{"id":387,"date":"2025-09-08T12:56:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/?p=387"},"modified":"2025-09-08T12:56:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:56:34","slug":"history-of-share-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/2025\/09\/08\/history-of-share-11\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Share #11"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Library Company share #11 was first issued to Thomas Cadwalader (1707-1779)<\/strong> on November 10, 1731.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Cadwalader was a prominent physician, politician and civic leader. Born in Philadelphia, Cadwalader received his medical education in Europe before returning to Philadelphia around 1730. One biographer placed him among the handful of physicians in the city inoculating against smallpox at that time.[i]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Cadwalader 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[ii]<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image: Charles Willson Peale, <\/em>Dr. Thomas Cadwalader (1770). Oil on canvas. Courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cadwalader also served as a director of the Library Company in 1731, 1733 to 1738, 1752 to 1768, and 1773. [iii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His father had left behind a substantial estate at his death in 1734, and Cadwalader married Hannah Lambert of New Jersey in 1738. Soon after, he gave up his practice in Philadelphia and moved to Trenton. In 1739, he was appointed a \u201cCommission of Pleas and Peace\u201d for Hunterdon County, New Jersey, but he was also known to serve as physician to N. J. Governor Jonathan Belcher (1681-1757) and probably others. Records show that he also taught other physicians, and he published an important medical essay in 1745 on a condition known as \u201cdry-gripes.\u201d[iv]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cadwalader is known to have enslaved at least one man named Sam, who escaped in October 1745. One advertisement seeking his return noted that Sam had been \u201centiced away by one Isaac Randall,\u201d who was an \u201capprentice\u201d of another. The pair had taken a horse as well, and were believed to be planning to seek work with a privateer in either New York City or Philadelphia.[v]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unclear what became of Sam, but Cadwalader paid tax on two enslaved people in 1769.[vi]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Cadwalader began preparing for a permanent return to Philadelphia in 1749. He stepped down as Burgess in Trenton, and donated 500 pounds to help establish a free library there. By 1754, he had put his substantial NJ properties up for sale.[vii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in Philadelphia, he helped found Pennsylvania Hospital in 1751, and served as one of its physicians until his death in 1779. When the Medical School of the College of Philadelphia was founded in 1765, Cadwalader was elected a trustee. (That college merged with another in 1791 to become today\u2019s University of Pennsylvania.)[viii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cadwalader also served as a member of the Common Council of Philadelphia from 1751 to 1774, and served on Pennsylvania\u2019s Provincial Council from 1755 until the Revolution. He was both a strong supporter of military defense during the French and Indian War and a supporter of the American Revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his death, his estate forfeited his share in May 1782 according to the Library Company\u2019s records, and it then remained dormant until the twentieth century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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