Lynford Lardner (92)

Lynford Lardner (18 July 1715–6 October 1774) was a public officeholder, businessman, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. He was born in London into a wealthy family, but his father lost his fortune when the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720-1721. Lardner was then apprenticed to his future brother-in-law Richard Penn, Sr. and his brother Thomas, who were then in the woolen business. Believing his family connections would afford him more opportunities across the Atlantic, he relocated to Philadelphia in 1740, where Thomas Penn immediately appointed him joint Receiver General of Pennsylvania. This position would prove the first in a series of similar appointments in the service of Pennsylvania and its proprietors, including the position of overseer of Thomas Penn’s personal estate and a position on the Governor’s Council. Lardner’s marriage to the daughter of a wealthy merchant provided the financial means he desired to leave these offices and set up his own business ventures,  including a forge and farming operation. Though not active in the APS, he invested time and money in other cultural institutions in Philadelphia, among them subscribing to the Silk Society, serving as a director of  the Library Company, acting as a trustee of the College of Philadelphia, and helping to found the Society of the Sons of St. George. His nephews John Penn and Richard Penn, Jr. were APS members. (PI)