What effect did the Revolutionary War have on Carpenters Hall and the Carpenters Company members?
After the battle of Brandywine, in 1777, General Howe drove toward Philadelphia, forcing Congress to flee. Robert Allison, a member of the Carpenters’ Company, led a group of men who lowered the Liberty Bell and church bells onto wagons for a hurried trip to Allentown to prevent the bells from being melted down for cannon. On Sept.26, British troops took over Philadelphia and left the following June. Carpenters’ Hall became a field hospital. British officers borrowed books from Franklin’s Library Company on the second floor but carefully returned them. The home of Joseph Fox, Master of the Company and an outspoken patriot, was burned by the British. Early Company records also perished.
