{"id":253,"date":"2025-03-31T18:58:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T18:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/?page_id=253"},"modified":"2025-09-22T13:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T13:20:07","slug":"the-library-companys-first-shareholders","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/the-library-companys-first-shareholders\/","title":{"rendered":"The Library Company’s First Shareholders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Benjamin Franklin and his fellow Junto members drew up \u201cArticles of Agreement\u201d on July 1, 1731 to found a library. They issued the first group of eleven shares four months later, with a total of twenty-five shares issued that first year. Each of the subscribers invested forty shillings and promised to pay ten shillings a year thereafter to buy books and maintain a \u201cshareholder\u2019s library.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about the history of the Library Company\u2019s earliest shareholders below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interested in becoming a Library Company shareholder today? Click here to learn more<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share<\/strong><\/td>First Owner<\/strong><\/td>Date Acquired<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Share #1<\/a><\/td>Robert Grace (d. 1766)<\/a><\/td>November 10, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #2<\/a><\/td>Thomas Hopkinson (1709-1751)<\/a><\/td>November 10, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #3<\/a><\/td>Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)<\/a><\/td>November 10, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #4<\/a><\/td>John Jones, Jr. (d. 1762)<\/a><\/td>November 10, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #5<\/a><\/td>Joseph Breintnall (d. 1746)<\/a><\/td>November 10, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #6<\/a><\/td>Anthony Nicholas (d. 1751)<\/a><\/td>November 10, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #7<\/a><\/td>Thomas Godfrey (1704-1749)<\/a><\/td>November 10, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #8<\/a><\/td>Joseph Stretch (d. 1771)<\/a><\/td>November 10, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #9<\/a><\/td>Philip Syng, Jr. (1703-1789)<\/a><\/td>November 10, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #10<\/a><\/td>John Sober<\/a><\/td>November 10, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #11<\/a><\/td>Thomas Cadwalader (1707-1779)<\/a><\/td>November 10, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #12<\/a><\/td>Joseph Wharton (1707-1776)<\/a><\/td>November 22, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #13<\/a><\/td>Nicholas Reddish<\/a><\/td>November 22, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #14<\/a><\/td>Richard Standley (d. 1747)<\/a><\/td>November 22, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #15<\/a><\/td>Samuel Hale<\/a><\/td>November 22, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #16<\/a><\/td>David Bush (circa 1707-1792)<\/a><\/td>November 22, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #17<\/a><\/td>Francis Richardson (1705-1782)<\/a><\/td>November 22, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #18<\/a><\/td>John Nichols\/Nicholas<\/a><\/td>November 22, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #19<\/a><\/td>John Roberts<\/a><\/td>November 22, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #20<\/a><\/td>Charles Read, Jr.<\/a><\/td>November 22, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #21<\/a><\/td>Evan Morgan (1709-1763)<\/a><\/td>November 22, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #22<\/a><\/td>Thomas Edwards<\/a><\/td>November 22, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #23<\/a><\/td>Alexander Paxton<\/a><\/td>November 22, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #24<\/a><\/td>Rees Lloyd (1709-1743)<\/a><\/td>November 22, 1731<\/td><\/tr>
Share #25<\/a><\/td>Benjamin Eastburn (d. 1741)<\/a><\/td>December 14, 1731<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Benjamin Franklin and his fellow Junto members drew up \u201cArticles of Agreement\u201d on July 1, 1731 to found a library. They issued the first group of eleven shares four months later, with a total of twenty-five shares issued that first year. Each of the subscribers invested forty shillings and promised to pay ten shillings a… Read More »The Library Company’s First Shareholders<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-253","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":478,"href":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/253\/revisions\/478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}