Samuel Shoemaker (285)

Samuel Shoemaker (1721-10 October 1800) was a merchant, attorney, politician, former mayor of Philadelphia, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1769. His father, Benjamin Shoemaker, also served as a mayor of Philadelphia. In the early stages of his career, the younger Shoemaker worked for the Pennsylvania Land Company in London and was a founding member of Pennsylvania Hospital. He later went on to hold several political positions across the city, serving as the Justice of the Peace, sitting on the Common Council, and representing Philadelphia on the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly. He was elected as treasurer of the city twice, in 1767 and 1774. Shoemaker assumed the role of mayor in Philadelphia from 1769 to 1771. During the Revolutionary War, Shoemaker identified as a loyalist. Although loyal to the Crown, when the British occupied Philadelphia in 1778, he relocated to New York, where he used his influence to free American prisoners from British possession. Following the war, Shoemaker fled to England, where he befriended fellow APS Member Benjamin West. In 1789, Shoemaker returned to Pennsylvania. He died in Philadelphia in the fall of 1800.