Name/Title
Pennsylvania Hospital. Book of Subscribers' Promissory Notes, 1754-1766Description
24 bonds of 23 subscribers on pages 4 to 44, with two blank forms separated at page 43. A leaf headed "Notes Remaining in this Book 10 March 1763." Original boards present, both detached.
The companion to the 1754-1761 book, begun in the same weeks of August 1754. Its first half was gathered by Joseph Fox, master carpenter, Manager of the Hospital, and later Speaker of the Assembly, who witnessed note after note from the building trades and craftsmen of his own circle. Later leaves run to 1766 and are witnessed by the Treasurer, Hugh Roberts.
It is above all a book of makers. Edward Duffield, the clockmaker who was Franklin's close friend and an executor of his will, signed on the first surviving page. With him are the goldsmith William Ball, the clockmaker Joseph Wills, and James Claypoole, the first native-born painter of Pennsylvania. The note of William Smith, styled "Rector of the Academy," dates from September 1761, three years after the Assembly had jailed him for libel in his war with Franklin's party. One leaf preserves a small comedy. John Macken of Gloucester signed for ten pounds on 23 November 1763, thought better of it, and signed again the same day for five. The Treasurer cancelled the first bond and kept both.Other Names and Numbers
Other Numbers
Number Type
ReferencesOther Number
Printed forms: Miller 598 (1754) and Miller 724 (1760).General Notes
Note Type
Cataloging NoteNote
Edward Duffield (1720-1801). Page 4. Clock and watch maker, Franklin's friend and executor, cutter of the 1756 Kittanning medal dies.
Matthew Clarkson (1733-1800). Page 7. Probably the future mayor who held the city together with Rush in the yellow fever of 1793.
James Claypoole (c. 1720-c. 1784). Page 14. The first native-born Pennsylvania painter and teacher of Matthew Pratt.
William Smith (1727-1803). Between pages 41 and 42, exact page unknown. First Provost of the College, Franklin's recruit and then his enemy, and the man chosen to deliver his eulogy.
William Ball (1729-1810). Page 17. Goldsmith and first Provincial Grand Master of the Ancient Freemasons in Pennsylvania.
Lewis Weiss (1717-1796). Page 44. Berlin-born lawyer and a founder of the German Society of Pennsylvania.Note Type
Cataloging NoteNote
The William Smith note is catalogued separately with BF-2023.032 and is listed in the table of contents at its original position.
