Image: Receipt for a Library Company share, 1733.

We continue our monthly “Shareholder Spotlight” series by taking a closer look at share #457 and its second owner, Rev. Robert Blackwell (1748-1831).

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 #457

This share was first issued to Samuel Cowperthwaite on December 26, 1778. The Library Company’s records provide no other details about Cowperthwaite, but he maintained the share for the next nine years.[i]

Cowperthwaite eventually sold the share to Rev. Robert Blackwell (1748-1831) on August 4, 1787.

By that time, Blackwell was a minister for Christ Church and Saint Peter’s Church in Philadelphia. One year after he became a Library Company shareholder, Blackwell earned a Doctorate of Divinity (D.D.) from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). He also earned an honorary D.D. from what is now the University of Pennsylvania in 1788.[ii]

Image: Christ Church postcards. [graphic]. Photolithograph.

Library Company records provide little information about Blackwell’s involvement with the library, but he maintained his share for 44 years until his death. His estate owned the share for another 19 years beyond that.

No doubt Blackwell played a role in a variety of Philadelphia affairs during his tenure at Christ Church and Saint Peter’s. After all, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Benjamin Rush, and many other notable residents attended services at Christ Church, so this “scholarly and sensible preacher” no doubt interacted regularly with the nation’s founders and other city leaders.[iii]

He also played a role in the history of Philadelphia’s African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, one of three Black congregations that grew out of the Free African Society and St. George’s Methodist Church. The first building for St. Thomas’s congregation was dedicated by Bishop Francis Asbury (1745-1816) in July 1794, and in October 1794, Rev. Dr. Blackwell announced that the new church would be received in full fellowship within the Episcopal Church. Rev. Absalom Jones (1746-1818) served as St. Thomas’s first rector.[iv]

Image: Robert Blackwell inscribed this title that is now part of the Library Company’s collection. Detail from Charles H. Wharton, A Sermon on the Relations of the Christian Ministry (Philadelphia, 1785).

Blackwell’s executors James S. Smith and Henry Hollingsworth finally sold the share to William Smith on January 4, 1850. According to the Library Company’s record of the transaction, William Smith was an attorney.

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

Not yet a shareholder?

Share #457 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 Rev. Blackwell’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] A Joseph Cowperthwaite acquired a Library Company on the same date as Samuel, so it appears likely that they were related in some way.

[ii] “Robert Blackwell (420),” APS Members Bibliography, https://membib.amphilsoc.org/member/pub/420 (accessed February 18, 2025).

[iii] Elyse Graham, “Robert Blackwell 1768 *1782: He Preached to a Fledgling Nation,” Princeton Alumni Weekly, October 11, 2019, https://paw.princeton.edu/article/robert-blackwell-1768-1782-he-preached-fledgling-nation (accessed February 18, 2025).

[iv] Elise Kammerer, “Free African Society,” The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/free-african-society/ (accessed February 18, 2025). George F. Bragg, History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church (Baltimore, 1922), 61.