Browse Items (11130 total)
Loxley, Benjamin
Description:
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…
Member number:
24*
Birth date:
12/20/1720
Smith, Robert
Description:
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…
Member number:
29
Birth date:
1/14/1722
Thornhill, Joseph
Description:
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…
Member number:
22*
Birth date:
3/17/1714
Fox, Joseph
Description:
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 toJames Portuesand became one of his…
Business name:
see references for all addresses
Member number:
21*
Birth date:
1/1/1709
Rhoads, Samuel
Description:
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.…
Member number:
13*
Birth date:
1/11711
Tomlinson, Ebenezer
Description:
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…
Member number:
14*
Birth date:
1/11700
Zane, Sr., Isaac
Description:
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…
Member number:
10*
Birth date:
1/1/1711
Harrison, John
Description:
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,…
Member number:
8*
Birth date:
7/4/1685
Nicholas, John
Description:
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…
Member number:
7*
Birth date:
1/1/1700
Harrison, Joseph
Description:
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,…
Member number:
6*
Birth date:
10/3/1681
Woolley, Jr., Edmund
Description:
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.…
Member number:
5*
Birth date:
1/1/1690
Usher, Jacob
Description:
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…
Member number:
4*
Birth date:
1/1/1678
Powell, Samuel
Description:
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…
Member number:
3*
Birth date:
1/11673
Portues, James
Description:
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 onWelcomebound for Pennsylvania in 1682. Under the terms of Wade's will, Porteus (the name is variously…
Member number:
2*
Birth date:
1/1/1670
Oval miniature
Description:
oval miniature of James Ogilby
Item type:
miniature of J. Ogilby