Constitution, Articles of Confederation, Rules, and Membership List of The Provident Society of Philadelphia, dated 1793-1808

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small folio, 48 pages (includes 35 pages concerning the Provident Society of Philadelphia, 8 pages of writing not pertaining to the Provident Society such as later penmanship exercises, later receipts, etc, and 5 blank pages), contemporary quarter leather and marbled boards with red leather front cover label. Some pages missing. The lower edges worn with slight loss of a few pages' text. some foxing and stains, uniform light toning. The articles of incorporation dated April 3, 1793, with certificate laid in, missing seal, entries written in ink, in a legible hand. This manuscript is a remarkable record of the Provident Society and contains its Constitution, Articles of Confederation, Rules and Orders, and membership lists (names and addresses) of the Provident Society of Philadelphia from 1793 to 1808. The Society was organized for the mutual benefit of its members. It includes the Articles of Incorporation dated 3 April 1796, laid in and signed by A.J. Dallas (Alexander James Dallas), Secretary of the Commonwealth (later U.S. Secretary of Treasury), who then sent it to Matthew Irvin, Master of Rolls, who also signed it. The articles of incorporation were examined by justices of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and signed by four of them, Thomas McKean, Edward Shippen, J. Yeates, and Thomas Smith. The Pennsylvania State Attorney General, Jared Ingersoll, also examined and signed the document. The three men who signed the articles for the Provident Society, presumably the founders or first officers, were engraver John Vallance, school master Matthew Huston, and house carpenter Laurence Justice. The volume also includes three pages which carry the Rules and Orders of the Society. Following there is a list for 213 members between the years 1793 to 1808. The list includes the names of the members, the date they joined, and for many of them, the address where they lived. They are all Philadelphians of the period. Many of the members lived in the southeast corner of the city and the then adjacent district of Southwark (today the neighborhood of Queen Village) and appear to be working men, tradesmen, or shop owners. The society offered its members sick and death benefits, provided they were members for a certain period of time and their dues were current The Provident Society of Philadelphia was founded in 1793 (incorporated 1796), the year that the Yellow Fever raged through Philadelphia. In all likelihood, the epidemic helped the society grow. According to a contemporary news article about the society (Democratic Press, 6 April 1810) on the celebration of its seventeenth anniversary, the emblem of the society was a bee's hive with bees buzzing around it. The symbolism was meant to show that cooperating together the members could help one another. The toasts given at this occasion had obvious pro-labor and patriotic overtones. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 029817

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Constitution, Articles of Confederation, ...
Verlag: 0
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand: Good
Art des Buches: Handwritten