SAS Open Journals

Editors, The

6 ANECDOTES OF WILLIAM PENN
I much account of that Offer & Thy Kindness & that of the 
other Friends toward me. Wherefore I am as much as 
possible obliged to You for the Favor you would have done 
me. Nor will it ever be with me a Matter to be lightly 
esteemed but always recollected with a grateful Mind.
As to what Thou writest of the Death of thy very good 
Son Springet1 & of thy second Marriage—As I heartily 
congratulate Thee on the latter so not without sensible Grief 
I learned the former some Weeks ago. But it needs must 
be a very great Comfort to Thee in thy sorrow that though 
his Death might seem premature it was accompanied with a 
safe & glorious departure. For such an end I long & pray 
for thee & me when we have to leave behind this earthly 
house.
Fare well dearly loved friend, with thy Wife, whom I 
salute, as also the Bristol Friends & thy Brother Pennington. 
Continue to love in return thy very respectful
WILLIAM SEWEL. 
Amsterdam 2nd 6 mon. 1696
1 The Gentleman's Magazine, 1785, printed a letter from Sewel to 
Springett Penn, but without date (Jnl. xv. 65).
of Q#ifftam (penn
A process-server walked briskly to the door of William Penn, one day, 
andasked: " Is Mr. Penn at home ?" The janitor, the faithful Obadiah, 
inquired his business. " Oh ! I have called to see Mr. Penn." " My 
master hath seen thee and does not like thee," added Obadiah, and the 
man walked away, surprised.
A humble Friend journeyed with the Governor, and when he found 
that the small room had only one bed, he was prepared to sleep in a chair 
before the fire. Penn, who was in bed, invited his humble companion 
to join him, but he would not share the bed with the Governor of 
Pennsylvania, saying: " I am a great snorer, and would disturb thee." 
Penn replied : " Just thee give me ten minutes' start, and no snoring 
will wake me." He had a start, and the story goes that the other 
remained awake all night.


English

Anecdotes of William Penn

Emperor
LETTERS FROM THOMAS CLARKSON1 TO HIS WIFE
London Monday Morning 
June 20, 1814 
My dearest Love
Finding that after 12 o clock I shall be at the West 
End of the Toun on a Committee and that I shall not return 
till 9 or 10 at Night I am willing to catch a few minutes to 
write to you before I set off. And first about the Emperor 
Alexander. The Quakers about 3 days ago waited upon 
Count Leven, the Emperor's Ambassador, with their Address, 
begging that they might be allowed to present it to his 
Master. The Count read it before he would undertake an 
answer. The address was very short stating a few of ye 
main Principles, but beautifully drawn up. There was not 
a word too much nor a word too little. It breathed also a 
Spirit of Piety, and discarding all Temporal Matters wished 
the Emperor all spiritual Good. The Count was much 
struck with it, and said the Emperor had never seen such 
an address in his Life, and y* an answer should be returned 
to it by nine at night. Accordingly at that Hour precisely 
a Note arrived, of which the following is a Copy : " The 
Quaker, Mr Alien, is desired with his 2 friends to attend at the 
Pulteney Hotel on Saturday at 9 at Night." Accordingly 
they went then. The Emperor was at that time at the City 
feast, but they were shown into a Room, and splendid 
footmen and splendid Squires were running to and fro. 
Foreigners came in occasionally and sat down and went 
out, some of these Army officers, and others of other sorts. 
At length they waited till half past i. in ye morning, but no 
Emperor : about this time Count Levens own servants 
departed, and seeing this, W. Alien & his friends went away, 
desiring these servants would tell yr Master, that he, W. 
Alien, wd call upon him (the Count) at 9 o Clock at his own 
House in Harley Street.
1 Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846), of Playford Hall, Suffolk, was the 
noted anti-slavery advocate and writer, also historian. See Journal, 
vols. iii.-vi. ix. x. xv. xxi.
56
FRIENDS AND THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER 57
Accordingly he set off at 8 yesterday (Sunday) Morning, 
but could get no Coach & the Rain came pouring down in 
Torrents, so that he was obliged to take Shelter in Alleys 
&c. At length he found a Coach but when he arrived in 
Harley Street it was not till half after 9 and the Ambassador 
was gone. The Porter however told him, that his Master 
had been anxiously expecting him and that he wd return 
at abl ii o Clock. He was then shoun into a Room in the 
Ambassadors House. At 11 o Clock Count Leven drove 
up. The Bell rang and Wm Alien was sent for out of ye 
House to the Coach door. The door was opened & the 
Porter put him in with the Ambassador, who galloped off 
with him full speed, not giving him time to discharge his 
(W. Aliens) Hackney Coach. They travelled with great 
Velocity, till he was taken to a street which he never recol­ 
lects to have seen in his Life before, and where about 200 
Carriages were standing : nor does he know at this Moment 
where or what the Street was. They went into a Room. 
The Ambassador then said that Mr Alien must take the 
Emperor to the Quakers Meeting. W. A. replied yi it was 
then J after 11 & that every Meeting in the Metropolis 
w4 be over by 12, but that in the afternoon the Emperor 
might have his choice of Meetings. The reply was y1 
the Emperor was engaged all the afternoon and must go in 
the Morning or not at all. The Ambassador then left the 
Room to speak to the Emperor, who desired W. Alien to be 
informed that he wd dress himself in 10 minutes, not exceeding 
it, and so to the nearest Meeting House, & take his sister 
with him. This was Westminster Meeting in S1 Martins 
Lane. In about 8 minutes the Ambassador on receiving a 
message, went to his carriage and W. Alien followed. They 
were to drive to ye Meeting and the Emperor to follow ; The 
Ambassador who sat with W. Alien had a sword on, his coat 
full of stars, and fine plumes in his hat.
They had no sooner landed out of his carriage than the 
Emperor and his sister accompanied by the young Dukes of 
Oldenburg and Wirtemburg were ready to land from theirs. 
This being accomplished, W. Alien was desired by ye Ambassa­ 
dor to lead the way. This he did and ye rest followed. 
When the meeting door was opened they were sitting in awful 
silence. W. Alien placed the Emperor and also his sister 
and the others in suitable places and then sat down. The
58 FRIENDS AND THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER
religious silence lasted about 15 minutes, and all the foreigners 
seemed impressed. At length Richard Phillips rose up and 
preached about 5 minutes & very well. Then in about 5 
minutes afterwards John Wilkinson of High Wycomb, who 
preached for about 15 minutes. Then John Bell of Oxford 
Road [ ? Street] who preached for about 2 minutes only. John 
Wilkinson is the Person with whose Preaching your father was 
once so well pleased. The Emperor seemed greatly interested 
by it, looking up several times to the Preacher, and his Sister 
so much so as to be nearly at Tears. At length the Meeting 
broke up : but no one knew all the time (but W. Alien) that 
it was ye Emperor who was there.
On breaking up W. Alien recommended the Meeting to 
go out first, and as they went out to make a sort of Lane in 
the Court from the Door towards the Carriage. This was 
done. It was then known that it was the Emperor who was 
to pass through them. William Alien was desired as before 
to lead the way to the carriage. He himself had not all this 
time exchanged a word with the Emperor. He advanced 
accordingly, and then the Ambassador, and then the Emperor 
and his sister, both of whom were pleased with the silent, 
orderly, and decorous conduct of the Congregation, who when 
they knew him did not shout like other People and make a 
wild Noise. At length they began to pass through them, 
but not without manifesting their respect and Esteem for 
them. The Emperor and his sister shook hands with almost 
every individual, man, woman, and young Persons whom 
they passed, and expressed at times the gratification they 
had had on ye occasion. At length the Emperor before he 
lifted up his foot to the steps of the carriage seized the Hand 
of Wm Alien, which he held for some time very feelingly 
thanked him for the Pains he had taken, and wished to see 
him, and desired that he would come to the Pulteney Hotel 
on Tuesday at 10 in the Morning and instead of coming with 
the deputation (for he disliked parades), that he, W. Alien 
would bring with him that good man who had spoken second 
for that he wished to converse with both of them privately 
on the subject of their religion. Thus poor John Wilkinson 
who is a modest and rather timid Person, is hooked in— 
unexpectedly—into Converse with an Emperor. The 
Emperor then got into his Carriage. By this time he was 
recognised by the People, who began to shout and huzza as
FRIENDS AND THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER 59
before, exhibiting a striking contrast between the 2 Kinds of 
People.
You may read this Part of my Letter to your father, and 
I think, if you were to read it to Martha Brewster she would 
feel herself much obliged to you.
farewell, most affectionately thine
T. C. 
[Address] Mrs Clarkson,
Bury S* Edmunds, Suffolk.
Copied from the original at Friends House.
25 June 1814. 
My dearest Love
I am now up at 6 in the Morning, though I did not get 
into bed till two just to steal half an hour to write to you. In 
a former letter I told you how Count Lieven hurried William 
Alien into his Coach, and how the Emperor followed to the 
Quakers Meeting. I will now say something of the inter­ 
view between him and the Quakers on the Tuesday following.
The persons introduced were William Alien, John 
Wilkinson, the Preacher, at the Emperors Request, and 
Stephen Grellet. The Emperor was dressed in a plain blue 
Coat & received them without his hat. The Conversation 
lasted a whole hour. They and the Emperor stood all the 
while, he with his hat off and they with their hats on.
He began by addressing himself to John Wilkinson. 
He thanked him for the gratification he had received from his 
discourse. The doctrines which he had heard from his mouth 
were precisely the same as his own, but more particularly 
that of the holy spirit, without which men would vainly 
endeavour to become holy and religious. As to the truth of 
them (laying his hand upon his breast) he said : "I feel it 
here."
He enquired into the Manner of the education of their 
children and particularly their discipline, with which he was 
greatly struck, and then entered into what they called the 
tenets of their religion : he and they at length went at large 
into various doctrines of Christianity, and as the deeper 
parts of it became the topics of conversation he appeared to 
be more interested and displayed a Knowledge and read­ 
ing of the scriptures, at which the Quakers were surprized.
60 FRIENDS AND THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER
He reverted after this to the subject of education, 
and spoke of the importance of a general one in every 
Kingdom. He and W01 Alien went into a Comparison of 
the mode and expence in the Bell and Lancastrian schools,. 
and he desired Wm Alien to make Calculations of the sum 
for which all the poor children of England might be educated 
annually. This was done upon the spot and he seemed to be 
agreably surprized at the result. From education he went 
back to the subject of religion ; and enquired into the reason 
why they used no particular forms of prayer. An answer 
was given him upon which he said a form for public worship 
was perhaps necessary, but he was convinced from his own 
experience, that private prayer, when a man retired to his 
own closet, was best where it was left to the spirit of God to 
dictate. He then said he considered himself among friends 
and fellow Christians, and therefore he spoke out the more 
freely. He had been in the habit, he said, of prostrating 
himself before the Almighty daily nor did the fatigue or bustle 
of Camp or din of arms prevent him. Some years ago he had 
retired to his closet with a set form of prayer; but he found 
it would not do. His mind was not always in a state to suit 
the words. Besides, he had many wants, which the words 
would not satisfy. He therefore discarded the form of 
prayer, and fell on his knees, and always found that he was 
helped in his infirmities, and he rose up always more grati­ 
fied and refreshed by this than the former mode.
He then thanked them over and over again for their 
Conversation. It had been, he said, a feast to him. It was 
difficult in his situation in England to unbosom himself on 
religious subjects, or to enjoy the converse of religious 
men, and at home it was much the same from the darkness 
of those about him on the subject of religion. " I and my 
dear sister," says he, " frequently meet and converse on 
those subjects and no body can tell the divine pleasure we 
feel on such occasions ; but as to those poor gilded creatures," 
says he, " whom you see about me, what consolation can 
I get from them by conversing on this subject ? "
He said he lamented that just as he had come to the 
knowledge of such estimable persons as those present he was 
about to leave the Kingdom. He should very much have 
liked to spend a day with some one of them in one of their 
houses, and to have seen their mode of living, as it really was,
FRIENDS AND THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER 61
without any alteration on his account; and added that, as 
he should travel by land from Portsmouth to Dover, if they 
would give him the address of some plain Quaker on the road, 
he would contrive to get out of his carriage unnoticed, and 
call upon him unawares, and converse with him, without 
letting him Know who he was.1
William Alien and Stephen Grillet soon after this 
suggested to the Emperors Notice and Protection the case 
of the unhappy Africans as connected with the slave trade. 
He entered most feelingly into this subject, and seemed 
affected, but said he had done all he could, when at Paris. 
He hoped however to make another trial at the Congress at 
Vienna. It ought to have the execration of all good men. 
Here he paused, and then added, what it is useful to us to 
know, but what I must not reveal.
Speaking on the subject of spending time usefully, 
it appeared that he did not at all like the manner of high 
life in England, as he had seen it. The gentlemen wasted 
their time by /lying in bed, but what had been most dis­ 
agreeable to him was the sitting for two hours over " the 
stinking smells of meat " (his own words) and for twice that 
time over " the horrible drinking of Wine." This was so 
much time lost for doing good.
When the three Friends left him, he shook hands with 
them most cordially. " I give you," says he, " Gentlemen, 
the right hand of brotherhood, and if either you or your 
Friends should come to Petersburg on any religious concern, 
come to me at once (and not through any other channel) 
and I will take care of you."
Many more things he said, but I have not learned them. 
You may read this Letter to your friends privately and 
accompany it with my former: but on no account read it 
to any Quaker. The Emperor was sorry he could not see 
me. 3 He would read all my books, when at home. If I 
could have met him at Portsmouth and Dover he would have 
given me half an hour at any place where I might say I
2 The Emperor had his wish accomplished. He called on Nathaniel 
Rickman at Amberstone, saw over the house and had some refreshments. 
The incident is recorded in The Friend (Lond.), 1861 ; and in The Time of 
Her Life, by Maude Robinson, 1919. See also My Ancestors, by Norman 
Penney, 1920.
3 Clarkson appears to have had an interview with the Emperor of 
Russia next year.
62 "FIRST PUBLISHERS OF TRUTH"
would wait for him: but it was un-necessary as it related 
to ye Slave Trade, as I myself was not a warmer friend to the 
abolition than he was. Being of ye Committee & Chairman 
of it I could not leave London. Thank your father for his 
letter of to-day. I received yours 
farewell &c.
T. C.
[Addressed]
Mrs Clarkson 
Bury S* Edmunds 
Suffolk.
Copied from the original at Friends House.
of
The records of First Publishers in the Lancashire district printed in 
F.P.T. are meagre. They can be supplemented by the following relating 
to Yealand Meeting, taken from the minute books of the district, dating 
from 1678.
Other addenda to F.P.T. appear in vols. v. (Staffordshire), xiii. 
(Middlesex), xviii. (Norwich).
" This is a true and certaine record or memoriall of the names off 
those worthy and jfaithfull servants, And messengers off God who first 
brought the message off glad tydings to among us who was gathered to 
be a meeting And am known or called by the name of Kellett or Yealand 
meeting
" ist George Fox and Richard Farnsworth was the first that 
brought the message of glad tydings among us
" 2ndly As to their sufferings at Steeple-houses, market places or 
elsewhere we have littel to say
" ydly The jfirst that Received them and their message in our 
meeting was Robert Wither, Richard Hubberthorn, Thomas Leaper, 
Robert Stout, Thomas Chorley, Chris Bissbrown and his family, jfrancis 
ffleming, Wm Higginson."
From a pamphlet by Robert Muschamp : The Society of Friends in 
the Lancaster District in the Seventeenth Century, 1928.
GLOSSARY OF NORTH YORKSHIRE WORDS.—Sir Alfred Pease, Bart., 
of Pinchinthorpe House, Guisbrough, Yorks, has compiled a dictionary 
of the North Riding of Yorkshire dialect, with very full illustrations of its 
use. He has, for instance, fourteen folios of the local names of birds. 
He is doubtful whether it would be possible to get the dictionary 
published.
See Notes and Queries, March 3ist, 1928.


Friends and the Emperor Alexander

NOTES AND QUERIES
especially in the country, where 
they can be expanded without 
any inconveniency.' "
Notes and Queries, August I3th, 
1927.
ANTHONY PURVER (xxiv. 31).— 
Richard Reynolds, in a letter to 
George Harrison, who had been the 
tutor to his son William, writes, 
in reference to a passage in 
Ephesians:
" I have looked to see what 
Anthony Purver makes of it in 
his translation ; but, fond as he 
is of differing from the vulgar, 
even though it be in expression 
only, and that not always for the 
better, he retains the words, 
' Prince of the power of the air,'
but in his note says ' the evil 
spirits there—but not as having 
power over the air ' "— (Richard 
Reynolds, 1852, p. 102).
FRANCES (HENSHAW—PAXTON) 
DODSHON (xxi. 66, xxii. 95, xxiii. 
64). A certificate of removal 
from Leek M. M. to Shropshire 
M.M., dated 5 viii. 1773, has the 
first signature, " Wm. Dodshon." 
It thus appears that he was a 
member of this Staffs. M.M. and 
was not living in the county of 
Durham as supposed.
The name " William Dodgson 
of Leek" is among others to 
whom the prospectus of Joseph 
Sams's School at Darlington, 
printed circa 1810, was sent.
Q)afiu of (private
" The value of private letters in helping us to form a just historical 
estimate of an age which would without them be grown indistinct and 
remote is now generally admitted. Perhaps we may add that the less 
such letters were intended by their writers for publication, the more 
useful they are, because so straightforward and unaffected."
Above, copied from a circular-announcement of The Portledge 
Papers, 16^7-1697, published by Jonathan Cape, Bedford Square, London, 
may serve as a useful reminder that donations of such letters are welcomed 
at the Library, Friends House, London, N.W.i.
" MRS. FRY.—This lady, of philanthropic celebrity, it gives us pleasure 
to announce, is sojourning on the King's-road. In one of her recent 
perambulations on the Downs, she entered into conversation with a 
shepherd, with whose intelligence she appeared to be well pi eased. On 
finding that he could not read, Mrs. Fry has kindly engaged a master to 
instruct him, that the honest rustic, as she observed, might be able to read 
the Sacred Scriptures in the vernacular tongue. This fact, though 
trifling in itself, is interesting, as it displays the generous sympathy and 
truly Christian feelings of this amiable and distinguished female."
From " Brighton 100 years ago " in the Brighton and Hove Herald, 
May 3ist, 1924.


The Value of Private Letters

Index to Volume 25

JAMES SIMPSON AND THE " HYPS " 21
they have made of what might have been so interesting ! What a 
miserable hash she made of her own existence I Nothing is clearer than 
the hankering she had after her old artistic and literary world. She even 
contrived to mix gay parties with May meetings to the very last. But 
the want of congruity jars in the book, and must have jarred still more in 
actual life; more especially as those Fry and Gurney people—popes 
male and female, in their way—seem to have taken upon them to lecture 
the dear soul. How she declined in taste and in intelligence after joining 
the Friends ! The most satisfactory thing in the whole work is a letter 
to her from Mrs. Inchbald—whose ' Simple Story ' is worth a wilderness 
of Mrs. Opie's slipshod tales. I had not a notion how bad her English 
was till this reading. . . .
" To come back to Mrs. Opie—as her life was a double one, so should 
have been her biography—one book rose colour for the world, another 
drab for the Quakers. I doubt, too, if it be permissible to ignore so 
entirely the absolute engagement she was under to marry Lord Herbert 
Stuart. (I forget names, but surely it was Lord Herbert, a lame man.) 
. . . I have seldom seen a biography, which suppressions on the one 
hand and glossings over on the other have rendered more unfaithful, 
more untruthful, than this Quaker biography. Mrs. Opie was herself 
so kind and excellent a woman, that she could well have afforded to have 
the truth told respecting her."
Life, vol. iii., pp. 292-295.
" I proposed to James Simpson to accompany us. After some 
pleasant tales which I told him—he is often subject to the hyps 
[hypochondria]—he consented, and got into the waggon and we set 
forward. After having got about half-a-mile he suddenly cried out: 
' Stop, I can go on no further ; old hyp is come upon me ' ; and went on 
to say he should catch cold and could not go any further. I immediately 
took out of my pocket a silk handkerchief and told him to put it on him ; 
it was my wife's, and she was one of the better sort of preachers, and told 
him it might have some virtue in it. I told him a story of Christopher 
Wilson of our county [Cumberland] who sent for a tailor to make some 
clothes, and it being a wet morning the tailor got wet; so Christopher put 
his coat upon him till his own was dry. A person coming in said to the 
tailor: ' What is the matter? thou hast got on Christopher's coat! ' 
He made answer he did not know ; for he was very like to preach all the 
time he had it on ! This little story tickled James so much that he 
got to laugh pretty much, old hyp left him and he cried out: ' Hoist the
British flag and drive on.'
" JOHN HALL."
IRWIN, Featherstones and Halls, 1890. For James Simpson (1743- 
1811), of Philadelphia, see Jnl. F.H.S. xix.


James Simpson and the "Hyps"

PERSECUTORS AS " FRIENDS " 31
owing to the discontinuance of the School on the part 
of our Friend Selfe Smith. The contiguity of the boys 
and girls schools recently established at York . . . 
induce us greatly to doubt whether any occupant will 
be found for the premises in union with the original 
design in their erection [so it was decided to dispose of 
them] [signed] Joseph Pease, William Backhouse, 
James Backhouse, John lanson, John Backhouse, 
John Pease, Joseph Pease, Jr.
ae "5rten&0"
The following anecdote of Miles Halhead is culled from Sewel's 
History of Quakers :
" Being brought before the magistrates it was asked him what 
business he (who dwelt in Westmoreland) had in Devonshire ? to which 
he answered that he came there to see his old friends whom, formerly, 
about ten years ago [circa 1658] he had acquaintance with. One of the 
magistrates asked him what were the names of those friends he meant. 
To which he returned: ' One sir John Coplestone, who was then high- 
sheriff of Devonshire; John Page, who was Mayor of Plymouth; one 
Justice Howel, who was then the judge of the sessions of Exeter ; and one 
colonel Buffet, who was also a justice at that time.' One of the magistrates 
then said to the others : ' Truly, gentlemen, though this man calls these 
men his friends, yet they have been his persecutors.' Another of the 
magistrates then gave him an account into what pitiful condition those 
men were fallen, and how they lost their estates ; nay, Buffet had been 
committed to prison for high treason, and was escaped out of gaol and 
not to be seen in his own country. He further said to Halhead: ' Thus 
I have given you a true account of your old friends ; if these men were 
your persecutors, you may be sure they will trouble you no more : for if 
they that trouble you and persecute you have no better fortune than 
these men, I wish that neither I, nor any of my friends, may have any 
hand in persecuting of you.' Thus these discreet magistrates suffered 
him to go his ways without meddling with him."
For these men see Besse, Sufferings, under Devonshire.
A Quaker who married out of the Society asked the officiating 
clergyman why his fee was five shillings. " Prove it to be Scripture and 
I'll pay." " Very well," said the minister, " What of this verse in 
Proverbs ' A good wife is a crown to her husband.' " " Excellent, 
friend, here's ten shillings for your fee."


Persecutors as "Friends"

Elizabeth Fry - Public Property

Brailsford, Mabel R

A Visit to the Burial Place of James Nayler

"Fifteen" and "Forty-Five"

(JMee and Queries
KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS
D—Reference Library of the Society of Friends, Friends House, Euston 
Road, London, N.W.i.
Camb. Jnl. —The Journal of George Fox, published by the Cambridge
University Press, 2 vols.. 1911. 
D.N.B.—The Dictionary of National Biography. 
F.P.T.—" The First Publishers of Truth," original documents relating
the establishment of Quakerism in England and Wales, 1907. 
F.Q.E.—Friends' Quarterly Examiner.
Smith, Cata.—A Descriptive Catalogue of Friends' Books, compiled by 
Joseph Smith, 2 vols., 1867.
" ITT WAS MY FOOTE " (xxv. 80). 
—W. C. Braithwaite, in his Second 
Period of Quakerism, quoting 
Robert Rich, Hidden Things 
brought to Light, 1678, states: 
"It seems clear that the phrase 
means ' it was my foot he should 
kiss.' "
ERRATUM.—In the Tercentenary 
edition of The Journal of George 
Fox, 1924, p. 281, the Governor of 
Jamaica is named Sir Thomas 
Finch, this should be Sir Thomas 
Lynch, see Camb. " Jnl." ii. 433. 
Please correct.
GlLDERSOME SCHOOL (x. XVI.
xxi).—Harry R. Hodgson writes, 
20 iii. 1929, from Eccleshill, Brad­ 
ford, Yorks. : " After much search 
I have at last located the site of 
the Gildersome School of 1772. 
It is particularly interesting as 
Dr. Fothergill made considerable 
enquiry as to the management of 
the School before he bought the 
Ackworth property."
JOHN WARREN (iv. 92, xv. 144). 
—" Before this reaches thee, thou
wilt probably have heard of the 
arrival of John Warren from New 
England Y.M., State of Maine. 
He is a plain, simple, illiterate man, 
but one whose ministry bears the 
true evidence of being in the 
authority of Him who called the 
fishermen of Galilee from their 
Boats. J. Warren was called from 
the fishing Boat and." commissioned 
to preach the same Gospel of glad 
tidings to a guilty world " (ANN 
JONES to James Backhouse, 
from Stockport, 12 mo. i8th, 1834. 
CrosfieldMS. Collection).
The I3ist Report of the Retreat, 
York, contains a rapid summary 
of the history of the Institution, 
and lists of Treasurers, Superin­ 
tendents, and Visiting Medical 
Officers. The following is the list 
of Superintendents, which may be 
useful for reference :
Timothy Maud
George Jepson
Thomas Allis
John Candler
Dr. John Thurnam 1846-1849.
Dr. John Kitching 1849-1874.
Dr. Robert Baker 1874-1892.
1796-1797.
1797-1823. 
1823-1841. 
1841-1846.
79
8o NOTES AND QUERIES
Dr. Bedford Pierce 1892-1922.
Dr. Hy. Yellowlees 1922-1929.
Dr. Neil Macleod 1929-
WHARTON, OF PA.—In Friends' 
Intelligencer, Tenth Month 6,1928, 
there is a memorial notice of 
Susanna Parrish Wharton (com­ 
piler of The Parrish Family, see 
Jnl. xxiii. 45), who died on 
September 2ist—" a truly noble 
woman, one whose long life was 
spent in making the lives of others 
both happier and worthier."
A couple of months previously 
the death took place of Anne 
Hollingsworth Wharton, Litt.D., 
a well-known author—" full of 
years, young of soul, unafraid, Miss 
Wharton heard that ' one clear 
call' in the firm hope of a glorious 
resurrection" (Publ. Gene. Soc. Pa., 
March, 1928.)
ELIZABETH ASHBRIDGE (i. ii. 
iv. vii. x. xi.) —
There have been numerous 
editions of the life of Elizabeth 
Ashbridge (1713-1755). giving 
some account of her marriages, 
her passage to America as a 
redemptioner and her religious 
visit and death in Ireland. The 
first appeared in 1774, and there 
were at least five reprints before 
the Astolat edition appeared in 
1904. The latest edition entitled : 
Remarkable Experiences in the Life 
of Elizabeth Ashbridge, is dated 
1927. It can be obtained from 
DavidMort, bookseller, 53, Market 
Hall, Birmingham, price 6d., by 
post
DICKER, OF DEVONSHIRE. — 
" Michael LeeDicker, son of Philip 
and Sarah Dicker, was born in 
1693. After a year spent in the
study of medicine under the 
famous Boarhaave, at Leyden, he 
returned to Exeter, where he 
attained eminence in his profession 
and on the establishment of the 
County Hospital in 1741. he was 
elected one of its first physicians. 
He resided in a large and hand­ 
some house erected by himself and 
still standing in Magdalen Street. 
Dr. Dicker evidently exercised 
great influence in the meetings of 
the Society. In 1727 he married 
Alice, daughter of Thomas Finne- 
inore, of Collumpton, and dying in 
1752, was interred in Friends' 
Burial-ground at Exeter. . . ".
ROBERT DYMOND, Early Records 
of Friends in Devonshire, 1873.
This is an early example of a 
double fore-name among Friends.
There was an earlier Friend 
named Michael Lee, living at 
Totnes.
DOROTHY RIPLEY (xxii. xxiii).— 
In the Fourth Month of 1825, 
Richard Cockin attended the First- 
day meeting at Bristol and re­ 
cords : " Ann Grace and Arnee 
Frank were engaged in Testimony, 
both in the forenoon and afternoon. 
Dorithy Ripley addressed the 
Meeting at considerable length, 
which appeared to have a scatter­ 
ing effect there on."
In the above we have a glimpse 
of D. Ripley, in England, pre­ 
sumably prior to her fifth visit to 
the United States (xxiii. 77).
FRANCESCA ALEXANDER (xxv. 
76).—Amelia M. Gummere writes 
from Haverford, Pennsylvania, 
1929:
" My husband and I met 
Francesca Alexander in Florence 
in 1898, and she sang folk-songs to
NOTES AND QUERIES 81
us when we were there. She 
corresponded with my husband 
until the end of his life. I have a 
presentation copy of her poems."
In the recently published volume 
—Anna Lloyd (1837-1925), A 
Memoir, there is a chapter headed 
" Francesca," from which we 
obtain more knowledge of the 
Alexander family. Her father 
(1800-1880) was born in the state 
of Connecticut, of Scotch Quaker 
ancestry. In 1835 he married 
Lucia Grey Swett, and Francesca 
was their only child, born 1837. 
" Her parents were religious and 
of a narrow Puritan sect. . . . 
She read no books that had not 
first been read by her mother, who 
pinned together all the pages that 
she considered unsuitable for her 
daughter's innocent eyes." The 
family settled in Italy, while the 
daughter was in her teens. Anna 
Lloyd in 1883 describes Francesca: 
" A tall lady with beautiful brown 
eyes, a pleasant smile, dressed 
very simply in rather an old violet 
silk dress, her hair drawn back 
plainly into a net." Her principal 
interests were art and friendship 
with the working people. Mrs. 
Alexander died in 1916, at the age 
of 102, and her daughter, in 1917, 
at the age of eighty.
AUTHOR WANTED (xxii. 95, 
xxiii. 62).—Referring to the sen­ 
tence : " Fruitful in the field of 
offering and joyful in the house of 
prayer" we find the sentence 
quoted by Martha Routh, in a 
letter dated in 1810 ; and it is 
cited by James Jenkins in his 
Records thus : "In the 7th Mo. 
1821 (being at Gracechurch Street 
Meeting in London) I heard preach 
that wonderful American black­
smith, Nathan Hunt, and say : 
' The Lord, by the mouth of His 
servant, hath promised that His 
truly devoted children He will 
make fruitful in His fields of offer­ 
ing, and joyful in His house of 
prayer.' With all the assistance 
which Alexander Cruden can give 
me, I have not been able to find 
these texts—if texts they be." 
J.J. adds, as a note : " I have 
heard that Samuel Spa void : (who 
was himself a great quoter of texts 
when preaching) used to blame 
Ministers for misquoting Scripture, 
saying: ' They are only Quaker 
texts'."
MARTYRED QUAKER (v. 62).— 
Autos-da-f6 were first held in the 
thirteenth century, reached their 
maximum under the inquisitor 
Torquemada (1420-1498), and were 
common till 1745. The Inquisi­ 
tion was abolished in Spain in 
1834. There were two martyr­ 
doms as late as 1836.
The first was that of a Jew, 
burnt alive. The second was that 
of a schoolmaster of Busafa, a 
village in the neighbourhood of 
Valencia, whom people considered 
to be a Quaker. He was accused, 
condemned, thrown into the 
prisons of St. Narcissus, and there 
detained for some time, together 
with the vilest felons. Informa­ 
tion was derived from a priest of 
Valencia, and an eye-witness of his 
martyrdom. The " lords of the 
tribunal " endeavoured to get him 
to make a solemn recantation of 
his belief as a Quaker ; but he said 
he could do nothing against his 
conscience, nor could he lie to God. 
They condemned him to be hanged 
and he was transferred to the 
condemned cell, and resigned him­ 
self fully to the will of God.
Vol. xxvi.—877-
82 NOTES AND QUERIES
On the sist of Seventh Month 
he was taken from the prison to 
the scaffold, displaying the most 
perfect serenity. The crosses were 
removed from the scaffold. He 
was not clothed in the black dress 
usually put on culprits when 
brought out to execution, but 
appeared in a brown jacket and 
pantaloons. With a serious coun­ 
tenance and unfaltering mien, he 
ascended the scaffold, conducted 
by Father Felix, a bare-footed 
Carmelite friar, who exhorted 
him to change his views. But he 
only replied : " Shall one who has 
endeavoured to observe God's 
commandments be condemned ? " 
When the rope was put around 
his neck, he asked the hangman to 
wait a moment, and raising his 
eyes towards heaven, prayed. 
There is no doubt of the accuracy 
of the report. In 1838 a visitor to 
Valencia was taken to the very 
spot where the gallows were 
erected, and there received ample 
confirmation of the fact, with 
many circumstantial details, from 
persons who had stood around the 
victim as he died.
From The Friend (Phila.), i mo. 
and 2 mo. 1929.
ROBERT WILLIS, OF NEW 
JERSEY (xx. 49, 86).—An addi­ 
tional note on the character of 
Robert Willis may be given—based 
on the extract from a letter of 
Mary Forster, of Philadelphia, to 
her cousins in England, dated 
28 xi. 1770 : " Robert Willis is on 
a visit to your Island. . . . 
He's an innocent, sound Frd., tho' 
not very excellent in the Ministry.'' 
See also Jnl. xiii-xvi.
ELIZA—ELIZABETH (xxiv. 73.) 
William Forster, in writing to his
sister Elizabeth, circa 1775, begins 
" Dear Eliza: " thus showing that 
the name Eliza first appeared as a 
contraction for Elizabeth. Was it 
pronounced as written ?
BREAKING-UP MEETINGS (xiii. 
84).—In A. M. Wakefield's Cartmel 
Priory, 1909, there is a quotation 
from another book descriptive of 
this district, in which there is a 
picture of a Friends' meeting at 
Height, in Cumberland, closing 
with the words : " After half an 
hours solemn silence [prayer having 
been offered] the friends in the 
raised seat shook hands, next those 
below did the same, my neighbour 
offered her hand to me, and the 
meeting broke up." The quota­ 
tion occurred in the section of the 
book dealing with " A Quaker 
Stronghold " ; there are five views 
of Height meeting house, built in 
1677, 600 feet above sea-level.
H. R. HODGSON. 
Eccleshill, Bradford.
ANTHONY PURVER (xxiii. xxiv. 
xxv.).—James Jenkins, in his 
Records (ms. in D), writes of this 
Friend :
" I recollect seeing Joseph 
Phipps, of Norwich, at our house 
at Woodbridge, and, knowing that 
he was an author, viewed him with 
veneration, and I remember that a 
large group of Friends got round 
him whilst he turned over the 
leaves and verbally delivered his 
criticism on Purver's Bible, then 
recently published."
Purver, in his Counsel to Friends' 
Children, refers to the martyrdom 
of James Parnel, and narrates 
that Elizabeth Winkfield, who was 
convinced by his preaching, pro­ 
claimed the same truth when
NOTES AND QUERIES
upwards of one hundred years old 
at the town where he died, being 
carried eighteen miles for that 
purpose at her own desire.
JOSEPH DE GRELLET (xxiv. 45). 
—A letter from Stephen Grellet to 
John Hall, of Cumberland, his 
recent travelling companion in 
America, dated New York, 8th 
mo. igth, 1802, gives further data 
respecting his brother Joseph :
" Have received several letters 
from Joseph. The last is dated 
Paris, 6th month, igth ; he was 
then at our sisters, proposed soon 
to proceed to Limoges at our 
father's."
John Hall appears to have had 
business dealings with Stephen 
and Joseph Grellet. Hall was " a 
weaver of linen checks," and ex­ 
ported somewhat largely to 
America, the Grellets acting as 
agents. But trade was dull— 
S. Grellet writes : " The season 
for the sale of Isaac's checks is very 
dull, indeed we sell none ; it is a 
pity these last were sent, though 
hope the Fall may be more lively. 
Will do what we can. G. and B." 
Do " G. and B." stand for 
" Grellet and Brother " ? Isaac 
was the son of John Hall.
When in England in gth mo. 
1821, J. Grellet, frequently supped 
at the home of Peter Bedford.
In volume xxiv, page 50, it is 
written : " In 1829 Joseph Grellet 
was again in England, as noted in 
Rachel Reed's pocketbook." This 
is confirmed by the letter written 
by Stephen Grellet to Anna 
Carroll, from Burlington, 5th of 
3rd mo. 1829 :
" Thy account of my brother 
Joseph was very grateful—he 
wrote me that your visit cheered
and comforted him. His health 
has since been still more impaired, 
so that as the only probable means 
of his recovery, he has been 
advised to return for a while to his 
native country, where I expect he 
is now. As his last letter left him 
very feeble, I can but feel sollicitous 
on his account.
" If he goes as proposed many 
trials must be his portion, yet I 
hope that he has so learned at 
Christ's school by what he has so 
deeply suffered that none of these 
things may be suffered to move 
him from his foundation, Christ 
the Lord, our only hope and sure 
refuge."
From the original letter in the 
collection of mss. belonging to 
Albert J. Crosfield, of Cambridge, 
1929.
In the first letter S. Grellet 
adds :
" My brother Peter is yet in 
America; he is likely to be 
married with one of our (as he says) 
Quaker girls, a niece to James 
Pemberton. She has been dis­ 
owned [? writing not clear] several 
years ago as all the rest of the 
family ; it may be a step to bring 
him a little nearer to Friends."
In Benjamin Seebohm's 
Memoirs of Stephen Grellet, Pierre 
is stated to have married " Grace, 
daughter of Judge Ingersoll, of 
New Haven, U.S.A."
PAUL FARTHING, EMIGRANT.— 
On the first of Second Month, 
1686, atTopsham, " Paul Farthing 
desired advice in ye transporting 
himself for Pennsylvania, as also 
in y* taking a jorney for London to 
speak wth Wm Pen." (quoted in 
Early Friends in Devonshire, by 
Robert Dymond, F.S.A., 1873.


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