{"id":346,"date":"2025-08-25T17:35:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/?p=346"},"modified":"2025-08-25T17:35:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:35:35","slug":"history-of-share-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/2025\/08\/25\/history-of-share-5\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Share #5"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Library Company share #5 was first issued to Joseph Breintnall (d. 1746) <\/strong>on November 10, 1731.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breintnall was a scrivener, public servant, author, poet, and colleague of Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). He was also an amateur scientist who experimented with solar heat and botany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was an original member of Franklin\u2019s Junto discussion group, and he joined with Franklin and his fellow Junto members to draw up \u201cArticles of Agreement\u201d on July 1, 1731 to found the Library Company. Breintnall was among the first group of shares issued four months later. These subscribers each invested forty shillings and \u201cpromised to pay ten shillings a year thereafter to buy books and maintain a shareholder\u2019s library.\u201d[i]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breintnall served as the first Secretary of the Library Company, a role he held until his death in 1746. One biographer points out that this role \u201cintroduced [Brientnall] to a larger world.\u201d[ii] For instance, Breintnall exchanged letters with the Library Company\u2019s London book agent, Peter Collinson, about his study of plants as well as other scientific topics. Between circa 1731 and circa 1744, Breintnall created hundreds of leaf prints as records of botanical specimens he gathered himself and from networks.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image: Joseph Breintnall, <\/em>[Nature prints of leaves] [graphic]<\/em><\/a> (Philadelphia, circa 1731-circa 1744). Gift of Mrs. Joseph Breintnall, 1746.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breintnall may have used his experience with leaf printing to assist Franklin in the creation of a metal cast of a leaf impression used to print currency incapable to be counterfeited.[iii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Brientnall\u2019s death, the Library Company\u2019s directors recorded in the minutes that he had \u201cfaithfully served . . . many years, without any adequate Recompence.\u201d The directors voted unanimously to give a \u201cpresent of \u00a315 to his Widow for the use of his Family; and that his son George shall have the free use of the Books in the Library during Life.\u201d[iv]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later, when Joseph\u2019s widow, Esther Breintnall, decided to sell Joseph\u2019s share, the directors \u201cagreed unanimously\u201d that her and Joseph\u2019s son George \u201cshall continue to enjoy the free use of the Books\u201d as long as he left \u201csatisfactory\u201d promissory notes.[v]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esther Breintnall sold the share to Dr. Richard Farmer (d. 1791)<\/strong> on January 12, 1749.[vi]<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image: Detail from <\/em>Share Record Book A<\/a>, volume 171, Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Library Company records provide no other details about Farmer, but he maintained the share for the next fifteen years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time Farmer sold the share in 1764, he was living in London according to the share transaction record. He sold the share to Peter Campbell<\/strong> on November 25, 1764, and the transfer was witnessed by artist Benjamin West (1738-1820) and James Logan (1728-1803). The official transfer from Farmer to Campbell was recorded in Library Company records on July 27, 1765.[vii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Library Company Share Record Book A indicates that new shareholder Peter was the son of deceased Philadelphia merchant Thomas Campbell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Campbell maintained the share for twelve years, and then sold it back to the same Dr. Richard Farmer (d. 1791)<\/strong> on March 11, 1776.[viii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, Farmer owned the share until his death in 1791, and then it was maintained by his estate for another fifteen years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farmer had named his daughter Sarah Farmer Bower to be executrix of his estate after his death, but it was Richard F. Bower, gentleman from Northern Liberties, who finally sold the Farmer estate\u2019s share to Edmund J. Hollinshead<\/strong>, saddler, on May 12, 1806. The transfer was recorded in Library Company records more than four years later, on October 31, 1811.[ix]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This transfer might have been finally recorded because Hollinshead himself had already sold the share. His sale to John L. Leib<\/strong> apparently occurred in December 1809, but it wasn\u2019t recorded by the Library Company until December 14, 1811.[x]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1810 Philadelphia directory listed Leib as an \u201cattorney at law & clerk of the Orphan\u2019s court,\u201d based on South 6th Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leib maintained the share for the next few years. James Ronaldson, attorney for Leib, sold the share to Elijah Dallett (1777-1847)<\/strong> on April 4, 1817. The transfer was witnessed by Elijah\u2019s brother Thomas Dallett (1775-1832) and their brother-in-law Thomas Lay.[xi]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elijah and Thomas Dallett operated a soap and candle-making business. Thomas moved to Venezuela in 1822 to open a branch of their chandlery business, and the two brothers also eventually invested in a business that became the Red D Line, a main transportation link between the U.S. and Venezuela from roughly 1820 to 1936.[xii]<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image: Dallett\u2019s Chandlery is depicted in this 1884 image of the buildings at 10th Street, Callowhill Street, and Ridge Avenue. B. R. Evans, <\/em>Dallett\u2019s Old Soap Manufactory, Northeast Corner Tenth and Callowhill Streets (1884). Watercolor. Benjamin Evans Watercolor Collection.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elijah had other interests as well. Three years after becoming a Library Company shareholder, Elijah helped found the Musical Fund Society<\/a> of Philadelphia.[xiii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elijah sold the share to his son Gillies Dallett<\/strong> (1819-1885)<\/strong> on March 6, 1843.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image: V. L. Richardson, <\/em>[Portrait of Mr. Gillies Dallett]<\/a> (1860s). Hand-colored ambrotype. Courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 84.XT.442.4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gillies and his brother Elijah Jr. (1802-1873) continued the business after their father\u2019s death, and Gillies maintained his Library Company share for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gillies\u2019 son and his surviving executor Elijah Dalley (1855-1939) <\/strong>sold the share to himselfon August 3, 1922. He maintained the share for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his death, his executors Henry Wiener, Jr. and William M. David sold the share to the younger Elijah\u2019s son, Anthony Joseph Dallett (b. 1890) <\/strong>on April 3, 1940.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anthony sold the share to Francis James Dallett, Jr.<\/strong> on December 6, 1945.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share History:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n