SAS Open Journals

Editors, The

PAGE
Our Quotation—24 .. .. .. .. i
Norman Penney .. .. .. .. 2
George Fox's Library Again. Henry J. Cadbury .. 9
George Fox to Friends, 1676 .. .. .. 20
The Gurney Manuscripts. Arthttr J. Eddington .. 22
George Fox and a Negro .. .. .. .. 27
George Fell and the Story of Swarthmoor Hall. Norman
Penney .. .. .. .. .. 28
William Meade to Thomas Lawson .. .. .. 40
Miller Manuscripts .. .. .. .. 41
Hannah Penn to Thomas Story .. .. .. 44
Ellis Hookes to George Fox .. .. .. 45
Quaker Extracts from Yorkshire Parish Registers .. 45
A Quaker Family Carrying Pistols .. .. .. 46
Relief for Quaker Schoolmaster .. .. .. 49
Our Recording Clerks. Norman Penney .. .. 50
Unsuccessful Proposals for Marriage .. .. 58
Luke Howard on Early Travel by Rail .. .. 59
Moone of Woodplumpton .. .. .. 61
Latin Class at Ackworth .. .. .. .. 61
Scrivener Alsop and Friends' School and Workhouse,
Clerkenwell .. .. .. .. 62
The Cambridge " Journal of George Fox." Corrigenda
and addenda .. .. .. .. 63
" Pen Pictures of Yearly Meeting, 1789-1833." Corri­ 
genda and addenda .. .. .. .. 66
Against Black Clothes, 1811 .. .. .. 67
iv CONTENTS
PAGX
The Annual Meeting and Accounts .. .. .. 68
Quaker Psychical Experiences .. .. .. 69
A New Life of William Perm .. .. .. 69
A Patriarch in Virginia .. .. .. .. 69
John Firth of Shepley .. .. .. .. 70
Friends and Current Literature .. .. .. 71
Recent Accessions to D .. .. .. 82
Notes and Queries .. .. .. .. 85
Some Inscriptions in the Friends' Burial Ground at
Tasburgh, Norfolk. Arthur J. Eddington .. 89
Western Counties Circular Y.M. .. .. .. 90
Norman Penney .. .. .. .. frontispiece
No. 69 in George Fox's Library .. .. facing p. 10


English

Index to volume 31

Vol. XXXII 1935
THE JOURNAL
OF THE
FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Publishing Office: Friends House, Euston Road, London, N. W. i. 
American Agency : 304 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
Communications should be addressed to the Editor at
Friends House.
Quotation
" On the shore where Time casts up its stray wreckage, we gather 
corks and broken planks, whence much indeed may be argued and more 
guessed; but what the great ship was that has gone down into the 
deep, that we shall never see. Indeed, one of the attractions in studying 
the past is the sense which that study awakes that far more has been 
doomed to irrevocable oblivion than the little that anyone can ever 
know. That touches the imagination.'"
GEORGE MACAULAY TREVELYAN : The Present Position of History. 
Inaugural Lecture of his Regius Professorship of Modern History at the 
University of Cambridge, October, 1927.
Editorial Note
IN a recent issue of The Friend, Philadelphia (io.x.i935) Henry J. Cadbury and William I. Hull offer answers to the question as to what Quaker literature is needed to-day 
and make several suggestions in the field of Quaker history. 
One is for a history to cover Europe, with a chapter on the 
older Quakerism in each of the principal countries where it 
took root, followed by a more general account of recent 
development. Not all these countries have been dealt with 
separately yet. William Hull is publishing as fast as he can 
the full story of Dutch Friends and as we go to press the 
second volume out of ten reaches us, entitled William Penn 
and the Dutch Quaker Migration to Pennsylvania. 1 But we
1 We shall hope to give an adequate account of it in our next 
issue. Besides a detailed picture of Quakerism in the Netherlands 
and the Rhineland and of the great migrations of the i68o's to 
Pennsylvania, its 445 pages contain several extended biographical 
accounts of leading Dutch Friends.
Vol. xxxii.—308.
2 EDITORIAL NOTE
still lack adequate accounts of Quakerism in several European 
countries, notably Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and France. In 
biography the want of a life of Richard Farnsworth (d. 1666) is noted. 
One of the leading '' first publishers ", he was the author of some fifty 
works and there are some scores of his letters, besides many MS. 
references to him, at Friends House.
Studies connecting Quakerism with public events or intellectual 
or social developments, whether as causes or effects, also offer an 
interesting field for research. In this direction we are indebted to 
Mr. Fulmer Mood for the article printed in this issue on the genesis of 
the Pennsylvania charter, which is part of an extended study of 
colonial origins. Another and larger piece of work in itself is the yet 
unpublished study by Miss Anne Gary of St. Hugh's College, Oxford, 
dealing with the influence of English Friends on American colonial 
life in the middle part of the eighteenth century. Rev. G. B. Burnett 
is just completing a history of Quakerism in Scotland down to 1850, 
drawn from all available original sources. Its publication is not yet 
decided upon but a copy will be in Glasgow University Library. 
Another unpublished work is The Early Quaker View of the State, its 
nature, powers and limitations, with special reference to Isaac Penington 
by Miss Ruth Armsby (Birmingham University).
As Henry J. Cadbury remarks, " much of the best historical 
work to-day on Quakerism comes from those who are not Friends." 
He is, however, shortly to offer us his own comprehensive account of 
the unpublished writings of George Fox, based mainly upon the 
Annual Catalogue of them preserved at Friends House. Nor must 
we omit to mention here two valuable works described later in this 
issue, viz. J. Travis Mills : John Bright and the Quakers, whose author 
is our president this year, and A. Ruth Fry: John Sellers, Quaker, 
Economist and Social Reformer. Emilia Fogelklou has published a 
life of William Penn in Swedish, and Elisabeth Brockbank is at work 
on Edward Burrough. Several histories of Quakerism in English 
localities and a history of Quaker education are in course of prepara­ 
tion. There are sources for Quaker history among non-Quaker 
records which would repay attention, whether for their facts or for 
their opinions. An example of the former is to be found in the reports 
made to Archbishop Herring, on the state of parishes in the Diocese 
of York in 1743, printed by the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 
from which information about the local distribution of Quakerism 
in Yorkshire might be gleaned. The systematic study of anti- 
Quaker literature has never yet been undertaken and awaits someone 
who will sort out the serious from the merely scurrilous and interpret 
it in connection with contemporary thought and life, shall we say as 
a " corrective to partisan views and narrow prejudices " (W.C.B.).
It is to be hoped that among university students in the Society of 
Friends some will take up researches touching upon Quakerism. They 
will be assured of such help as can be given in the Library at Friends 
House. Any who are engaged in such research are invited to 
communicate with the librarian.


Editorial Note

Mood, Fulmer

William Penn and English Politics in 1680-81

Notes and Queries
AN EX-QUAKER ON GEORGE Fox
Henry Pickworth (? 1673-? 1738) lived at Sleaford, Lines., and 
later at King's Lynn, Norfolk. He was disowned in 1714 and 
wrote much against Friends. (See Jnl., vols. xxii.-xxiv.) The 
following is extracted from his Short Account of the People called 
Quakers, shewing their Deceitful Way, etc. London, 1735 :
" That illustrious George Fox the Shoemaker, our Quaker's 
Shakespear, whom the Author of the aforesaid three Letters so 
illustriously Magnifies, which said Book stiled, The Great Mystery, 
tho' his deluded Proselites still refer to in their late Catalogue of 
Titles of such as they Approve of, as dictated by the Power and 
Spirit of God, amongst the rest of his and their Scribbles of the like 
Nature : Yet their old Friend George Keith, who came to know better 
Things, Amongst others, assures us, That he was originally taught 
the Doctrines therein by one Hinks, a Ranter, whilst they kept Sheep 
together, whereby as he became possest with their spiritual Lunacy, 
in great Measure, wherewith his Followers still remain corrupted, 
or they might have easily enough discovered the same, by the many 
frivolous Epistles in his several Volumes; together with those 
reprinted in the Journal of his life since his Expiration, as consider'd 
with his pretences to Miracles; together with his mad Pranks 
recorded therein, about leaving his Shoes with some Shepherds in 
a Field, to run over Hedges and Ditches upon Sight of Litchfield 
Steeples without them : To cry, Wo, Wo, to that bloody City as he 
called it, under pretence of his seeing a Stream of Blood run along 
the Streets before him, for his Encouragement, tho' Nobody else 
saw a Drop therein " (p. 16). Hinks is again referred to in connec­ 
tion with Henry Nicholas and the Family of Love (p. 55). Who 
was he ?
Joseph Smith states that, notwithstanding the misrepresentations 
contained in Pickworth's writings, he was able to glean information 
concerning persons, places and occurrences which he had not met 
with elsewhere (Cata. ii, 417). Anti-quaker literature has not yet 
been sufficiently studied.
GURNEY FAMILY
The pedigree of this family has recently been registered at the 
College of Arms. It contains all the Gurney descendants of John 
Gurney or Gourney of Norwich, who died in 1721, aged 55. This 
John Gurney is believed to have been the first of this family to join
Vol. xxxii.—313. 81
82 NOTES AND QUERIES
the Society of Friends. His descendants have been so numerous 
that the pedigree fills forty-one pages, each measuring i6| by n£ 
inches, which is equivalent to a scroll nearly forty feet long. The 
information has been largely gathered from Quaker records, and 
the dates taken from these records are recorded in Quaker fashion, 
to distinguish them from those obtained from other sources. Each 
entry is accompanied by brief biographical details where these are 
known and could be proved. The pedigree contains nothing that has 
not been proved to the satisfaction of the College, and is the one 
authentic pedigree of this family. The College is willing to show 
it to those who give sufficient reason for asking to look at it.
It may be noted that it does not mention the parentage of the 
first John Gurney, as this is not yet known. If any reader should 
happen to come across information bearing on this point it would 
be a kindness to send it to Samuel Gurney, 6 Albemarle Street, W.i, 
who has been trying for some time to investigate this matter. John 
Gurney married Elizabeth Swanton, of the Wells family, and it seems 
that at the time of the marriage (at Woodbridge) his Mother was alive 
and gave her consent, and that she had married again and become 
the mother of Edmund Cobb, who was so much associated with John 
Gurney in his Quaker activities.
SAMUEL GURNEY.
SKIPTON MONTHLY MEETING
Harry R. Hodgson, Eccleshill, Bradford, Yorkshire, writes: 
" The first entry in the minute book of Skipton (Yorkshire) 
Monthly Meeting is dated 23 vi. 1666, but there were previous pages 
which are missing. Fourteen groups constituted the M.M. : 
Broughton, Knaresborough, Bentham, Settle, Scalehouse, Keighley, 
Guiseley, Bolland, Nitherdale, Beamsley, Ottley, Scarhouse, Bradley, 
Wixley."1
The first minute runs :
" Brought in to Skipton, this 23 of ye 6th month 1666—collected 
by y6 severall Meetings abovesd to be sent to York by the Appointmt 
of friends mett there y6 2oth of ye fourth month last, for y« supply 
of friends in prison and for y6 service of y6 Truth in Genall y6 sum 
of 7 : 13 : 4-"
The minutes were signed by a number of Friends each month, 
including Samuel Watson of Stainforth, James Tennant of Scarhouse, 
Robert Clough of Broughton, Peter Hardcastle, Thomas Taylor, 
and Edward and George Watkinson, of Bradley, near Skipton.
1 See Hodgson, Friends in Bradford, 1927.
NOTES AND QUERIES 83
Evidently, in 1668, Yorkshire Q.M. re-arranged the Monthly 
Meetings, and in 1669 the Settle M.M. minutes begin, immediately 
following Skipton, the Meetings included in Settle being Scalehouse, 
Scarhouse, Settle, Bentham, Broughton, and Bolland. 1
THE NAME " SOCIETY OF FRIENDS "
An enquiry received as to the genesis of the name " Society of 
Friends " has led so far to the conclusion that this precise phrase was 
not in use till the end of the eighteenth century. The following notes 
are based upon an examination of a considerable number of book 
titles, particularly official publications by the Yearly Meeting or the 
Meeting for Sufferings.
In earlier days, though " Friends " was commonly in use among 
themselves, papers addressed to " the world " usually referred to 
" The people of God called Quakers". Later in the eighteenth 
century " Society" or " Religious Society of the people called 
Quakers " came into common use. The title we are now accustomed 
to has not so far been noticed on anything earlier than Joseph Gurney 
Bevan's Refutation of some of the more modern Misrepresentations 
of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, . . ., 1800. 
Two outside admirers of the Society used it, John Bristed : The 
Society of Friends, or People commonly called Quakers, Examined, 
1805, and Thomas Clarkson: A Portraiture of Quakerism . . . 
character of the Society of Friends, 1806. The first official publication 
to use it seems to have been A Selection of the Christian A dvices issued 
by the Society of Friends, . . ., 1813. Within a few 
years it was in general use both within and without the Society. A 
note of any instance earlier than 1800 will be welcomed.
WILLIAM MAUD, OF SUNDERLAND 
Diary of Thomas Gyll. Vol. 118 of Surtees Society, pp. 192-3.
1753. Jan. 26. This day William Maud, 2 a Quaker of Sunder- 
land, and a man of very good credit and fortune, went to Shields and 
came from thence on his way homewards, but has not yet been heard
1 Jnl. vol. i.
2 William Maude was eldest son of Joseph Maude of Sunderland 
by his marriage with Margaret, daughter of John Thornhill of that 
place. He was born circa 1699 and married, first, Margery, daughter 
of W. Rawlinson of Graithwaite, and secondly, Margaret, daughter of 
Thomas Holme of Kendal. He was ancestor of the family of Maude 
of Kendal. A full account of his unhappy death and of the finding 
of his body may be found in the Newcastle Courant, 2oth January, 
24th March and 3ist March, 1753. See also Jnl. F.H.S. xiii.
84 NOTES AND QUERIES
of, although the horse he rode was found that evening, but without 
his master: 'tis supposed Mr. Maud was robbed and murdered and 
his body privately disposed of.
1753. March 22. The body of William Maud was found in a 
stall or ditch about half a mile to the north of Boldon, with his great 
coat and whip near him and a small quantity of money in his pockett. 
No bruises appeared about him or any marks of violence, except a 
scratch above his eye and a slight bruise upon his breast, all on the 
same side of his body, which may well be supposed to happen by 
falling, and some bruises on his fingers. The Coroner's inquest found 
he had been wilfully murdered by persons unknown.
Copied by H. R. HODGSON.
QUAKERS " PESTIFEROUS "
From The Loyal London Mercury or The Current Intelligence, No. 21,
28th October to ist November, 1682.
" . . . The Quakers here are the most pestiferous People of 
all, they will Assemble though it be in a silent way, and then they 
say the Law cannot lay hold of them, but that is very seldom, for 
when any Officers come to disturb them, the Women begin their 
Tone, and tell them of Hell and the Wrath to come, but we hope 
in a short time to be rid of them all, and not see a Dissenter appear 
amongst us. Many of our Quakers are daily making preparations 
for Pensilvania, and to that end they put off their Houses and sell 
their Lands and Goods, when whole Families remove."
MRS. MILLER OF EDINBURGH
From Read's Weekly Journal, or British Gazetteer, Saturday, 
Junes, I 73 2 -
Edinburgh, May 23. ... Friday last died Mrs. Miller, a 
Quaker, famous for her Industry and Improvements in Home 
Manufactures. It is said she employ'd 6 or 700 poor People at 
Spinning, &c. which makes her Death much regretted. She was 
Yesterday interred in the Quakers Burying Place; where Friend 
Ereskine gave the word of Exhortation to a very numerous Auditory.
From Notes and Queries, June 4, 1932.
ELLIS HOOKS TO GEORGE Fox, 1669
I have received thy letter and I have sent thee a primer 
by A. Clayton. I have sold but a few yet, but they are very much 
liked of all that see them. A.P. and G.W. say it will be serviceable
NOTES AND QUERIES 85
and say there was never a more serviceable book printed in that 
kind, and it is well liked of every body that sees it.
There are 2 or 3 literal faults in the book escaped in the press.
Swarth. MSS. i. 386 in Friends House. There is no reference 
to this primer in Smith's Catalogue. A.P. =Alexander Parker. 
G.W =George Whitehead.
CHURCH RATE DEFAULTERS IN LONDON
Among papers recently given to the Library, Friends House 
(MS. Box io.(i). 6.), a summons for non-payment of church rates, 
issued by the Lord Mayor of London, is printed specially for issue to 
" the people called Quakers ". The summons in question was served 
upon Anne Elliot, an inhabitant of the parish of Saint Katharine 
Creechurch, and is dated iath June, 1795. Quaker objectors must 
have been in considerable numbers to require a distinctively printed 
summons.
GENEROSITY
Two farmer-brothers, Gray, of Kinnuck, Scotland, sat together, 
the only Friends at meeting. Once they had sold a cow to a widow, 
which soon died. After meeting the one said to the other, " Brother, 
I've been thinking in meeting that we should let off the widow half 
the price of the cow." The other said, " I've been thinking that 
we should let her off the other half."


Notes and Queries

Cadbury, Henry J

Christian Lodowick
indebtedness of early Quakerism to educated 
Englishmen like Keith, Barclay, Penn, Stubbs and 
Richardson is generally recognized. But Quakerism 
in both England and America profited from the learned and 
skilful services of several continental scholars who, unlike 
Benjamin Furly and Willem Sewel, left their European 
homes and became scribes, editors, school teachers or authors 
in the service of English-speaking Quakerism. In this 
list were Hilary Prache, John Matern, Albertus Otto Faber, 1 
Mark Swanner, Francis Daniel Pastorius and most 
romantic of all the " Scholar Gypsy", Francis Mercurius 
van Helmont. Though like the last two named, he later 
lost standing with Friends, Christian Lodowick apparently 
belongs in the same list. Since except in a single connection 
Quaker histories and bibliographers do not mention him, 
I shall set down such scattered fragments of information 
about him as I can, hoping more will come to light later.
The earliest reference is in the minutes of Rhode Island 
Monthly Meeting, " a man and womans meeting at ye hous 
of Mathew Bordens,"* dated 24th of I2th month, 1684 
and quoted in Zora Klain's Educational Activities of New 
England Quakers, 1928, p. 34! : " Upon the Request and 
desire of Christian Loddewick to have the yous of the meeting 
hous in Newport for keeping of a scoole, friends upon 
Consideratione and desire to doe him good doe grant it and 
all soe are willing to give him what Incoragement theye 
Cann." Nothing further is known of this school. But 
it has the distinction of being one of the oldest Quaker 
schools in America. Enoch Flower was appointed by the 
Governor and Provincial Council of Pennsylvania to teach 
school there just twelve months before (December 26th, 
1683. See B.F.H.A., xxiii., 1934, 54), but so far as I know 
neither the Quaker histories nor the histories of Quaker 
education by Klain and by Woody mention any other 
schoolmasters so early among Friends in America.
1 Jnl. F.H.S., xxxii, 54-57.
2 In the Newport records of Births and Deaths the first entry is : 
Mathew Borden 3 mo. 1638, " hee being the first Inglish child that was 
born in Rhood Island ''.
20
CHRISTIAN LODOWICK 21
At the monthly meeting in gth month, 1688, Christian 
Lodowick asked for a certificate which was granted. What 
the certificate was for is not stated. If it was for travel 
abroad it was not permanent, since he returned to Newport. 
The next reference is in another of the old Quaker record 
books now at the Newport Historical Society. The quaint 
inscriptions in the front and back of this book are worth 
recording here :
FRENS
two books brought at Boston cost twenty shillings the 
biggest for births and deaths and the lesser book for 
marriages only, so ordered at the mans meeting of friends 
at the house of William Coddington in the towne of New 
Port in Road Island in the year 1672, the 22th Day of the
-~- 1672 (this for Manages).
The Marriages of Friends in Road Hand Coloney with 
some of Plimoth Coloney in Dartmuth Being Collected 
in the yeare 1672 from time Road Hand was first
seatled by the English in the year 1638.
j . ^^
By Peter Easton g- [ — 1672.
It may be remarked in passing that these books were 
probably acquired at the direct suggestion of George Fox. 
At least we know that he had suggested such record books 
a little before in Barbadoes and a little later in Virginia 
and that it was only a few weeks earlier than the first entries 
that he had attended for several days the business meetings 
at Newport, 9. v. 1672, at which time purchase of such 
books was provided for (New England Yearly Meeting 
Book of Epistles in MS., p. 13).
Among the certificates copied in this interesting old book 
is that for the marriage of Thomas and Mary Coddington 
22nd of nth month, 1689/90 and among the witness to this 
marriage the name appears of " Christianus Lodowick ".
By 1691 Lodowick was no longer in good standing in the 
Society. Our evidence comes from no less a person than 
Cotton Mather, who in his Little Flocks Guarded against 
Grievous Wolves (Boston, September ist, 1691, copy in 
Harvard College Library), p. 15 refers to " Mr. Lodowick, 
a Gentleman of Rhode-Island lately recovered out of
22 CHRISTIAN LODOWICK
Quakerism ". Evidently Lodowick had written " a chal- 
lenge to the Quakers ", but whether in print or not I cannot 
say. Possibly like Mather's work it was in part an answer 
to George Keith's Catechism. At any rate we do have in 
print a reply of Lodowick to Mather entitled A Letter from the 
most Ingenious Mr. Lodowick, Rhode-Island, Febr. i, 1691/2 
(8 pages duodecimo, without title page or imprint, copy in 
Harvard College Library). Referring to Mather's mention 
of him Lodowick writes at length explaining how Keith and 
a handful of other " Semi-Foxonians or Semi-Quakers " 
have come to diverge from the older true Foxonians. 
Quoting from their writings especially Keith and Barclay 
and from conversation he had had with Keith " last 
summer", we know from other sources that Keith was in 
Newport in the summer of 1691 Lodowick analyses their 
doctrine of Christ and their doctrine of pre-existence and 
transmigration of souls. It is interesting that Lodowick 
suspected that Keith was diverging from Quaker tradition 
before Friends themselves realized it. He also supplies 
(p. 6) the first definite statement I have seen that " G. 
Keith, as he told me last summer, favours the Twelve 
Revolutions or Transmigrations of our Souls ".
In 1692 there appeared from the press of William Bradford 
of Philadelphia an answer both to Cotton Mather and to 
Lodowick. Its title begins :
The Christian faith of the People of God, called in scorn,
Quakers in Rhode-Island (who are in Unity with all the faithful
brethren of the same Profession in all Parts of the World]
Vindicated from the Calumnies of Christian Lodowick that
formerly was of that profession but is lately fallen therefrom.
The title also claims that the piece is a refutation of 
Mather's slanders " against our Friends in general and 
G. K. in particular, whom he hath most unworthily abused ". 
But the body of the reply to which G. K. is one of the thirteen 
signers mentions neither Keith nor Mather but takes up 
seriatim the accusations that Lodowick had made of Quaker 
beliefs. He had formerly " given forth several papers 
challenging these belonging to Newport Meeting who speak 
in the Meetings of the people called Quakers " and as the 
result of a further challenge he had met those whom he had 
challenged to select a representative for a dispute " at 
the house of Walter Clark in Newport in Rhode Island,
CHRISTIAN LODOWICK 23
the i8th of the 4th month, 1691," and after some unsatis- 
factory discussion had gone away. 1
The last half of the sixteen page quarto tract a col- 
lection of quotations from Friends' writings showing their 
orthodox beliefs is interesting in that it was not only 
printed but " faithfully collected " by William Bradford.
The Challenge is mentioned also in " Edward Wright's 
letter in answer to Christian Lodovick's Dirty letter to him". 
Wright's letter but not Lodowick's is copied in the minute 
book of Rhode Island Monthly Meeting already mentioned, 
and this minute about it is entered under date of loth of 
3rd month, 1692 :
Edward Wright of Barbadoes his answer to Christian 
Lodowick was read in our meetings and approved and 
Tho: Rodman is desired to seal it and deliver it to 
Christian Lodwick and acquaint E. W. of friends 
Likeance.
The letter itself begins as follows :
Barbadoes the 3dnm 1691 
Friend Christian Lodvick,
Thy letter directed to me and John Pegg (whom 
I know not) have received also thy account of the 
difference between thee and friends of (Rhode Island) 
also thy challenge.
To judge from the answer the challenge to Friends was 
that they should make good their principles, to which Edward 
Wright replies that the principles have already been vindi- 
cated by the faithfulness of their supporters, having " reached 
thy own country to the convincing and gathering of many 
therein ". Here is reference to Lodowick as a foreigner.
One other reference to Lodowick's earlier life occurs 
in the printed letter already quoted. Speaking of the 
Keithian doctrine of the Light within and its relation to the 
Cabbalistic Aensoph and Adam Cadmon, Lodowick says, 
" They have framed their Doctrine Concerning Christ, 
according to this their Hypothesis, borrowing several of their 
Notions out of the Writings of some Rabbies among the
1 The interview is similarly mentioned by Keith in his Farther Account 
of the Great Divisions among the Quakers in Penna, London, 1693, p. i.
24 CHRISTIAN LODOWICK
Eastern Jews, Translated into Latin, by a Learned Noble 
Man in Germany whose Children I Tutored some years agoe ". 
Though I cannot confirm the conjecture, I cannot doubt 
that this German nobleman is none other than Baron 
Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1636-89). This famous 
Christian Hebraist, born in Silesia of a family that had been 
raised to nobility by Emperor Maximilian, lived at Sulzbach 
where the Count Palatinate Christian August made him 
chaplain in 1668. It was in the same year that he married. 
(Attgemeine deutsche Biographic, xvi., 1882, 327 ; Encycl. 
Judaica, x. (1934), pp. I4if-) His children, probably the 
ones mentioned by Lodowick, are immortalized (with their 
mother) in the hymns which he wrote and dedicated to them, 
for his productions entered the hymnology of the church 
(see Carl Winterfeld, Evangelische Kirchengesang, 1843-7, 
ii., 5i2ff.). To others his immense Cabbala Denudata 
(1677-84) is better known. It corresponds to the description 
of the Latin translation mentioned by Lodowick. In these 
cabbalistic interests he was associated with Baron Francis 
Mercurius van Helmont mentioned at the beginning of this 
sketch. And it is possible that the latter when visiting 
von Rosenroth introduced Lodowick to Quakerism at Sulz- 
bach about 1680. At any rate we can almost certainly 
assign Lodowick himself to that time and place.
The last evidence I have found of Lodowick's existence 
is The New-England Almanack for the Year of our Lord 
Christ, M DC xc v. By C. Lodowick, Physician, Boston. 
Printed by B. Green, for S. Phillips, at the Brick Shop near 
the Old Meeting-house, 1695 (only known copy in the 
American Antiquarian Society, Worcester). Beside the 
calculations made for the Meridian of Boston and certain 
" choice, experimented, cheap, easy and parable Receipts, 
of a General Benefit to Country People " the author has 
supplied a two page criticism of the astrological predictions 
in Tully's Almanacks " the direct tendency whereof is, to 
withdraw Persons from a holy Reliance in God's will & 
Providence, and to precipitate the minds of such as are 
lovers of Specious Novelties, into a sinfull love of that Soul- 
bewitching Vanity of Star-Prophecy, commonly called 
Astology the foundations of which are meer Chimaeras ". 
There is no evidence that other almanacs followed from 
the same hand although the author prefaces the remark,
CHRISTIAN LODOWICK 25
" If this Essay, find Acceptance, the Country may for some 
following Years, with God's leave, be entertained with 
larger Communications.''
In publishing an almanac Lodowick is not unparalleled 
among American Friends. A long continued series of 
almanacs published first in Philadelphia and then in New 
York was started in 1687 by Daniel Leeds and continued 
by his son Titan Leeds. 1 In Rhode Island a century later 
than Lodowick, another Friend, Elisha Thornton, published 
for a decade (1787 to 1796) a similar annual.
Two old Semitic grammar books published in 1699, by 
Christian Ludovici, bound together in a quarto volume, 
have lately come into the possession of Haverford College 
from the Friends Library, Philadelphia. When or why 
the latter acquired them does not appear, though they are 
marked, "The Gift of Gaspar Schultz of Oley ". They 
are listed in the catalogues of Friends Library issued in 1831 
and 1853, but not apparently in the two older catalogues. 
Perhaps they were acquired under the impression that their 
author was a Friend. His name is certainly the same as the 
Quaker of Newport. He also was a German scholar, and of 
the same period. But he is not the same person. A sketch 
of his life (1663-1732) will be found in the Allgemeine deutsche 
Biographic, xix., 1884, 395f.
There was also in Philadelphia two generations later a 
Christopher Ludwick (1720-1801). See his life in The Con­ 
stitution and Law of the Philadelphia Society for the Establish­ 
ment and Support of Charity Schools, Phila., 1831, 2nd edit., 
1860. But I can trace no kinship here either.
HENRY J. CADBURY
1 Finally superseded at the latter's death about 1741 by its rival, 
Richard Saunders Pocket Almanack, published by Benjamin Franklin, who 
under the pseudonym of " Poor Richard " wrote it for many years. 
Joseph Smith lists Richard Saunders as a Quaker writer. See also B. Fay: 
Franklin, 1929.


Christian Lodowick

MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE 69
The first two signatures are those of the fathers of the parties 
and there is no woman's signature. Inability to write can hardly 
have been the reason for this because the names of three of the 
witnesses have apparently been written for them by the bridegroom's 
father, who also wrote out the certificate.
The record of birth of the first child of the marriage has been 
added to the certificate. It occurs also in the Yorkshire register at 
Friends House. The dating well illustrates the confusion that 
may arise if old style dates are misread. Translated to new style 
the date of the marriage is i2th June, 1673, and of the birth of the 
child, 18th March, 1674.
The original is on paper and measures nj* 7^*. Alexander 
Fothergill was the grandfather of Dr. John Fothergill.
ED.
Bristol Friends in 1715
The Quakers of Bristol " are generally well affected to the present 
government, large traders and very rich. Their number may be 
supposed about 2,000 and upwards ; and their wealth not less than 
£500,000." MS written in 1715 by John Evans, minister of Hand 
Alley Presbyterian Church, Bishopsgate Street, London, preserved 
at Dr. Williams Library, London and quoted in E. D. Bebb's, 
Nonconformity and Social and Economic Life 1660-1800, 1935, p. 52.
H.J.C.
From Whitby Parish Register
Fisher, Rachel, a quaker. born i Nov. 1657.
Lotherington, George son of Benjamin a quaker b Sept. 3
I703-
Walker, John son of Tho. & Eliz. quakers. born Oct. n 1703.
Walker, Mary dau. of John & Hester Q born 30 Oct. 1703.
Smales, Elizabeth da of Tho. Smales his wife being a quaker was 
buried Nov. 13 1703.
Foster, Alice da of Benjamin & Sarah Quakers born Nov 18 1703.
Sewales, Isabella a quaker, born 26 Feb. 1728-9.
Close, James s of Jacob, a quaker, was bo privately 8 Feb.
I736-7-


From Whitby Parish Register

Current Literature and Additions to the Library

Brailsford, Mabel R

Elizabeth Fry, Amelia Opie
Two Lives
Janet Whitney : Elizabeth Fry, Quaker Heroine. Harrap. 1937, pp. 328, 
I2S. 6d.
Jacobine Menzies-Wilson and Helen Lloyd : Amelia : the Tale of a 
Plain Friend. Oxford University Press. 1937, PP- xu - + 299> I2S -
I t is a curious and to some extent a consoling fact, that this year of 1937, which has been dedicated to re-armament
and punctuated by wars, should see the publication of 
a standard life of Elizabeth Fry. The welcome that the 
book has met with is evidence, not only of the skill and sym- 
pathy of the author, nor even of the most noble qualities of 
its subject ; but of the longing with which our country, 
haunted by fear of war, can still contemplate the achieve- 
ments of applied Christianity.
Janet Whitney has performed the service of breathing 
life into a great figure, who for nearly one hundred years 
has survived mainly in blue-books, and has only been recalled 
to memory for purposes of reference. Two years after her 
death, the pious task of writing the life of Elizabeth Fry 
was undertaken by two of her daughters, and the two stout 
volumes which resulted have shared the fate of the majority 
of standard works. Apart from the fact that, in common 
with all her children, they failed to understand their mother 
or sympathize with her nature, their book was doomed to 
early oblivion, because, after the accepted manner of Victorian 
biography it set the claims of propriety above those of 
veraciousness. Filial piety moreover, was at odds with the 
virtues of selection, and the volumes overflow with extracts 
from Elizabeth Fry's Journals, and with hortatory epistles, 
which can never have possessed any but a sentimental 
interest. " Her letters to her children ", comments her 
modern biographer, " are the only readable letters she ever 
wrote."
Now that close on one hundred years have passed, she has 
found a worthy and indeed an ideal biographer in Janet 
Whitney, a writer of great charm and humour, who was not 
only born and married into Quakerism, but has proved
35
36 ELIZABETH FRY, AMELIA OPIE
herself in her sympathies and her gifts of leadership to be 
a true daughter of Friends.
The main outlines of the public life of Elizabeth Fry have 
always been clear in men's minds, tending to overshadow 
her private virtues, which were no less remarkable; and 
only the fact that not one of her eleven children remained a 
member of his mother's community has been cited from 
time to time as a damaging comment upon her outside 
activities. But in this new biography she has stepped down 
amongst us, tender-hearted and shrinking, and yet with how 
queenly a dignity. One lays down the volume, and it is 
hard to lay it down before one has read every one of the 311 
pages ! feeling that one has gained a friend. We see 
Betsy Gurney in her happy childhood at Earlham, always 
a little set apart from the merry throng of her brothers and 
sisters by her delicacy of body and her want of humour, and, 
as she grew into young womanhood, by her conversion to 
the " Plain Friends ". Nowhere perhaps is her biographer's 
method more clearly shown, than in the opening chapter, 
where two lines of the earlier Life are expanded into as many 
sparkling pages, transporting us, like passengers in the mail 
coach held up by the string of laughing sisters, straight 
into the heart of the eighteenth century, and the family of 
" Gay Gurneys ".
Either by accident or design, the Life of Amelia Opie, 
which was also published this year, forms a valuable pendant 
to Janet Whitney's more important work. The only daughter 
of the beloved Dr. Alderson of Norwich, she was a playmate 
and friend of the Gurney family, touching them in those 
early days rather upon the '' gay '' surface of their lives than 
upon the deep religious foundation which was later to form 
the basis of their friendship. When fate had brought Amelia 
to London as the second wife of John Opie, the famous 
Cornish painter, she rejoiced at Elizabeth's marriage, which 
transplanted her also from the country to be her neighbour 
in town. It is to Mrs. Opie's lively pen that we owe the 
picture of young Mrs. Fry's home in St. Mildred's Court, 
with its massive mahogany furniture, its staff of trained 
servants, and its " sense of comfort and good living". 
The portrait of the shy hostess, who at twenty years of age 
was facing her first confinement, ravaged by toothache, 
surrounded by uncongenial relatives-in-law, and cooped up
ELIZABETH FRY, AMELIA OPIE 37
in a London Court, comes as a shock to readers who think 
of Elizabeth Fry only as the Angel of Newgate, in her comely 
and well-poised matronhood.
For all their old-time affection, there could be little 
intercourse between the two young wives during the years 
that followed. Amelia's childlessness left her free to cul- 
tivate the friendship of the fashionable and famous people 
who frequented her husband's studio, and to develop her 
own real talent for writing. As authoress of the much 
acclaimed novel " Father and Daughter," and wife of 
" the English Rembrandt," she was welcomed and feted 
by the intelligentsia of both London and Paris.
Into these adventures Elizabeth had neither leisure nor 
inclination to follow her. During the ten years that succeed- 
ed the wedding call at St. Mildred's Court, Mrs. Fry had given 
birth to seven children; through the death of her father- 
in-law she had become mistress of the Fry mansion of 
Plashet, and from thence the whole countryside had benefited 
by her activities. The girl who at eighteen had gathered 
from 50 to 70 neglected children into the laundry at Earlham, 
and there, without help from her six critical sisters, had 
instilled into them the rudiments of learning and virtue, 
now, as lady of the manor, " set out to give the benefits of 
education to every child whom she could reach ". She 
introduced vaccination, and kept her own neighbourhood 
free from the all pervading smallpox. On the day of her 
father's funeral she had taken the first and long dreaded step 
of a new career, and had begun to preach. Finally, in the 
first days of 1813, she went for the first time, with one com- 
panion, inside the women's prison at Newgate, at the request 
of Stephen Grellet, a travelling Friend from America, who had 
himself newly explored the horrors of that" hell upon earth ".
" What hope is there for the remote claims of prisoners, 
however wretched, to press themselves upon a life so full ? '' 
So questions the author in a fine rhetorical passage, and 
herself supplies the answer.
When Elizabeth Fry died at 65, she had " reformed the 
bestial conditions among the women prisoners in Newgate 
Prison. Her institution of prison libraries and educational 
classes and her remedies for crime (had) gradually brought 
her world fame ; her influence became felt in many countries 
of Europe ; she was consulted by foreign Governments, and
38 ELIZABETH FRY, AMELIA OPIE
won the friendship of Queen Victoria and King Frederick 
William IV of Prussia.
Elizabeth Fry's other work included the reformation 
of conditions in the ships that transported women convicts 
to Australia, the provision of libraries for coastguards, and 
the foundation of a training home for nurses in London. 
She was also instrumental in getting Parliament to prohibit 
the practice of suttee in India."
While these concerns were crowding upon her, and her 
family almost year by year increasing. Amelia Opie, left 
a childless widow at 38, had returned to Norwich, to knit up 
again her girlhood's friendships. The affection which 
sprang up between herself and Joseph John Gurney, who 
was nearly 20 years her junior throws the colour of romance 
over her middle years, and we see the handsome banker who 
was his sister's companion on her Continental journeys 
falling in love in spite of himself with the authoress whose 
sprightly conversation and defiance of convention both 
allured and shocked him. Won at last by her affection for 
Joseph Gurney and her admiration for his famous sister, 
Amelia adopted the profession and costume of a " Plain 
Friend ". She lived on into 1853, almost the last survivor 
of the happy Earlham circle, She who had flirted with Sir 
Walter Scott and seen Napoleon as First Consul, made her last 
excursion to London by the great adventure of the Railroad, 
and was wheeled round the Great Exhibition in a bath chair.
These two biographies, which have so happily appeared 
together, afford a singularly complete picture of England 
seen through the eyes of two notable and widely differing 
women, at that time of ferment and change in which their 
lives were set. There can be no comparison between the 
two friends in nobility of purpose and grandeur of achieve- 
ment. Yet no one saw Amelia and did not love her. 
William Godwin and Holcroft in her youth, Joseph John 
Gurney in her middle years, and in her old age the great 
French sculptor David, all acknowledged her charm and 
looked to her for inspiration. Through her life of 84 years 
she gave with both hands to the sad world laughter, and 
the love of beauty, and unshakable fidelity of friendship; 
and surely like her more famous friend, she has heard her 
Master's " Well-done ", at the close.
MABEL R. BRAILSFORD


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Contents

Index to volume 31

Editorial Note

William Penn and English Politics in 1680-81

Notes and Queries

Christian Lodowick

From Whitby Parish Register

Current Literature and Additions to the Library

Elizabeth Fry, Amelia Opie, Two Lives

Index to volume 34

3,074

4,299