SAS Open Journals

Editors, The

IN PRAISE OF SILENCE 167
11 mo. 17. C. and M. Heaton's 2 child Cath. and Chas . taken to Endon 
Steeple-House to be what is called christened.
12 mo. 5. Jos. Lay invited me to come higher up in the meeting.
*
The following—the last interesting entry in 1816, though written 
some years before his death, forms a fitting conclusion to the account of 
this pious and unusual man :
12 mo. 20. I have abundant cause for thankfulness to the Almighty 
for having been preserved through so many difficulties and dangers 
when exposed so much to the world in my simplicity. I feel grati­ 
tude to my earthly Father for his behaviour to me throughout and his 
seasonable Letters.
JOHN DYMOND CROSFIELD.
84 John Letch worth's name and fame are recorded in a poem by 
Nathan Kite, of Philadelphia, entitled "The Arm Chair," printed in 
Select Miscellanies, collected by Wilson Armistead, London, 1851, vol. v., 
p. 104, of which the origin was on this wise : An arm chair, made many 
years ago by John Letch worth, for Leonard and Jane Snowdon, was 
presented to the author, with some information of the worthies who were 
wont to visit the estimable owners; accompanied with an intimation 
that it would be a suitable theme for some verses :
44 He who with artist's skill scooped out the seat, 
Trim made thy elbows, uprights, and thy feet, 
Now fourscore years and four are measured o'er, 
And waits his summons to the heavenly shore."
85 Caleb Pennock (1752-1841) is also celebrated in " The Arm Chair " 
(see previous note).
n (ptratee of
" From the tearing clatter of speech, where so much is said and so 
little is meant, where so many words go to so little a measure of sense, it 
is a treat indeed to get away into silence. ... In silence we can at 
least think for ourselves and go our own way."
COURTENAY, The Empire of Silence, 1916, p. 5.
44 A bird's song is made up of a warble and a silence," one has well 
said, <4 and the silence is part of the song."
COURTENAY, The Empire of Silence, 1916, p. 6.
Aldo, the great Venetian printer, set up over his door this notice : 
" No leisure for gossiping. Those only are admitted who come on business, 
which they are specially requested to despatch in as few words as 
possible."—COURTENAY, The Empire of Silence, 1916, p. 54.


English

In Praise of Silence

Editor's Notes

WILLIAM CROTCH AND THE POET COW PER 33
welfare, I have endeavoured to discover thy condition, but my enquiries 
were fruitless ; and I am left in painful uncertainty of thy state—to know 
thou art well and happy will give joy to my heart!—
There are in this city, and within the circle of my acquaintance, 
many amiable and some great minds, who love thee with true affection ; 
their interest in thy happiness, make them desirous of a satisfactory 
account of thy present condition ;—be assured none but worthy motives 
have produced this letter, the heart by which it was dictated, breathes a 
prayer to Heaven, that thou mayest be blessed with peace on earth 
and with that wisdom, which shall finally lead thy soul into the world of 
eternal joy.
I am truly with respect
and affection, thy friend,
JOSEPH BRINGHURST,
29, Union Street,
Philadelphia.
A female who is alone in her room, at an hour almost approaching 
midnight, adds her testimony to the above lines—and with a grateful heart 
acknowledges the pleasure thy writings have given her ; may that Power 
that has heretofore enlightened thy understanding continue to be with 
thee and bless thee.—May thou be preserved from evil, and know thy 
evening sun to be set in brightness, and when thy journey through life is 
at an end, may thy immortal spirit, which hath so sweetly sang the 
praises of thy Maker on earth be admitted to join that assembly, whose 
harps are attuned to His praise, in a region where sorrow cannot enter !
The above letter was printed in Chester, Pa., in 1800 (copy in D), 
without the name of the writer. Name, address and date have been 
supplied from a ms. of the letter in D.
Is anything known of the receipt of the letter ?
(EKffiatn ttrofcij ani t$t (poef Cowper
incident to which I refer is the account of a visit paid by 
William Crotch to Cowper, the poet. William Crotch was a 
man . . . of a deeply religious character, and possessed in an 
an extraordinary degree the gift of spiritual discernment. Being once in 
the neighbourhood of Cowper, he felt a religious concern to pay him a visit. 
He accordingly went to the house. A man-servant came to the door. 
William Crotch requested to be introduced to his master, but the servant 
replied that his master saw no one, and he had strict injunctions not to 
admit anybody. William Crotch was rather disconcerted at this refusal, 
and he continued to urge his request; but still in vain. At length he 
said, c Go and tell thy master that a poor creature like himself wishes to
Vol. xv.—i
34 FREDERICK SMITH AND THE POET COW PER
see him/ The servant carried the message in, and presently returned with 
his master's permission to introduce the stranger. On entering the room 
where the poet was sitting, William Crotch walked up to him, and, with­ 
out any other salutation, took him by the hand, and sat down by his side. 
For one whole hour they thus sat hand in hand, without speaking a word. 
In relating the circumstance, William Crotch said that during the time that 
that they thus sat in solemn silence a clear conviction was afforded him 
of the extraordinary purity of Cowper's mind. He at length addressed 
the poet, and, having in this way disburdened his spirit, he took leave of 
him, well satisfied that he had obtained the interview/'
Copied from A Memoir of James Hurnard, 1883, p. 51.
jfre&ertcft ^mi$ and t$t (J)oef Cowper
Haymarket
iQth of y& mcx 1792.
Respected Friend 
Wm Cowper Esq 
Olney, 
Bucks.
Having accidentally heard some days since whilst on the borders of 
your County a report which afflicted me with a degree of concern, I 
thought I should not be satisfied without informing thee of it, as it 
certainly militates against thy repeated sentiments of Liberty and directly 
opposes the Idea thou hast given in some of thy excellent poems, that 
" the slave trade is oppressive and cruel and ought to be done away from 
this Country/' What I heard is as follows, " that on reading the History 
of Africa thou had found that formerly the Species increased so fast that 
they were under the necessity of destroying or eating one another lest 
the country should be overstocked with Inhabitants, and on this ground 
thou objected to move in a petition to Parliament saying that the present 
mode of the slave Trade was preferable thereto ; " the report came 
through a channel that rendered it exceedingly specious, it would give me 
much satisfaction to contradict it, and which I certainly mean to use every 
endeavour to do, if thou wilt favour me with materials for the purpose. 
I trust thou wilt excuse the liberty I have taken as I can assure thee it 
arises from an esteem I have felt towards thee on account of thy Philan­ 
thropic and Christian sentiments and which as I doubt not thou art really 
possessed of, thou wilt not lose thy reward in publishing to the world.
With much regard, I remain,
Thy friend
^FREDERICK SMITH.


William Crotch and the Poet Cowper

Record of Friends Travelling in Ireland, 1756-1861. II.

Skidmore, Gil

'I had cause to be thankful that marriage would funish me with a chaise'; conscious and unconscious motivation in the journal of Catherine Payton Phillips, 1727-1794

CONTENTS
page
1 Editorial
2 15 The Divine Protection of Dinah Goff
David lan Hamilton
16 - 21 Norman Angell on the outbreak of 
war in August in 1914 
Peter Smith
22 31 Recent Publications 
32 Biographies
FRIENDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
President 2013:
Clerk: Sylvia Stevens/
Howard F. Gregg 
Membership Secretary/ 
Newsletter Editor: Gil Skidmore
Treasurer: Rod Harper
Annual membership subscription due 1 st January (personal, 
Meetings and Quaker institutions in Great Britain and Ireland) 
£12 or $24 or £20 or $40 for other institutional members. 
Subscriptions should be paid to Gil Skidmore, Membership 
Secretary, 46 Princes Drive, Skipton, BD23 1HL. Orders for 
single numbers and back issues should be sent to FHS c/o the 
Library, Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ.


Volume 62 Number 1 2010
THE
JOURNAL OF THE
FRIENDS HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
Communications should be addressed to the Editor of the Journal 
c/o 6 Kenlay Close, New Earswick, York YO32 4DW, U.K.
Email: h-fg@hotmail.co.uk
REVIEWS: please communicate with the Assistant Editor, David J 
Hall, 125 Oxford Road, Cambridge CB4 3PJ.
EDITORIAL
The Editor regrets the late despatch of this Journal.
David J Hall investigates aspects of the distribution of Quaker 
printed literature within the different levels of the eighteenth century 
Society's structure in a richly illustrated Presidential Address.
Claus Bernet provides a valuable list, with a brief historical 
introduction, of the British and American Friends who visited 
German Quaker Meetings at Friedensthal, Bad Pyrmont and Minden 
between 1790 and 1899.
Through the exchange of letters between parents and son, 
Rosamund Cummings explores the progress of Joseph Bevan 
Braithwaite's legal education with the development of his Quaker 
faith during the early 1840's.
Roger T Steam surveys the content and the limited success of 
Quaker public opposition to militarism, military training and 
conscription in early twentieth century Britain.
David Rubinstein describes the mixed Quaker response to the First 
World War from August 1914 to London Yearly Meeting 1915 which 
proved a crucial moment in preserving Quaker unity and preventing 
the Society collapsing into schism at that point.
The Editor welcomes articles or short items for consideration in 
future JOURNALS. He is willing to read drafts and advise where 
appropriate. He would like to include annotated Quaker historical 
documents, of reasonable length i.e not too long, from contributors
2 EDITORIAL
who have the expertise and enthusiasm to prepare them.
Contributors are advised to use the MHRA (Modern Humanities 
Research Association) STYLE GUIDE in the preparation of material. 
This is available from Subscription Department, Maney Publishing, 
Hudson Road, Leeds LS9 7DL (email: maney@maney.co.uk) or online 
at MHRA's website (www.mhra.org.uk).
The Editor's decision is final as regards publication or revision.
The Editor hopes that 2010 issue will appear before the end of the 
year.
Work is continuing on a Supplement to the Journal.
Howard F Gregg


Editorial

Robertson, James

136
WILLIAM PENN, THE 
OGLETHORPES AND AN ELECTION 
IN HASLEMERE: A NEW LETTER
A rediscovered letter by William Penn illuminates his political dealings in 1702, at the opening of Queen Anne's reign, when he was on the verge of semi-retirement after 
returning to England from Pennsylvania. (See Appendix) It 
demonstrates not only his continued involvement in English politics 
at this juncture, but also his willingness to involve both local Quakers 
in such affairs. 1 On April 30th, Penn wrote to two leading Friends in 
the Haslemere area, urging them to support Lewis Oglethorpe (1681- 
1704), the young heir of a former Member of Parliament for the 
borough,Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe (1650-1702), in the forthcoming 
general election for Queen Anne's first Parliament. The Haslemere 
seat would be fiercely contested, with a losing candidate casting 
sufficient doubt on Lewis Oglethorpe's victory to persuade the 
returning officer to make a double return. In the event the young 
Oglethorpe heir won this case too - which had questioned his age 
rather than the size of his majority - and by December was seated in 
his father's former seat in the House of Commons. However, while 
Lewis Oglethorpe could demonstrate his social position in August 
1702, ahead of the election, being listed as one of the Deputy 
Lieutenants for the county when new lists were compiled, any 
further electoral support that the heir to the Oglethorpe interest 
could secure prior to a contentious election would be valuable.2 This 
gesture by Penn on Oglethorpe's behalf was potentially useful in its 
own right and suggests that the respect that Penn had long received 
from leading politicians at Westminster as someone who could 
mobilize the 'dissenting' vote remained well-earned.
In broader terms, the letter demonstrates contacts between 
William Penn and Sir Thomas Oglethorpe, a high-Tory M.P. whose 
wife's Jacobite sympathies were notorious.3 This is also useful. It 
helps to confirm an identification suggested by the editors of the 
Papers of William Penn when annotating a letter of Penn's written 
from Pennsylvania in July 1701, where Penn cited 'Sr,Th:O' as his 
source for the key role being played by William Blathwayt, the long- 
serving Secretary at War, Commissioner of the Board of Trade and a 
Whig Member of Parliament for Bath, in promoting a wartime 
Parliamentary measure proposed by William Ill's government to rein
PENN: A NEW LETTER 137
in proprietary governments in the colonies to reunite them with the 
Crown.4 The 'S r Th:O/ who supplied advice on who was behind a 
measure that threatened Penn's role as Proprietor in Pennsylvania 
would, indeed, seem to be Sir Theophilus. This is in keeping with 
Alison Olson's argument that in fending off this major legislative 
assault, Penn turned to the Tories for allies, including some 
individuals from the party's crypto-Jacobite wing. 3 This new letter 
shows Penn, recently returned from America, coming to visit 
Oglethorpe in his house in St James's Westminster, and his arrival 
becoming a proximate cause of Sir Thomas's death. We can also see 
why, two days before a meeting with the Council of Trade and 
Plantations where some of his louder critics were to attend and 
several of his actions as Proprietor in Pennsylvania were likely to face 
detailed critiques. Penn still took time from preparing his defence to 
write this note.6
Demonstrating Penn's dealings with the Oglethorpe family may 
also help to explain why Lewis Oglethorpe's younger brother and 
eventual political heir as M.P. for Haslemere, James Edward 
Oglethorpe, would be aware of William Penn's proposals for colonial 
projects - even if the future General and colonial founder was only 
seven when this electoral support was offered. In the 1730s, when Sir 
Theophilus's youngest son and now M.P. for Haslemere was helping 
to float the Georgia scheme, a tract of Penn's on colonisation was 
among the texts reprinted in the volley of pamphlets that General 
Oglethorpe and the thoroughly Anglican Georgia Trustees published 
recommending a new American settlement.7 The choice may now 
appear less of a bibliographical surprise.
As for the letter's recipients, John Smyth and Caleb Woods were 
brothers-in-law and established Surrey Friends who were likely to 
have contacts in Haslemere.8 They were both among the ten co- 
signatories of a Lease, Release and Counterpart Release of 19 and 20 
August 1684, relating to the premises held for the Guildford Meering 
of the Religious Society of Friends. Thirty three years later Symth, 
now described as 'mealman' rather than 'haberdasher', was listed 
again, this time as one of 'three' surviving grantees of the [...] 
premises'.9 In 1695 a John Smith of Godalming, draper, was once 
again a co-signatory with Caleb Woods, senior, of Guildford, 
witnessing a set of title deeds. John Smyths are always legion, so firm 
identifications are difficult, but, given Caleb Woods's citing 'John 
Smith of Godalming, Corn merchant' in his will of 1713, this is 
probably also the John Smith or Smyth, mercer of Godalming , who 
features in a lease of the Quaker burial ground in Brinscombe, 
Godalming, in 1695. 10 These legal documents cite a number of trades
138 PENN: A NEW LETTER
to describe a single individual, but if he started in the cloth trade in 
the 1680s before transferring to trading in grain, then the various 
descriptions do cluster together, sometimes viewing him as a 
wholesaler, sometimes as a retailer. He may also be the John Smith 
who the Surrey Quarterly Meeting appointed to wait on members of 
Parliament in 1721. n In the latter case prior involvement in local 
elections may have done no harm.
Caleb Woods was a more substantial figure from Guildford. Two 
generations of Caleb Woods were maltsters there: the elder died in 
1713, the younger in 1716. 12 Woods senior, who we have already 
encountered co-signing property deeds in the 1680s and '90s, can also 
be found as a leading Friend in the Guildford area under Charles II, 
when the memorandum book kept as a justice of the peace by Sir 
William Moore, Bart, of Loseley Hall, the then lord of the manor of 
Haslemere, notes Caleb Woods hosting an illegal conventicle in his 
house. With the Moore influence in abeyance after Sir William's 
death in 1684, these would be useful people to contact prior to a local 
election. 13 The tone of Penn's letter suggests that this was not the first 
time that he had asked for their assistance in supporting an 
Oglethorpe candidate at a Haslemere election. As Sir Theophilus
Oglethorpe did not stand for election in December 1710 and was 
unopposed in January 1701, Woods's and Smyth's earlier 
interventions would have been in 1698, when Sir Theophilus first ran 
for the Haslemere seat as a highly contentious candidate. 14
***
Fresh letters from William Penn remain unexpected discoveries, 
with few gleanings left after the search undertaken by the editors of 
the Papers of William Penn. This stray letter is now in Jamaica, in the 
West Indies Collection at the Library of the University of the West 
Indies, Mona. It has been bound into an extra-illustrated version of 
Thomas Clarkson's History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of 
the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament, first 
published in 1808, to celebrate the end of British participation in the 
Slave Trade and reprinted in 1839 to mark 'full free' and the 
conclusion of the post-Emancipation 'Apprenticeship' transition for 
the ex-slaves. This lavish early Victorian compilation was donated to 
the newly-founded University College of the West Indies in 1954 by 
Ansell Hart, a leading Jamaican lawyer and book collector who had 
purchased West Indian material from dealers in London during the 
1920s and '30s. 13
The lithographed title page to the second volume describes the
PENN: A NEW LETTER 139
compilation as 'illustrated with Portraits, Autographs, Views, maps 
&c. &c. by Arthur West in Two Vols, 1846.' It is an interesting 
example of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century fad for 
creating 'Graingerised' or 'extra-illustrated' editions of prized 
volumes, where the compiler bound in further engravings and 
autographs: producing 'a customised version of a mass-disseminated 
book that represented the owner's engagement and intimacy with the 
contents of that volume.' 16 In this instance the additional material 
virtually doubles the size of the original book. Clarkson's retelling of 
the prominent part that English and American Friends played in the 
early stages of the campaign against slavery prompted the compiler 
to insert seventeenth and eighteenth-century documents alongside 
autographs and engravings. These include a 1684/5 letter by George 
Fox (printed from another text in the 1902 edition of his Journal, 
though with its lay-out and punctuation modernised there), which 
may be an autograph copy and is a contemporary transcript;17 this 
letter by William Penn and a further long letter signed with the 
pseudonym Tobias Seealittle', that seems to have been written for 
publication as a contribution to the debates against purchasing slave- 
produced material, where Seealittle proposed extending the existing 
boycott of sugar to include any Friends who as retailers sold not just 
slave-grown Sugar or Rum, but also Tobacco and Snuff. The last text 
was assigned a date of 1790 by the volume's 1846 compiler. It 
probably dates from the first phase of the wider British anti-Slave 
Sugar campaign that began in 1791. 18 There are also further Quaker- 
related illustrations, including three different engravings of William 
Penn and an autograph of Anthony Benezet's.
Can any more inferences be extracted? Perhaps. One swallow 
hardly makes a summer, but this instance does demonstrate how the 
historical prominence of some early Quakers could result in their 
autographs and autograph letters appealing to unexpected collectors. 
A later generation who traced - and then extra-illustrated - histories 
of Abolition and Emancipation prompted collections which may yet 
include further early letters. Today the 'gentle art' of extra- 
illustrating books has lost favour with curators, so that libraries 
which own these volumes tend to downgrade them, postponing the 
heavy chore of the retroactive cataloguing of the host of autographs 
that busy 'Graingerisers' inserted into their compilations. 19 
Occasional complete letters from individuals who late eighteenth and 
nineteenth-century collectors respected may yet drowse between 
these ornate covers too. The 2007 bicentennial of the end of the slave 
trade along with the individual stages of the subsequent reform 
programme up to 1838 and "full free", with the successive
140 PENN: A NEW LETTER
exhibitions the anniversaries of these reforms are likely to prompt, 
should bring further extra-illustrated volumes addressing slavery 
and emancipation out from the dimmer corners of libraries' reserve 
collections. If so, it may be worth while looking through such 
compilations to see if any more unknown Fox, Penn or Benezet letters 
lie concealed there.
James Robertson
PENN: A NEW LETTER 141
APPENDIX
De. Friends, }
Caleb Woods & } Lond - 30 th 2nd
John Smyth } 1702
Being surprised with the 
Death of Sr. The: Oglethorp 
at his door, when I went to - 
visit him (knowing nothing 
of his illness) I resolved, upon 
so sorrowfull an occasion, & to 
serve his family, for his 
very friend by healp! of 
me & all my friends, & 
his honourable principles 
at large; and perceiving by 
his Lady she designes her son
to
(v) succeed his father, if the Bur- 
ough of Haselmore [Haslemere, Surrey] will be as 
kinde to him (and truly the 
young gentleman seems to 
deserve it) I do earnestly In- 
terest my selfe in his favour 
with you (my old, & always 
true friends) that you would 
lend him your best, Influence 
& endeavours in this paaagc 
affair, and after what I 
have heard from him, I dare 
assure you of your aid in 
it, & our persuasion, on all 
occasions. Besides, his father 
missing of it as he did <last time> last time 
'tis almost a debt due to the
son.
2) Your very affectionate] 
Warm Friend 
Wm Penn
For my [ ] 
Friends Qaleb] 
Wood Joh[n Smyth]
142 PENN: A NEW LETTER
* I am grateful to Rollo Crookshank, to Michael Page at the Surrey 
Historical Centre, Woking, Surrey and to Josef Keith and Julia 
Hudson at Friends House Library for references and advice. Reading 
a version to the History Club at the University of the West Indies, 
Mona, also helped.
NOTES
1 Caroline Robbins, 'William Penn, 1689-1702; Eclipse, Frustration, and 
Achievement' in The World of William Penn ed. by Richard S. Dunn and Mary 
Maples Dunn, (Philadelphia, Penn: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986), 
pp. 71-84; downplaying the retirement theme, Mary K. Geiter, William Penn 
(Harlow: Longman, 2000).
2 Eveline Cruickeshanks and Perry Gauci, 'Oglethorpe Lewis (1681-1704)', in 
Eveline Cruickeshanks, Stuart Handley and D.W. Hayton, The History of 
Parliament: The House of Commons, 1690-1715, 5 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge 
University Press, 2002), v. Members 0-Z, pp. 9-10; Perry Gauci, 'Haselmere', ibid. 
II, Constituencies, pp. 581-584; as a deputy lieutenant, Calendar of State Papers, 
Domestic Series, of the reign of Anne, preserved in the Public Record Office, 1,1702- 
1703, ed. Robert Pentland Mahaffy, (London: H.M.S.O., 1916), p. 393, 25 
August 1702.
3 Eveline Cruickeshanks and Perry Gauci, 'Oglethorpe, Sir Theophilus (1650- 
1700)', Members O-Z, pp. 10-12; Phinizy Spalding, Oglethorpe in America 
(Athens, Ga: University of Georgia Press, 1984), pp. 2-3, and for the continuity 
of these Jacobite sympathies into the next generation, Keith Thomas, 'James 
Edward Oglethorpe, sometimes Gentleman Commoner of Corpus', in John C. 
Inscoe, ed. James Edward Oglethorpe: New Perspectives on His Life and Legacy - A 
Tercentenary Commemoration (Savanna, Ga: Georgia Historical Society, 1997), 
pp. 16-34.
4 To Charlwood Lowton,2 July 1701, in The Papers of William Penn, 4 vols. 
(Philadelphia, Penn: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987), IV, 1701-1718, 
eds. Craig W. Horle, Alison Duncan Hirsch, Marianne S. Wokeck and Joy 
Wiltenburg, pp. 57-59; also Geiter, Penn, pp. 90-93, and Calendar of State Papers, 
Colonial Series, America and the West Indies, XVIII, 1701, ed. Cecil Headlam, 
(London: H.M.S.O., 1910), pp. xxxiv-xxxix, 179.
5 Alison Gilbert Olsen, 'William Penn, Parliament and Proprietary Government7, 
William & Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser. 18 (1961), pp. 176-195.
6 For the dispute with Robert Quarry that was one of the items before the Board, 
Penn Papers, 4: 160-167, where they suggest 28 April as the date for Penn's 
reply. Also, Geiter, Penn, pp. 90-93; Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 
America and West Indies XIX, Jan-Dec 1 1702, (ed.), Cecil Headlam, (London: 
H.M.S.O., 1912), pp. 370-371.
7 Robbins, 'Eclipse, Frustration and Achievement', 74.
8 Kew, The National Archives, the Public Records Office, Canterbury Probate 
Court, PROB 11/533, ff. 199v-205, will of Caleb Woods, elder, Maltster of St. 
Mary, Guildford, f. 205, describes Smith as 'my brother in law'.
PENN: A NEW LETTER 143
9 Typescript handlist of documents from the Godalming Preparative Meeting, 
prepared by the Surrey Records Office, (now the Surrey History Centre), 
unpaginated, consulted at Friends House Library, 'Miscellaneous Papers', 
Records relating to the premises of the Guildford Meeting of the Religious 
Society of Friends, 5021/1/11,12,13, and 17, 18, 19, 2 and 4 April 1717.
10 Guildford, Surrey History Centre, LM/354/7; Chichester, West Sussex Records 
Office, Lytton/377-379, 21, 22, 25 May, 1695.
11 Surrey History Centre, 6189/1/1/19.
12 The elder, above note 8; the younger, P.R.O. PROB 11/544, ff. 215v-216, 31 
October 1716.
13 Surrey History Centre, LM 1046/1; Gauci, 'Haselmere', 581.
14 Cruickeshanks and Gauci. 'Oglethorpe, Theophilus', 11-12.
15 The hobby was promoted by the publication in 1769 of A Biographical History of 
England, from Egbert the Great to the Revolution, by the Rev. James Grainger (1723- 
76). University of the West Indies, Mona, West Indies Collection, 'List of Books 
Donated to the University College of the West Indies by Mr. Ansell Hart, 1954', 
(typescript), p. 5; writing up some of his other bibliographical finds, Ansell 
Hart, 'Bryan Edward's Copy of Long's History', Jamaican Historical Review, 1 
(1945), P. 100, and Shirley Davis, 'A gift of the late Ansell Hart to the Library of 
the University College of the West Indies in 1954', Jamaica Journal, 8:2 (1974), 
pp. 26-32.
16 Lucy Peltz, The extra-illustration of London: the gendered species and 
practices of antiquarianism in the late eighteenth-century', in Producing the 
Past: Aspects of Antiquarian Culture and Practice, 1700-1850, eds. Martin Myrone 
and Lucy Peltz, (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999), pp. 115-134 (p. 116), and, more
generally, idem. 'Engraved Portrait Heads and the Rise of Extra-Illustration: 
The Eton Correspondence of the Revd. James Granger and Richard Bull, 1769- 
1774', Walpole Society, 66 (2004), pp. 1-161.
17 George Fox, The Journal of George Fox: Being an Historical Account of His Life, 
Travels, Sufferings, and Christian Experiences 8th ed. 2 vols. (London: Headley 
Brothers, 1902), II. pp. 408-9,18th of the 12th Month 1684-5.
18 - Claire Midgley, Women Against Slavery: The British Campaigns, 1780-1870 
(London: Routledge, 1992), pp. 35-40, also idem. 'Slave Sugar Boycotts: Female 
Activism and the Domestic Base of British Anti-Slavery Culture', Slavery and 
Abolition, 17:3 (1996), pp. 137-162, and Charlotte Sussman, 'Women and the 
Politics of Sugar, 1792', Representations, 48 (1994), pp. 48-69.
19 Robert R. Wark, The Gentle Pastime of Extra-Illustrating Books', Huntington 
Library Quarterly, 56 (1993), pp. 151-165.
[Editor: The modern spelling of Haslemere is used throughout the article rather 
than the 1702 spelling of 'Haselmore' or 'Haselmere']


William Penn, the Oglethorpes and an Election in Haslemere: a new letter

227
NOTES AND QUERIES
ARTHUR RAISTRICK
Hugh S Torrens has drawn attention to: J.E.A. Marshall, Arthur 
Raistrick: Britain's premier palynologist published in HISTORY OF 
PALAEOBOTANY: SELECTED ESSAYS edited by A.J. Bowden, C.V. 
Burek and R. Wilding, pp. 161-179. The Essays are published by the 
Geological Society, London - Geological Society Special Publication 
No. 241 (2005). The essay contains a valuable biographical account of 
Arthur Raisrick as well as the specific area of concern in the title.
David Sox: THE ROYAL STUART SOCIETY EVENT.
Unusual invitations sometimes come to the Religious Society of 
Friends and the Friends Historical Society. I was involved with a 
rather odd event on the 14th October 2005.
Our Recording Clerk was asked by the Royal Stuart Society to have 
representation at a ceremony at the statue of James II outside the 
National Gallery in Trafalgar Square at 11.00 on the 14th to 
commemorate the birthday of James II.
The invitation was passed on to FHS, and always enjoying the 
atypical I attended. As Friends know William Penn received land 
grants in America in lieu of a cash payment covering crown debts 
owed his father, Admiral Penn who died 1670.
As Frederick Tolles put it: 'As the Admiral's heir, William Penn 
decided for reasons not clearly specified to ask for territory in 
America in lieu of a cash payment.' It turned out to be a very wise 
move for the future of Quakerism as well as religious toleration in the 
colonies.
The grant was made in 1681 by Charles II and became the 
Pennsylvania we know. Both Charles II and the Duke of York, his 
brother (the future James II) favoured Penn's request. As a personal 
friend of the Duke of York who became king in 1685, Penn helped 
draw up the two Declarations of Indulgence which gave religious 
toleration to Catholics Quakers and Jews as well as other Dissenters 
outside an Anglican state established Church.
Penn remained loyal to James II after the Glorious Revolution, but 
eventually abandoned the Jacobite cause. Interestingly with the 
accession of Protestant William and Mary there was no general
228 NOTES AND QUERIES
religious toleration: in a sense it was a step backward from Penn and 
James H's ideals.
Of course, James II has always had a 'bad press', and as Eric 
Delderfield has strongly said:' James committed every stupid error 
that was possible and for his intrigue with the French King, his 
packing of Parliament with his supporters, he became hated.'
But on the 14th October we celebrated James II's attempt at a fuller 
religious toleration; something worth remembering. The speakers at 
the birthday event stressed this. Father Nicholas Scofield, archivist 
for the Archdiocese of Westminster spoke to this point eloquently, 
and reminded the audience that though Catholics and Quakers differ 
considerably in doctrine, both groups in Britain need to be reminded 
of early efforts to bring us to a better understanding of each other.
After all this I was asked to say a few words as a Quaker. I 
concluded: Tn the spirit of religious feedom and toleration so 
necessary in our own day, Quakers can honour this occasion as one 
step in bringing about one of the cornerstones of what it means to be 
British/
David Sox


Notes and Queries

Chapman, W Ross

CURRENT AND FUTURE 
QUAKER HISTORICAL 
RESEARCH IN IRELAND
All history is contemporary history
or 
Today's news is tomorrow's history
or 
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose
Introduction
I take it as an honour bestowed on Friends in Ireland, past and present, for me to be invited as a speaker today. The Friends Historical Society deserves to have more Irish members; they 
can, I believe, be counted in single figures at present. We must recruit
a few more.
The FHS during its 100 years has been of value to Irish Friends 
chiefly through the Journal. This has been vehicle for topics of Irish 
interest but more than that, the Journal has given us a broad picture 
of the earlier writings and activities of Friends, not just in Britain and 
Ireland but in Europe, America and world-wide. I treasure my 
complete collection of the Journals and supplements.
For myself, I have no background in historical matters. My training 
and career was as a veterinary surgeon which profession claims to be 
an art as well as a science, an appealing combination. Having 
inherited my father's Quaker books, I was stimulated and inspired by 
the message within them. They have led me to delve into Irish 
Quaker history.
You may disagree with what I have to say. Certainly, some Irish 
Friends would not express themselves as I do. So, please be prepared 
to disagree with me as we engage in our study of history, our search 
for the truth, our search for Truth.
Irish Friends
A plane is preparing to land at Belfast International Airport. The 
message to passengers comes over the loudspeaker:
'Please fasten your safety belts and put back your time-pieces three 
hundred years'.
IRISH QUAKER HISTORY 47
All over Ireland there is a tendency to live in the past, to revel in it 
or to revile it. Friends also have the same interest in bygones. The 
details of 1641, 1690, 1798, 1846, 1916 etc. are continually being 
analysed and re-evaluated in the public media. I doubt very much if 
the people of Great Britain are anything like as interested in their 
past.
The original Friends in Ireland were exclusively settlers, recently 
arrived from England or Scotland to take up opportunities in a 
devastated land from which the Gaelic residents had been forcibly 
displaced. Those early Friends in Ireland were aliens in an often 
hostile environment. This was a total contrast from the position in 
England where Friends, despite persecution, had the comfort of 
living in a village or town where their roots were deep. Probably, 
most of them had families stretching back hundreds of years in that 
place.
In 1903 Ireland was in the United Kingdom; King Edward VII was 
sovereign. Friends in Ireland looked to the Society in Britain for 
inspiration and guidance. Many of the wealthier Quaker families 
went for education to Bootham or The Mount. Literature from 
London Yearly Meeting influenced the thinking of Irish Friends, and 
though not subordinate, we were largely under the wing of London 
Yearly Meeting.
For most of the 20th century there has been a growing 
determination among Irish Friends to assert their Irishness, to define 
Quakerism with an Irish slant and to recall those characters and 
events in Irish Quaker history which exemplify that distinctiveness. 
The fraternal links with Friends in Britain remain strong, but parallel 
with self-government at a political level there has been Irish Quaker 
self-assertiveness, in the best sense of that word, I hope.
Recent and current research
Some areas of research which have recently been studied by 
visitors to the archives at Dublin or Lisburn are as follows:
The place of women in Irish society
Schooling and education
Famine 1845-48
1798 rebellion
Temperance movement
Anti-slavery
Samplers
Business and commercial life
Shipbuilding and railways
48 IRISH QUAKER HISTORY
Milling industry
Refugees and relief in World War II
Biographical studies on many, for example, Bulmer Hobson, Thomas &
Anna Maria Haslam, Mary Leadbeater
Of these subjects, Irish women's studies has been the one most 
frequently recurring. With the development of equal rights and 
opportunities for women there has been considerable interest in 
Friends archives and library. Women's business meetings' minute 
books and the writings and records on Irish Quaker women have 
been useful resources for students, graduate and post-graduate.
All over Ireland there are local history societies whose members, as 
untrained enthusiasts, piece together what facts they can about their 
neighbourhoods. If that locality had a one-time Quaker meeting then 
someone is likely to have written a magazine article, a pamphlet or 
even a doctoral thesis on the Quaker activities and legacy in the area. 
I could name men and women in at least fifteen villages or towns 
who, although not Friends, have used our records and writings to 
prepare informative articles. These are all the more telling as they are 
written by those on the outside looking in. May I name a couple of 
them?
I think of Patrick Cassidy of Cootehill, where the meeting folded up 
about 1900. His parents bought a farm previously occupied by the 
Whitfield family, members of the meeting. Young Patrick heard talk 
of those Quakers and determined to learn more about their ways and 
their impact on the district. His writings and lectures have added a 
new dimension to our knowledge of Cootehill Quakers.
Muriel Bell of south Co. Derry provided a home for an aunt who 
retired back to Ulster after a lifetime in Sheffield where she had 
joined Friends. Muriel, as a local historian, became interested in the 
long-defunct meetings of Counties Antrim and Derry. Her local 
knowledge along with her researches in public archives has resulted 
in several articles on these previously neglected areas.
If current and recent research was only being done by Friends then 
there would be little for me to report. But the word 'Quaker' in many 
parts of Ireland is like open sesame. It conjures up a picture of 
charitable generosity free of religious stipulations, dating from an 
earlier age. So, research on Quakers has an appealing ring about it. It 
is embarrassing to realise that we are sometimes assumed to be 
extinct, and that our name is unjustifiably sanctified. A better sense 
of proportion is found in the perceptive comments by some 
researchers from outside the Society, such as:
IRISH QUAKER HISTORY 49
Sister Phil Kilroy who pulls no punches in her comments on Irish 
Quaker women ministers in the 1680-1740 period, and the tension 
between their calling to travel under concern and their husbands' 
wishes.
Heather Crawford has opened up a whole world in her study of 
Quaker samplers. She shows how colour and design were artistically 
used at a time when Friends officially discouraged these gifts as 
vanity.
Sister Carmel Bourke wrote inspirationally on the sweet influences 
of a Quaker foster-mother on young Catherine McAuley who 
becames the foundress of the Order of the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin 
in 1831. The writer suggests that several characteristics of the Order 
stem from Quaker principles.
Margaret O'Hare puzzles over the rise and collapse of Quaker 
meetings in Kildare and Carlow in the 18th and 19th centuries. She 
contends that being strongly conscious of their English origins, 
Friends failed to shake off the shackles of that inheritance. Their 
demise was as a result of their failure to embrace the Irish culture.
I must, however, impress on you that there are half a dozen or so 
Irish Friends engaged in recent or current research. Ken Carroll from 
the USA has been visiting Ireland each summer for umpteen years. 
He is a prime researcher, writer, lecturer and happy historian. He has 
unearthed some lesser-known aspects of our history and his example 
has encouraged us in our own fields of study.
Richard Harrison has been the most prolific of writers on Irish 
Quaker matters in recent years. His interests have been mostly on the 
business and commercial activities of Friends in Cork and Dublin. 
His Biographical Dictionary of Irish Quakers (1997) gives short 
paragraphs on 300 men and women over three centuries. Publication 
of a further book on biographies by him is imminent and awaited 
with interest.
Research is necessary prior to any worthwhile publication, three of 
which I want to name. The first is the Friendly Guide to Quakerism 
(2003), written by four young Irish Friends and intended for the 
youth market. It is to be circulated to all secondary schools in Ireland, 
north and south, and entailed careful study. Secondly, the drafting of 
a revised book of Christian Experience for Ireland Yearly Meeting since 
1999 has caused the committee of twelve to trawl through writings of 
Irish Friends, ancient and modern, to find useful quotations. A third 
publication is David Butler's volume on Quaker Meeting Houses in 
Ireland which is to be available in 2004. Patient work has been done in 
Irish Quaker archives and in public repositories by him and his local
50 IRISH QUAKER HISTORY
volunteers. This will provide an authoritative text on a subject 
previously unaddressed.
The major use to which Irish Friends archives are put remains the 
last for me to name. I refer to genealogy. Surely we Friends have not 
kept careful records since the 1670's so that pedigrees can be 
constructed? Is it right that the precious time of volunteer staff be 
spent on the self-indulgence of a family tree? Should we direct all 
such enquiries to professional genealogists who work on a 
commercial basis? Do the members of our meetings who have no 
Quaker pedigree feel demeaned by our encouragement of 
genealogy? I do not mean to be hurtful to the Quaker Family History 
Society. I myself know what it is to be smitten by the urge to discover 
ancestors and how time-consuming it can be.
Recent practical assistance towards research
At the Historical Library in Dublin funding was found to get the 
index card information put on computer in 2000. This provides cross- 
referencing of subject headings to make searches easier. Also at the 
Library over the past few years all available Certificates of Removal 
have been put on computer. This has amounted to over 14,000 
entries. Work is now proceeding on a similar database of 
disownments. As yet these computerised lists have not been made 
available to other libraries but in time they may be offered for sale as 
a CD-Rom. In Ulster a Friend has worked to create an index of names 
from the birth, marriage and burial registers of the Province. Also, by 
sifting through early minute books he has extracted names which 
have been indexed for easy reference.
THE FUTURE
Assistance for researchers
Facilities which are scheduled to become available soon or which it 
is hoped might be achieved:
1. A new premises in Dublin for Yearly Meeting offices and the 
Historical Library has been built on a site shared with the new 
Bloomfield hospital. It is situated six miles south of the city 
centre at Stocking Lane, Dublin 14, convenient to the M50 ring 
road. The new Library will include reading room with computer 
facilities for visitors, office for curator and staff, enlarged strong 
room for archive material and a store room. This purpose-built 
suite of rooms promises splendid long-term prospects for
IRISH QUAKER HISTORY 51
improving facilities for visitors and enquirers. The new Library 
is expected to be ready by March 2005. As the staff are 
volunteers, the hours of opening are likely to be limited to 
Thursdays only.
2. A List to be made of items held at various sites other than 
Dublin or Lisburn Quaker archives. In Ireland, quite different 
from Britain, all Friends minute books and registers are held in 
archives owned and managed by the Society. However, much 
important material is held in public or private archives 
throughout Ireland and in Great Britain.
3. Continuation of computerisation of disownments at the 
Historical Library in Dublin.
4. Microfilming of minute books and registers held in the 
Historical Library in Dublin so that researchers do not need to 
visit the Library and handle fragile original manuscripts.
5. Transcription of minute books. Visitors from Britain are 
surprised to find that not one minute book of Irish Friends has 
been transcribed. This painstaking work would allow
researchers to read the document without the fun and 
frustration of deciphering the handwriting. It would also allow 
an index to be provided for the minute book and would reduce 
the amount of handling of fragile manuscript volumes. 
The suggestions by Ted Milligan of a Quaker Record Society 
might address the present zero position regarding Irish minute 
books. As a start, there is a likelihood of a Friend transcribing 
the first Ulster Province minute book, 1675-1693.
Future Topics
My personal ideas on what might usefully be researched by 
Friends and the general public are limited by subjective vision. Who 
knows what will be the flavour of the year in 2008?
One of the best-known characteristics of Friends is our attempt to 
be a peaceable people. Many of the public, while longing for peace, 
cannot figure out how an unarmed lifestyle can be practised 
consistently. So, a critical study of Irish Quakers life and witness in 
our disputed and ravaged land should be made.
The situations that Friends have lived through in Ireland since 1654 
have more parallels in America than in Britain. The recurring
52 IRISH HISTORY SOCIETY
outbreaks of civil war and unrest give ample scope for investigating 
the penalties suffered and the compromises made by Irish Friends. It 
is too simplistic to quote the 1660 Declaration to Charles II and to 
assert that Friends in every generation since have adhered to it 
unswervingly. They have not. Honesty demands that the hard 
questions are faced.
In 1688-90 William Edmundson asked for government intervention 
and protection.
In 1739 after the malicious burning of Timahoe meeting-house,
Friends sought redress through a government proclamation.
After the 1798 rebellion Friends listed their losses but were careful 
not to accept government compensation, only to rely on collections 
by Friends. Their position of integrity caused them to reason that, as 
they had not taken up arms, they could not accept government 
money.
However, in the recent 1969-93 troubles Friends had no 
compunction about calling the police when in danger or taking state 
money as compensation for damage to their property.
In World War I quite a few young men from prominent Quaker 
families joined up voluntarily, there being no conscription in Ireland. 
Why did they do so? Rupert Bell of Waterford, whose parents were 
elders in the meeting, joined the British army to the regret of his 
mother. As he left for the front her prayer for him was that he would 
not have to kill anyone. Her prayer was answered in a poignant way 
when he was shot on his first days in the trenches.
Other assumptions about Irish Quakers to be investigated and 
challenged are firstly, the myth of the philanthropic Friend who went 
about doing good in an altruistic way. Secondly there is the myth of 
the mild tolerant Quaker who would not criticize any Roman 
Catholic practices. George Fox and Thomas Story wrote strongly of 
their feelings about superstition and idolatry when visiting Ireland. 
Friends in Co. Wexford experienced intimidation in that 
undisciplined Catholic area in 1798. Until the 1960's Friends in many 
parts of rural Ireland had to conform to some extent within the 
prevailing Catholic culture. Since then overwhelming change has 
taken place. Maybe someone will work on the ongoing story of 
Friends, first living among an oppressed and down-trodden Catholic 
population, and then adjusting to the stage of Catholic dominance 
and now to the present position when secularism rules.
In 1851 a young Quaker woman was so incensed at the inner 
rottenness of many Irish Friends lives that she wrote a book, 
Quakerism: the story of my life. Sarah Greer was her name and her
IRISH QUAKER HISTORY 53
stories are a terrible indictment of the Society of that time. Now, after 
150 years, her book deserves to be critically analysed.
Were her allegations true? How true were they? How effective was 
the book in purifying the Society of its hypocrisy and hambug? Was 
it just coincidence that within 15 years of its publication the rigid 
reasons for disownment were being removed. New blood was 
joining the Society and the schools were being opened to others than 
Friends. Could this book be a subject for study? Has it any 
significance for us today?
The curator of the Historical Library in Dublin has recently told me 
that in the last 20 years there has scarcely been one enquirer wishing 
to study the spiritual basis of Quaker activities. Although some Irish 
Friends such as Maurice Wigham and Richard Harrison have 
addressed that subject in their books and pamphlets, I believe that 
there would be a warm welcome for someone outside the Society to 
critically investigate the basis of our faith over the 350 years.
At the same time I am not sure that this can be done. Here is what 
my headmaster and mentor, John M. Douglas said in his presidential 
address to the FHS in 1956:
'whoever attempts the history of a religious group faces a 
perennial difficulty... The words, expressions, books, all these can 
be studied; also the effects of their worship upon their social and 
economic culture, and their relations with other religous groups, 
and with the state. But the essential thing in Quakerism, the 
group of Friends waiting humbly together in silence on the 
presence of the Eternal Living Christ, offers no scope for 
historical writing/
Our Meetings for worship are thankfully not being recorded yet, 
though I have sat through one which was taped on video. We depend 
on the Holy Spirit, we receive a message and absorb what we can of it.
I believe that we are sustained by a continuous thread reaching 
back to the first Friends in the 1650s, back beyond them through the 
puritans, the monks of the mediaeval church, the intrepid men and 
women who carried the good news in their hearts and on their lips, 
back to Christ himself who never wrote a book.
Historians are right to revere the written word and demand a 
reference for every statement but if all history is contemporary, that 
includes what is passed on by word of mouth.
Can we acknowledge the oral tradition and affirm that anecdotal 
evidence has real value? What is more engaging then an old Friend
54 IRISH QUAKER HISTORY
round the fire on a wintry night, relating the stories that his Granny 
told him when he was young, the yarns that are too personal to write 
down or speak into a microphone? The atmosphere must be right for 
those gems to be shared.
I know a man who at bedtime would tell his children stories. Often 
the children would ask him,
'Daddy, is that a true story?'
His reply was,
'Well, there's a lot of truth in it'.
W. Ross Chapman
Paper given at Friends House, London on Saturday 20 September 2003, to
celebrate the centenary of the Friends Historical Society


Not a member yet

In Praise of Silence

Editor's Notes

William Crotch and the Poet Cowper

Record of Friends Travelling in Ireland, 1756-1861. II.

'I had cause to be thankful that marriage would funish me with a chaise'; conscious and unconscious motivation in the journal of Catherine Payton Phillips, 1727-1794

Contents

Editorial

William Penn, the Oglethorpes and an Election in Haslemere: a new letter

Notes and Queries

Current and Future Quaker historical research in Ireland

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