Stephen Girard

Stephen Girard was born on May 20, 1750, near Bordeaux, France, the eldest of the nine children of Pierre and Anne Girard; his father was a sea captain. He lost the sight of his right eye as a child and had little formal education.⁠[1][2]

In 1764 he first went to sea as a pilotin, or apprentice officer, on the brig Pelerin; he was licensed as a captain by the French government in 1773 and at 23 commanded the brigantine Sally. He arrived in New York in July 1774 and then traded to and from New Orleans and Port-au-Prince, holding part ownership of the schooner Jeune Babe.⁠[2][1]

British blockades of American ports during the Revolutionary War hampered his trade. In May 1776 a diverted voyage up the Delaware River brought him to Philadelphia, where he settled as a merchant.⁠[3][2]

On June 6, 1777, he married Mary Lum, a native of Philadelphia. On October 27, 1778, he became an American citizen at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. During the war he supplied provisions to American revolutionaries at Mount Holly, New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the eastern United States on the Atlantic Ocean, bordered by New York State, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, with the Hudson River forming its northeastern boundary and the Delaware River its western boundary; its capital is Trenton and its largest city is Newark. One of the original 13 colonies, it became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 18, 1787, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 9,288,994.Open the full entry.⁠[4][2]

After the war he resumed maritime trade and built a worldwide trading fleet, the foundation of his fortune. He carried sugar and coffee from the West Indies, shipped American goods there and later traded with China.⁠[3][2]

When yellow fever struck Philadelphia in 1793 and many residents fled, he stayed to care for the sick and dying, superintended the City Hospital at Bush Hill and oversaw the conversion of a mansion outside the city into a hospital.⁠[1][4]

On October 12, 1802, he was elected to Philadelphia’s Select Council. On July 1, 1807, he bought the block bounded by 11th, 12th, Market and Chestnut streets, originally intended as the site of his future college.⁠[4]

The charter of the First Bank of the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry expired in 1811. On May 9, 1812, he bought most of its stock, its building and its furnishings, and on May 18, 1812, he opened his own bank, the Bank of Stephen Girard.⁠[1][3]

As war financing brought the federal government near collapse during the War of 1812, he became its principal source of credit and in 1813 a major subscriber to U.S. war bonds; when the nation’s credit was at its lowest he took up 95 percent of a government war loan issue, enabling the United States to continue the war. BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768; the name also refers to its publisher, Chicago-based Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (which presents itself as The Britannica Group). The print edition ended in 2012, and the company’s main businesses since then have been the online encyclopedia Britannica.com, digital education products for schools and libraries, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries.Open the full entry notes that his bank became known as the “sheet anchor” of government credit.⁠[1][4][3]

In 1816 he was appointed a director of the Second Bank of the United States.⁠[4]

On December 22, 1830, at 81, he was struck by a horse and wagon at Second and Market streets; he never fully recovered, though he returned to his banking work. On June 6, 1831, he bought Peel Hall Farm, the future site of Girard College.⁠[1][4]

He died in Philadelphia on December 26, 1831, of influenza that developed into pneumonia, and was buried four days later in the churchyard of Holy Trinity.⁠[3][5]

His estate was valued at $7.5 million, and his will set aside $2 million to build and run a boarding school in Philadelphia for “poor, white, male orphans.” The school was founded as Stephen Girard College in 1833; its main building, designed by Thomas Ustick Walter, was begun in 1833 and completed in 1847, and the school opened on January 1, 1848.⁠[6][3][5]

In 1844 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the will; Daniel Webster represented Girard’s relatives and Horace Binney argued for the defense.⁠[5][6]

On January 9, 1851, his remains were moved to Girard College and placed in a sarcophagus in Founder’s Hall.⁠[5]

In 1957 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Girard College had violated the Fourteenth Amendment but did not order the admission of Black boys; on March 6, 1968, the Supreme Court ruled that the school had practiced discrimination in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. On September 11, 1968, the school admitted four African American boys and two Asian American boys, and on September 3, 1982, it first admitted girls.⁠[6]

As of November 2026, Girard College is an independent college-preparatory five-day boarding school on a 43-acre campus in Philadelphia, offering full scholarships to students from underserved communities; Founder’s Hall houses a museum.⁠[7][6]

He had no children and left nearly his entire fortune to charitable and municipal institutions in Philadelphia and New Orleans; Girard College’s biography states that at his death he was thought to be the wealthiest man in America. In his will he freed Hannah, a woman he had enslaved, and gave her an annual income, and he provided lifetime incomes to several other women.⁠[1][5]

Girard College: Official website: https://www.girardcollege.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7]

Board of Directors of City Trusts: Official website: https://www.citytrusts.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]