Pemberton, Israel Jr.

Friends' School

Quaker

Anglo-American

Merchant

Pemberton was married at least twice and had many children.

Israel Pemberton was a wealthy Quaker merchant who donated money to Moor's Indian Charity School on at least one occasion. After increasing his family's business empire in the 1730s and 1740s, Pemberton turned to philanthropy in the 1750s. In many ways, Moor's was an obvious target for Pemberton's philanthropic energies. His other interests included Quaker schools and Indian diplomacy (although Pemberton, like many Quakers, did not adhere to the stark delineation between savage and Christian that drove most Anglo-American missionaries). Pemberton was especially involved in distributing Quaker religious texts (he was a member of Benjamin Franklin's Library Company of Philadelphia), which is likely why Whitefield instructed Wheelock to send Pemberton several of his Narratives, in hopes that Pemberton would distribute the books in Philadelphia and land more sponsors for Moor's. Israel Pemberton should not be confused with Ebenezer Pemberton, a New Light Reverend in New York and Boston.

Thayer, Theodore. Israel Pemberton: King of the Quakers. Philadelphia: Historical Society of Philadelphia 1943. Accessed via Haithi Trust.