Pat Lyon was born and raised in London. Started his mechanical studies at age 11. Spent 14 years in several manufacturies until he decided to immigrate to America.
He arrived in Philadelphia on November 25th, 1793. Along the years, he was able to build a good reputation as a locksmith/blacksmith.
Business was going fine and he was hired by the Bank of Pennsylvania on May, 1797. The job consisted on making fixtures and preparations for the book vault. On July 7th, Pat Lyon completed the job, even thoug warning the bank personnel that the locks were not secure enough.
During the summer of 1798, $162,821 were stolen from the vaults of the Bank of Pennsylvania. Everything pointed to an “inside job”, turning Lyon into a prime suspect.
Pat Lyon had gone to Delaware two days before the robbery running away from the yellow fever. Still, he turned himself in, but his story was not believed and he spent three months in the Walnut Street Prison.
Investigation concluded that Isaac Davis, a member of the Carpenters’ Company was guilty of the bank robbery.
Lyon was cleared by the grand jury on January, 1799. Less than a year after his release, he wrote a book about the case and sued the bank and law officials.
He reached an agreement and was awarded $9,000, a large amount of money back then, turning possible that Lyon lived out his days in financial comfort as a succesfull manufacturer.
In 1829, Pat Lyon had his portrait painted by John Neagle. It is considered an unusual portrait for the period. At that time, people would like to be depicted in their finest clothes and surrounded by expensive objects, but Lyon preferred to be depicted as an honest workingman.
This painting is reproduced in several books and is displayed at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. The title of the portrait is “Pat Lyon at the Forge”.
