Image: Receipt for a Library Company share, 1733.

We continue our monthly “Shareholder Spotlight” series by taking a closer look at share #28 and its first owner, Jacob Duché, Sr. (1708-1788).

Shareholders have always been the backbone of the Library Company of Philadelphia. Starting with the first group of fifty tradesmen who formed the library in 1731, shareholders have provided crucial financial support each year for our mission to “pour forth benefits for the common good.”

We keep careful track of who has owned each historic share, and our list of 9,800+ shareholders includes signers of the Declaration and Constitution, merchants, doctors, soldiers, scientists, artists, philanthropists, politicians, and much more.

Share #28

This share was first issued to Jacob Duché, Sr. (1708-1788) on March 25, 1732.

Duché was from a family known for making stoneware, and he himself became a wealthy merchant. He was obviously acquainted with Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and his fellow Junto members. That group drew up “Articles of Agreement” on July 1, 1731 to found a library, and Duché was among those who signed the document.

Image: Duché signed the Library Company’s founding document in the lower right corner, just below Thomas Hopkinson (1709-1751) and Philip Syng, Jr. (1703-1789). Detail from Articles of Association (Philadelphia, 1731), Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270).

His was also among the first group of shares issued that first year. These subscribers each invested forty shillings and “promised to pay ten shillings a year thereafter to buy books and maintain a shareholder’s library.”

Duché maintained his Library Company share for the next 56 years.

He served as a Director of the Library Company from 1742 through 1745, and for additional one-year terms in 1748, 1752, and 1761.

He also served as a vestryman of Christ Church and eventually became a Philadelphia politician. He served on the Common Council in 1755, as an alderman in 1757, and as Mayor in 1761.[i]

The final years of Duché’s life may have been challenging. His son, the Rev. Jacob Duché, Jr. (1737-1798), had “established himself as the religious voice of the early rebellion” and served as a chaplain of Congress. But in 1777, the younger Duché was publicly vilified when his letter to George Washington (1732-1799) arguing against the Revolution became public. The younger Duché was convicted of high treason to the state of Pennsylvania, his property was confiscated, and he and his family went into exile in England. The elder Duché joined his son’s family in England, and died there in 1788.[ii]

A few months before the elder Duché died, his Library Company share was sold to a new owner through a transaction overseen by Andrew Doz, “by Virtue of the Power granted [him] by Jacob Duché, late of the said City.” On Duché’s behalf, Doz sold the share to Samuel Coates, Jr. on February 28, 1788.

Coates himself was a minor at the time, so the transaction was completed by his uncle Samuel Coates “until the said Samuel [Jr.] shall arrive at the Age of twenty-one years.”[iii]

Image: The 1788 share transfer from Jacob Duché to Samuel Coates, Jr. was conducted by two surrogates: Andrew Doz and Coates’ uncle, Samuel Coates. Detail from Share Record Book A, Volume 171, Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270).

Most likely, the uncle was Samuel Coates (1748-1830), who was then serving as Library Company Treasurer and was himself the owner of Library Company share #67.

The younger Samuel owned share #28 for six years, but then the elder Samuel purchased the share back from him on behalf of Hannah Coates on February 13, 1794. She was possibly the elder Samuel’s daughter, Hannah Coates Clements West (d. 1849).

Library Company records show that shareholder Hannah Coates had married by 1803, with her name changed on her annual dues receipts to “H Coates now Clemens [sic]” and later “Hannah Clements.”

Image: This 1803 receipt for Hannah’s annual dues payment lists her as “H. Coates now Clemens.” Detail from Receipts for Hannah Coates Clements dues payments (share #28), Box 15, Folder 26, Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270).

Her name had changed again by September 8, 1820, when she sold share #28 to a new owner: Dr. Benjamin Hornor Coates (1797-1881). In that transaction, Hannah’s name was recorded as “Hannah West formerly Hannah Coates and late of Philadelphia but now of Charlestown South Carolina.”[iv]

Benjamin was certainly a relative of Hannah’s, given their matching surnames; he was the son of the elder Samuel Coates who had been involved in the previous two share transactions.

Benjamin was a physician in Philadelphia. He had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania just two years before taking over share #28, and he was elected a Fellow of the Philadelphia College of Physicians in 1827. He served as a physician and lecturer at the Pennsylvania Hospital from 1828 to 1841.[v]

He is also credited as one of the founders of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and long served as a member of its council and as its Vice President.[vi]

In 1829, Benjamin apparently had the opportunity to switch to Library Company share #67, which had been first issued to his grandfather Samuel Coates (1711-1748). Benjamin’s brother Reynell Coates sold that share to him on July 22, 1829, and the transaction was officially recorded by the Library Company on August 20, 1829. Benjamin then sold share #28 to Edward Yarnall (1799-1859) two weeks later on September 4, 1829.

Yarnall had a wholesale drugs business. He was also a director of the Bank of North America for many years. The share remained in the Yarnall family for the next 114 years. The share has been owned by ten different people in its history.

Not yet a shareholder?

Share #28 is currently available. We work hard to match potential shareholders with historic shares that match their interests, and we would love to match you with Jacob Duché, Sr.’s share or another option. To learn more, reach out to our Development Office at [email protected].

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[i] “Jacob Duché Sr. (252),” APS Members Bibliography https://membib.amphilsoc.org/member/pub/252 (accessed October 2, 2024).

[ii] “Jacob Duché Jr. (153),” APS Members Bibliography https://membib.amphilsoc.org/member/pub/153 (accessed October 2, 2024). “Jacob Duché 1737-1798,” Penn People, University Archives and Records Center https://archives.upenn.edu/exhibits/penn-people/biography/jacob-duche/ (accessed October 3, 2024).

[iii] See page 247 in Share Record Book A, Volume 171, Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270).

[iv] See page 118 in Share Record Book C, Volume 173, Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270).

[v] James J. Levick, “Benjamin Hornor Coates, M.D., One of the Founders of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and for Many Years Its Senior Vice-President,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 6, no. 1 (1882), 21-33.

[vi] Levick, 27.