Robert Grace

Grace coat of arms

Grace was a descendant of the seventeenth-century Richard Grace, whose father, also named Robert Grace, was a feudal Baron of Courtstown. His ancestors had accompanied the Earl of Pembroke in an invasion of Ireland in the later part of the 12th century. They acquired extensive lands in Kilkenny County of Ireland and the family flourished there for more than 500 years. They then lost their lands in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Some of the Grace families followed the exiled James II of England to France and others became soldiers of fortune. Grace's father was one of the latter and eventually ended up on an estate in Barbados. In 1707 he came to Philadelphia to live for a while. During this time, Grace was born in the city on April 25, 1709. His mother died while he was a baby and his father went back to Barbados and lived out his life there. Grace was raised by his maternal grandmother. Her name was Constance and she was married to Hugh Lowden, a wealthy merchant. Grace grew up in their Philadelphia mansion on High Street.[1]

Grace was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, who described Grace at 21 years of age in 1730 as a wealthy man with a pleasing personality. He inherited much from his father of estates in Barbados. From his grandmother's side Grace had received an inheritance from the estate of Hugh Lowden (Constance's husband). This included a large sum of money and the mansion on High Street in downtown Philadelphia. Grace was already wealthy as a young man of seventeen years of age in 1723.[2]

Franklin stove

Franklin's Junto Club of scientists used part of Grace's mansion for their meetings. Franklin mentions in his autobiography that around 1729 the Club no longer had their meetings at a tavern and instead used a room at Grace's house that he had set aside for them. It was proposed to Franklin that books of the members should all be located in the same place for convenience of the researchers. Some of these books were collected and put on shelves in the room used for their club meetings. They were aggregated together from various members in a type of library. So many books were gathered in a year that they became unmanageable and the library was discontinued for a while. Grace's house eventually was leased by Benjamin Franklin for his residence and printing shop business. The three-story brick mansion, originally built in 1710, became the Philadelphia Public Library, eventually fulfilling Franklin's concept.[3]

The Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper published on May 29, 1740, a wedding notification that Grace had married Mrs. Rebecca Nutt, a wealthy widow, a few days prior.[4] Grace was a close friend of both Rebecca's previous husband and Franklin. Franklin invented his stove in the 1741–1742 time period; he gave a model to Grace to use as a template for manufacturing the first heating stove and Grace set up a profitable casting business.[5][6][7] He did not have to pay Franklin anything for the model, as Franklin wanted his stoves to be available to everyone, relishing popular appreciation of his handiwork and eschewing patents.[7][8][9][upper-alpha 1]

This combination of events led to the first Franklin stoves being manufactured by Warwick furnaces, which was owned and managed by Grace from his marriage to Rebecca.[11][12] The stoves originally had an arched and decorated front plate.[11] The stove had a projecting hearth at the bottom that was inserted into a fireplace and the smoke was guided up through the chimney.[13] The stove was more efficient in producing heat for the room than an open fireplace.[14]

Grace died in the summer of 1766.[15][16]