{"id":468,"date":"2025-09-19T19:40:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T19:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/?p=468"},"modified":"2025-09-19T19:40:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T19:40:24","slug":"history-of-share-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/2025\/09\/19\/history-of-share-24\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Share #24"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Library Company share #24 was first issued to Rees Lloyd (1709- 1743) <\/strong>on November 29, 1731.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lloyd was a master carpenter. 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 Lloyd 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

Lloyd was also among the earliest members of the Carpenters\u2019 Company, but no records earlier than the 1760s survive to confirm his date of membership.[ii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Library Company\u2019s minutes from July 11, 1743 note that Lloyd\u2019s widow \u201cdesires her late Husband\u2019s Share may be held by her Brother in Trust for her Children.\u201d Several Directors were to consider the request, but the minutes do not record the final decision.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image: The minutes from July 11, 1743 noted that \u201cRees Lloyd\u2019s Widow desires her late Husband\u2019s Share may be held by her Brother in Trust for her Children.\u201d Detail from <\/em>Directors Minutes Volume 1, volume 163, Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The share was next acquired by Lloyd\u2019s son-in-law Samuel Hudson (1736-1793)<\/strong>. The official date of that share transaction was not recorded in Library Company records, but it seems likely that he acquired share #24 after marrying Lloyd\u2019s daughter, Martha \u201cPatty\u201d Lloyd (circa 1741-1780).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hudson was certainly a shareholder by 1765. At a Directors meeting on November 11, 1765, Hudson was unanimously elected to take over the term of longtime Director Joseph Stretch. Hudson attended Library Company Directors meetings on December 9, 1765 and March 10, 1766, but did not serve for the next term that began in May 1766.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hudson is listed as a \u201cgentleman\u201d based on North Fifth Street in both the 1785 and the 1791 Philadelphia directories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Samuel\u2019s death, his son William Hudson did not continue the family\u2019s shareholding in the Library Company. But in 1796, William did donate a tall case pendulum clock made by Johannes Fromanteel<\/a>, a distinguished clockmaker from London. The clock was purported to have been owned by Oliver Cromwell\u2019s family.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image: Johannes Fromanteel,<\/em> Tall Case Clock<\/a>. Gift of William Hudson, September 5, 1796.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share #24 remained dormant until it was reissued as share #1310<\/strong> in 1931. Martha Bunting (1861-1944)<\/strong> acquired the share on August 6, 1931.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bunting was a biologist and teacher. She had earned a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in 1895, and taught biology at the Woman\u2019s College of Baltimore (later Goucher College), Girls\u2019 High School in Philadelphia, and Wadleigh High School in New York City. She later worked as a research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania. She apparently had family connections to the Lloyd family and compiled family genealogies and sketches in the 1930s.[iii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The share was reissued as share #24 again in the late 20th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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