{"id":368,"date":"2025-09-05T14:19:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/?p=368"},"modified":"2025-09-05T14:19:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:19:49","slug":"history-of-share-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/2025\/09\/05\/history-of-share-8\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Share #8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Library Company share #8 was first issued to Joseph Stretch (d. 1771)<\/strong> on November 10, 1731.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cArticles of Agreement\u201d 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 \u201cpromised to pay ten shillings a year thereafter to buy books and maintain a shareholder\u2019s library.\u201d[i]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also served as a director for the Library Company from 1740 through 1750. Stretch\u2019s death notice in the Pennsylvania Chronicle<\/em> newspaper called him \u201ca Gentleman who rendered himself remarkable and gained universal Esteem by the uniform Practice of those Virtues which reflects the greatest Honour on Humanity.\u201d[ii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph\u2019s widow Lydia Stretch, serving as executor of his estate, sold the share to William Stretch <\/strong>on October 4, 1771. Again, given the matching surnames, one could surmise that the two were related.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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) <\/strong>on May 5, 1787.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image: Thomas Sully, <\/em>The Reverend James B. Abercrombie<\/a> (Philadelphia, 1810). Oil on canvas. Courtesy of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s Church<\/a> in Philadelphia. He served in that role from 1794 to 1832.[iii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He eventually sold the share to St. Paul\u2019s Church<\/a> on September 5, 1834. Technically, he sold it to the \u201cRector, Churchwardens and vestrymen of Saint Paul\u2019s Church.\u201d[iv]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Library Company records indicate that the church forfeited the share in May 1858. The share remained dormant for the next seventy-six years.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image: <\/em>Frederick De Bourg Richards, photographer, <\/em>St Paul\u2019s Church, East Side of Third Street, Opposite Willing\u2019s Alley<\/a>, (Philadelphia, 1859). Photograph.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The share was eventually reissued as share #1333. Virginia Newbold Gibbon (1907-1992)<\/strong> acquired it on March 1, 1934.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gibbon had been a member of Bryn Mawr\u2019s class of 1927. At the time she acquired this share, her father was still a senior partner at the brokerage firm W. H. Newbold\u2019s Son & Co., which had been founded by her great-grandfather. Virginia\u2019s husband, Samuel Y. Gibbon (d. 1987), was also a partner at the firm up until World War II.[v]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The share was reissued as share #8 by 1993.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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