John Kidd (122)

Election date: 1768 (Elected to the revived American Philosophical Society. Elected to the American Society in 1768.)

John Kidd (?–1791) was a merchant and a member of the American Society and the American Philosophical Society, elected to both in 1768. He grew up in Penrith, Cumberland, England, but little else is known of his early life. By 1749, he had relocated to Philadelphia and established himself as a merchant. Kidd imported a variety of goods and sold them at his store on Fishbourne’s Wharf. With the outbreak of the French and Indian War, he was named captain of the Independent Company of Foot, but he never saw combat. By 1762 he and William Bradford had started a shipping insurance company. Three years later Kidd signed the Non-Importation Agreement before retiring to his farm in Bucks County. There, he became justice of the courts of Quarter Sessions and Common Pleas, serving from 1767 until the start of the American Revolution. He represented the county at the provincial conventions that took place in 1774 and 1775 and at the Provincial Conference that met in 1776. He also examined weapons for the local militia and served on the Bucks County Committee of Observation. Kidd sponsored the Philadelphia Assembly balls; he was a member of the Britannia Fire Company, the Society of Sons of St. George, and the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture; and he donated to the Freemasons and the Society for the Relief of Poor and Distressed Masters of Ships, their Widows and Children. (PI)

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