Illustrations

13. William Mathews (1732-1792), a native of Stafford County, Virginia, lived in York, Pennsylvania.

14. Ambrose Rigge (1634–1704) was an English Friend. His A Brief and Serious Warning to Such as Are Concerned in Commerce and Trading, Who Go under the Profession of Truth, to Keep within Bounds thereof, in Righteousness, Justice and Honest towards All Men was first published as a broadside in London in 1678. A new edition was published by Mary Hinde in London in 1771.

15. East Hoosick Monthly Meeting was in Berkshire County, Massachusetts.

16. Elizabeth (Hoyle) Robinson (1729–1804) was a native of Lancashire with a reputation for a formidable presence. See Larson, Daughters of Light, 309.

17. Susanna (Hudson) Hatton Lightfoot (1720–1781) traveled widely as a minister. See Larson, Daughters of Light, 327.

18. David Sands (1745–1818), a native of Long Island, traveled extensively among Friends, including a visit to the British Isles from 1795 to 1804. See Journal of the Life and Gospel Labours of David Sands, with Extracts from His Correspondence (London: C. Gilpin, 1848).

19. Any Friend wishing to publish a work on Quaker beliefs and practices was expected to have the work reviewed and approved by the Meeting for Sufferings, which functioned as the equivalent of an executive committee for the yearly meeting. The “Small Pamphlet” was almost certainly Timothy Davis, Letter from a Friend to Some of His Intimate Friends on the Subject of Paying Taxes (Watertown, Mass.: B. Edes, 1776). See below, n. 23.

20. Several women named Phebe Yarnall were members of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting at this time. Rebecca Wright (1737–1811) later traveled in the British Isles. See Larson, Daughters of Light, 333.

21. This mass granting of certificates of removal shows how common it was for Friends to move without first procuring a certificate.

22. “Furren” here means “foreign,” traveling Friends from outside the monthly meeting.

23. The reference is probably to Select Works of William Penn, to Which Is Prefixed a Journal of His Life (London, 1771).

24. Friends did not oppose inoculation as such. The “uneasiness” was probably due to the hospital being used for military inoculations. See Robert A. Clark and J. Russell Elkinton, The Quaker Heritage in Medicine (Pacific Grove, Calif.: Box Grove Press, 1978), 39–40; and Ann M. Becker, “Smallpox in Washington’s Army: Strategic Implications of the Disease during the Americaz Revolution,” Journal of Military History, 68 (April 2004), 381–430.

25. The manuscript in question was the work of Timothy Davis (1730–1798), a recorded minister and member of Rochester Monthly Meeting. Davis argued that it was acceptable for Friends to pay taxes in time of war, even if they knew that some of the tax revenue would go for military uses. This ultimately led to a separation that included some Dartmouth Friends. See Hagglund, “Disowned Without Just Cause,” 217–48; and Alice Sue Friday, “The Quaker Origins of New Bedford, 1765–1815” (Ph. D. diss., Boston University, 1991), 191–375; and above, n. 16.

26. On September 5, 1778, Major General Charles Grey and a force of 4,000 troops raided the villages of New Bedford and Fairhaven, where they destroyed storehouses, shipping, and supplies.

27. Another variant name for New York Yearly Meeting.

28. John Churchman (1705–1775) was a minister from Nottingham Monthly Meeting, Chester County, Pennsylvania, and another leader of the “reform” movement among Friends. See An Account of the Gospel Labours and Christian Experiences of a Faithful Minister of Jesus Christ, John Churchman, late of Nottingham, in Pennsylvania Deceased; To Which Is Added—a Short Memorial of the Life and Death of a Fellow Labourer in the Church, Our Valuable Friend Joseph White, Late of Bucks County (Philadelphia: J. Cruikshank, 1779).

29. These testimonies or memorials, as they later were called, were often useful sources of biographical information. Unfortunately, Dartmouth Friends did not record them in the minutes. See Erica Canela and Robynne Rogers Healey, “‘Our Dear Friend Has Departed This Life’: Memorial Testimony Writing in the Long Eighteenth Century,” in Quakerism in the Atlantic World, 1690–1830, ed. by Robynne Rogers Healey (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2021), 23–43.

30. See note 3 above for the 1779 edition of this journal. It was reprinted in Philadelphia in 1780.

31. Presumably Dartmouth Friends thought Elizabeth Gidley’s manuscript worthy of publication, but there is no record of it being printed.

32. David Brooks (1737–1814) was a native of Virginia. Seth Coffin had moved to North Carolina from Nantucket in 1773. See Hinshaw, ed., Encyclopedia, I, 528, 532, 777.

33. John Forman (ca 1712–1793) was a minister from Gwynedd in what is now Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. See James Hazard, comp., “Gwynedd Monthly Meeting,” typescript, 2018, p. 66 (Friends Collection, Earlham College, Richmond, Ind.)

34. Thomas Scattergood (1748–1814) was a native of Burlington, New Jersey. He traveled widely among Friends in North America and also visited the British Isles. See Memoirs of Thomas Scattergood: Late of Philadelphia, a Minister of the Gospel of Christ (London: Charles Gilpin, 1845).

35. This is an unusual case, as normally the disownment of parents did not affect the membership of their children.

36. James Thornton (1727–1794), a minister and a native of England, emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1750. See Memorials Concerning Deceased Friends, 43–49. Samuel Smith (1737–1817) was a minister from Philadelphia. See ibid., 156–62. Thomas Carrington (1721–1781) was a minister from New Garden Monthly Meeting, Chester County, Pennsylvania. See Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Men’s Minutes, 1780–1798, p. 44, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Archives. Warner Mifflin (1745–1798) was a minister from Duck Creek Monthly Meeting, Kent County, Delaware, and an indefatigable opponent of slavery. See Gary B. Nash, Warner Mifflin: Unflinching Quaker Abolitionist (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017). George Churchman (1730–1814) was an elder in Nottingham Monthly Meeting in Chester County, Pennsylvania, not England, and a close friend of Mifflin. See ibid., 57, 60; and J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881), 497. David Cooper (1724–1794) was a minister from Woodbury Monthly Meeting, which was part of Haddonfield Quarterly Meeting. See Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Book of Memorials, 1686–1850, pp. 371–73, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Archives.

37. The Crisp work is probably Stephen Crisp, An Invitation to Friends, Concerning the Present and Succeeding Times. Being a Faithful Exhortation and Warning to All Friends Who Profess the Truth, to Beware of the Manifold Wiles of the Enemy, and to Stand Armed in the Light of the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, (Against His Assaults,) That So They May Be Read to Answer the Call and Requirings of the Lord, first published in London in 1666. A new edition was published by James Phillips in London 1780. “Mary Brooks on Silent Worship” is M[ary] B[rook], Reasons for the Necessity of Silent Waiting, In order to the Solemn Worship of God. To Which Are Added, Several Quotations from Robert Barclay’s Apology (London: Mary Hinde, 1774). Three additional editions had been printed by 1778. See Smith, Catalogue of Friends’ Books, 321–22.

38. The epistle condemned “Freighting and clearing out Vessels, from different parts of thus Continent, for particular Ports, under Solemn engagements of the faithful performance thereof, instead of which they have sometimes under a pretence of being taken, and sometimes without such a Covering, gone directly to different places, thereby intentionally falsifying that which they had solemnly agreed to.” See Meeting for Sufferings: Minutes, 1775–1793, 1st Mo. 9, 1782, pp. 162–65, New England Yearly Meeting of Friends Records (MS 902) (Special Collections and University Archives, UMass Amherst Libraries).

39. William Jackson (1746–1834) was recorded a minister in 1775. See Memorials concerning Deceased Friends, 214–26.

40. Since the previous discussion of slavery in the minutes, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in the Quock Walker case in 1781 that slavery was inconsistent with the Massachusetts Constitution. That decision has often been assumed to mark an effective end to slavery in Massachusetts, but recent research suggests the process of emancipation in the state both began earlier and continued longer than has been generally understood. See Gloria Whiting, “Emancipation without Courts or Constitution: The Case of Revolutionary Massachusetts,” Slavery & Abolition (Nov. 2020), 41:458–78.

41. The school opened in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in 1784, but closed in 1788. Reopened in Providence in 1819, it continues in existence as the Moses Brown School. See Rayner Wickersham Kelsey, Centennial History of Moses Brown School 1819–1919 (Providence: Moses Brown School, 1919).

42. Hugh Judge (1749–1834) was a minister who lived several places in Delaware and Pennsylvania before moving to Belmont County, Ohio, where he died. See Memoir and Journal of Hugh Judge: A Member of the Society of Friends, and Minister of the Gospel; Containing an Account of His Life, Religious Observations, and Travels in the Work of the Ministry (Philadelphia: J. Richards, 1841).

43. Ann (Matthews) Floyd Jessop (1738–1822) was a minister from New Garden Monthly Meeting in Guilford County, North Carolina. See Paula Stahls Jordan and Kathy Warden Manning, Women of Guilford County, North Carolina: A Study of Women’s Contributions, 1740–1979 (Greensboro: Greensboro Printing Company, 1979), 23–24.

1. The author and source for this section are not included in the minute book, but it is a combination of two epistles by George Fox, composed in 1668 and 1669. See A Collection of Many Select and Christian Epistles, Letters and Testimonies, Written on Sundry Occasions, by That Ancient, Eminent, Faithful Friend and Minister of Jesus Christ, George Fox (London: T. Sowle, 1698), 274-300.

2. This section also comes from the Fox epistles referenced in note 1.

3. This comes from a 1669 epistle by Fox. See ibid., 174-75.

4. According to Quaker scholar Lewis Benson, a manuscript of this epistle is in the Library of the Religious Sciety of Friends in London. See Lewis Benson, “Notes on George Fox,” typescript, 1981, p. 967 (Friends Collection).

5. This is entitled “An Epistle to be read in the Men and Womens Meetings,” dated 1677, in Collection of Many Select and Christian Epistles, 409-11

6. A Half-Yearly Meeting was established for Ireland in 1670. It became Dublin Yearly Meeting in 1797. See Braithwaite, Second Period of Quakerism, 261; Rufus M. Jones, The Later Periods of Quakerism (2 vols., London: Macmillan, 1921), 111).

7. This is not found in Fox’s known published works.

8. This is not found in Fox’s known published works.

9. Stephen Crisp (1628-1692) was an English Quaker minister. This epistle to women Friends in Ipswich, England, is found in The Christian Experiences, Gospel Labours and Writings, of That Ancient Servant of Christ, Stephen Crisp (Philadelphia: Benjamin and Thomas Kite, 1822), 293-95.

10. This is not found in Fox’s known published works.

11. This epistle was directed to Friends at Hertford in England in 1678. See A Journal or Historical Account of the Life, Travels, Sufferings, Christian Experiences, and Labour of Love in the Work of the Ministry of That Ancient, Eminent, and Faithful Servant of Jesus Christ, George Fox (Philadelphia: Marcus T. C. Gould, 1831), II, 223.

12. This epistle dated 7th Mo., 26, 1678, is found in Collection of Many Select and Christian Epistles, 414-16.

13. From 1661, See ibid., 164-65.

14. Dated 1681 in Journal of . . . George Fox, 240-41.

15. This is not found in Fox’s known published works.

16. A printed version of this prayer is found in A Vision concerning the Mischievous Separation among Friends in Old England (Philadelphia: William Bradford), 1692), 3-4.

17. The exhortatory opening of this section suggests that it came as an admonition from London Yearly Meeting.

18. The handwriting changes here; written vertically in the left margin opposite above text are the words “Ruth Tucker writes.”

19. Ann Scholfield was a minister from Pennsylvania. Lydia Mendenhall was apparently her companion. See Larson, Daughters of Light, 330.

20. Jean or Jane (Hughes) Ellis (1683-1772), a native of Wales, was a member of Exeter Monthly Meeting in Berks County, Pennsylvania. See Willard Heiss, ed., Quaker Biographical Sketches of Ministers and Elders, and Other Concerned Members of the Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia (Indianapolis: N.p.,1972), 309.

21. Epistles were usually directed from superior to inferior bodies. An epistle to the quarterly meeting from a monthly meeting was unusual.

22. Abigail Tucker’s denial appears at the end of the book.

23. Hannah Gifford’s acknowledgement is recorded at the end of the volume.

24. Prize sugar was sugar seized from a British merchant vessel by an American privateer and offered for sale. Friends viewed purchasing any sort of prize as supporting war.

25. Ann Gifford apparently was traveling as a minister.

26. The following two items were intended to be placed earlier in the book. Their corrected location has been previously noted.