Image: Receipt for a Library Company share, 1733.

We continue our monthly “Shareholder Spotlight” series by taking a closer look at share #501 and its fourth owner, Elizabeth Hewson Caldwell (1774-1851).

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 #501

This share was first issued to George W. Field on March 12, 1789. Just a few months later, the Directors of the Library Company decided to sell as many new shares as possible to help raise funds for their new planned building at 5th and Chestnut Streets. The new building opened on New Year’s Day in 1791.[i]

Field certainly would have had a chance to visit that new building. He maintained his Library Company share for thirteen years before selling the share to Charles Crawford on February 16, 1802.

Crawford’s involvement with the Library Company lasted only four months. He sold the share to David Caldwell (1770-1835) on June 7, 1802.

Image: Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, David Caldwell. Engraving on paper. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon.

According to the 1802 Philadelphia directory, Caldwell served as the clerk of the District and Circuit Courts of Pennsylvania and was based on north 4th Street.

He maintained his share for the rest of his life, and Caldwell’s executor and son-in-law E. F. Rivinus sold the share to his widow, Elizabeth Hewson Caldwell (1774-1851) on July 9, 1836.

Elizabeth maintained her share in the Library Company for the next 14 years. She appeared in the 1837 Philadelphia directory as “E. H.” Caldwell, and is listed as residing at the northeast corner of 6th and Noble Streets.

At least two items from her personal book collection are now part of the Library Company’s collection; both titles were donated to us more than a century after Elizabeth’s death.

Image: The Library Company owns two books that once belonged to Elizabeth Hewson Caldwell, including this copy of a work by Sir Isaac Newton. Elizabeth inscribed the title page with her maiden name Hewson, and also signed the inside cover with her married name Caldwell. Sir Isaac Newton, Opticks: Or, a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light (London, 1730). Gift of Frances M. Bradford.

Elizabeth also had a strong connection to one of the Library Company’s founders, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).

Elizabeth’s grandmother Margaret Stevenson had been Franklin’s landlady in London for sixteen years, and Elizabeth’s mother, Mary (Polly) Stevenson Hewson (1739-1795), became a close friend of Franklin’s. When Elizabeth’s father died in 1774, Franklin urged Polly to bring the family to Philadelphia, and she finally did so in 1786. Polly was apparently with Franklin when he died.[ii]

Elizabeth would have been only 16 years old when Franklin died, but she certainly would have spent time with him and his family after her mother and family moved to Philadelphia.

Elizabeth’s brother Dr. Thomas T. Hewson (1773-1848) also became a Library Company shareholder. He owned share #599 from April 23, 1805 until his death in 1848; the share remained with his estate until it was finally forfeited in 1865.

As for share #501, Elizabeth finally sold the share to Dr. Samuel Moore on February 8, 1850. It is unclear whether Elizabeth and Moore had a familial relationship beyond this transaction, but she died just one year later.

The share has been owned by nine people total in its history.

Not yet a shareholder?

Share #501 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 Elizabeth Hewson Caldwell’s share or another option.

You can become a Library Company shareholder with an initial gift of $500. To learn more, visit our website or reach out to our Development Office at [email protected].

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[i] June 1, 1789 minutes, Directors Minutes Volume 3, volume 165, Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270).

[ii] Whitford J. Bell, Jr., “‘All Clear Sunshine’: New Letters of Franklin and Mary Stevenson Hewson,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 100, no. 6 (December 17, 1956), 521-536.