The first settlers of Philadelphia were mainly artisans, many of them belonging to the English gentry, who sold their property and came to America to escape religious persecution.
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Peter’s son, Thomas Stretch, was also a man of note, being a clockmaker and the founding Governor of the Schuylkill Fishing Company.
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While conducting a study of early clockmakers in Philadelphia, Carolyn Wood Stretch located in the Philadelphia area twenty clocks by Peter Stretch (1670-1746), seven by his son Thomas Stretch (1695-1765), and two by Thomas' brother William Stretch (1701-1748).
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His shop was at the southeast corner of Front and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, then called “Peter Stretch’s Corner at the Sign of the Dial".
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Before coming to Philadelphia, he had acquired an intimate knowledge of the art from some of the finest clockmakers in England — Thomas Tompion, George Graham, and Daniel Quare.
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Joseph, the youngest son of Peter, born in Philadelphia, 1709, was a founder of the Library Company of Philadelphia which was established through the influence of Benjamin Franklin in 1741.
Peter Pan | Peter Gabriel | Peter Jackson | Peter | Saint Peter | Peter Paul Rubens | Peter Sellers | Peter the Great | Blue Peter | Peter Frampton | Peter Greenaway | Peter Brook | Peter Lorre | Peter Ustinov | St. Peter's Basilica | Peter Kropotkin | St. Peter | Peter Fonda | Peter Kay | Peter David | Peter Mandelson | Peter O'Toole | Peter Allen | Lord Peter Wimsey | Peter Sellars | Peter Schreier | Peter, Paul and Mary | Peter Davison | Peter Singer | Peter Maxwell Davies |
The door onto the porch was flanked by a piano and by a tall case clock made by Peter Stretch about 1740, father of the Schuylkill Fishing Company's first Governor, Thomas Stretch, which had been donated by Governor William Fisher Lewis.