Samuel Rhoads (1711 – April 7, 1784) was an American architect who served as the 59th mayor of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Early life and family

Rhoads was born in

into a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

family. His grandfather John Rhoads (also spelled Roads or Roades), had faced persecution after joining the Quaker faith. "The Rhoads family was one of note in England, and of great antiquity." In the late 17th century, he and two of his sons emigrated from

Waingroves Waingroves is a large village in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England, approximately two miles away from the town of Ripley. It is in the civil parish of Codnor. In woodland to the south of the village, there are remains of a collier ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

to Pennsylvania. The second son, also named John Rhoads, married Hannah Willcox in 1692. Samuel was born in Philadelphia in 1711, their fifth child. He first worked as a carpenter and builder before becoming a merchant.

Career

Rhoads's political career began in 1741, when he was elected to the Common Council of Philadelphia. He designed the east wing of the Pennsylvania Hospital. He also designed the west wing and an additional outdoor structure that weren't built until after his death, in 1794. Rhoads also served on the Board of Managers of the hospital. In 1761 he was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly, where he served two terms. Rhoads shared the revolutionary sentiment spreading through the city in the 1770s and was a delegate to the

First Continental Congress The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 British colonies that became the United States. It met from September 5 to October 26, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after the British Navy ...

. He was elected

Mayor of Philadelphia The mayor of Philadelphia is the chief executive of the government of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as stipulated by the Charter of the City of Philadelphia. The current mayor of Philadelphia is Jim Kenney. History The first mayor of Philadelphia, ...

in 1774. An associate and friend of

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

, Rhoads played a role in many of the important institutions of colonial Philadelphia. He was an early Director of the Library Company of Philadelphia, a founding Director of the Philadelphia Contributionship, and a Vice-President of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. He was a master of the Carpenters' Company of Philadelphia. Rhoads died in 1784, age 73.Death notice for Samuel Rhoads; ''U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935''

Descendants

Rhoads was the grandfather of the seventh Clerk of the House of Representatives, Walter S. Franklin, the great-grandfather of (a) Samuel Rhoads Fisher who signed the Declaration of Independence of Texas from Centralist Republic of Mexico and was Secretary of the Navy of the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...

and (b)

William B. Franklin William Buel Franklin (February 27, 1823March 8, 1903) was a career United States Army officer and a Union Army general in the American Civil War. He rose to the rank of a corps commander in the Army of the Potomac, fighting in several notable bat ...

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

general, and the third great grandfather of James McCrea president of the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1907 to 1913.

References

External links

Biographical Sketch at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
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Brief biography at Virtualology.com
1711 births 1784 deaths 18th-century American politicians 18th-century Quakers American people of English descent Continental Congressmen from Pennsylvania Date of birth missing Mayors of Philadelphia Members of the American Philosophical Society People of colonial Pennsylvania {{Pennsylvania-mayor-stub