George Roberts (45)

Election date: 1762? (Elected to the Young Junto before September 3, 1762. Elected to the American Society in 1768.)
APS Office(s): Secretary of the APS (1770-1771)

George Roberts (6 June 1737–17 September 1801) was a merchant and a member of the Young Junto (elected c. 1762) and American Society (elected in 1768). He traveled to England to study iron manufacturing in 1760, sightseeing there with fellow Philadelphians and Society members Samuel Powel and John Morgan. Upon his return to America, Roberts entered into an ironmongery business with his father, APS member Hugh Roberts, augmenting his wealth with mercantile enterprises and land investments. Following the American Society’s unification with the American Philosophical Society, he served on committees tasked with drafting the organization’s laws, building a cabinet of curiosities, and testing various inventions. He was also a city assessor and a subscriber to the Silk Society. He was a member of the Agricultural Society and the Union Library Company, a manager of the Pennsylvania Hospital and the Society for Inoculating the Poor, and a director of the Philadelphia Contributionship and the Corporation for the Relief and Employment of the Poor. Roberts signed the Non-Importation Agreement and then served on the committee convened to uphold it. He also solicited donations to relieve those affected by the British blockade of Boston in 1774. Yet his Quakerism precluded more active involvement in the War of Independence. Remaining in Philadelphia during the occupation, he accepted an appointment from British General William Howe to oversee the night’s watch, earning the resentment of more patriotic fellow colonists in the process. In addition to his father, his uncle Thomas Bond, Sr., and cousin Thomas Bond, Jr., were APS members. (PI)

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