (Printed by R. Bell for J. Norman, 1775), the first book on architecture published in America, and he subscribed for two copies (the only other person to take two was Robert Allison). Like most of his fellow master builders, Loxley actively supported the Revolution. During both the French and Indian War and the Revolution, he served as an officer of artillery and recruited heavily for the American cause among the building trades. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss, and Sandra L. Tatman
The master builder James Worrell first comes to historical attention when he married Hannah Parsons, daughter of William Parsons, at Christ Church on 11 October 1749. When his father-in-law died in 1757, Worrell received forty pounds with which he was "to make up and decorate the graves and tombs of my late dear mother" and his three children, including Worrell's first wife who had died in 1753. Worrell continued to live in Parson's house near the corner of Second and Vine (which placed him in the Northern Liberties, Vine being the northern-most boundry of the City at that date) throughout the pre-Revolutionary War years. He was also a founding member (1756) of the Northern Liberties Fire Company. A keen patriot--as were most of the master builders--Worrell was an officer of the 1st Company of Artillery of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia (see, Benjamin Loxley). Together with Robert Allison, Worrell worked on the Liberty Island fort in 1776 and in 1777 (again with Robert Allison and also Evan Evans) he removed lead downspouts prior to the fall of the city to the British. Worrell became a member of The Carpenters' Company prior to the date of the earliest surviving records of the 1760s. Certainly he was fully active in his craft by the 1750s; he worked for Edmund Woolley at the State House (Independence Hall), 1751-1752, and in 1758 he performed a variety of repairs to the Rolls Office at the State House. By the 1760s he was a leading member of The Company. In the 1760s he was on the important committee that set the prices charged for carpentry work in Philadelphia; in 1765-1767 and again in 1775-1779, Worrell was Assistant of The Company. At some time in the 1770s he took Joseph Armitage as an apprentice and in 1773 assigned him to his father, Benjamin Armitage. Worrell was also an "encourager" to the Philadelphia, 1775 edition of Abraham Swan, The British Architect, the first book of architecture printed in America. While Worrell took the oath of allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania in 1779, a James Worrell of Philadelphia was attainted and his property confiscated during the Revolution. Since there were two men with such similar names in Philadelphia, it it unclear which James Worrell was elected to the American Philosophical Society on December 20, 1768, and was a subscriber to the Silk Society in 1770. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
John Goodwin, Jr., was a successful master buider elected to The Carpenters' Company before 1763 although no Company records prior to the 1760s survive to confirm the date of his membership. Highly respected by his colleagues, Goodwin served on the important price book committee that set rates for carpentry work. He was also appointed trustee for The Company to conduct negotiations leading to the acquisition of the lot and construction of Carpenters' Hall, to which Goodwin was a major contributor. At the time of his death, Goodwin's estate was valued in excess of 2,500 pounds. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Abraham Carlile was a master builder and lumber merchant. The exact date of his election to The Carpenters Company is unknown because all company records prior to the 1760s are lost. He was, however, an active member and one of the largest contributors toward the construction of Carpenters' Hall in 1770. During the British occupation of Philadelphia in 1777-1778, Carlile accepted a position as gatekeeper under Joseph Galloway's Loyalist civil administration, making him one of the few craftsman of the building trades who did not serve in the American army or flee the city during the occupation. In September of 1778 he was indicted for high treason, tried, sentenced to death, and executed on November 4, 1778. Biography from Philadelphia Architect and Buildings a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
James Davis, Jr., was the son of a house carpenter and a successful master builder in his own right. The Carpenters' Company lists him as an early member; he is first mentioned as present at meetings in 1766, although no Company records prior to the l760s have survived to confirm the date of his election. Davis was elected Assistant Warden of The Company, 1767-1770, and was one of the larger contributors toward the construction of Carpenters' Hall. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Builders, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Sandra L. Tatman.
Master builder Ellis Price was elected to The Carpenters' Company prior to the date of the earliest surviving records from the 1760s. In 1756 he married Sarah Osborne at Christ Church and was disowned by the Friends the following year. At the time of his death in 1766 he styled himself an innholder. Ellis Price was the son of Reese Price, a yeoman who died in 1760. Ellis was included in Reese Price’s will along with his siblings John, Edward, Mary Harry, Margaret Paschall, Jane and Ellias. Ellis was also an executor of Rebecca Rees’s will and listed as a “Friend” along with siblings John and Jane as well as a Elizabeth Price whose relation to Ellis is unclear. Rebecca Rees was Ellis Price’s step-grandmother. She married his grandfather Edward Reese, the father of Reese Price, and outlived him without issue. Reese Price is called Reese Rees in his father’s will. Reese Price married three times. His second wife was Elizabeth Ellis, the daughter of Ellis Ellis, whom he married in 1718. This is most likely the source of Ellis Price’s first name. Rees Price was the second landlord of the Blue Anchor Tavern on Dock Creek (now Dock street), the site where William Penn first landed in Pennsylvania. While Ellis Price was also an innholder, his inn is unknown and was assuredly not the Blue Anchor. Ellis’s surname, Price, most likely comes from the Welsh tradition of males putting “Ap” in front of their father’s name, thus Rees became Aprees and eventually anglicized to Price. Both Rebecca Rees’s and Reese Price’s will list Merion as their residence. Merion belonged to the Welsh Tract. Many Welsh Quakers settled this area and their families, such as the Prices and the Ellis’s, kept close ties. Ellis Price had already been disowned by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting due to his marriage outside of the religion at the time of his father’s death. At the time of his own death, Ellis Price had an inventory worth three hundred and eleven pounds after administration. His will included “some old tools and lumber in the Garrets”, valued at one pound and five shillings. Evidently, he still practiced, or had recently practiced, carpentry at the end of his life. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss and Thomas Stokes.
Gunning Bedford was an important master builder who remained active in the building trades throughout his life, although few buildings can firmly be attributed to him. The son of Gunning and Mary Bedford of New Castle (DE), he appears in Philadelphia by 1746 and as early as 1749 is associated with Robert Smith at the Second Presbyterian Church, Third and Arch streets. Following service as a lieutenant in the French and Indian War, he was engaged as a surveyor for the Philadelphia Contributionship, a position usually held by members of The Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia. And, in fact, Bedford was a prominent member of The Company; his election predates the earliest surviving records of the 1760s, and he served on committees or as an officer prior to the Revolution as a President from 1791 to 1794. Like most of the members of The Carpenters' Company, Bedford supported the Revolution and the Federal Constitution. According to Jacob Hiltzheimer's diary, Bedford built the ill-fated triumphal arch erected on Market Street in 1784. Decorated with paintings by Charles Willson Peale, the 40-foot-high structure was to mark the conclusion of peace. Unfortunately the freshly executed painting caught fire, and the entire structure and a supply of fireworks were spectacularly destroyed. Bedford's triumphal arch erected for the July 4, 1788, celebration of the ratification of the Federal Constitution survived to its purpose. Bedford joined in the Grand Federal Procession to carry at the head of four hundred fifty "architects and house-carpenters" a placard painted to display "designs in architecture." The following year, Bedford was elected an Alderman for Philadelphia. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
The master builder/architect Thomas Nevell, who designed the most famous Philadelphia country house--Mt. Pleasant (1763)--and founded a school of architecture in Philadelphia (1771), was the son of Thomas and Mary Nevell. By 1730 both of his parents had died and the lad was placed in a series of foster homes until apprenticed to Edmund Woolley to learn house carpentry. Woolley was one of the most influential master builders in the city and during Nevell's apprenticeship was engaged in what was for the time the largest building project in Philadelphia's history--the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall). From Woolley, Nevell must have gained more than the basic education usually specified by indentures of apprenticeship, and he probably received the additional fillip to his career of nomination into the select Carpenters' Company of master builders. An independent master by 1745, one of Nevell's earliest known commissions was a double twist stair case-no mean feat of geometry and joinery-causing him to be called by his client "an ingenious House Carpenter." Little is known of Nevell's work during the 1750s. He helped his former master erect the State House tower and steeple (that he would demolish in 1781) and built a "fine stair case" for Edward Shippen's house on South Fourth Street. Following a period in jail for unpaid debts, Nevell is known to have worked at the Pennsylvania Hospital. It was in 1763, however, that Nevell began what would come down in history as his masterpiece. On July 27, 1763, Nevell recorded in his account book under Capt. John MacPherson for the centerings to complete the distinctive chimneys at Mt. Pleasent, and by March 23, 1764, Nevell recorded that Robert Smith and John Thornhill had valued the Schuylkill frontispiece at twenty-five pounds. The date of Nevell's election to The Carpenters' Company is unknown; it certainly predates the earliest surviving Company records of 1763. By 1768 he was on the committee with Robert Smith and Benjamin Loxley to purchase a lot for Carpenters' Hall. Nevell was the second highest contributor to the cost of the Hall, probably made possible by income from the renovations of John Cadwalader's grand town house on the west side of Second Street between Spruce and Delancy Streets. Concurrently, Nevell erected for himself a house at (modern) 338 South Fourth Street, 1769-1770; where, at the "sign at the Carpenter's Hall," Nevell opened Philadelphia's first school of architectural drawing. Approached by several persons "anxious to improve themselves in the art of architecture," Nevell announced, " . . .I will take upon me to instruct a small number of youth, or others, the right use and construction of lines for the formation of regular or irregular arches, groins for vaults, or ceilings, brackets for plaistered cornices, and the like; the best method for striking out the ramp, and twist rails for stair cases; the most expeditious and approved method of diminishing colums and pilasters; the readiest rule for laying out the flutes and fillett, the method of forming raking cornices for pediments, &c. The geometrical rules for finding the length, back and bevel of hip or valley rafters, to any constructions, streight or circular, and to lay down principal roofs in ledgement. . . ." (Pennsylvania Gazette 31 October 1771, and quoted in "Thomas Nevel (1721-1797): Carpenter, Educator, Patriot", by Hanna Benner Roach) By the use of models the students would study these principles, "after which I propose to proceed to teach...the drawing of the five orders, and designs...requisite to form a true and compleat architect." Any person of "common capacity" could assimilate all of these skills "in two months at most" by attending the school four nights a week! The cost would be "Ten Shillings for entrance and Twenty Shillings per month." These students would not be Nevell's first. In 1766 he had taken John King "to instructions in the Art of Drawing Sundry Propositions in Architecture." In 1771, however, his list of paying students included: David Williamson, Joseph Howell, Duncan McKeller, John Alexander, Thomas Proctor, Joseph Grub, Thomas Savery, John Priest, and John Sanders. Nevell's school was sufficiently successful to encourage a second season "for instructing a small number of Youth in the Art of Drawing," and, in the fall of 1773, he announced a third and what would prove to be the final term. His accounts mention only payments from John Taylor. (Interestingly, Nevell charged his students one pound for all "T Square & draught board" and one pound 14s 6d for a case of drawing instruments.) During the Revolution, Nevell was fully engaged with the patriot cause. On the eve of the war,however, he had acted as agent for the engraver John Norman in the latter's edition of Swan's British Architect, and when The Company voted to publish their price book in 1785 it was Nevell who offered the "Plates representing diferent sic parts of Carpenters work...draughts necessary for the Engravers." The thirty-five engraved plates that illustrate The Company's Articles of the Carpenters Company of Philadelphia and their Rules for Measuring and Valuing House-Carpenters Work (Philadelphia, 1786), was the first such work of architecture native to America and provided a fitting memorial to the "ingenious House Carpenter" whose brief efforts at founding a school of architecture anticipated the transition from apprenticeship-trained carpenter/builder to professional architect. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
James Armitage was a master builder elected Warden of The Carpenters Company (1770) and Assistant Master (1781). He took one Isaac McAlee as an apprentice in 1773. Armitage was the principal carpenter for the construction of Old Pine Presbyterian Church in 1768. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Samuel Griscom was a master builder elected to The Carpenters' Company before 1766 although no records prior to the 1760s survive to confirm the date of his membership. His daughter was Elizabeth Ross (Betsy Ross, 1752-1836). Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Master builder James Pearson was an early member of The Carpenters' Company, although the actual date of his election is unknown because of the loss of all Company records prior to 1763. In those earliest surviving records, Pearson is mentioned as a member of the important "Committee to Sett prises." Among the most active members of The Company throughout his life, Pearson served as Warden (1764-1766), Assistant (1771-1773, 1785-1788), and as a member of virtually every special committee. A member of the American Philosophical Society, Pearson was one of the official observers of the transit of Venus (June 3, 1769) from the State House yard (Independence Square). An active supporter of the Revolution--as were most of his fellow Company members--Pearson manufactured firearms for the Committee of Safety (1775). In the 1780s he made extensive repairs to the State House for which his bills survive in the Pennsylvania Archives, Harrisburg, PA. When Company member Ezekiel Worrell died, his widow petitioned The Company for help in "placing one of her sons Apprentice to a House Carpenter." Company records strongly suggest that that son was Joseph Worrell and that he was taken as an apprentice by Pearson. On 21 January 1788, "James Pearson proposed Joseph Worrel [sic.] Son of ye Late Ezekial Worral [sic.] as a member of The Company." Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
The master builder John Wayne is traditionally carried on the rolls of The Carpenters' Company as a member elected prior to the earliest surviving Company records of the 1760s. Wayne died in 1765, and letters of administration were issued to Thomas and Samuel Williams and Abraham Wayne. The builder had probably been ill for some time; Isaac Wayne advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette on 15 March 1764, that monies owed to John Wayne, house carpenter, should be paid to him, Lester Falkner and Nathaniel Richards. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
William Roberts was a master builder elected to The Carpenters' Company prior to the date of the earliest surviving records; he was first present at a Company meeting in 1768. Roberts was an "encourager" of the Philadelphia edition of Abraham Swan, The British Architect (1775), the first book of architecture published in America. During the Revolution he made ammunition boxes, built guard houses, and made various repairs to the State House (Independence Hall); the latter service he continued throughout the war. The resident of the Middle Ward of Philadelphia as early as 1769, he is listed in the Philadelphia directories for 1791-1800 at 163 Chestnut Street, probably the same house "on north side of Chesnut (sic) st near 5 where I now live" mentioned in his will. Roberts marched in the Grand Federal Procession of July 4, 1788, carrying a placard painted to display "designs in architecture." Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Levi Budd (1726-1790) was a master builder of the Northern Liberties who became a member of The Carpenters' Company prior to 1770. Elected Assistant of The Company, 1780-1782, he was one of the six members "displaying designs in architecture" at the head of the four hundred and fifty "architects and house-carpenters" who marched in the Grand Federal Procession, Philadelphia, July 4, 1788. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Builders, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
George Plim (Plym) was an early member of The Carpenters' Company who first appears in the extant records on April 19, 1770, where it is recorded that "haveing some ago desired to have his name discontinued as a Member, now Attended the Compy mett, & requested that he might be reinstated, which being Considered, it was agree'd...." In association with Joseph Govett, Jr. he erected the "frontispiece" and doors of Carpenters' Hall in 1773 under the direction of Thomas Nevell. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.
Isaac Lefever was a master builder elected to The Carpenters' Company prior to 1767. Isaac Lefever begins with an easily traceable history that quickly becomes obscure during the American Revolution. After the Company directed Evan Peters to make a state-of-the-art pump and place it near the Hall, the surrounding neighborhood began to frequently utilize the Company’s water source. In 1774, the Company decided to charge the neighborhood for use of the Company’s pump, according to the Wardens’ minutes, “think it advisable that every family who are able, shall pay at the rate of 6 shillings per year and we further direct Isaac Lefever to collect the same for the benefit of the Company.” Isaac Lefever likely lived near the Hall at this time if he was instructed to collect this small sum from the neighborhood. Later in 1776, the Company decides to “pay a Mrs. Lefever - already working on (at) State Hall - a stipend of 10 pounds per year for teaching at this building.” Although it cannot be proved, this probably was Isaac’s wife. Also, Isaac or a namesake was one of those employed as Door-Keepers and messengers to the First Continental Congress in Carpenters’ Hall in 1774. Isaac was marked dead on the Warden’s list in 1779 which aligns him with an Isaac Lefever of Hereford, Berks County, whose will was proved the same year. Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss and Thomas Stokes.
Richard Armitt was a master builder elected to The Carpenters' Company of Philadelphia prior to 1767. He supplied lumber for the decoration of John Cadwalader's town house on Second Street, 1769-1770, and is recorded as taking on Alexander Duguid as an apprentice in 1773. Written by Roger W. Moss, from the Philadelphia Architects and Builders website.
James Potter was a master builder from the Southwark section of the city elected to The Carpenters' Company prior to the date of extant Company records of the 1760s; he is first recorded as present at a meeting in 1769. He was an "encourager" to the Philadelphia edition of Abraham Swan, The British Architect (1775), the first architectural book published in America. Written by Roger W. Moss, from the Philadelphia Architects and Builders website.
Benjamin Mifflin was a master builder elected to The Carpenters' Company by 1770, although no Company records prior to the 1760s survive to provide a date. He was often absent from Philadelphia, and references to his working in northern Delaware where he became a member of the Duck Creek Monthly Meeting suggest that he may have moved there after the Revolution. Written by Thomas Stokes and Roger W. Moss, from the Philadelphia Architects and Builders website.
The master builder George Wood was a resident of the North Ward of Philadelphia in 1769 (he lived near Isaac Zane, Sr.) and of the Northern Liberties in 1774. There is confusion concerning his election to The Carpenters' Company that suggests two men of the same name, although The Company only claims one and after the Revolution only one George Wood appears in the Philadelphia city directories. A George Wood first appears as present at a meeting of The Carpenters' Company on April 27, 1767. On April 19, 1770, however, George Wood of the Northern Liberties was proposed for membership and elected. From the 1770s on George Wood was a member of committees or an officer. In his will--written 1816, proved 1818--he bequeathed $100.00 "for bilding a church in the District of Southwark in the County of Philadelphia. . . ." Written by Roger W. Moss, from the Philadelphia Architects and Builders website.
The master builder Ezekiel Worrell became a member of The Carpenters' Company prior to the date of the earliest surviving Company records of the 1760s. He is first noted as present at a meeting of The Company in 1770. On 7 August 1760 Worrell had married Ann King at St. Paul's Church, Philadelphia. In 1775 he was an "encourager" to the Philadelphia edition of Abraham Swan's The British Architect, the first architectural book printed in America. Following Worrell's death in 1781, his widow petitioned The Carpenters' Company for help in "placing one of her sons Apprentice to a House Carpenter." That son was probably Joseph Worrell. Written by Roger W. Moss, from the Philadelphia Architects and Builders website.