Benjamin Jacobs (164)

Benjamin Jacobs (5 May 1731–c. January 1775) was a prosperous farmer and a member of the American Philosophical Society via his 1768 election to the American Society. He was born in Providence Township, Pennsylvania, but little is known of his education or early career. By 1762, he had partnered with Robert Evans and Jonathan Morris to run Unicorn Forge in Queen Anne County, Maryland. Three years later he was working a farm of 200 acres and performing occasional work as a surveyor. Around this time he also invested in lands in Nova Scotia with APS members Anthony Wayne and Thomas Barton. He visiting the lands in 1765 but was unable to entice the requisite number of settlers and thus realized little profit on the venture. He prepared a commentary on Colonel Landon Carter’s paper on the wheat fly for the American Society, disputing Carter’s proposed method for dealing with the pest. In 1771 Jacobs served as a trustee of a lottery created to fund a bridge over the Skippack Creek. And in January of 1775 he represented Philadelphia County in the second Provincial Convention, coordinating supplies made scarce by the non-importation movement. He died unexpectedly a few weeks later. His brother-in-law David Rittenhouse was an APS member. (PI)