Skip to content

No image available

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

No image available

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

by (Provident Society)

  • Used
Condition
See description
Seller
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Item Price
A$3,848.00
Or just A$3,817.22 with a
Bibliophiles Club Membership
A$6.16 Shipping to USA
Standard delivery: 7 to 14 days

More Shipping Options

Payment Methods Accepted

  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • American Express
  • Discover
  • PayPal

About This Item

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.

John Vallance (c1770-1823), one of the founders of the Provident Society, and who served as President for a number of years, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied engraving under John Trenchard (1747-?). Trenchard came to Philadelphia from Penns Neck, New Jersey, and was working as an engraver and seal-cutter by 1777. He learned to engrave with J. Smither in Philadelphia, and engraved a few portraits and a number of views in and about Philadelphia. In 1787, Trenchard was the illustrator for the firm that established the Columbian Magazine.

Vallance's first wife was Elizabeth Trenchard, a likely relict to John Trenchard. When Trenchard left Philadelphia for England permanently in 1793, Vallance formed a partnership with James Thackara (1767-1848), who also worked under Trenchard, the firm was designated as "Thackara & Vallance." Vallance engraved portraits and a large number of encyclopedia plates for Dobson's "Encyclopedia," amongst other engravings.

John Vallance was also one of the founders of the Association of Artists in America organized in Philadelphia in 1794 and was Treasurer of the Society of Arts in 1810. He was a member and contributor to the Bible Society, as well as to the St. Andrew's Society. He married his second wife Margaret Pratt (1783-1827) in 1802. When he died at the age of 53 on 14 June 1823, he left a widow, seven daughters and one son in modest means, which was improved by Henry Pratt, a wealthy merchant and first cousin to the widow Margaret's father. Henry gave each of the seven daughters a small brick house and a good boarding school education.

The Vallances were buried at Old St. Paul's Cemetery in Philadelphia. John Vallance was the grandfather of political economist Henry George whose father Richard Samuel Henry George married Catharine Pratt Vallance, one of John Vallance's daughters.

Vallance gave a discourse before the Provident Society on 3 April 1810, at the time he was its President. John Wellwood Scott (c1777-1842), the society's Treasurer, also delivered a discourse before the Provident Society of Philadelphia, the following year. Scott was the printer for these discourses. On 11 Jan 1811, a local newspaper (Democratic Press), gave an account of the financial condition of the society. The group had almost $1200.00 invested in bonds, deeds, etc., and were taking in just over $300.00 in quarterly payments by members, with several hundred dollars of interest and initiations coming in. Funeral expenses and sick benefits paid to members, or cash payments to widows and orphans in 1811 came to about $500.00.

It is unclear when the Provident Society closed its doors. By 1824, there is another organization in Philadelphia calling itself the Provident Society of Philadelphia. This society's mission plan was to help the poor find work. The history of this later group states it was established in 1824, it appears to be a separate organization with a different mission.

Reviews

(Log in or Create an Account first!)

You’re rating the book as a work, not the seller or the specific copy you purchased!

Details

Seller
Michael Brown Rare Books, LLC US (US)
Seller's Inventory #
30346
Title
Constitution, Articles of Confederation, Rules, and Membership List of The Provident Society of Philadelphia, dated 1793-1808
Author
(Provident Society)
Book Condition
Used
Quantity Available
1
Keywords
Manuscript Americana, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphiana, 18th century, Provident Society, Social History

Terms of Sale

Michael Brown Rare Books, LLC

Terms and Conditions of sale: All items are guaranteed to be as described. Items may be returned within ten days of receipt. Payment must accompany order. Unless other arrangements are made, all invoices are due upon receipt. Institutions and libraries will be billed. The usual trade discounts are extended to dealers upon a strictly reciprocal basis. As usual a telephone order is advised to reserve any item of interest. Shipping is generally done via UPS; please give a street address when you order. Please add $ 3.85 to cover shipping and handling expenses for the first item ordered, after which please add $ 1.75 per item. Additional books may be found on the internet at www.mbamericana.com & www.ilab-lila.com

About the Seller

Michael Brown Rare Books, LLC

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2006
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

About Michael Brown Rare Books, LLC

We specialize in buying and selling printed and manuscript items pertaining to America and American history in its various aspects. Books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemeral items, manuscript letters, diaries, account books and business ledgers and records from 1482-1930.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

New
A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
Folio
A folio usually indicates a large book size of 15" in height or larger when used in the context of a book description. Further,...
Poor
A book with significant wear and faults. A poor condition book is still a reading copy with the full text still readable. Any...
Edges
The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
Marbled boards
...
tracking-