Library Company share #8 was first issued to Joseph Stretch (d. 1771) on November 10, 1731.
Stretch was a hatter and a Pennsylvania assemblyman. By 1731, 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 Stretch was among the first group of shares issued four months later. These subscribers each invested forty shillings and “promised to pay ten shillings a year thereafter to buy books and maintain a shareholder’s library.”[i]
He also served as a director for the Library Company from 1740 through 1750. Stretch’s death notice in the Pennsylvania Chronicle newspaper called him “a Gentleman who rendered himself remarkable and gained universal Esteem by the uniform Practice of those Virtues which reflects the greatest Honour on Humanity.”[ii]
Joseph’s widow Lydia Stretch, serving as executor of his estate, sold the share to William Stretch on October 4, 1771. Again, given the matching surnames, one could surmise that the two were related.
William maintained the share for the next sixteen years, eventually selling the share in 1787 and identifying himself as being from Mount Holly in Burlington County. He sold the share to James Abercrombie (1758-1841) on May 5, 1787.
Image: Thomas Sully, The Reverend James B. Abercrombie (Philadelphia, 1810). Oil on canvas. Courtesy of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Abercrombie maintained the share for the next forty-seven years. A few years after purchasing this share, Abercrombie became the Assistant Minister at St. Peter’s Church in Philadelphia. He served in that role from 1794 to 1832.[iii]
He eventually sold the share to St. Paul’s Church on September 5, 1834. Technically, he sold it to the “Rector, Churchwardens and vestrymen of Saint Paul’s Church.”[iv]
Library Company records indicate that the church forfeited the share in May 1858. The share remained dormant for the next seventy-six years.
Image: Frederick De Bourg Richards, photographer, St Paul’s Church, East Side of Third Street, Opposite Willing’s Alley, (Philadelphia, 1859). Photograph.
The share was eventually reissued as share #1333. Virginia Newbold Gibbon (1907-1992) acquired it on March 1, 1934.
Gibbon had been a member of Bryn Mawr’s class of 1927. At the time she acquired this share, her father was still a senior partner at the brokerage firm W. H. Newbold’s Son & Co., which had been founded by her great-grandfather. Virginia’s husband, Samuel Y. Gibbon (d. 1987), was also a partner at the firm up until World War II.[v]
The share was reissued as share #8 by 1993.
Share History
- Joseph Stretch (d. 1771), acquired on November 10, 1731
- William Stretch, acquired on October 4, 1771
- James Abercrombie (1758-1841), acquired on May 5, 1787
- St. Paul’s Church, acquired on September 5, 1834
- Reissued as share #1333, Virginia Newbold Gibbon (1907-1992), acquired on March 1, 1934
Shareholders who acquired this share after 1950 are not displayed for privacy reasons.
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[i] “At the Instance of Benjamin Franklin”: A Brief History of the Library Company of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 2015), 5.
[ii] “Philadelphia, April 15,” The Pennsylvania Chronicle, April 15, 1771.
[iii] The Morgan Library & Museum, “Autograph letter signed: London, to Rev. James Abercrombie, 1802 June 13,” The Morgan Library & Museum, https://www.themorgan.org/literary-historical/206239 (accessed June 24, 2025).
[iv] See Share Record Book C, volume 270, Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270), 447.
[v] “John S. Newbold of Philadelphia,” The New York Times, April 2, 1937. “Samuel Gibbon Dead at 82; Ex-Banker and Manufacturer,” The New York Times, June 19, 1987.