Philip Syng Jr. (64)

Election date: 1768 (Elected to the revived American Philosophical Society.)
APS Office(s): Treasurer of the revived APS (1768-1769) and of the unified APS (1769-1771)

Philip Syng, Jr. (29 September 1703–8 May 1789) was a silversmith and public official and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Born to an English family in Cork, Ireland, he immigrated to Philadelphia around age eleven. There, his father opened a silversmith’s shop, which the younger Syng took over after completing his apprenticeship. During a 1725 trip to England, he met Benjamin Franklin, beginning a lifelong friendship. Syng became a founding member of Franklin’s Junto and joined Franklin and APS members Ebenezer Kinnersley and Thomas Hopkinson in conducting experiments on electricity. Syng was also an original member of the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Union Fire Company, and the Philadelphia Contributionship. As the area’s preeminent silversmith, he created seals for all three of these organizations, in addition to producing plate, jewelry, and other fine articles for Philadelphia’s leading families. Syng’s best-known production was the inkstand he designed for the Pennsylvania Assembly, which was then used during the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Syng held a number of civic offices, including city assessor, warden of the port, city and county treasurer, and provincial commissioner of appeals. He served on a committee to lay out roads and organized lotteries to raise defense funds. He was also a founding trustee of the Academy and College of Philadelphia, a subscriber to the Silk Society, and a contributor to the Pennsylvania Hospital. Although he signed the Non-Importation Agreement and took the oath of allegiance, he played no major role in the American Revolution. His son Philip Syng III and his son-in-law Edmund Physick were members of the Young Junto, and his grandson Philip Syng Physick was an APS member. (PI, ANB, DAB)

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