Pistory of the free Quakers. 
 
 BY Charles Wetherill. 
 
> 
 
 THE LIBRARIES 
 
HISTORY 
 
 RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS 
 
 CALLED BY SOME 
 
 THE FREE QUAKERS 
 
 CITY OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES WETHERILL. 
 
 1894. 
 

 PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY. 
 EDITION LIMITED TO 800 COPIES. 
 
 No.. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 On the Southwest corner of Fifth and Arch Streets in 
 the City of Philadelphia, there stands a small substantially 
 built brick Meeting House, which has for many years been 
 occupied by the Apprentices' Library Company, The gable 
 end of the building fronts on Arch Street, and has built into 
 it a marble tablet bearing this inscription : — 
 
 " By General Subscription, 
 For the Free Quakers, erected, 
 In the year of our Lord, 1783, 
 Of the Empire 8." 
 
 Nearly every building of the old City has, since this date, 
 been torn down and replaced by edifices suited to the 
 changing needs of commerce ; but this house stands, the 
 memorial of a past age, and is the only monument now left 
 of the heroism of certain members of the Religious Society 
 of Friends, in the stormy time of the Revolutionary War. 
 
 The story is now nearly forgotten, and if not recorded may 
 perhaps soon be lost entirely, and it is for the purpose of 
 preventing this; and to answer questions which the author of 
 these notes has often been asked as to the origin of the Free 
 Quakers, that he now attempts to revive from the torn and 
 faded records of the old times, the history of that Society. 
 
 C. Wetherill. 
 
 March 8, i8g4. 
 
I. Introductory — Colonial Period. 
 
 In considering the history of any Society, it is of the first 
 importance to note its origin, and if it is a branch, or formed 
 out of an older Society; then the antecedent history of the 
 parent organization should be examined for that purpose. 
 
 As the Free Quakers were originally Orthodox Friends, 
 their history will not be complete without some considera- 
 tion of the nature of the Quakers and their peculiarities of 
 faith and practice, for before the Revolutionary War the 
 societies were identical. This is now briefly to be done, at 
 the risk of repeating what has been better said before. 
 
 The organized followers of the religious teachings of 
 George Fox called themselves ''Friends," for they pro- 
 fessed themselves to be friends, not merely of each other, 
 but of all mankind. Their more common appellation of 
 "Quakers" was applied to them in derision by their ene- 
 mies. 
 
 Their belief was based upon this idea : — 
 
 They conceived it to be their duty strictly to follow the 
 Divine commands, as contained in the Bible, according to 
 their understanding thereof, and from this they made the 
 further deduction that where God's command and human 
 law seemed to them to be in conflict, they obeyed what 
 seemed to them to be the Divine command, and willingly 
 suffered the consequences, whatever they might be. They 
 understood the Bible to contain an order to all men " to 
 swear not at all," from which they inferred not only that 
 5 
 
profane swearing was forbidden, but also that the oath taken 
 by witnesses and jurors in judicial proceedings is equally 
 immoral and wrong. 
 
 They read in Holy Writ that "all men are equal in the 
 sight of God," and they therefore spoke of and addressed 
 men of all ranks by name and not by title, and refused to 
 show any mark of respect to any earthly magistrate. 
 
 They read the Divine command, "so far as possible to 
 live at peace with all men," and interpreted this to mean a 
 total prohibition of all war or strife, offensive or defensive, 
 and they thereupon refused to serve in the army, or to make 
 or trade in any munitions of war, or even to pay military 
 taxes laid upon them, with their fellow subjects, by lawful 
 authority. 
 
 They read that the Apostles " left all they had to follow the 
 Lord," and were mostly poor and unlettered men, enlight- 
 ened directly by the Spirit of God. They thereupon con- 
 cluded to lead lives of extreme simplicity, and separate them- 
 selves from the vain follies of the world, and that the Gospel 
 ought to be taught freely to all men, and that not by a 
 priesthood supported by the government, or separated from 
 the ordinary avocations of mankind, but by any person who 
 felt impelled by the working of the Spirit within him to 
 bear his testimony ; also for this reason they refused to pay 
 all tithes or taxes levied for the support of the lawfully estab- 
 lished Church of England. Another consequence of their 
 objection to a priesthood or ministry was, that, as there was 
 no one to officially conduct or solemnize marriages among 
 them, the marriage ceremony of the Quakers is a solemn 
 contract signed and entered into by the parties themselves in 
 the presence of witnesses, without the intervention of any 
 priest or magistrate. 
 
The result of the formation of a small sect earnestly 
 devoted to such doctrines, in the times of Charles the 
 Second, in England, might easily be foreseen by any one ac- 
 quainted with the bigoted, yet dissolute, spirit of that period. 
 
 They were received wherever they appeared with derision 
 and scorn by the gay and polite courtiers, on account of 
 their simplicity of manners ; with contempt by the soldiers, 
 by reason of their peaceful principles, and with stern dis- 
 approbation by the orderly and law-abiding, who viewed 
 with dismay their irregular conduct and doubtful marriages. 
 They were attacked alike by the corrupt, who found them an 
 easy prey on account of their principle of non-resistance, 
 and by the clergy, whose services they disturbed, and to 
 whom they refused to pay tithes. They were also punished by 
 the royal Government for their non-payment of taxes, their 
 failure to conform with the lawfully established religion, and 
 their refusal to serve in the army ; and they received but 
 scant comfort in the courts of justice, where they steadfastly 
 refused to be sworn either as jurors or witnesses. The 
 elements of respectability and conservatism united with those 
 of disorder and corruption to punish and persecute them 
 with all possible rigor — and this they bore with the courage 
 and constancy of men filled with religious enthusiasm. 
 
 But when, after enduring these sufferings for a number of 
 years, William Penn was enabled to afford them the oppor- 
 tunity to emigrate to West Jersey and Pennsylvania, it was 
 thankfully accepted by many, and a colony largely composed 
 of Friends was speedily formed. Their most important 
 settlement at first was in Burlington, in West Jersey, where 
 the first yearly meeting was established on the third First day 
 of the Sixth month, 1681, but the superior advantages of 
 Philadelphia soon attracted to it a large number of settlers. 
 
8 
 
 both Friends and others, and made it the chief town of the 
 British colonies. 
 
 While many of the original colonists were not Friends, as, 
 for instance, the Swedes, of Tinicum, and the German 
 followers of Pastorius, in Germantown, yet the Friends were 
 by far the most numerous and influential fnembers of the new 
 settlement. In their new and peaceful surroundings, the 
 religious sentiments and belief of the Friends remained the 
 same as before their emigration, yet some remarkable changes 
 took place. Far removed from the tyranny of royal and 
 priestly authority, and living in a country where there was no 
 one to contend against them, they soon laid by the extra- 
 vagant outbursts which had brought them into disrepute in 
 England, and from being one of the most active and 
 eccentric of all the religious sects, they soon became the 
 most conservative and meditative, and the informality of their 
 devotions soon by force of habit attained to a regularity 
 almost ritualistic. 
 
 Their thrifty and industrious habits were soon rewarded by 
 the accumulation of wealth, and although their plainness of 
 speech and dress continued unchanged, prosperity engrafted 
 upon their simple manners an aristocratic and dignified bear- 
 ing, and the care of their large earnings gradually introduced 
 among them a spirit of caution and conservatism. 
 
 They still, on principle, avoided the courts of justice, and 
 each community or '' Meeting " settled the disputes of their 
 members by the arbitration of a Committee. The Com- 
 mittee in each Meeting soon assumed great power and 
 authority, and under their leadership the private lives and 
 concerns of their members were regulated in their most im- 
 portant and also in their most trivial details, with a strictness 
 which in some particulars may have been necessary, but 
 
which was often exercised in a harsh and undiscriminating 
 manner. For persisting in the use of wordly gayety of 
 dress or household ornament, for marrying a person not a 
 member of Meeting, for hasty violence of language, or strik- 
 ing any one, even in self-defence or in the defence of one's 
 family, the same punishments of reprimand and disownment 
 were decreed as if the offender were found guilty of the 
 mostldisgraceful and immoral conduct, and from these sen- 
 tences there was no practical appeal to any higher authority 
 than those who pronounced them ; for the appeal allowed to 
 Quarterly and Yearly Meetings hardly availed the appellant, 
 in Philadelphia, at least, where the Committee of the Monthly 
 Meetings were also influential in the meetings to which the 
 appeals were taken. While they were most benevolent in 
 their works of charity to all men who needed help, whether 
 they were Friends or not, there was but little kindness shown 
 to Friends who disregarded the discipline laid down by the 
 meeting. 
 
 Whatever feeling of discontent there may have been among 
 members of the Religious Society of Friends in America at 
 its rather severe discipline and occasional harsh enforcement, 
 there was no open organized opposition to the system during 
 the colonial period, but with the Revolution a more aggressive 
 spirit arose. The war for freedom caused a great awakening 
 of intellect in the American community ; invaded by an over- 
 whelming force, threatened with utter destruction, and thrown 
 suddenly on their own resources, its sturdy, manly, Anglo- 
 Saxon spirit rose nobly to the needs of the emergency. It 
 not only produced the military genius of Washington and the 
 soldiers who served with him, it warmed the eloquence of 
 Henry and Adams, it enlivened the philosophy of Jefferson, 
 it roused the varied talents for science and diplomacy of 
 
Franklin, it strengthened alike the infidelity of Paine and 
 the Christian devotion of Bishop White. It stirred the intel- 
 lect and heart of the whole community to their very depths. 
 And to relate the effect on the rich, peaceful, conservative 
 Society of Friends is the object of this little history. 
 
 II. Revolutionary Period. 
 
 It is with no wish to cast reproach upon the respectable 
 Society of Friends that the fact is recorded that at the com- 
 mencement of the differences between the American colonists 
 and the home Government, and until the event of war settled 
 the points at issue in favor of the cause of freedom, the 
 sympathies of those who controlled the public action of that 
 society were with the Crown. 
 
 The leading members of that society were men who had 
 grown old in the habit of loyalty, and had been rewarded 
 therefor by dignities and wealth. Their government of the 
 colony had always been peaceful ; the spirit of resistance 
 threatened war ; and war was not only a subversion of their 
 religious principles, but it threatened ruin to their worldly 
 fortunes. With the habitual caution of men advanced in 
 years, they looked with disfavor on the hot-headed young 
 patriots who declared themselves supporters of so radical a 
 change as the establishment of an independent government. 
 
 The calling together of the first Continental Congress was 
 an act of heroic patriotism from the American standpoint, 
 but was mere treasonable plotting in the royalists' eyes. 
 
 Accordingly, we find that at the General Yearly Meeting of 
 Friends, held in Philadelphia in 1774, a letter was formally 
 
approved and ordered to be sent to all Meetings of Friends in 
 America, warning all members of that Society not to depart 
 from their peaceful principles by taking part in any of the 
 political matters then being stirred up, reminding all Friends 
 that under the King's government they had been favored 
 with a peaceful and prosperous enjoyment of their rights, and 
 strongly suggesting the propriety of disowning all such mem- 
 bers as disobeyed the orders issued by the Yearly Meeting. 
 This letter was generally respected and obeyed, and most 
 Friends took no part in the war for freedom. 
 
 But this was not so with all : among the younger members 
 many took an active part. These held that as they should 
 render duty to their Government of willing obedience, so also 
 they owed it their active support when threatened by inva- 
 sion. While agreeing with their elders as to the wickedness 
 of aggressive war and needless strife, they took the ground 
 that it would be inconsistent to accept the support of the 
 Continental Congress and armies, and refuse to aid them by 
 every means possible. These men had to resist the prejudices 
 which they had been educated in and by which they were 
 surrounded. They had to meet their brethren before they 
 went forth to meet the enemy ; but they stood their ground 
 without wavering. They served actively in the armies on the 
 American side, they appeared in the Committee of Public 
 Safety, they were seated in the Legislature, they were con- 
 cerned in the printing of the Continental money. They 
 gladly gave to the cause out of their purses and stocks of 
 goods. Nor was it only by the men that these services were 
 rendered, the women attended their husbands to the wars, 
 and it is still remembered that during the battle of Trenton 
 the wives of the Quaker soldiers helped on the battle- 
 field to bandage the wounded, and the first flags that 
 
were carried by the American armies were made by a 
 Quaker woman. 
 
 While this was being done, however, the Friends were 
 not idle. They took prompt notice of the warlike pro- 
 pensities of their younger brethren, and the curious stu- 
 dent of history who examines the records of Friends' 
 meetings of that period will find a great number of entries 
 like these: — 
 
 " Isaac Howell of this city who has made many years pro- 
 " fession of the Truth with us the people called Quakers, and 
 "we believe has been convinced of that divine principle 
 "which preserves the followers thereof from a disposition 
 "and conduct tending to promote war, has notwithstanding 
 " so far deviated therefrom as to manifest a disposition to con- 
 " tend for the asserting of civil rights in a manner contrary 
 " to our peaceable profession and principles, and accepted of 
 " and acted in a public station, the purpose and intention of 
 "which has tended to promote measures inconsistent there- 
 " with. It thereupon became our concern to treat with him, 
 "with desire to convince him of his error, but our labour of 
 "love not having the desired effect, and as the testimony of 
 "Truth has suffered by his means, and he doth not shew a 
 " disposition to condemn the same, We are under the 
 "necessity in order to support our Christian Testimony to 
 "declare that he hath separated himself from the Unity and 
 " fellowship of our Religious Society. Yet it is our earnest 
 "desire that he may become sensible of his deviations so as 
 "to manifest a just sense of his error, and by a due concern 
 "for the testimony of Truth, manifested by a suitable ac- 
 " knowledgement, become restored into membership." 
 
 Which entry means that Isaac Howell having disobeyed 
 the precept of Yearly Meeting of 1774, and also having 
 fallen away from correct following after Quakerism by accept- 
 ing office under a government in rebellion, and by serving in a 
 
military capacity, was thereupon disowned and excommuni- 
 cated by the Philadelphia Meeting of Friends. 
 
 This action of Friends was not confined to the meetings in 
 Philadelphia ; the following is a copy from the minutes of 
 the meeting at Wrightstown, in Bucks County : — 
 
 " From our Monthly Meeting of Friends, held at Wrights- 
 '' town, the 4th day of the nth month, 1777 : — 
 
 "Whereas, John Wilkinson hath had his birth and educa- 
 " tion amongst Friends, but hath so far disregarded the peace 
 ** of society as to have served as a member of the Assembly, 
 "in the present unsettled state of affairs, contrary to the ad- 
 " vice of Friends; and, although repeatedly admonished on 
 "the occasion, doth not manifest a disposition to make the 
 "Meeting a proper acknowledgement for his outgoings: 
 " therefore, for the clearing of truth and our Society, we give 
 "forth this, our testimony, against such practices, and can 
 " have no further unity with him, the said John Wilkinson, 
 " as a member of our Society, until he come to a sense of his 
 "error, and condemn the same to the satisfaction of Friends, 
 " which that he may we desire for him. Signed in and on 
 " behalf of our said meeting by J. Chapman, Clerk^ 
 
 The disowned members occasionally made vigorous protest 
 against the action of their Royalist brethren. The testimony 
 of the Wrightstown meeting against Thomas Ross, Jr., and 
 his testimony against the meeting which disowned him, are 
 an example of this, as the following copy will show: — 
 
 "From our Monthly Meeting held at Wrightstown, the 
 " 7th of the i2th month, 1779: — 
 
 "Whereas, Thomas Ross, Jr., having had his birth and 
 " education amongst Friends, but having so far disregarded 
 " the testimony of truth against wars and fighting as to pay a 
 "fine demanded of him for not associating to learn the art of 
 "war; and Friends having treated with him in order to 
 
14 
 
 " bring him to a sense of his misconduct, yet he continues to 
 "justify himself in so doing: therefore we give forth this as 
 "a. testimony against such practices, and can have no further 
 " unity with him as a member of our Society, until he comes 
 " to a sense of his error and condemns the same to the satis- 
 " faction of Friends, which he may do is our desire for him. 
 " Signed in and on behalf of our said meeting by 
 
 "J. Chapman, C/erk." 
 
 " When the clerk had finished reading the above testimony, 
 " Mr. Ross stood up and read the following declaration to 
 " the meeting : — 
 
 "Whereas, the Society of the people called Quakers, in 
 " North America, in several important particulars, both in 
 "theory and practice, have departed from their ancient 
 "creed, and inasmuch as, in their ecclesiastical decisions and 
 " transactions, they are become extremely partial, inconsist- 
 " ent, and hypocritical, I do therefore give forth this my tes- 
 " timony against their present practice and innovations, and 
 " can have no further unity with them as a member of their 
 "Society until they shall add to a profession more consistent 
 "with the doctrine of Christianity or practice more agreeable 
 "to their profession. Signed on behalf of himself by 
 
 "Thomas Ross, Jr." 
 
 And this course was persisted in by the Quakers until near 
 the close of the Revolutionary War. Here is a certificate 
 dated in 1780 : — 
 
 "From our Monthly Meeting held at Buckingham, the 3d 
 " day of the ist month, 1780: — 
 
 "Joshua Ely, Jr., hath had his birth and education among 
 " the people called Quakers, and made profession with them ; 
 " yet he has been so unguarded, in this time of commotion 
 "and unsettled state of public affairs, as to take a test of alle- 
 " giance and abjuration ; and although he hath been labored 
 " with to convince him of the inconsistency thereof with our 
 
15 
 
 "peaceable profession, so as to contemn him in so doing; 
 "but it has not had the desired effect, he endeavoring still to 
 "justify his conduct : therefore we do give forth this our tes- 
 "timony against him as a member in society with us until he 
 " comes to a sense of his error and makes satisfaction to the 
 "meeting, which he may is our desire for him. Signed by 
 " order and on behalf of our said meeting by 
 
 " Robert KiRKBRiDE, Clerky 
 
 On June 13, 1777, the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed 
 a law commanding all residents to forthwith appear before 
 the justices or other officers qualified to administer judicial 
 oaths, and take oath or affirmation of allegiance to the State 
 of Pennsylvania and the United States, and abjure forever all 
 allegiance to the King and Government of Great Britain. 
 This brought the issue fairly and fully before the Society of 
 Friends ; the leaders of that Society stood firm to the letter 
 of the Yearly Meeting of 1774, and generally failed to comply 
 with the law. There can be no doubt that some, fearful alike 
 of disownment and of the punishment for treason on the 
 one hand, and of the penalties of the new law on the other, 
 took the oath of allegiance secretly, but some young Friends, 
 more earnest and candid than their brethren, attended pub- 
 licly before the Justices and openly and willingly complied 
 with the law. Among these was Samuel Wetherill, Junior, 
 who was a minister or public speaker at the meetings of 
 Friends, and also a very active man of affairs. He was great- 
 grandson of Christopher Wetherill, one of the first settlers of 
 Burlington, in West Jersey, and one of the Council of Pro- 
 prietors which originally governed that colony. 
 
 Samuel was born in Burlington in 1736, and while a boy 
 came to Philadelphia and was apprenticed to Mordecai Yar- 
 nall, who was an eminent and pious preacher among the 
 
Friends, and also a house carpenter. Like the good appren- 
 tice of Hogarth, he married his master's daughter, and by- 
 attending diligently to business gained a good standing in 
 the city, and by his earnest and devout attention at meeting, 
 was much respected by the Friends. Just before the time 
 we now speak of, in 1775, he joined with Christopher Mar- 
 shall and several other enterprising men in founding the first 
 factory for weaving cloth in the American Colonies, and 
 when the war broke out this factory was in active operation. 
 Not only did Samuel Wetherill publicly take the oath of 
 allegiance, but his public speech and ready pen were very 
 actively enlisted for the American cause. 
 
 The cloth woven by his factory was also supplied to the 
 army, and it is said that a timely shipment of these supplies 
 to the little army of Washington, at Valley Forge, saved it 
 from disbanding. He met his reward, the following entry 
 in Friends' Meeting Record attesting the same: — 
 
 "Whereas, Samuel Wetherill of this city hath many years 
 " made profession of the Truth with us, and we have grounds 
 " to hope he hath been convinced of the nature and excel- 
 " lency of Christian union and fellowship, but not being 
 "sufficiently attentive to the Divine principle of Gospel 
 " peace and love, which leads and preserves the followers of 
 " Christ out of contention and discord, has deviated from our 
 " ancient Testimony and peaceable principles, by manifest- 
 " ing himself a party in the public commotions prevailing, 
 " and taking a test of abjuration and allegiance, and hath also 
 " violated the established order of our Discipline by being 
 "concerned in publisliing or distributing a book tending to 
 " promote dissension and division among Friends : It there- 
 " fore became our care to labour to convince him of the 
 " hurtful tendency of his conduct, but our brotherly concern 
 " and endeavours for him not being effectual, he persisting to 
 " vindicate his sentiments and proceedings in opposition to 
 
17 
 
 "the united sense and judgment of Friends, we apprehend 
 " ourselves under the necessity, in support of our Christian, 
 "peaceable testimony, to declare that he hath separated 
 "himself from fellowship with us and become secluded from 
 " membership in our religious Society: — Nevertheless, we are 
 "sincerely concerned for his welfare and restoration, with 
 " desires that by his humble attention to the illumination of 
 " Divine Grace he may become so sensible of his deviation 
 "and errors as to be rightly restored into membership with 
 "us. 8th month, 1779." 
 
 What the book was that Samuel Wetherill published and 
 distributed is not now known : other literary works of his 
 that have survived to the present time, mostly on religious 
 subjects, are very forcibly expressed ; and upon those points 
 in which he differed from his brethren he probably expressed 
 himself with great clearness and vigor. Whatever their re- 
 ply may have been, the only answer that has come down to 
 us is the above entry. 
 
 Not only in Philadelphia and its vicinity, but elsewhere in 
 the colonies, notably in Maryland and Massachusetts, many 
 Quakers were disowned for their service in the cause of their 
 country. 
 
 In considering the effects of disownment on those who 
 were thus disowned, it must be remembered that the Quakers 
 were, as they still are, an exceedingly religious people. Their 
 religion was not to them a mere external habit of devotion, 
 to be exhibited to other men on the First day of the week 
 and laid aside until the following First day. They meditated 
 on it daily ; it accompanied them in their round of duty and 
 business, the Bible was read and studied constantly, and 
 their meeting was far more to them than their place of 
 worship. 
 
 The Philadelphian of to-day has many places of amusement 
 2 
 
i8 
 
 and instruction which our ancestors of the Revolutionary- 
 time were without. In that little city, where the woods 
 began at Fourth and Pine Streets, extending to the Schuylkill 
 River, where the State House on Chestnut Street and the 
 jail at Sixth and Walnut were almost out in the country, 
 there were no theatres or concerts or lectures on subjects of 
 popular interest, and no clubs or societies of a social kind, 
 or at least very few. In that day the meeting was not only 
 a place of religious worship, it was to Friends the chief place 
 of social concourse as well, and he who was disowned for 
 political cause was lonely indeed ; for such a man was, in 
 his heart, as truly a Quaker as any who disowned him. 
 The services of the Established Church were as distasteful 
 to him as they had been to Fox and Penn, so Christ Church 
 had no attractions for him, and the bells of the little 
 Swedish Lutheran Church of the Gloria Dei, ringing over 
 the meadows of Moyamensing, called him in vain. 
 
 His heart yearned for the meeting, and its associations 
 were none the less dear to him that he had been disowned, as 
 it seemed to him, unjustly. As the Revolutionary War went 
 on and the number of disowned Friends increased, they 
 became something of a feature in the city, and the more 
 devout among them began to meet together and compare 
 views. It seems that they first met in sipall numbers in the 
 autumn of 1780, at the houses of Samuel Wetherill and 
 Timothy Matlack, and after a number of meetings for reli- 
 gious worship, the propriety of forming a meeting of their 
 own was discussed among them. Several favored this action, 
 and on the twentieth day of February, 1781, the new Society 
 held its first meeting for business. The first minute book has 
 been preserved, and it speaks of the Society as " The Reli- 
 gious Society of Friends, by some styled the Free Quakers." 
 
19 
 
 A full list of the original members cannot be given, as 
 some attended irregularly and failed to register their names,* 
 but among the members the more conspicuous were the 
 following : — 
 
 Tifnoihy Matlack, who was a colonel in the army and a 
 member of the Committee of Public Safety. Later he was a 
 member of the State Legislature, and was a very active 
 patriot. 
 
 White Matlack, brother of Timothy. 
 
 William Crispin, who was commissary in General Wash- 
 ington's Army. 
 
 Colonel Clement Biddle, a member of the well-known family 
 of that name, who was disowned as early as 1775 for "study- 
 ing to learn the art of war," he having raised a company of 
 soldiers composed largely of Quakers. He afterward served 
 as Quartermaster-General in the Revolutionary Army under 
 General Gates, at Valley Forge and elsewhere. 
 
 Owen Biddle, his brother, who was a member of the State 
 Legislature. 
 
 Benjamin Say, who was a well-known physician at that 
 time. 
 
 Samuel Wetherill, Jr., who was the preacher and clerk of 
 the meeting. 
 
 Christopher Marshall, who was a well-known patriot and 
 an active member of the Committee of Public Safety. His 
 diary has been published. 
 
 Joseph Warner, who served in the army and was at the 
 Battle of Trenton. 
 
 Peter Thotnson, who was employed by Congress to print 
 the Continental money. 
 
 * Vide Appendix for a partial list of members. 
 
Nathaniel Browne, Isaac Howell, Moses Bartram, and 
 /onalhan Scholfield were also prominent members. 
 
 Among the women who were members the most famous 
 were Lydia Darragh and Elizabeth Griscom, widow of John 
 Ross, who afterward married John Claypoole. Lydia Dar- 
 ragh's house was used by certain British officers as their head- 
 quarters while their army occupied Philadelphia, and she 
 accidentally overheard them plan a surprise, by night, of 
 Washington's army, then encamped at White Marsh. She 
 escaped from the city and conveyed news of the intended 
 attack to the American army, and thus probably saved it and 
 the American cause from destruction. 
 
 Elizabeth Claypoole lived in a small house on Arch Street, 
 below Third, and was poor, supporting herself by her needle, 
 and it is quite certain that the first American flags used in the 
 army were made by her in June, 1776. The order of Congress 
 directing her to be paid for this service has been preserved. 
 The meeting of which she was a member disowned her for 
 making the flags, and she, with her husband, who was a 
 lieutenant in Colonel Eyre's regiment, joined the Free Qua- 
 kers. She was of very gentle and amiable disposition, and 
 it is gratifying to note that she lived to see the flag of her 
 country, of which she made the oldest specimens, honored 
 and respected all over the world. She was much loved by 
 those who knew her, and was familiarly known as " Betsey" 
 Claypoole. She outlived all the original members, dying at 
 a very advanced age in 1836. 
 
 The Society was not a large one, the first meeting for busi- 
 ness being attended by eight persons. 
 
 They and those who acted with them, feeling, no doubt, 
 that in forming a new religious organization they ought to 
 publicly make known their cause of so doing, prepared and 
 
published an address to those of the people called Quakers 
 who have been disowned for matters religious or civil. This 
 was printed in what was then called "broadside" form, on a 
 single sheet of paper. It bears date "Philadelphia, 24th of 
 the 4th month, 1781," and a copy will be found in the 
 Appendix. This, the first public, printed utterance of the 
 Society, should be carefully studied, and when it is remem- 
 bered that at this time the American cause seemed almost 
 hopeless, the Congress without money or credit, and our 
 armies defeated and discouraged, the patriotic language of 
 this and the other early documents of the Society is worthy 
 of particular note. It calls upon those who have been dis- 
 owned and feel the need of religious worship to join with 
 them in discharging their religious duties to themselves and 
 their children and families, and reminding the disowned that 
 many of them have been turned away from the Society in 
 which they were educated " for no other cause than a faithful 
 " discharge of those duties which we owe to our country ; " it 
 assures them that " we have no new doctrine to teach, nor 
 " any design of promoting schisms in religion," .... but 
 " mean to pay a due regard to the principles of our fore- 
 " fathers. We have no desire to form creeds or confessions 
 " of faith, but humbly to confide in those sacred lessons of wis- 
 "dom and benevolence which have been left to us by Christ 
 "and His apostles contained in the Holy Scriptures, and 
 " appealing to that divine principle, breathed by the breath of 
 " God into the hearts of all, to leave every man to think and 
 "judge for himself, according to the abilities received, and to 
 "answer for his faith and opinions to Him who ' seeth the 
 "secrets of all hearts,' the Sole Judge and Sovereign Lord of 
 " Conscience." The faith of the new meeting, therefore, was 
 the Quaker faith in which they had been brought up. The same 
 
simplicity of life, the same Christian belief, the same trust in 
 the Bible as the Word of God, the same appeal to " a divine 
 " principle directly sent from God into the hearts of all men," 
 which has been the constant claim of the teachers of that 
 faith from the beginning, was asserted fully and emphatically 
 in this characteristic address. The differences indicated were 
 not of faith, but of practice ; but they were so original as to 
 be very remarkable. The Free Quakers were fighting for the 
 same liberty in matters of religion that they had contended 
 for, and were in the act of winning politically. They had 
 faced the power of England, they were in the act of estab- 
 lishing a republican government for America. They also 
 wished to form a Church in which its members would be as 
 free from the tyranny of bishops and ruling elders as they 
 sought to be free from the despotic rule of a foreign and dis- 
 tant King. The first point with them was that in the new 
 meeting no man who believed in God, in a supreme, wise, 
 and benevolent Ruler of the Universe, and who joined with 
 them, should be disowned or excommunicated for any cause 
 whatever. It was charged against them that under such lax 
 discipline dangerous new doctrines might be preached. It 
 was answered, "better to suffer the dangers of freedom than 
 the coldness of repression," and if any is clearly wrong, 
 better to advise with him kindly than to turn him away. It 
 was charged that such a discipline left it in the power of one 
 member to pronounce opinions at variance with those of all 
 the rest of the meeting. It was answered that such a single 
 member might be in the right and his brethren in error. It 
 was charged that the new Society might be disgraced by the 
 possible immoral conduct of its members if such were not 
 disowned. It was answered that the Church is a moral and 
 spiritual hospital, wherein measures ought to be taken to heal 
 
23 
 
 the diseased, and that the more sinful a member seemed to be, 
 the more evident is the necessity of laboring for his reforma- 
 tion, and that if any supposed disgrace attended on companion- 
 ship with offenders, that inconvenience was more than repaid 
 if they could be thereby brought to reform and sin no more. 
 On one other point they differed radically from the older 
 Society, and that was as to the right of offering forcible 
 resistance against warlike invasion. The Quakers had always 
 held that resistance was sinful, and so they adhered to an 
 absolute peace, under all circumstances, suffering violence 
 to themselves, their families, and their country rather than 
 offer any resistance or serve in the army, even going so far 
 as to refuse to pay taxes where the money was being raised for 
 military purposes. The Free Quakers held, admitting the 
 necessity of government, that all government is essentially a 
 defensive war for the protection of public peace, and that 
 when the government is threatened by domestic treason or 
 foreign invasion, it then becomes the plain duty of every man 
 to join in the public defence by all means possible, and that 
 war, while an extreme measure, is in such instances not 
 merely justifiable, but right and proper, and, as is shown above, 
 the founders of the Society showed their sincerity in this 
 matter by serving their country, with their very best exertions, 
 at the time of its utmost need. On the same ground they 
 held, contrary to the discipline of Friends, that a man might 
 forcibly resist any bodily violence offered to himself or to 
 any one to whom he owed the duty of protection. While 
 their views as to warfare and resistance were precisely the same 
 as that of nearly all Christians, they were in such striking 
 contrast to the well-settled doctrines of the Friends that they 
 were commonly known, and are still sometimes spoken of, as 
 ' * Fightmg ' ' Quakers. 
 
24 
 
 These views they very firmly adhered to and very forcibly 
 set forth at their meetings for worship by the preaching of 
 Samuel Wetherill, who about this time or probably a little 
 later — for the work bears no date — wrote and published a 
 small pamphlet entitled "An Apology for the Religious 
 "Society called Free Quakers in the City of Philadelphia," 
 in which he argues very strongly that all Churches who 
 excommunicate act inconsistently with the Gospel, and in 
 which he also states with great strength and clearness the 
 views of the Society on the doctrine of non-resistance. The 
 book is very interesting, as showing clearly in what points 
 they differed from their Orthodox brethren. 
 Among other things he says (pp. 34, 35) : — 
 " Those who believe the Society of Friends are the 
 " Church of Christ, and that disowning necessarily implies 
 "an exclusion from Heaven, are, according to the ancient 
 "principle laid down by Barclay, the true and orthodox 
 " Quakers. The others who do not suppose the Society are 
 "the pure Church, who do not pretend to binding and 
 " loosing in heaven and on earth, are most catholic and 
 "modest. But let me ask those friends : supposing a num- 
 " ber of men were forming themselves into a religious society 
 "for the purposes of improvement in piety and virtue, would 
 "the present discipline of Friends be the most proper rules 
 "to produce this effect? Would they agree that no one 
 "among them should marry a person of any other Society, 
 " though ever so amiable, under pain of being expelled from 
 " the body, nor even a member of their own Society, unless 
 "they accomplished their marriage agreeable to one par- 
 " ticular form? That no man should defend his own life, 
 " nor the life of his friend, nor the government under which 
 "he lived, nor pay taxes for military purposes, nor a fine for 
 
25 
 
 "not complying with the laws in certain cases? That no 
 "man should publish a religious or political treatise without 
 " consent of the Society, under the penalty of being expelled 
 " from the body ? Can it be supposed that any number of 
 "men of sound understanding would, in the present day, 
 "lay down such a plan, and make a compliance with those 
 "rules the test of Christian fellowship? If, then, it is 
 "impossible to suppose such a case, are they wise who make 
 "those rules the test of Christian fellowship, merely because 
 " they were made the conditions of fellowship by their ances- 
 "tors? How much more reasonable would it be in them 
 "to say: the design of this institution is, that we may be 
 "mutually instrumental in promoting the temporal and eter- 
 " nal felicity one of another? We feel the importance of a 
 "virtuous life, we will, therefore, use all the means with 
 "which divine providence may favour us, solely for this end. 
 "If, then, a brother should be overtaken in a fault, we will 
 "endeavour to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, 
 "considering ourselves, lest we also be tempted; but in no 
 "case whatever, shall any one be expelled from the Society, 
 "lest it should prove his ruin. How greatly preferable 
 " would such a system of church government be ? * >i< * 
 "Such, then, is the plan of the Religious Society of Free 
 "Quakers in the City of Philadelphia." 
 
 Their meetings for worship were at first held in private 
 houses, generally in the house of the clerk. Afterwards, they 
 met in one of the rooms of the college building of the Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania. 
 
 At their meetings for business, their first work was to for- 
 mulate a Discipline, or plan of organization, and in order to 
 obtain the assistance of all such disowned Friends as might 
 wish to join in the work, they issued on the fourth day of 
 
26 
 
 the sixth month, 1781, a second broadside or public printed 
 letter to "Our Friends and Brethren in Pennsylvania, New 
 Jersey and elsewhere," stating that they "conceived it to 
 "be a duty which we owe to ourselves, our children, and 
 " families to establish and support among us public meetings 
 " for religious worship, and to appoint stated meetings for 
 "conducting the affairs of the Society, upon principles as 
 "liberal and enlarged toward one another, as those adopted 
 "by the State are toward all," and inviting " the advice and 
 "assistance of all who may kindly afford us their counsel," 
 This letter will also be found copied at length in the 
 Appendix. Having sent out this epistle to their friends, 
 they continued their work on Discipline, and on the sixth 
 day of the eighth month, 1781, at their meeting for business, 
 unanimously agreed to it. The document has been printed, 
 and a clearer or more forcibly expressed work of the kind 
 could hardly be imagined. It is so filled with a manly spirit 
 of patriotism, mingled with Christian devotion, and also 
 showing a due sense of order which has always characterized 
 the Friends, that this work would not be complete unless it 
 be transcribed in full. 
 This, then, is 
 
 ''THE DISCIPLINE. 
 
 Society of Friends, by some styled the Free Quakers. 
 
 Unanimously agreed to hi their Meeting for Business, held in Philadel- 
 phia on the Sixth day of the Eighth Month, 178 1. 
 
 "The Creator of man, having bestowed upon individuals 
 "greater and less natural abilities, and opportunities of im- 
 " provement, a variety of sentiments respecting the duties 
 
27 
 
 "which we owe to him, necessarily arises among us, and it 
 "becomes essential to our happiness, that we may perform 
 " those duties in that way which we think most acceptable to 
 "him. And therefore, when w^e contemplate the long con- 
 " tinued and earnest contest which has been maintained, and 
 "the torrents of blood which, in other countries, have been 
 "shed in defence of this precious privilege, we cannot but 
 " acknowledge it to be a signal instance of the immediate care 
 " of a divine providence over the people of America, that he 
 "has, in the present great revolution, thus far established 
 " among us governments, under which no man, who acknowl- 
 " edges the being of a God, can be abridged of any civil 
 "right on account of his religious sentiments; while other 
 " nations who see and lament their wretched situation are yet 
 "groaning under a grievous bondage. But governments 
 " established upon those liberal, just, and truly christian prin- 
 "ciples, and wisely confined to the great objects of ascer- 
 " taining and defending civil rights, in avoiding the possi- 
 " bility of wounding the conscience of any, must unavoidably 
 "leave some cases unprovided for, which come properly 
 "under the care of religious societies. Hence we are not 
 "only left at liberty to act agreeably to our sentiments; but 
 "the necessity and obligation of establishing and supporting 
 "religious societies are increased and strengthened. 
 
 " We acknowledge the kindness of providence in awaken- 
 " ing us to a view of the deplorable situation in which we 
 "have been. Disowned and rejected by those among whom 
 "we have been educated, and scattered abroad, as if we had 
 "been aliens in a strange land, the prospect of our situation 
 " has indeed humbled us. But he whose mercy endureth 
 " forever has preserved us, and induced us to confide that he 
 " will care for us. And being made sensible of the indispen- 
 
28 
 
 "sable necessity of uniting together, we have cast our care 
 "upon the great preserver of men, and depending upon him 
 " for our support, conceive it to be a duty which we owe to 
 "ourselves, our children, and families, to establish and sup- 
 " port among us public meetings for religious worship ; to 
 "appoint stated meetings for conducting the affairs of the 
 " Society, upon principles as liberal and enlarged toward one 
 "another, as those adopted by the state are toward all, and 
 " paying a due regard to the principles of our forefathers, 
 "and the spirit of the wise regulations established by them, 
 " to fix upon such rules as may enable us to preserve decency 
 "and good order; and among other things, to agree upon, 
 "and make known a decent form of marriage, which may at 
 " once secure the rights of parents and of children ; and a 
 "mode of forming and preserving records of marriages, 
 " births, and burials. 
 
 "Wherefore after mature deliberation it was unanimously 
 "agreed as follows, to wit : — 
 
 " First. — Meetings for public worship shall be established 
 "and kept up. The time and place of holding them shall 
 " be ordered and directed by the meeting for business. And 
 "it is earnestly recommended, to all who come to our meet- 
 " ings for worship, or meetings for business, to attend pre- 
 " cisely at the time appointed. 
 
 "Secondly. — A meeting shall be held monthly for conduct- 
 " ing the business of the Society, in which any member may 
 " freely express his sentiments, on all business which shall 
 " there be determined or considered. In this meeting una- 
 " nimity and harmony ought to prevail, and where any differ- 
 "ence of sentiment may appear, charity and brotherly con- 
 "descension ought to be shown to one another. Minutes of 
 "all the proceedings shall be kept, and for this purpose a 
 
29 
 
 "clerk shall be appointed, and be under the direction of the 
 "meeting. At the opening of each meeting, after a solemn 
 " pause for worship, the minutes of the meeting next pre- 
 " ceding shall be read. 
 
 " Thirdly. — Persons intending marriage may, either in 
 "person or by a friend, inform the meeting for business there- 
 **of; but where it may conveniently be, it is recommended, 
 " that the parties proposing marriage do attend the meeting 
 " before which the proposal is made. Whereupon a com- 
 " mittee shall be appointed to enquire concerning their clear- 
 "ness of other marriage engagements, consent of parents or 
 " guardians ; and such other matters as relate to the proposed 
 "marriage, and report thereon to the next meeting. No 
 "reasonable objection appearing, and the parties as afore- 
 " said signifying the continuation of their intentions, the 
 " marriage may be allowed of, and two persons appointed to 
 "attend the decent solemnization thereof, and to have the 
 "certificate of the same recorded in the book of marriages. 
 
 " The marriage may be solemnized at a public meeting for 
 "worship; or at the house of either of the parties; or at the 
 " house of their parents or friends, as the parties may choose: 
 " but it is recommended that the same be preceded by a 
 " solemn pause, and worship to God. As cases may probably 
 "happen, in which it will be inconvenient to postpone mar- 
 " riages so long as from one monthly meeting to another, in 
 "such cases an adjournment of the meeting may be made, 
 "the report of the committee received, and the marriage be 
 " allowed of as aforesaid. 
 
 "The solemnization is recommended to be after the fol- 
 " lowing manner, to wit : The parties standing up and taking 
 " each other by the hand, the man shall declare to this import : 
 " That he takes the woman, naming her name, to be his wife, 
 
3° 
 
 "and will be unto her a loving and faithful husband until 
 " death shall separate them. And the woman, on her part, 
 "shall declare to the import That she takes the man, naming 
 " his name, to be her husband: and will be unto him a loving 
 "and faithful wife until death shall separate them. The cer- 
 "tificate whereof may be to the following import, to wit: 
 " Whereas, A. B., of C, (expressing also his title or occupa- 
 "tion,) son of C. D., of E. and F. his wife, and G. H., 
 "daughter of I. K., of L., and M., his wife, having laid 
 " their intentions of marriage with each other, before the 
 "meeting for business of tlie society of Friends, styled by 
 "some The Free Quakers, held at N., the same were allowed 
 "of, and on the day of the month, in the year 
 
 "of our Lord (inserting the day, month, and year), the said 
 " parties appeared at a meeting appointed for the solemniza- 
 " tion of the said marriage (or otherwise as the case may be), 
 "and taking each other by the hand, the said A. B., did, in 
 "a solemn manner, declare that he took the said G. H., to 
 "be his wife, and promised to be unto her a loving and 
 " faithful husband until death should separate them : And the 
 "said G. H., did in like manner declare, that she took the 
 " said A. B. to be her husband, and promised to be unto 
 "him a loving and faithful wife until death should separate 
 " them. And in confirmation and testimony of the same, 
 "they the said A. B. and G. H., she assuming the name of 
 " her husband, did then and there to these presents set 
 "their hands. And we, whose names are also subscribed, 
 " being present at the said marriage and subscription, have, 
 "as witnesses to the same, hereunto set our hands, the day 
 "and year aforesaid. 
 
 ^^ Fourthly. — Records shall be kept of all marriages, births, 
 "and burials among us. And as these records may be of 
 
31 
 
 ''great importance, and the recording of births and burials 
 "will greatly depend on the care of individuals, in giving an 
 ''account thereof, it is earnestly recommended to all, to give 
 "an early account of both, mentioning the child's name, 
 "parentage, and day of its birth; and the name, parentage, 
 "title or occupation, age, and day of decease, as well of 
 " those who die abroad, when the same can be ascertained, 
 "as of those who die among us. 
 
 ^^ Fifthly. — Persons desirous of joining with us in Society, 
 " signifying the same to the meeting for business, and appear- 
 " ing to be of good character, may be admitted. Whereupon 
 " they may give in the names and ages of their children, to 
 "be recorded. Should any choose to go from among us, a 
 " minute thereof may be entered among our proceedings. 
 
 ^^ Sixthly. — In cases of controversy respecting property, a 
 "reference to disinterested men, either of our own or some 
 "other Society, and a compliance with their judgment, may 
 "be recommended, as the most expeditious and least expen- 
 "sive mode of terminating such disputes, and tending to 
 " peace and harmony, but, it shall be a perpetual rule among 
 " us, as a religious society, that we will not otherwise inter- 
 " fere in controversies between one man and another. This 
 " rule being contrary to that of our ancestors, in this case we 
 "think it necessary to observe. That however blameable or 
 " even " shameful " it might have been in the Apostle's day, 
 " for brother to go to law with brother " before the un- 
 " believers," in the present day, when the State, of which 
 "we ourselves are members, appoint men eminent for their 
 "abilities and integrity, to judge of all controversies, and 
 " those judges being themselves Christians, are aided by juries 
 " of Christians: there does not appear any just cause for pro- 
 " hibiting appeals to them: on the contrary, to us it seems 
 
32 
 
 " to be indecent and unjust to speak of these Christian courts, 
 " as the Apostles spake of those of " the unbelievers," and as 
 "the Society who have disowned us have affected to speak 
 " of the courts of justice, even when themselves were the 
 " officers, jurors, judges, and legislators. 
 
 ^^ Seventh. — As brethren each may counsel and advise an- 
 " other in the spirit of love and meekness, as he may see 
 ** occasion, remembering always that he also may be tempted : 
 " but leaving guilt to be punished by the laws of the land, and 
 *' commending those who err to the grace of God, no public 
 " censures shall be passed by us on any. Neither shall a 
 " member be deprived of his right among us, on account of 
 " his differing in sentiment from any or all of his brethren." 
 
 This paper is as remarkable in its utterances as in its 
 omissions. One searches through it in vain for any creed 
 or protestation of faith ; and the Discipline would be almost 
 as suitable, in its simple arrangements, for a society of ancient 
 Greek philosophers. The society was from its origin de- 
 voutly and earnestly Christian, but they were Quakers, and 
 their disownment having been only for civil or political 
 cause, and not on any ground of religious difference, their 
 belief on all main points was already so clearly understood 
 that no publication of it was deemed needful or advisable. 
 
 The Discipline however points clearly to the main grounds 
 wherein they differed from Friends. The closing statement 
 "Neither shall a member be deprived of his right among 
 " us on account of his differing in sentiment from any or 
 " all of his brethren," is an assurance of religious freedom 
 which no other Christian sect has ever given to its followers. 
 
 These publications attracted considerable attention at the 
 time, especially among Friends, and members of that So- 
 ciety in other States who had suffered disownment began 
 
33 
 
 to organize and meet in the same manner. In Chester 
 County in Pennsylvania, at West River in Maryland, even 
 as far as Massachusetts, Free Quaker meetings began to 
 spring up, and a regular correspondence between these 
 Friends and the Philadelphia meeting seems to have existed. 
 Meanwhile the Society in Philadelphia was much incon- 
 venienced for want of some suitable place in which to hold 
 their meetings for worship and business. Application was 
 made to the Friends who had disowned them for leave to use 
 one of the meeting houses of that Society, but this was 
 refused. The Free Quakers consulted thereon, and, holding 
 that their expulsion had been mainly caused by political 
 differences, with which a religious sect as such had nothing 
 to do, and as they had been disowned for simply obeying the 
 laws and devoting their lives and property to the service of 
 their country, they conceived that their disownment for such 
 causes gave their orthodox brethren no right to exclude them 
 from the joint use of the meeting houses and burial ground 
 of the Quakers. In this view many persons who were not 
 of that Society agreed with them, for the Whig Quakers, or 
 Fighting Quakers, as they were called, had the sympathies 
 of the people with them. Thus cheered, they prepared a 
 formal printed letter, "From the Monthly Meeting of 
 Friends, called by some the Free Quakers, held by adjourn- 
 ment at Philadelphia, on the ninth day of the seventh 
 month, 1781 : To those of our Brethren who have disowned 
 us," which states the differences that had arisen and pro- 
 ceeds: "We think it proper for us to use, apart from you, 
 "one of the houses built by Friends in this city for those 
 "purposes;" * * * * "and therefore we thus invite 
 " you to the opportunity of showing what degree of kindness 
 " and brotherly love toward us still remains among you. 
 3 
 
34 
 
 "We also mean to use the burial ground whenever the occa- 
 " sion shall require it; for, however the living may contend, 
 "surely the dead may lie peaceably together." 
 
 The original letter- was presented by Timothy Matlack, 
 Moses Bartram, and White Matlack, to the Monthly Meeting 
 of Friends in Philadelphia, on the twenty-seventh day of 
 seventh month, 1781. On the back of the letter is a memo- 
 randum, evidently made by some member of the Meeting 
 to whom it was delivered, of the proceedings of the Quakers 
 thereupon and the verbal answer which it was agreed should be 
 made to Timothy Matlack or "either of the persons who 
 attended with him," and which was done accordingly. 
 Probably by some mistake, the original letter was returned, 
 together with the endorsed memorandum, so we know just 
 what the verbal answer was. It ran as follows : — 
 
 "We have considered the contents of the paper presented 
 "to our last meeting by Timothy Matlack and others, and 
 "are of the judgment that it is improper to be read in the 
 " Meeting, of which we think the parties concerned will 
 "have grounds to be convinced, on a cool and dispassionate 
 "reconsideration, of the requisition they make." [For a 
 full copy see Appendix, No. 3.] 
 
 This answer amounting, to a final refusal, the Free Quakers 
 applied to the Legislature of the State, alleging their right 
 and stating that they and others had been disowned by the 
 leading men of that Society on various pretences, among 
 them the following: — 
 
 "Some have been disowned for affirming allegiance to 
 "the State in compliance with the laws, and their elders 
 "and overseers have proposed and insisted on a renun- 
 " ciation of that allegiance as a condition of reunion with 
 "them. 
 
" Some for holding office under the State, and some for 
 " holding office under the United States. 
 
 " Many for bearing arms in defence of our invaded 
 "country, although the laws of the State enjoined and 
 " required it of them. 
 
 "And some have been disowned for having paid the taxes 
 " required of them by law ;" and they closed by praying for 
 leave to bring in a bill for recognizing the rights of persons 
 disowned by the people called Quakers, to hold in common 
 with them the estates owned by them, and the right to 
 search and copy their records. This petition virtually 
 charged the managers of the Quaker Society with acting in 
 complicity with the royalists and treasonably against the 
 American government. This petition was signed by about 
 fifty men, and was presented to the Legislature on the 
 twenty-first of December, 17S1. [A copy will be found in 
 the Appendix, No. 4.] 
 
 This petition was answered by an address and memorial on 
 behalf of the people called Quakers, signed the eighteenth 
 of First Month, 1782, by John Drinker, clerk of their meeting, 
 and which was probably presented to the Legislature at about 
 the time of its date. This denies any treasonable intent by 
 the Quakers, and sets forth that in disowning the members as 
 charged they had simply acted upon the rules of their Society 
 and well established discipline, and that in so doing they had 
 only exercised that degree of religious freedom which was 
 guaranteed to all bodies of Christians by the law, and that in 
 refusing to join in warlike measures in support of political 
 freedom, they were only obeying their consciences and the 
 Divine Command, according to their understanding. 
 
 And so the Commonwealth in its first days was presented 
 with the question : How far is the exercise of freedom in 
 
36 
 
 matters of religion to be considered an excuse for non- 
 compliance with the laws of the land. 
 
 On the one hand it was urged that the liberty of every 
 man to worship God, and in matters of religion to act accord- 
 ing to the dictates of his conscience, was solemnly guaranteed 
 by law, from the time of the settlement of the colony by 
 William Penn. On the other hand it was argued with equal 
 earnestness, that where the State is in danger she has a right 
 to call upon all her citizens for support, and to punish any 
 who make their conscientious scruples an excuse for disobedi- 
 ence. The question was not only debated in the Legislature, 
 but also with considerable earnestness in the public press ; 
 several broadsides and small pamphlets were published at 
 about this time on the subject. The several memorials to the 
 legislature were very able statements, from the supporters of 
 each side of the controversy, though it is rather sad to note, 
 that the affectation of a Christian meekness in their language, 
 really covered great bitterness of spirit on both sides. The 
 legislature very wisely refused to decide the question, or place 
 any written limits either to the right of the government to 
 demand support, or of tender consciences to have special 
 respect and favor. And the question has not been decided 
 to the present time, but remains open ; so that each case may 
 be decided on the merit of its particular facts. As to the 
 petition of the Free Quakers, it was tabled, and nothing fur- 
 ther was done during that session of the legislature. The 
 matter was revived however, at the next session, by a memo- 
 rial and remonstrance presented by Isaac Howell and White 
 Matlack, which set out their claims and those of the other 
 Friends disowned on political grounds, at length, and repeated 
 the prayer of the petition which had been presented before. 
 This address was presented in the House of Representatives 
 
37 
 
 on August 21, 1782, entered on the journal at length and 
 referred to a special committee. To the public interest caused 
 by this address we are indebted, as one result was that the 
 answer of the Quakers to the original petition was published 
 and a printed copy has been preserved. It, together with the 
 remonstrance of Howell and Matlack, will be found in the 
 Appendix. The committee, however, took no action and the 
 legislature did nothing in the matter. Isaac Howell pre- 
 sented a short petition, asking the consideration of the House 
 to the subject, early in 1783, and this was accompanied by a 
 letter signed by thirty-seven of the disowned Quakers, joining 
 in the request of the petition, but the legislature adjourned 
 without taking any action. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, Cornwallis had surrendered to Gen- 
 eral Washington, the English forces had abandoned New 
 York, the revolutionary war had come to an end by virtue 
 of the treaty with England which acknowledged the inde- 
 pendence of the American Colonies, and the State of Penn- 
 sylvania became a sovereign power. The Whigs having 
 thus won their cause, felt a strong sympathy with those 
 of the Quakers who had suffered disownment by the religious 
 society in which they were born, for the sake of their attach- 
 ment to the new republic just being established. Prominent 
 citizens felt and said that the disowned Friends had been hard- 
 ly and unjustly dealt with. The Free Quakers began to raise 
 money and take steps to build a meeting house for themselves, 
 and Samuel Wetherill, White Matlack, Jehu Eldridge and 
 Isaac Howell, were on June 16, 1783, appointed a committee 
 to find a suitable lot of ground on which to build. And on 
 the seventh day of July, 1783, Samuel Wetherill on behalf of 
 the committee, reported to a meeting for business that he had 
 obtained a lot suitable for the purpose at the southwest corner 
 
38 
 
 of Fifth and Mulberry, or Arch Streets, in front on Mulberry 
 Street forty-eight feet, in depth on Fifth Street sixty feet, 
 which he held ready to convey to trustees. The Society of 
 Free Quakers, thereupon approved the action of their com- 
 mittee, and appointed a Board of Trustees to accept from 
 Samuel Wetherill a conveyance of the lot. The following 
 were the Trustees: — 
 
 Christopher Marshall, Sr., Gentleman, 
 Nathaniel Browne, Blacksmith, 
 Isaac Howell, Esquire, 
 Peter Thomson, Conveyancer, 
 Moses Bartram, Druggist, 
 Jonathan Scholfield, Shop-keeper, 
 Benjamin Say, Practitioner in Physic, 
 Joseph Warner, Last Maker, and 
 Abraham Roberts, Grocer. 
 
 And on the tenth day of the same month, a deed of the lot 
 was duly executed to them accordingly, in trust "to and for 
 " the use and benefit of the Religious Society of People, 
 " distinguished and known by the name of Free Quakers, in 
 " the City of Philadelphia, to erect and build a meeting house 
 " thereon, and therein to meet, for the solemn worship of 
 " Almighty God, the Creator, Upholder, and Ruler of the 
 "Universe." And they at once and unanimously resolved 
 to build a meeting house thereon, and forward a subscription 
 to defray the expense of so doing, and " a disposition to aid 
 us appearing to be general," as the minutes state, at the next 
 meeting they somewhat enlarged the plan of their building, and 
 appointed White Matlack treasurer, directing him to " keep all 
 money received and to be received by him in the bank." 
 The Bank of North America, then newly established, which 
 was incorporated. May 26, 1781, and began active business 
 January 7, 1782, is undoubtedly referred to, for the Pennsyl- 
 
39 
 
 vania Bank, which had been founded in 1780 to make the 
 necessary arrangements to supply the American army with the 
 munitions of war, was never a bank of general deposit, and 
 was at this time preparing to wind up its affairs, and these 
 two were then the only banks in the United States, and 
 Timothy Matlack was a director of the Bank of North 
 America at its formation. 
 
 The subscription prospered ; among the contributors to the 
 building fund were Washington, Franklin, and a number of 
 other distinguished patriots, and the Meeting House was built 
 accordingly. When the wall was nearly finished, and the 
 marble tablet was about being built into its place, one of the 
 Free Quakers was asked why the words " in the year of the 
 "Empire 8" were inserted. He answered, "I tell thee, 
 " Friend, it is because our country is destined to be the great 
 " empire over all this world." 
 
 One little circumstance illustrating the customs that then 
 prevailed may perhaps be mentioned. The religious people 
 of that day had not yet taken the earnest stand in regard to 
 the use of alcoholic drink which has since distinguished the 
 Society of Friends ; the query was still asked at their yearly 
 and other meetings, "Whether Friends were careful to keep 
 "their laborers in harvest and elsewhere duly supplied with 
 "spirits," and the Free Quakers, on this subject at least, agreed 
 with their orthodox brethren. When the roof of the Meeting 
 House was completed, in 1784, refreshment was provided to 
 the laborers, and the receipted bill for the rum, lemons and 
 sugar, with which they were entertained, is preserved to this 
 day among the papers of the Society. 
 
 The Meeting House was completed early in 1784, and 
 worship was first held in it on the thirteenth of June in that 
 year, and regularly thereafter on every Sunday for many years. 
 
40 
 
 The notes of the meetings for business continue during this 
 period to show considerable correspondence with the dis- 
 owned Friends of Massachusetts, several of whom visited the 
 Society in Philadelphia, and Samuel Wetherill at about this 
 time went on a religious visit to these Friends and was absent 
 for several months. It seems that meetings on similar princi- 
 ples to the Society in Philadelphia were organized at Long 
 Plain, near Dartmouth, at Rochester, and elsewhere. 
 
 The Society, though now prospering, was without any grave- 
 yard ; but in 1786 a law was passed, vesting certain city lots 
 in trustees for a burial ground for the use of the Society. 
 This act was passed August 26, 1786, and recites that it is 
 but right and just to forward the " designs of religion and 
 ''benevolence, and that the virtuous citizens of this common- 
 " wealth who have been deprived of their religious rights and 
 "privileges on account of their attachment to the cause of 
 " their country in the time of its utmost danger, should have 
 " the encouragement of the Legislature," and proceeds to 
 grant public city lots Nos. 34 to 41, on west side of Fifth 
 Street below Locust Street, to " Christopher Marshall, Joseph 
 " Stiles, Nathaniel Browne, Isaac Howell, Peter Thomson, 
 "Benjamin Say, and Joseph Warner, and the survivors and 
 "survivor of them, and the heirs and assigns of such survivor 
 " forever : In trust, nevertheless, to and for the sole purpose 
 " of a burial ground for the use of the Religious Society of 
 " Friends distinguished and known by the name of Free 
 "Quakers, in the City of Philadelphia." 
 
 Being now established with all the property and rights 
 usual to religious societies, the Free Quakers entered upon a 
 prosperous career. Their meetings for worship were well 
 attended ; the upper room of their meeting house was rented 
 at first to the Masonic Lodge of which Washington was a 
 
41 
 
 member, and afterwards to one Benjamin Tucker, who kept a 
 school there, and the rents thus obtained were formed into a 
 fund for the charitable relief of the poor members of the So- 
 ciety. And the history of the meeting soon became, as 
 shown by the minutes, almost as peaceful and uneventful as 
 that of the Orthodox Friends who had disowned them. 
 Meanwhile, the political differences which had caused their 
 separation from the Orthodox Friends were fast disappearing. 
 After 1783 the query, "Are Friends careful not to defraud 
 the King of his dues?" was not asked in their yearly and 
 other meetings, and they gladly joined with their more 
 enterprising fellow citizens in obedience to the republican 
 form of government, and in 1789 their yearly meeting sent 
 
 a letter to Washington on the occasion of his inauguration 
 
 « 
 as President, congratulating him, and wishing long life 
 
 and prosperity both to him and his "amiable consort." 
 Washington replied in courteous terms to this address, 
 which marks the complete and loyal recognition by the 
 Quakers of the American government, which that people have 
 always since maintained. And while they did not formally 
 amend their discipline, in the matter of disownment, they, 
 and indeed all bodies of Christians, have since become so 
 liberal and merciful to the shortcomings of individual mem- 
 bers, that it may almost be said that the doctrines of Free 
 Quakers on this point are now generally accepted everywhere. 
 The Friends, however, could not bring themselves into har- 
 mony with the Free Quakers, and in 1790 sent word to 
 Samuel Wetherill forbidding him to speak in their grave-yard, 
 to which he replied in a letter to their ministers' meeting, stat- 
 ing his intention at all proper times and places to bear his 
 testimony in the cause of virtue and truth, of which a copy 
 will be found in the Appendix. It seems also that he was 
 
42 
 
 spoken of as an infidel, to which charges he replied by writing 
 a pamphlet entitled, '* The Divinity of Jesus Christ Proved." 
 As the political differences died away, some of the revolu- 
 tionary soldiers made acknowledgment to their meetings and 
 were received back into membership with Friends, and so 
 before long the Free Quakers, never a very large body, 
 became comparatively few in number ; held together princi- 
 pally by the talent and exertions of their clerk and preacher, 
 Samuel Wetherill ; he served the society as clerk until Sep- 
 tember ist, 1808, when he resigned and was succeeded by his 
 son of the same name, and he continued active in the minis- 
 try until his death, in his eighty-first year, in 18 16. Before 
 his death the disowned Friends of Maryland, Massachusetts, 
 and Ohio, had all died, or been taken back into their meet- 
 ings, and the Free Quakers were a small and rapidly dimin- 
 ishing band of the revolutionary heroes of Philadelphia. 
 Religious worship was faithfully observed "by them every 
 Sunday. Clement Biddle died in 1813. Samuel Wetherill, 
 Jr., died in 1829. Timothy Matlack, removed from the city, 
 and died in 1829, at Holmesburg, in the looth year of his age. 
 Elizabeth Claypoole, the last survivor of the original mem- 
 bers, died in 1836. The families of the first members ceased 
 to attend Sunday meetings, and John Price Wetherill, who 
 succeeded his father as clerk, after worshipping nearly alone 
 for several years, closed the meeting for the last time, and 
 meetings for religious worship ceased about 1836. 
 
43 
 
 III. The Modern Period. 
 
 When the meetings for worship of the Free Quaker Society- 
 came to an end, the Society would ahnost certainly soon have 
 been disbanded and become extinct, like the similar societies 
 in other parts of the country, had it not been for the wisdom 
 and energy of the clerk, John Price Wetherill. 
 
 He recognized that a religious sense of devotion may be as 
 well expressed in an honest life and in charitable works as by 
 formally attending church or meeting at fixed intervals of 
 time, and that, as by the growth of the city and the removal 
 of the members to a distance, it became inconvenient to attend 
 religious meetings, they ought still in some organized and dis- 
 tinct form to work as a charity, thereby recognizing that 
 charity conducted on a proper motive is religion and worship, 
 which Friends have always believed. Almost immediately 
 upon his becoming clerk, in 1S29, he perfected the organiza- 
 tion of a charitable committee in the Society, to use its income 
 in some way for the benefit of the poor, first of the Society, 
 and then for the poor generally, and when the cessation of 
 formal meetings for religious worship left the Society in 
 possession of a vacant building, his practical disposition soon 
 turned it to good account. Several years before, a number 
 of public-spirited citizens had joined in forming a library, 
 primarily for the use of the apprentices and young persons 
 employed in the city, but also for the use of any orderly 
 person who might wish to study. This was, then, and for 
 many years continued to be, the only free library in the city, 
 and the amount of good it has done in helping the education 
 and instruction of the working people would be difficult to 
 estimate. At the request of its managers an arrangement was 
 
44 
 
 made between the Apprentice's Library Company and the 
 Free Quakers, in 1841, by which the Meeting House was 
 rented to them for use as a library for a term of years, paying 
 nominally fifty dollars per annum, but with the proviso that 
 this money should not be paid to the land owners, but be 
 invested in good and useful books each year, a list of which 
 should be sent to the Free Quakers instead of rent ; in 1868, 
 after several renewals of the original lease, a lease upon a 
 small moneyed rent for a term of twenty-five years was entered 
 into, which by subsequent renewals is still (1894) in force. 
 The rent received from this source and the income generally 
 has always been applied by the Society to the charitable relief 
 of its own poor members, and then for the deserving poor of 
 Philadelphia generally, so that this Society has helped the 
 good work of instruction and education of many thousands 
 of poor children, and has given assistance amounting to 
 thousands of dollars to the poor of the city, which work is 
 still being conducted. It pays no salaries, every one serves 
 gratuitously. It has very few expenses. It makes no loud 
 protestations. Its name is withdrawn from publication rather 
 than advertised as to its good works, but the committee 
 founded in 1829 has ever since worked faithfully to relieve 
 the sufferings of the deserving poor of the city. Its labors 
 during the winter just over (1894), and in the present 
 distressed condition of the working people of our city, have 
 been very great and are still continuing. So that the Society 
 still lives as a true and active religious body, laboring on a 
 charitable basi^ so far as it is able. 
 
 After the death of John Price Wetherill in 1853, the Soci- 
 ety for a number of years held very few meetings; the work 
 being done by the Committee on Charity, but in 1882, John 
 Price Wetherill, Jr., who had succeeded his father as clerk. 
 
45 
 
 called the Society together, and it was then resolved to hold 
 a meeting at least once a year, on the first Wednesday of 
 November ; and this rule has since been followed, regular 
 yearly meetings having ever since been held. This has very 
 much revived the interest of the members, and the Society 
 under the leadership of William H. Wetherill, its present 
 clerk, is now increasing in numbers and activity. 
 
 On one point the members of the Society have certainly 
 lived up to the precepts of their patriotic founders. In 
 every war since the Revolution in which the United States 
 has been engaged, involving resistance to invasion either by 
 foreign enemy or domestic traitor, the members of this 
 Society have done faithful service. In the revolt in Western 
 Pennsylvania, known as the "Whiskey Insurrection," Col. 
 Clement Biddle, rendered very active service. In the war 
 of 1812, one certainly, and several more probably, served 
 in the campaign for the defence of Baltimore and were 
 present at the bombardment which inspired the writing of 
 the National Hymn. Upon the breaking out of the war 
 for the Union, the treasurer of the Society, too old for 
 military service himself, raised and equipped a company 
 of soldiers at his sole expense and presented them ready 
 for service to the State ; and several of the trustees and 
 active members joined the Union army and served with 
 distinction before Lynchburg, Petersburg, and Richmond ; 
 one of them, afterwards for several years treasurer of the 
 Society, was taken prisoner, and survived not only the 
 dangers of battle, but the sufferings of Libby Prison. 
 When the soil of Pennsylvania was invaded by the South- 
 ern armies, they were present at the battle of Gettysburg, and 
 Free Quakers helped to drive the enemy down, with terrible 
 slaughter, from the " high-water mark of the Rebellion." 
 
46 
 
 The youngest of its trustees, too young to serve in the 
 war for the Union, has done active service in the National 
 Guard of the State on the only occasions, since the rebellion, 
 in which the service of soldiers has been needed in Pennsyl- 
 vania : in the battle at the round house in Pittsburgh, in 1877, 
 and at the siege of Homestead, in 1892. 
 
 Wherever the flag of the Union — the flag that was first 
 made by a Free Quaker woman — has been fired upon by an 
 enemy, Free Quakers have gone to defend the great republic 
 that their forefathers risked " their lives, their fortunes, and 
 their sacred honor " to found. 
 
 And these few historical notes may well close with the 
 hope that this venerable Society may survive in its modest 
 usefulness to see our country become, as is foretold on the 
 tablet of its old meeting house, " the great Empire over all 
 " this world." 
 
Appendix No. i 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 To those of the People called Quakers, who have been disowned for 
 Matters Religious or Civil. 
 
 Friends afici Fellow-Sufferers. — The scattered and distressed 
 situation in which we have been for some time past, having 
 occasioned great inconvenience to most of us, a small number 
 of men, educated among the people called Quakers, as you 
 have been, have met together and seriously considered our 
 circumstances. 
 
 This separation has not been sought by, but forced upon, 
 us, as the pride and folly of former churches, vainly attempt- 
 ing to abridge the rights of conscience, excommunicated 
 their brethren from among them. And there appears no 
 reasonable ground of expectation that we shall ever again be 
 united to those who have disowned us ; for they will not per- 
 mit among them that Christian liberty of sentiment and con- 
 duct which all are entitled to enjoy, and which we cannot 
 consent to part with. You know that many have been dis- 
 owned by that people for no other cause than a faithful dis- 
 charge of those duties which we owe to our country. 
 
 Thus situated, and acknowledging our dependence upon 
 the Supreme Being, and the duty of public worship which we 
 owe to him, we have lamented the loss of those advantages 
 which arise from religious communion, and have feared still 
 greater loss in this respect, to our children and families. And 
 47 
 
48 
 
 therefore, although we know that "weakness is ours," and 
 that difficulties and dangers surround us on every hand, con- 
 fiding in the gracious promise of the Great Shepherd of his 
 people, that he would "be with" even "two or three," 
 wheresoever they are met together in his name, we have 
 agreed, that as Friends and brethren, we will endeavor to 
 support and maintain public meetings for religious worship. 
 
 We have no new doctrine to teach, nor any design of pro- 
 moting schisms in religion. We wish only to be freed from 
 every species of ecclesiastical tyranny, and mean to pay a due 
 regard to the principles of our forefathers, and to their rules 
 and regulations so far as they apply to our circumstances, and 
 hope, thereby, to preserve decency and to secure equal liberty 
 to all. We have no design to form creeds or confessions of 
 faith, but humbly to confide in those sacred lessons of wisdom 
 and benevolence, which have been left us by Christ and His 
 apostles, contained in the holy scriptures ; and appealing to 
 that divine principle breathed by the breath of God into the 
 hearts of all, to leave every man to think and judge for him- 
 self, according to the abilities received, and to answer for his 
 faith and opinions to him, who " seeth the secrets of all 
 hearts," the sole Judge and sovereign Lord of conscience. 
 
 And feeling for you, as fellow-sufferers, a sympathy and 
 brotherly affection, we think it our duty thus to communicate 
 to you what we have done and are about to do, that you may, 
 if you choose, partake with us in the blessings we seek and 
 hope to obtain. As brethren indeed, united in affliction, 
 "let us (agreeably to the counsel given by the Apostle Paul) 
 " consider one another, to provoke unto love and to good 
 "works; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, 
 " as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. And 
 " so much the more as ye see the day approaching." Be en- 
 
49 
 
 couraged, and let us meet together and ask bread from him in 
 whose hand it is, with an humble hope, that he who giveth 
 food " to the young ravens which cry " will provide also for 
 us. And in this hope we salute you with unfeigned affection. 
 Signed in and on behalf of the meeting, 
 
 Samuel Wetherill, Jun., C/erk. 
 
 Philadelphia, 24^/1 of the 4th Month, 1781. 
 
 [Printed by Francis Bailbv.] 
 
Appendix No. 2. 
 
 The Monthly Meeting of Friends, called by some 
 THE FREE QUAKERS, 
 
 {Distinguishing us from those of our Brethren who have disowned us.) 
 
 Held at Philadelphia, the 4TH day of the 6th month, 1781. 
 
 To OUR Friends and Brethren in Pennsylvania, New 
 Jersey and elsewhere: — 
 
 Dear Friends. — Agreeable to the intimations given to you 
 in our late "Address to those of the People called Quakers, 
 who have been disowned for matters religious or civil," we 
 have for some time past held two meetings for public worship 
 on the first day of the week, and a meeting for conducting the 
 business of the society, on the first second day of the week in 
 each month. These meetings having afforded us great satis- 
 faction, we shall continue them, with a firm hope that the 
 blessing of heaven will, "as the dew of Hermon," descend 
 in silence upon them. 
 
 In our deliberations on this subject we have been led to 
 consider "That the Creator of man having bestowed upon 
 individuals greater and less natural abilities and opportuni- 
 ties of improvement, a variety of sentiments respecting the 
 duties which we owe to him necessarily arises among us, and 
 it becomes essential to our happiness that we may perform 
 those duties in that way which we think the most acceptable 
 to him. And therefore when we contemplate the long and 
 50 
 
51 
 
 earnest contest which has been maintained, and the torrents 
 of blood which, in other countries, have been shed in defence 
 of this precious privilege, we cannot but acknowledge it to 
 be a signal instance of the immediate care of a divine provi- 
 dence over the people of America, that he has in the present 
 great revolution, thus far established among us governments 
 under which no man, who acknowledges the being of a God, 
 can be abridged of any civil right on account of his religious 
 sentiments, while other nations, who see and lament their 
 wretched situation, are yet groaning under a grievous bond- 
 age. But government established upon these liberal, just, and 
 truly Christian principles, and wisely confined to the great 
 objects of ascertaining and defending civil rights, in avoiding 
 the possibility of wounding the conscience of any, must 
 necessarily leave some cases unprovided for, which come 
 properly under the care of religious societies. Hence we are 
 not only left at liberty to act agreeably to our sentiments, 
 but the necessity and obligation of establishing and support- 
 ing religious societies, are increased and strengthened." 
 
 " We acknowledge the kindness of Providence in awaken- 
 ing us to a view of the deplorable situation in which we have 
 been : disowned and rejected by those among whom we have 
 been educated, and without a hope of being ever again united 
 to them : separated and scattered abroad, as if we had been 
 aliens in a strange land : the prospect of our situation has 
 indeed humbled us: but that mercy which, "to an hair's- 
 breadth," covers the judgment seat of God, has preserved us, 
 and induced us to confide that he will care for us. Being 
 made sensible of the indispensable necessity of uniting 
 together, we have cast our care upon God, and depending upon 
 him for our support, conceive it to be a duty which we owe 
 to ourselves, our children, and families, to establish and sup- 
 
52 
 
 port among us public meetings for religious worship, to 
 appoint stated meetings for conducting the affairs of the 
 Society, upon principles as liberal and enlarged toward one 
 another, as those adopted by the State are toward all, and 
 paying a due regard to the principles of our forefathers, and 
 the spirit of the wise regulations established by them, to fix 
 upon such rules as may enable us to preserve decency and 
 good order : and among other things, to agree upon and 
 make known a decent form of marriage, which may at once 
 secure the rights of parents and children : and a mode of 
 forming and preserving records of marriages, births, and 
 burials. 
 
 For these purposes an essay of discipline, founded on that 
 of our ancestors, has been formed, and laid before the meet- 
 ing for business. A good degree of unanimity of sentiments 
 thereupon has appeared among us ; but we have thought it 
 proper to leave it open for further consideration, and thus to 
 communicate to our friends what we are about to do, in order 
 to avail ourselves of the advice and assistance of all who may 
 kindly afford us their counsel. And we sincerely and earnestly 
 desire that we may obtain and be guided by that " wisdom 
 from above," which is sufficient to overcome every danger 
 and difficulty Avhich we may have to contend against, and 
 finally unite us together, in a truly Christian fellowship, and 
 in the bonds of peace. Signed by order of the Meeting, 
 Samuel Wetherill, Jr., Clerk. 
 
Appendix No. 3. 
 
 From the Monthly Meeting of Friends, called by some, 
 THE FREE QUAKERS, 
 
 Held by Adjotirnment at Philadelphia, on the gtk Day of the yth Month, 
 1781. 
 
 To THOSE OF OUR BRETHREN WHa HAVE DISOWNED US: — 
 
 Brethren : — Among the very great number of persons whom 
 you have disowned for matters religious and civil, a number 
 have felt a necessity of uniting together for the discharge of 
 those religious duties which we undoubtedly owe to God and 
 to one another. We have accordingly met, and having 
 seriously considered our situation, agreed to establish and 
 endeavor to support, on the ancient and sure foundation, 
 meetings for public worship, and meetings for conducting our 
 religious affairs. And we rejoice in a firm hope, that as we 
 humble ourselves before God, his presence will be found in 
 them, and his blessing descend and rest upon them. 
 
 As you have by your proceedings against, separated your- 
 selves from, us and declared that you have no unity with us, 
 you have compelled us, however unwillingly, to become sepa- 
 rate from you. And we are free to declare to you and the 
 world, that we are not desirous of having any mistake which 
 we happen to make laid to your charge ; neither are we 
 willing to have any of your errors brought as guilt against us. 
 To avoid these, seeing that you have made the separation, we 
 53 
 
54 
 
 submit to have a plain line of distinction made between us 
 and you. But there are some points which seem to require 
 a comparison of sentiments between you and us, and some 
 kind of decision to be made upon them. The property of 
 that Society of which we and you were once joint members, 
 is far from being inconsiderable, and we have done nothing 
 which can afford even a pretension of our having forfeited our 
 right therein. 
 
 Whether you have or have not a right to declare to the 
 world your sentiments of the conduct of any individual ; or 
 whether you have or have not a right to sit in judgment over 
 and pass sentence upon your Christian brethren differing in 
 sentiment from you, although educated among you, are not 
 questions now to be considered : but you having taken upon 
 you to do those things, it remains only to be enquired, what 
 are the consequences in law and equity of your having so 
 done. Surely you will not pretend that our right is destroyed 
 by those acts of yours. But we suggest to your consideration, 
 Whether your conduct has or has not disqualified you to hold 
 any part of that property? A serious and full consideration, 
 of this question, and the critical and strikingly singular situa- 
 tion in which you stand, cannot injure you ; but it may, pos- 
 sibly, induce you to consider, with the more candour and 
 readiness, what equity requires to be done by you toward us, 
 or by us toward you ; and tend to a decision the most 
 proper between brethren differing in sentiment one from 
 another concerning their respective rights to property, yet 
 each believing in him whose precept leads us, " to do unto 
 others as we would they should do unto us." 
 
 Whatever may have been the consequences to yourselves, 
 either of your conduct toward us as friends to the present revo- 
 lution ; or of your conduct in other cases, less immediately 
 
55 
 
 respecting us, it seems to be unquestionably certain, that we 
 have not done anything which can possibly forfeit our right. 
 And we see no reason why we should surrender it up to you ; 
 but think it a duty incumbent on us to assert our claim. 
 
 As a place for holding our meetings for worship and meet- 
 ings for business relative to the Society, is become necessary 
 for us, since you have separated yourselves from us, by testify- 
 ing against us, and thereby rendering it highly improper for 
 us to appear among you, as one people, at your meetings, we 
 think it proper for us to use, apart from you, one of the houses 
 built by Friends in this city for those purposes. We are 
 desirous of doing this in the most decent and unexceptionable 
 manner, and we are willing to hear anything which you may 
 choose to say on the subject. And therefore we thus invite 
 you to the opportunity of doing it, and of shewing what de- 
 gree of kindness and brotherly love toward us, still remains 
 among you. We also mean to use the burial ground, whenever 
 the occasion shall require it. For, however, the living may 
 contend, surely the dead may lie peaceably together. 
 
 Lest any may infer too much from this representation, we 
 think it proper explicitly to declare, that should our right to 
 the property in question be found, in the law, to be superior 
 to yours, from any consideration whatever, it is far, very far 
 from our wish to seclude you from a joint participation with 
 us in the use of it. Neither do we mean to solicit a decision 
 in law, unless you by your conduct compel us to it. 
 
 We sincerely and earnestly desire to have this subject 
 amicably, equitably and speedily adjusted, and request that 
 this free communication of our sentiments may be made 
 known to all who are usually consulted on business among 
 you, and that, for this purpose, it may be read when you 
 next meet together on religious business. 
 
56 
 
 As Christians, labouring in some degree to forgive injuries, 
 we salute you, and though rejected by you, we are your 
 friends and brethren. Signed in and on behalf of the said 
 Meeting, by, 
 
 Samuel Wetherill, Jr., Clerk, 
 
 The foregoing is copied from the original which was pre- 
 sented to Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. The following is 
 endorsed on the back, in a handwriting evidently contem- 
 poraneous with the transaction. 
 
 The printed copy of a paper presented to the Monthly 
 Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia, on the 27 th of the 7th 
 month, 1 781, by Timothy Matlack, attended by Moses 
 Bartram and White Matlack, the said T. M. saying 
 " that they were appointed by a Monthly Meeting of 
 " Friends, by some called the Free Quakers, to deliver the 
 " same, and desired it might be read," and giving it to the 
 Clerk it was laid on the table ; upon which the said Timothy 
 and his companions withdrew. Our meeting proceeded on 
 our usual business, and at the close of it a Committee of five 
 were appointed to inspect the Contents of the said paper, 
 and Report their Judgment to a future meeting of the pro- 
 priety of reading it in our meeting, who knowing that a 
 paper of the like kind had been the same week delivered in 
 the like manner to the Monthly Meetings for the northern 
 and southern districts, and that a committee was appointed 
 by each of those meetings also to consider the propriety of 
 reading the same in those meetings : The three Committees 
 in a few days met together and on comparing the several 
 papers found they were exact copies of each other, and after 
 deliberation on the contents, which were new and extra- 
 
57 
 
 ordinary, manifesting a disposition for Contest, and to give 
 Friends trouble, it was thought advisable to call together a 
 greater number of Friends selected from each of the Monthly 
 Meetings, in order for further consultation on the subject, and 
 that unanimity might prevail in our conclusion, who accord- 
 ingly met, when the papers were again read, and after a full 
 communication of sentiments the following report was agreed 
 to be verbally delivered to each of our succeeding Monthly 
 meetings — viz: "We have considered the contents of the 
 
 " papers presented to our last 
 
 Cony of The Paper . , _. 
 
 from" Timothy Matlack " meetmg by Timothy Matlack and 
 
 and Company, presented " others, and are of the judgment 
 
 to each of the Monthly ,, ^^^^ -^ j^ improper to be read in 
 Meetings of Friends in 
 
 Philadelphia, published ''' the meeting, of which we think 
 
 by themselves before " the parties concerned will have 
 
 either of the said meet- ,, j ^ i • j 
 
 , , , , , "grounds to be convmced on a 
 mgs had concluded on an ° 
 
 answer. " cool and dispassionate reconsid- 
 
 " eration of the nature and ten- 
 
 " dency of the requisition they make." 
 
 Which Report being accordingly made to each of our 
 Monthly Meetings in the eighth month and approved, it was 
 agreed that the Clerk of each meeting should give the same 
 verbally as the answer of the meeting to Timothy Matlack or 
 either of the persons who attended with him if they should 
 apply, or in case of an application to any other Friend, by 
 any of the said persons, they should be referred for an answer 
 to the Clerk of each meeting respectively, which was done 
 accordingly by the said Clerks respectively to the said 
 T. M. 
 
Appendix No. 4. 
 
 To THE Representatives of the Freemen of the Common- 
 wealth OF Pennsylvania, in General Assembly Met : 
 
 Divers Freemen of the said Commonwealth beg leave to shew : — 
 
 That by the laws of the State, religious societies of people 
 are entitled to hold lots of ground for the purposes of erect- 
 ing thereon houses for worship and school houses, and for 
 burying grounds: — That the people called. Quakers, in divers 
 parts of the State, have accordingly possessed themselves of 
 such estates and others : That your petitioners are not only by 
 birth, but some of us are, also, by subscription to the common 
 stock, and by subscription for particular purchases, etc., justly 
 entitled to the common use and possession of the estates so 
 held by the said people : — 
 
 That very great numbers of persons have been disowned by 
 the leading men of that society, on various pretences, espe- 
 cially during the present revolution ; And omitting very many 
 of those pretences, we beg leave to mention the following, to 
 wit. : — 
 
 Some have been disowned for affirming allegiance to the 
 State in compliance with the laws ; — and their elders and over- 
 seers have proposed and insisted on a renunciation of that 
 allegiance, as a condition of re-union with them. 
 
 Some for holding offices under the State, and some for hold- 
 ing offices under the United States, 
 
 Many for bearing arms in defence of our invaded country, 
 58 
 
59 
 
 although the laws of the State enjoined and required it of 
 them. 
 
 And some have been disowned for having paid the taxes 
 required of them by law ! 
 
 That many so disowned have been greatly distressed there- 
 by. They felt and acknowledged the duty of public worship, 
 and anxiously desired, for themselves and their families, the 
 benefits which arise out of a performance of that duty. To 
 join with other religious societies would have done violence to 
 their religious principles, and to join with those who had dis- 
 owned them, was evidently improper : therefore, they agreed 
 to worship, apart from those who had disowned them, in the 
 meeting houses to which they deem themselves justly entitled. 
 For this end decent representations to the several monthly 
 meetings of Philadelphia, and to the yearly meeting, have 
 been made ; these have been rejected without a reading. The 
 key of one of the meeting houses not then in use, hath been 
 requested and refused, and the names of the committees by 
 whom these measures have been advised, have been concealed 
 from us, whereby, we have not only been deprived of the use 
 of those houses to which we are entitled, but are prevented 
 even from conferring with those who withhold it from us. 
 
 That certain men among those people have assumed and 
 exercised a pretended right to refuse, or to grant as of favour, 
 at their discretion and pleasure, the interment of the dead in 
 the burying ground granted in common to their and our an- 
 cestors, of which two contrasted instances are alleged — One 
 man, who died in the service of the United States, was denied 
 the right of burial, "because he had borne arms and been con- 
 cerned in war." Another man, having no pretension of 
 right, who had been convicted of an attempt to bribe the 
 pilots of the State to conduct the British fleet into our har- 
 
6o 
 
 bour, condemned, hanged, and buried in other ground, was 
 long after taken up, and interred, by their order, among our 
 friends ! 
 
 That those people thus assume and exercise, not only a 
 power of condemning and publicly censuring men for their 
 obedience to the laws of the land, but, in effect, decree and 
 execute forfeitures against them for such obedience. 
 
 That, connected with many of the members of that society 
 by the strongest ties, we have no desire to injure them ; and 
 mention those facts for the sole purpose of shewing to this 
 honourable house our true situation. 
 
 That, however painful it is to be held up by those people to 
 the world as "Heathen men," and as being "cut off, by the 
 sword of the spirit, from the Church of Christ," confiding in 
 the justice of that cause in which we are engaged, we solemnly 
 appeal for a decision on this point to the Great Arbiter of 
 heaven and earth. And, respecting .the said property, con- 
 sidering the case of those so disowned as arising out of a 
 great revolution which the laws have not provided for, and 
 proper for the consideration of the legislature. 
 
 We pray this honorable house, in whose justice and wisdom 
 we confide, will grant leave to bring in a bill for recognizing 
 the right of persons disowned by the people called Quakers, 
 to hold in common with others of that society, the meeting 
 houses, school houses, burying grounds, lots of land, and 
 other the estates held by that people as a religious society, and 
 to recognize their right to search, examine, and take copies 
 of the records, books and papers, of the said society, from 
 time to time, for the purpose of ascertaining such estates, 
 proving marriages, ascertaining descents and securing their 
 rights, and other purposes as they may have occasion ; and 
 to enable those so disowned to purchase and hold such estates 
 
as other religious societies are by law entitled to hold and 
 enjoy. 
 
 And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will pray, etc. 
 
 Signatures of Petitioners Indorsed on the Petition. 
 
 Thos. Crispin, 
 Tho. Bryan, 
 Abr. Shoemaker, 
 Robt. Jones, 
 Joseph Ogden, 
 Sam'l. Howell, 
 Edwd. Heston, 
 James Bartram, 
 John Bartram, 
 JoNA. Paschall, 
 Henry Hayes, 
 J. Pearson, 
 Jos. Pearson, 
 Sam'l. Smith, 
 Matt. Ash, 
 jona. bonsall, 
 Jna. Ash, 
 Jos. Bonsall, 
 Joshua Bonsall, 
 Josh. Ogden Jr., 
 
 Joseph Govett, 
 Jno. Richardson, 
 Thos. Coats, 
 Thos. Hopkins, 
 Evan Evans, 
 Moses Bartram, 
 Jno. Morris, 
 Jas. Pearson, 
 Go. Chandler, 
 James Delaplaine, 
 Nathan Gibson, 
 Wm. Darragh, 
 j. musgrave, 
 Aron Musgrave, 
 Sam'l Wetherill, 
 White Matlack, 
 Edw. Evans, 
 TiMO. Matlack, 
 Ths. Renshaw, 
 Rich'd Somers, 
 Wm. Crispin. 
 
 Cadl. Dickinson, 
 Caleb Hewes, 
 J. Fisher, 
 Wm. Fisher Jr., 
 Abr. Roberts, 
 John Knight, 
 Nathl. Allen, 
 John Bell, 
 Saml. Morris, 
 Benj. Paschall, 
 Joseph Stiles, 
 Pet. Thomson, 
 IssAc Howell, 
 Benj. Say, 
 Nathl. Browne, 
 Jno. Parrish Jr., 
 Wm. Milnor, 
 Saml. Robbins, 
 Clemt. Biddle, 
 David Evans, 
 
 [The petition was presented to the legislature on December 21, A, D., 1781, and 
 ordered to lie on the table. 1 
 
Appendix No. ^. 
 
 Philadelphia, Ninth Month, 7th, 1782. 
 The following Memorial and Address was presented to the 
 Assembly soon after the date of it, and is entered on the 
 Journals of the House in the Second Month last ; a recent 
 attack of Isaac Howell and White Matlack in a remonstrance 
 to the House now sitting, of a like nature with the petition 
 to which this Memorial is an answer, makes it necessary to be 
 more extensively published. 
 
 To THE General Assembly of Pennsylvania: — 
 
 An Address and Memorial on Behalf of the 
 People Called Quakers. 
 
 Being informed that a petition was presented to you at your 
 last sitting, signed by some persons residing in Philadelphia 
 and parts adjacent, which affected the reputation and interest 
 of our religious society, and, on our application, being in- 
 dulged with a copy thereof, we find it is intended to arraign 
 the discipline established among us, and artfully designed to 
 impress your minds with unfavorable sentiments, by misrep- 
 resentations and injurious charges against us which we hope 
 we are able to confute to your satisfaction, so as to obviate 
 the evil intentions of this attack upon our religious and civil 
 rights and liberties ; and therefore, apprehend it not improper 
 to offer to your consideration, a few remarks as briefly as the 
 nature of the subject will admit. 
 62 
 
63 
 
 The doctrine and order deliberately and conscientiously 
 received and settled, by the united concurrence of our relig- 
 ious society, we have at all times held it our indispensable 
 duty to maintain by the gospel methods of instruction, advice 
 and admonition, and in cases of disorderly walking, which 
 have a tendency to infringe upon the peace and unity of the 
 church, we proceed no further than to a suspension of a close 
 communion with the parlies offending, or as occasion might 
 call for it, to declare that they being departed from the unity 
 of the body, are no longer of it. 
 
 We apprehend, that when any religiously united body liath 
 in its collective capacity, according to the understanding 
 received from the holy spirit, and agreeable to the holy scrip- 
 tures, fixed the terms of its communion, it has a right in all 
 points it deems material, to see that they are preserved invio- 
 late by its members, and to acknowledge or reject any accord- 
 ing to their faithfulness or unfaithfulness thereunto, and where 
 it judges any have justly forfeited their membership, to declare 
 so; otherwise, litigious and refractory members might render 
 the church a stage of perpetual contention and confusion ; or, 
 as a kingdom divided against itself, which cannot stand. For 
 its own peace and preservation, therefore, it can do no less 
 than to " withdraw itself from every brother that walketh dis- 
 orderly," 2 Thess., iii and 3, which can be done by no means 
 more proper than by declaring its disunion with them. 
 
 This is the ultimate process of the people called Quakers, 
 which is not intended by them for the punishment of any, but 
 for keeping the church clear from disorder. 
 
 Rules are necessary to the support of order in religious as 
 well as civil societies. There must be some power in the col- 
 lective body, which is not in every particular singly to answer 
 the end of order. This cannot be less than a power to accept 
 
64 
 
 or reject particular members according to the suitableness or 
 unsuitableness of their conduct with its doctrines and rules. 
 The nature of society and the fitness of things require thus 
 much and our discipline extends no further. It intrudes not 
 upon the civil rights of its members, affects no secular author- 
 ity over their persons or property ; but leaves them in a reason- 
 able freedom either to continue in membership by a conduct 
 agreeable to our principles and rules, or to separate from us 
 if they think fit ; nor are any prohibited from assembling 
 with us in our meetings for public worship, which it is well 
 known are held openly, and free to all sober people. 
 
 The nature of society requires unity and harmony. A 
 continued infraction of the terms of its communion, is not 
 only a continual interruption to the peace of it, but has a 
 tendency to its dissolution ; hence it behooves every regular 
 united body, to support the observance of its rules among its 
 members, for its own peace and preservation ; sensible of 
 this, the apostle in his epistle to the Romans writes thus : 
 " I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause divisions 
 " and offences, contrary to the doctrine which ye have 
 "learned, and avoid them." — This a church cannot do but 
 by clearing itself of them, which is a necessary exertion of 
 gospel discipline, towards those who might give disturbance 
 to it, or "by fair speeches deceive the hearts of the 
 simple." 
 
 Besides God's exterior dispensation of his written law, he 
 still condescends according to his gracious promise, to teach 
 his people immediately by his spirit in their hearts ; this is 
 the true basis of the right of private judgment, and as this is 
 a privilege sacred to every man, so it is to every religious 
 society, no one of which is entitled to impose upon another, 
 in matters of doctrine or order : neither has any individual 
 
65 
 
 a right to impose himself upon it, contrary to its established 
 rules. 
 
 The respectable John Locke saith, " No man by nature 
 "is bound unto any particular church or sect, but every one 
 "joins himself voluntarily to that society in which he believes 
 "he has found that profession and worship which is truly 
 " acceptable to God. As no man is bound to any church 
 " against his particular conscience, neither is any church 
 "bound to any man against that rule and order established 
 " therein, according to its collective conscience. I hold 
 "that no church is bound by the duty of toleration, to re- 
 " tain any such person in her bosom, as after admonition, 
 "continues to offend against the laws of the society. For 
 " these being the condition of communion, and the bond of 
 " the society, if the breach of them were permitted without 
 " animadversion, the society would immediately be thereby 
 "dissolved." Let. on Toleration, 4 ed. Pa. 10 and 13. 
 Liberty of consciences is every man's undoubted right, and 
 no less the right of every religious society, and as no man 
 ought to be forcibly imposed upon in that respect, neither 
 should any religious society suffer itself to be imposed upon 
 against its judgment by any man, whatever his pretence 
 may be ; nor is that man who attempts it, doing as he would 
 be done by in such attempt ; or shewing that regard to the 
 conscience of the body that he claims to his own. The 
 religious liberty of a person consists not in a power to im- 
 pose himself upon any religious society, against the rules 
 of its communion, but in a freedom to join himself to one 
 whose rules, doctrine and worship are conformable to his 
 conscience, or to disjoin himself from one where all or any 
 of them are not so. 
 
 Everyone who hath espoused opinions different from those 
 5 
 
66 
 
 of the people called quakers is at liberty to leave them, and 
 join himself to any other people ; this cannot be stiled a hard 
 or unjust measure ; freedom of enquiry is allowed, and liberty 
 of action is allowed so far as can be consistent with the nature 
 and peace of society, which cannot be properly supported, if 
 its members are suffered to live in the breach of its rules and 
 orders without any animadversion. 
 
 The intention of our discipline is not a dominion over the 
 faith, or an abridgment of the just liberty of any ; it seeks not 
 the hurt of any, but the good of all ; and that purity of man- 
 ners, love, peace, and harmony may be preserved through- 
 out the whole body on the basis of truth. The society 
 proceeds no further in any case than it believes itself neces- 
 sarily obliged to do, as a Christian body. And in showing its 
 disunity with such of its members as violate its rules and 
 orders, it is warranted by the laws of the land ; it having as 
 we have understood, been also publicly declared by learned 
 judges in courts of judicature in Great Britain, to be the 
 common privilege of all societies of tolerated dissenters ; and 
 we hope the same reason will equally avail in America. 
 
 Now we do not deny that many of the petitioners stand 
 disunited from religious membership with us, and divers of 
 them have been so from ten to twenty years past and upwards, 
 which separation on our part has proceeded from necessity, 
 and not of choice, nor on mere " pretences " as they suggest ; 
 the causes which produced it, for their sakes we do not care 
 to revive, unless they should make it unavoidable ; there are 
 also in the number, such who were never acknowledged 
 among us, if not some who have had no claim to such right. 
 
 We presume not to cut off any " from the Church of 
 Christ" ; for if a member of the natural body be cut off, it 
 is impossible to unite it again, so as sensibly to communicate 
 
67 
 
 with, and be restored to its proper use in the body. The case 
 of one disowned by us should rather be considered as a 
 member who may be restored, having instances of many, who 
 through divine mercy, becoming sensible of their deviation 
 in conduct and the propriety of our proceedings towards them, 
 have returned into christian fellowship with us, to their satis- 
 faction and ours. 
 
 Nor are any persons disowned by ''leading men," among 
 us ; but if a member thinks himself aggrieved by the united 
 judgment of a monthly meeting, he has the right of appealing 
 to the quarterly meeting, as also to our yearly meeting, and 
 it is our practice to notify the party concerned, of his having 
 this privilege, that he may embrace it, if he thinks proper; 
 and in these several meetings, that every acknowledged mem- 
 ber has liberty to judge and speak. 
 
 Having heretofore expressed our sentiments and principles 
 on the subject of war, and relating to tests, particularly in 
 our memorial to the late assembly on the 4th of the nth 
 month, 1779, which is entered on their minutes: we are un- 
 willing now to detain your attention on these points, prefer- 
 ing to manifest that a peaceable demeanour, and passive 
 submission to the laws, where our conscience to God restrains 
 us from active compliance, are a greater security to govern- 
 ment than verbal declarations; the solemnity of which, is 
 found in too many instances to be no longer regarded than it 
 suits the convenience of those who make them. 
 
 We know not of any of our members being disowned, for 
 the payment of taxes, for the support of government, nor is 
 there any rule of our discipline that requires it. 
 
 Had the promoters of the petition shewn that regard to 
 candour, which becomes men professing a concern for the 
 cause of religion, they would have given a different relation 
 
68 
 
 of the "contrasted instances," (as they term them) of the 
 interment of two dead bodies; the first which we suppose 
 they allude to, had been a person who made no profession 
 with us, he resided and died several miles distant from the 
 city, and was little known to the persons to whom application 
 was first made for an order to the grave-digger, which occa- 
 sioned some enquiry to be necessary, and tho' the appliers 
 were answered by them, that their application was judged 
 improper to be complied with, yet three of the relations of 
 the deceased were timely told, that the request would be 
 allowed : which as they did not accept, it was supposed that 
 his family found it more convenient to bury him in a grave- 
 yard in the neighborhood of their residence. 
 
 There was an application made for the interment of the 
 other, at the time of his execution, but as he made no pro- 
 fession with us, as well as in consideration of the occasion of 
 his death, it was disallowed. The body being afterwards 
 taken up and removed to our ground, was known to very few 
 at that time, but as soon as it was heard of, caused great un- 
 easiness to our brethren in the city, who manifested their 
 disapprobation of the unadvised measure ; so that their mis- 
 representation of these occurrences must proceed from wrong 
 information, or a view to prejudice us, and increase the 
 number of subscribers to their petition; while they are silent 
 on the methods they took by threats of forcibly entering the 
 grave-yard, for the interment of two children, to which they 
 had no reason to suspect any hesitation would be made. 
 
 The care of our burying-ground in the city is committed to 
 persons appointed by our monthly meetings, to consider the 
 propriety of applications, and give permissions to the grave- 
 digger for interments within their respective limits. An 
 assertion therefore, that any individuals among us " have 
 
69 
 
 "assumed a right to grant, as matter of favour, the liberty of 
 burial," is far from being true. 
 
 The lot of ground which is now our grave-yard in Phila- 
 delphia, was a donation of a worthy member of our religious 
 society, at the very early settlement of the city, for the use 
 of the people called quakers ; who are and shall be in union 
 and fellowship with the yearly meeting of the said people, for 
 a burying place, and granted to certain persons in trust for 
 that purpose ; nevertheless, it hath been the general practice 
 not to refuse those who have, near the close of life, desired to 
 be interred there, whether in profession with us or not ; and 
 the records of our burials will sufficiently evidence, that the 
 number interred of such, who were not members, is nearly 
 equal to, if not greater than, those in membership with us : 
 cavilling on this account can therefore have no just founda- 
 tion. 
 
 That we possess some estate, on which houses for public 
 worship, and other necessary buildings, are erected, we 
 acknowledge, and that they have been justly acquired, and 
 are legally held we must likewise assert, as also that the in- 
 come arising, tho' far short of what some would make out, is 
 carefully applied for the relief and maintenance of the poor, 
 the instruction of their children, and other benevolent pur- 
 poses, for which they were originally given or purchased, 
 which, with the frequent contributions among ourselves, for 
 the like uses, must be allowed to be a public benefit, and 
 saving to the community at large in which we dwell, as we 
 also contribute our full proportion to the support of the 
 public poor. 
 
 The papers, by the petitioners termed, decent representa- 
 tions, which they suggest were treated with slight and neglect, 
 were committed to the inspection of a number of friends (in 
 
70 
 
 the same manner as all other papers, so offered, are) and 
 reported to be improper to be read in our meetings, of which, 
 on their enquiry they were duly informed. 
 
 Whenever application has been made for transcripts from 
 our records for the ascertaining descents, proving of births, 
 marriages or burials, and other purposes, for securing the 
 rights of individuals, they have always been readily allowed, 
 and certified copies given without fee or reward, or the 
 originals produced, when necessary, so that a law to recognize 
 what has never been denied, appears to be entirely need- 
 less. 
 
 The petitioners by their several publications, their present 
 petition as well as their general conduct, openly declare that 
 they do not agree with us in the fundamentals of our faith, 
 and what has been the uniform practice from our first becom- 
 ing a united society ; but if they really mean by their new 
 association, the promotion of piety and virtue and the edifi- 
 cation of each other in love and good works, it would be 
 commendable not to attempt to establish themselves on a 
 violation of the commandment which enjoins, " thou shalt not 
 covet thy neighbor's house, or anything that is thy neigh- 
 bor's." And is equally forcible against coveting to obtain 
 that from a religious body, to which they have no right in law 
 or justice, and at the same time profess " they have no desire 
 to injure them," which contradictions, had they duly con- 
 sidered, would have occasioned more caution and modesty 
 in their solemn appeal " to the great arbiter of heaven and 
 earth," when their designs, however disguised by plausible 
 " pretences," are so easily discoverable to men. 
 
 The prayer of the petitioners will we think not only appear 
 unprecedented and unreasonable, but, if granted, may es- 
 tablish a precedent injurious to every religious society, by 
 
71 
 
 restraining the right of disowning any of their members even 
 for the most flagrant immoralities and other offences. And 
 therefore we hope and trust that on mature and deliberate 
 consideration of the nature and tendency of so singular 
 a petition, you will judge it most just and expedient to 
 answer the petitioners as Gallio answered the Jews, when 
 they accused the apostle Paul before him. Acts xviii, 12 to 
 16. 
 
 We are your respectful Friends, 
 
 Signed on behalf and by ") 
 direction of a Meeting 
 of the Representatives of 
 
 the said People called V John Drinker, Clerk. 
 
 Quakers held at Phila- | 
 
 delphia, the 18th ist | 
 
 Month, 1782. J 
 
Appendix No. 6. 
 
 To THE Representatives of the Freemen of the Common- 
 wealth OF Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met : — 
 
 The Memorial and Remonstrance of Isaac Howell 
 
 and White Matlack, on behalf of themselves and 
 
 others, who have been disowned by the 
 
 People called Quakers, etc., 
 
 Respectfully sheweth. 
 
 That in a law of this state passed on the Thirteenth day of 
 June, 1777, entitled, "An Act obliging the male white inhabi- 
 tants of this state to give assurances of allegiance to the 
 same," etc., it is declared that, "allegiance and protection 
 are reciprocal, and that those who will not bear the former, 
 are not (and ought not to be) entitled to the latter:" the 
 first part of which declaration is the great and solid basis 
 upon which civil society is established. That the good people 
 of Pennsylvania considering the said declaration, not as un- 
 meaning words, but as holding out and inviting all to a most 
 important compact, essential to their well being : and which 
 on the part of the state, was intended faithfully and inviol- 
 ably to be preserved, solemnly gave those "assurances of alle- 
 giance," which entitled them to protection. That your 
 memorialists, being among those who have thus entered this 
 important compact, consider this right of protection thus 
 gained to be in value beyond estimation. And that as the 
 state is bound by the most solemn engagements to afford that 
 72 
 
73 
 
 protection to those who have given allegiance ; so it is the 
 indispensable duty of every man to claim and assert his title 
 to it whenever any of his rights are invaded. 
 
 That your memorialists justly considering this honorable 
 house as the representatives of the state, from which they were 
 of right entitled to claim protection, presented their petition, 
 representing in effect, that great numbers of freemen had 
 been disowned by the people called Quakers, under various 
 pretences, especially during the struggle of this great revolu- 
 tion, and stating four distinct cases ; viz. 
 
 They have been disowned for having given allegiance to 
 the state in compliance with the laws. 
 
 For holding offices under the state, and under the united 
 states. 
 
 For bearing of arms in the defence of our invaded country 
 alth" the laws of the state enjoined and required it of us. 
 
 And for the payment of taxes required by law. 
 
 And they further represented, in effect, that a number of 
 persons so disowned and cut off from religious communion 
 and fellowship with those among whom they had been edu- 
 cated, collecting together, and being sensible of the duty of 
 public worship, agreed to worship apart from those who had 
 disowned them, in the meeting houses built by our common 
 ancestors, at such times as not to interrupt or prevent those 
 who had disowned them, from a common use of the same 
 houses : — That the peaceable means adopted to obtain for that 
 purpose the use of those meeting houses had been ineffectual, 
 and treated by the leaders of the monthly meeting of Philadel- 
 phia, and others, with a total disregard : — That certain men 
 among them, assumed and exercised a pretended right to 
 refuse, or to grant as of favour, at their discretion and pleas- 
 ure, the interment of the dead in the burying ground granted 
 
74 
 
 in common to their and our ancestors, and gave instances of 
 the most insulting and intolerable abuse of that assumed 
 power ; that the petitioners were then ready to give the most 
 full, clear, and unequivocal testimony of each and every fact 
 stated in the said representation. That the said petitioners 
 conceiving themselves of right entitled to protection, and 
 their case a new one, " arising out of a great revolution which 
 the laws have not provided for," and therefore "proper for 
 the consideration of the legislature," and confiding in the 
 justice and wisdom of the house, prayed leave to bring in a 
 bill, in effect, to supply the deficiency of the laws, in a case 
 which had not, and scarce possibly could have been foreseen, 
 and thereby secure to them the rights and privileges which 
 were thus withheld from them. A prayer so just and reason- 
 ble, it was hoped and expected would have been readily 
 granted ; but the petitioners were abashed when they read in 
 the minutes of the house, that their petition was " referred to 
 the committee of grievances ; " as if their complaint had been 
 against officers acting under the government, and abusing the 
 authorities of it. 
 
 That your memorialists having seen the " address and 
 memorial on behalf of the people called Quakers " signed 
 by "John Drinker, clerk," which has been presented to the 
 general assembly, remark, that the most material facts stated 
 in the aforesaid petition, are admitted, and others equivocally 
 denied, that the addressers assert their right of disowning, 
 threaten to publish the causes for which many of the peti- 
 tioners had been disowned, and refer this honorable house to 
 a decision which they hope the house will think "a. just and 
 expedient" answer to our said petition. 
 
 Your memorialists will not waste the time of this honourable 
 house in minute observations upon an address artfully calcu- 
 
75 
 lated to lead from the point in question, which is not an 
 enquiry whether religious societies may disown their members 
 for immoral acts ; but whether a religious society, disowning 
 their members for complying with the laws of their country, 
 in those great and important points on which its liberty and 
 happiness essentially and absolutely depend, may at their will 
 and pleasure, withhold from the persons so disowned, the use 
 of the places of worship, burial grounds, etc., provided for 
 them by their ancestors : and in case of any society, under 
 pretence of religion, attempting so to do whether the state is 
 not bound to make laws to secure those rights to such persons 
 as have given allegiance to it, and thereby prevent the injustice 
 attempted against them. 
 
 How far the quotation from Locke, cited in the address will 
 apply to these questions, your memorialists are well content 
 that this honourable house shall decide, without a single remark 
 thereon from us, and on the threat of publishing the causes 
 of disowning, we shall make no other observation, than this 
 single truth, that the subscribers to the said petition, are friends 
 to the revolution, of established character, many of them well 
 known to the members of this honourable house, and have 
 nothing to fear from such threats. 
 
 Your memorialists observe, that the interment of Moles- 
 worth, alluded to in the petition, is said in the address to have 
 been " known to a very few at the time," but the fact is other- 
 wise : he was interred by a formal written order, signed by 
 the overseers, and his funeral was attended by a very great 
 number of the people of that society — which is too notorious 
 to need proof, — and respecting the fact of their refusing to inter 
 another person because he had borne arms and been concerned 
 in war, we are ready to give the clearest evidence ; and as to 
 threats of violence in the interment of two children, it is un- 
 
76 
 
 true, and we are ready to shew, that far from proposing any- 
 thing of that sort, the first magistrate of the city, was called 
 upon to witness, that no riot or unlawful violence of any kind 
 was committed. 
 
 The decision referred to in the address, and recommended 
 as a just and expedient answer from this honourable house to 
 the petitioners, we hope and confide will be well considered 
 before it is adopted : we pray leave to recite it ; it is in the fol- 
 lowing words : " And when Gallic was the deputy of Achaia, 
 "the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, 
 " and brought him to the judgment seat ; saying, This fellow 
 " persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law, and 
 " when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said 
 "unto the Jews, if it were a matter of wrong, or wicked 
 "lewdness, O ye Jews, would that I should bear with you. 
 "But if it be a question of words and names, and of your 
 " law look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters ; and 
 " he drave them from the judgment seat." Acts xviii, 12 to 
 16. 
 
 We ask in what part of our petition have we charged the 
 people called Quakers with " persuading men to worship God 
 contrary to law," or what "questions of words and names " 
 have we proposed ? What is there contained in the petition 
 on which such insinuated charges can in any sort be founded ? 
 the complaint thereto made is clearly stated to be a " matter 
 of wrong" which Gallio declares ought to be heard, and we 
 pray leave to make a few short remarks on the answer recom- 
 mended. 
 
 We ask, what have the petitioners done that should induce 
 the honourable house to drive them from before it ? The 
 sentence of Gallio stands approved because the Jews had done 
 wrong to Paul ; but what wrong have we done to the ad- 
 
77 
 
 dressers ? they do not even pretend any : but suppose the case 
 before Gallic had been parallel with ours : that the Roman 
 empire had been invaded, that the Jews had countenanced 
 or abetted the enemy, while they were desolating the country 
 with fire and sword, that Paul born a jew had taken part with 
 the empire and exposed his life in its defence ; that the Jews 
 for that reason, but under the pretence of religion, had ex- 
 pelled Paul from among them, and secluded him from the 
 occasional use of the sepulchres of his ancestors, and other 
 rights descended to him, and that thus circumstanced, Paul 
 had appealed to Caesar's deputy for protection, and that in- 
 stead of affording him protection, Gallio had driven Paul 
 from before the judgment seat ; what would Caesar have said 
 to Gallio for such a flagrant abuse and foolish violation of his 
 trust ? Would not Caesar have put Gallio to death? If the 
 meeting for sufferings appointed by that part of the people 
 called Quakers, who have disowned us, think it their duty to 
 offer their advice to this honourable house, as to what answer 
 it shall give to our petition, they ought to consider this case. 
 But we should deem ourselves highly criminal, if we enter- 
 tained the most distant thought, that this honourable house 
 would adopt so unjust a sentence. 
 
 We have hitherto forborne to urge this matter upon this 
 honourable house, interesting as it is to us, because of the 
 unusual weight of business which has pressed upon the house : 
 but we should be wanting in due respect, if we permitted the 
 subject to remain in its present state, so as to leave an im- 
 pression of doubt upon the minds of any, whether this house 
 would extend to the petitioners that protection to which they 
 are of right so clearly entitled. 
 
 But if those facts stated in the petition, and conceded in 
 the address and memorial, are not deemed amply sufficient to 
 
78 
 
 induce the house to grant the prayer of the petition, we are 
 ready to prove every fact alleged by us : and if those are not 
 deemed sufficient, we suggest the following, which will place 
 the conduct of the leaders of the society of the people called 
 Quakers, attached to the cause of our enemies in its true 
 point of view : we say, of the leaders, because it is a well 
 known fact, that a great number of the independent part of 
 that people, have under peculiar difficulties arising from their 
 situation and connections, done honour to themselves by the 
 most spirited efforts in the cause of their country. 
 
 Cadwallader Dickinson of Philadelphia was disowned for 
 sitting as a juryman on the trial of John Roberts and Abra- 
 ham Carlile, on a charge of high treason, of which they were 
 convicted, and for which they suffered death, although he was 
 requested to serve on that duty by a relation of one of those 
 men. On the other hand the persons so charged, found guilty 
 and executed, or one of them, were expressly acknowledged 
 to be members of the said society, and were not disowned for 
 their treason. 
 
 We are ready to offer to this honourable house the testi- 
 mony of a man of established good reputation, in support of 
 the following fact, viz : 
 
 A testimony, as they term it, prepared for disowning a 
 member for bearing of arms, and read in a meeting of busi- 
 ness in Philadelphia, was so expressed as to censure the join- 
 ing of the American army : it was remarked by one present, 
 that the bearing of arms was a sufficient cause for disowning, 
 but that the joining of either side in the contest need not 
 make any part of the charge. To this it was replied, that 
 the person charged, had by joining the American army, added 
 to the fault of bearing arms, the crimes of treason and rebellion. 
 Whereupon another person present expressed great concern, 
 
79 
 
 that such a sentiment should be delivered in the meeting, 
 and at the same time declaring, that he considered the 
 government of the state to be so far established, as to claim 
 his respect and acknowledgement. Whereupon an eminent 
 speaker in that society declared "That he hoped there was 
 *' not another man in that meeting who entertained a like 
 "sentiment; that he (the person who had expressed that 
 "sentiment) put him in mind of the vicar of Bray:" here 
 the debate ended and the words censuring the joining of the 
 American army were continued, as expressing the sentiments 
 of that people ! We have forborne to give the names of the 
 persons concerned in this transaction, because we do not wish 
 to alledge them as charges against individuals, but we are 
 ready to give them, whenever we shall be required so to do. 
 
 The public testimonies of those people, published at differ- 
 ent times, are known to all, and need not be here recited ; 
 but it is perhaps not known to many, that those people in 
 their meetings for business, quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly, 
 put the following query, in effect : Are friends careful not to 
 defraud the King of his dues? and we believe this query is 
 still continued ! And it is worthy of remark, that, even in 
 the address and memorial to this honourable house, they avoid 
 any acknowledgement of the right of government, and speak 
 of them as men " who are in the exercise of the powers of 
 government," and yet notwithstanding such strong and full 
 evidences, these people have the assurance publicly to declare, 
 that "no just cause of offence will be found against them in 
 the general :" appear before this honourable house, and not 
 only claim its protection, while they withhold their allegiance 
 and disclaim the revolution and government ; but also claim 
 a right of punishing those who yield allegiance, by depriving 
 them of their rights descending from their ancestors. 
 
They have even made it a condition of persons having 
 taken allegiance to the state, marrying among them, that that 
 allegiance shall be renounced, and the certificate thereof re- 
 turned. Of which strange fact we are ready to give full 
 proof. These men, we say, come before this honourable 
 house, claim the right of disfranchising hundreds of the free- 
 men of the state, for having faithfully discharged, in the 
 time of her distress, the great duties which they owed to their 
 country, and withhold from them their property, peculiarly 
 valued by all men, and appropriating that property to their 
 own sole use ; and when appeal is made to the legislature of 
 the state, and protection asked, in terms the most decent and 
 respectful, these men take upon them to recommend as a 
 ''proper" and "expedient" answer that we should "be 
 driven from before " you, unheard. And, if possible, to add 
 to the insult, while they withhold our just rights, calmly 
 recommend us to observe the command, which forbids to 
 " covet that which is our neighbour's." 
 
 What people of any age or country, have ever yet been 
 found, who would suffer their houses of worship, and the 
 bones of their ancestors to be violated and torn from them 
 without the most desperate resistance ? We know of none. 
 Nor do we know what we have done, or omitted to do, that 
 should induce any to think that we should on the present 
 occasion, be more tame and submissive than the most abject 
 of mankind. In order to shew our real situation we beg 
 leave to recite a recent fact : — a minister of the gospel, long 
 in high estimation among the people called Quakers, was 
 disowned by that people in the state of Massachusetts Bay, 
 for no other cause than for having published, as his opinion, 
 that that people, consistent with their religious profession may 
 pay their taxes for the support of government : came to this 
 
state on a religious visit to those who have been disowned 
 here, and having appointed a meeting for worship, to be held 
 in the meeting house at Merion, the key was obtained from 
 the keeper, and the house opened for that purpose, when 
 two of the leading members of that meeting came about the 
 time appointed for holding the meeting, locked up the 
 house, took away the key and prevented the meeting from 
 being held : yet- so late as the years 1777 and 1778, all the 
 meeting houses in the state were opened to a preacher from 
 England, then here, although it is generally understood that 
 he considered, and on all occasions, public and private, spoke 
 of the present revolution as a rebellion. If indeed your 
 memorialists are mistaken in their claim of right to protection 
 in the enjoyment of the meeting houses and burial grounds 
 obtained by their ancestors, and that those of the people called 
 Quakers, who have discountenanced the present revolution, 
 have a divine right, or any other right, to supercede the law of 
 the land, and to punish those who pay obedience to it, by 
 depriving them of any of their rights and privileges, let it be 
 so said : but your memorialists think it their duty to re- 
 iterate the prayer of their former petition. 
 
 "We pray this honourable house, in whose justice and 
 "wisdom we confide, will grant leave to bring in a bill for 
 "recognizing the right of persons disowned by the people 
 " called Quakers, to hold in common with others of that soci- 
 " ety, the meeting houses, school houses, burying grounds, 
 " lots of land, and other the estates held by that people as a 
 "religious society, and to recognize their right to search, 
 " examine, and take copies of the records, books, and papers 
 " of the said society from time to time, for the purpose of 
 " ascertaining descents, and securing their rights and other 
 " purposes as they may have occasion, and to enable those so 
 6 
 
"disowned to purchase and hold such estates as other relig- 
 " ious societies are by law entitled to hold and enjoy." 
 
 And whatever may be the determination of this honourable 
 house in other respects, they further pray, that this memorial 
 and remonstrance may be entered upon the journals of the 
 house, in order that hereafter, we may have recourse to authen- 
 tic records for proof of our having thus early made a claim of 
 right, and done everything in our power to do consistent with 
 the peace of civil society for obtaining a declaration of that 
 right by law ; that from authentic record, the People of Penn- 
 sylvania, and the states in union, the literati of Europe, and 
 posterity, may judge of our situation and be enabled justly 
 to decide upon such further measures as may hereafter become 
 necessary to obtain those rights, which we can never consent 
 to have coercively taken away, or withheld from us. 
 
 Signed, Isaac Howell, 
 
 White Matlack. ' 
 
 [From an Ancient Pkinted Copy of the Journal of the House. This was 
 Presented 21 iT of 8th Month, 1782.] 
 
Appendix No. 7. 
 
 To THE Representatives of the Freemen of the Common- 
 wealth OF Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, 
 Respectfully Sheweth : 
 
 That the subscriber and White Matlack on behalf of them- 
 selves and others presented a memorial and remonstrance to 
 the Honourable House on the 21st of August last, praying 
 that a law might be passed for declaring the rights of Persons 
 disowned by the people called Quakers, and other purposes 
 Expressed in said memorial. 
 
 The Honorable House then took the said memorial into 
 their consideration and appointed a "committee to confer 
 with the memorialists. Examine the facts set forth in the 
 memorial, and report to the House." That as the above 
 order of the House was only in part complied with, they hoped 
 the house would have entered on a further consideration 
 of this business before them in the earlier part of the 
 present sitting : but finding it still omitted, they pray 
 the Honorable house will now resume the further con- 
 sideration of the said memorial and remonstrance, and 
 grant to your memorialists that protection to which they 
 are of right so clearly entitled. 
 
 In addition to former petitions they beg leave to present 
 the inclosed. 
 
 (signed) Isaac Howell. 
 
 [It was Probably Presented Early in March, 1783.] 
 83 
 
S4 
 The enclosure was as follows : — 
 
 [Copy of Enclosure.] 
 
 To THE Representatives of the Freemen of the Common- 
 wealth OF Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met. 
 
 We, the subscribers, disowned by the people called 
 Quakers, do hereby certify that we request that a law may be 
 passed for declaring the rights of persons disowned by that 
 people and other purposes expressed in the memorial of Isaac 
 Howell and White Matlack, and presented to the Honorable 
 House. 
 
 (Signed). 
 
 Sam'l Wetherill, Jr., 
 James Boone, Jr., 
 Samuel Foulke, 
 Moses Bartram, 
 Benjamin Say, 
 Jonathan Scholfield, 
 Abraham Roberts, 
 Clement Biddle, 
 Peter Thompson, 
 Edward Pole, 
 James Pearson, 
 
 Edward Evans, 
 Richard Somers, 
 Jonathan Draper, 
 Thomas Ross, Jr., 
 John Buckman, Jr., 
 Isaac Heston, 
 Richard Leedom, 
 Nathaniel Browne, 
 Cadw. Dickinson, 
 Ab. Shoemaker, 
 Thomas Wright, 
 William Matlack, 
 
 Thomas Hopkins, 
 John Chapman, 
 Joshua Elv, 
 James Potter, 
 Nathaniel Ellicot, 
 Enoch Betts, 
 Saml. Smith, 
 Thomas Dyer, 
 Timothy Taylor, 
 Stacy Taylor, 
 Abner Buckman, 
 Joseph Lees. 
 
Appendix No. 8. 
 
 Copy of the Deed from Samuel Wetherill and wife to 
 Christopher Marshall and others, Trustees. 
 
 This Indenture, Made the tenth day of the seventh month, 
 called July, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hun- 
 dred and eighty-three between Samuel Wetherill, Jr., of the 
 City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, Carpenter, 
 and Sarah his wife, of the bne part, and Christopher Marshall, 
 Sr., of the said city, gentleman; Nathaniel Brown, of the 
 said city, blacksmith; Isaac Howell, of the said city, Esquire; 
 Peter Thomson, of the said city, conveyancer ; Moses Bar- 
 tram, of the said city, druggist; Jonathan Scholfield, of the 
 said city, shopkeeper ; Benjamin Say, of the said city, prac- 
 titioner in physic ; Joseph Warner, of the said city, lastmaker ; 
 and Abraham Roberts, of the said city, grocer, of the other 
 part. 
 
 Whereas, John Dunlap, of said city, printer, and Elizabeth 
 his wife, by indenture of the fifth day of this instant month 
 called July, for the consideration therein mentioned did grant 
 and confirm unto the said Samuel Wetherill, his heirs and 
 assigns, all that certain lot or piece of ground, situate on the 
 south side of Mulberry or Arch street and west side of Fifth 
 street from the river Delaware in the said city, containing in 
 breadth on the said Mulberry street forty-eight feet, and in 
 length or depth one hundred feet, bounded northward with 
 the said Mulberry street, eastward with the said Fifth street, 
 85 
 
86 
 
 southward with another lot of ground granted by the said 
 John Dunlap and wife to the said Samuel Wetherill, and west- 
 ward with ground formerly of William Hudson, and now or 
 late of Joseph Wharton and Hannah his wife : Together with 
 the appurtenances to hold to him, the said Samuel Wetherill, 
 his heirs and assigns forever, subject to the payment of a cer- 
 tain yearly rent-charge or sum of four pounds eight shillings 
 lawful money of Pennsylvania, as the same should hereafter 
 grow due and payable, as in and by the said recited Indenture, 
 Relation being thereunto had, at large appears. Now This 
 Indenture Witnesseih, That the said Samuel Wetherill and 
 Sarah his wife, as well for and in consideration of the sum of 
 ten shillings in specie unto them well and truly paid by the 
 said Christopher Marshall, Nathaniel Brown, Isaac Howell, 
 Peter Thomson, Moses Bartram, Jonathan Scholfield, Benja- 
 min Say, Joseph Warner, and Abraham Roberts, at or before 
 the sealing and delivering hereof, the Receipt whereof is here- 
 by acknowledged, as for divers other good causes and valu- 
 able considerations them hereunto specially moving. Have 
 granted, bargained, sold, released, and confirmed, and by 
 these presents do grant, bargain, sell, release, and confirm 
 unto the said Christopher Marshall, Nathaniel Brown, Isaac 
 Howell, Peter Thomson, Moses Bartram, Jonathan Scholfield, 
 Benjamin Say, Joseph Warner, and Abraham Roberts, their 
 heirs and assigns, a certain lot or piece of ground (being the 
 northernmost part of the said described lot or piece of ground) 
 containing in breadth on the said Mulberry street forty-eight 
 feet, and in length or depth on the said Fifth street sixty feet, 
 bounded northward with the said Mulberry street, eastward 
 with the said Fifth street, southward with the remainder of 
 the above-described lot whereof this is part, and westward 
 with ground formerly of William Hudson, and now or late of 
 
87 
 
 Joseph Wharton and Hannah his wife. Together also with 
 all and singular the building improvements, ways, waters, 
 water-courses, rights, liberties, privileges, hereditaments, and 
 appurtenances whatsoever thereunto belonging or in anywise 
 appertaining, and the reversions, remainders, rents, issues, 
 and profits thereof, and also all the estate, right, title, interest, 
 possession, property, claim and demand whatsoever of him, 
 the said Samuel Wetherill and Sarah his wife, in law, equity, 
 or otherwise howsoever, of, in, to, and out of the hereby 
 granted premises and every part thereof. To Have and to 
 Hold the said described lot or piece of ground, forty-eight 
 feet in breadth by sixty feet in length, hereditaments and 
 premises hereby granted, bargained, and sold or mentioned 
 so to be, with the appurtenances unto the said Christopher 
 Marshall, Nathaniel Brown, Isaac Howell, Peter Thomson, 
 Moses Bartram, Jonathan Scholfield, Benjamin Say, Joseph 
 Warner, and Abraham Roberts, and the survivors and survi- 
 vor of them, and the heirs and assigns of such survivor for- 
 ever. In Trust to and for the uses and purposes hereinafter 
 mentioned, limited, and declared, and to and for no other 
 use, intent, or purpose whatsoever; that is to say, to and for 
 the use and benefit of the Religious Society of People distin- 
 guished and known by the name of Free Quakers in the city 
 of Philadelphia, to erect and build a meeting house thereon, 
 and therein to meet for the solemn worship of Almighty God, 
 the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the universe, and upon 
 this special trust and further confidence nevertheless, that 
 they, the said Christopher Marshall, Nathaniel Brown, Isaac 
 Howell, Peter Thomson, Moses Bartram, Jonathan Scholfield, 
 Benjamin Say, Joseph Warren, and Abraham Roberts, and 
 the survivors or survivor of them, or the heirs or assigns of 
 such survivor shall and will, from time to time, and as often 
 
88 
 
 as need be or occasion require, by some good conveyance or 
 assurance in the law, for the consideration of ten shillings 
 grant, bargain, sell, release, and confirm the hereby granted 
 premises, and every part thereof, to any number of persons, 
 to be nominated by the said Religious Society, and the survi- 
 vors and survivor of them, and the heirs and assigns of such 
 survivor forever. In Trust for the uses and purposes aforesaid, 
 and to and for no other use, intent, or purpose whatsoever, 
 in order to maintain and support the contingent uses from 
 being defeated or destroyed, and to make entries for the same, 
 if it shall be needful, free and clear, and freely and clearly 
 acquitted, exonerated, and discharged of and from the pay- 
 ment of the said yearly rent-charge of four pounds eight shil- 
 lings, and every part thereof, and the said Samuel Wetherill, 
 for himself, his heirs, executors, and administrators, doth 
 covenant, promise, grant, and agree to and with the said 
 Christopher Marshall, Nathaniel Brown, Isaac Howell, Peter 
 Thomson, Moses Bartram, Jonathan Scholfield, Benjamin 
 Say, Joseph Warner, and Abraham Roberts, their heirs and 
 assigns, by these presents, in manner and form following ; 
 that is to say, that he, the said Samuel Wetherill, and his 
 heirs the said described lot or piece of ground, hereditaments 
 and premises hereby granted, bargained, and sold, or men- 
 tioned or intended so to be, with the appurtenances, unto the 
 said Christopher Marshall, Nathaniel Brown, Isaac Howell, 
 Peter Thomson, Moses Bartram, Jonathan Scholfield, Benja- 
 min Say, Joseph Warner, and Abraham Roberts, their heirs 
 and assigns, In Trust for the uses aforesaid against him the 
 said Samuel Wetherill and his heirs, and against all and every 
 other person or persons whatsoever lawfully claiming or to 
 claim by, from, or under him, them, or any of them, shall 
 and will warrant and forever defend by these presents ; and 
 
89 
 
 further, that he the said Samuel Wetherill, his heirs, or as- 
 signs, shall and will forever hereafter, charge the remainder of 
 the said just described lot of ground, being forty feet in 
 breadth on the said Fifth street by forty-eight feet in depth, 
 with the payment of the said yearly rent-charge of four 
 pounds, eight shillings, and every part thereof, so as the same 
 rent shall not be extended or charged upon that part of the 
 said first described lot of ground hereby granted in trust for 
 the uses aforesaid, and of, and from the same yearly rent, and 
 of and from all actions, suits, distress and distresses, costs, 
 charges, damages, and demands whatsoever, shall and will 
 from time to time, and at all times hereafter, save, acquit, 
 defend, keep harmless, and indemnify the said Christopher 
 Marshall, Nathaniel Brown, Isaac Howell, Peter Thomson, 
 Moses Bartram, Jonathan Scholfield, Benjamin Say, Joseph 
 Warner, and Abraham Roberts, and the survivors and 
 survivor of them, and the heirs and assigns of such survi- 
 vor of them and all their and every of their lands and 
 tenements, goods and chattels, and more especially the lot of 
 ground hereby granted with the buildings and improvements 
 thereon erected or to be erected ; and lastly, that he the said 
 Samuel Wetherill and his heirs, and all and every other person 
 or persons whatsoever, anything having or lawfully claiming, 
 or that shall or may so have or claim any estate, right, title, 
 or interest of, in, or to the said premises hereby granted or 
 mentioned to be granted, or of, in, or to any part or parcel 
 thereof, shall and will from time to time, and at all times 
 hereafter, upon the reasonable request and at the proper costs 
 and charges in the law of the said Christopher Marshall, Na- 
 thaniel Brown, Isaac Howell, Peter Thomson, Moses Bartram, 
 Jonathan Scholfield, Benjamin Say, Joseph Warner, and Abra- 
 ham Roberts, their heirs and assigns, or some of them, make. 
 
go 
 
 do, execute, and acknowledge or cause so to be, all and every 
 such further and other .reasonable act and acts, deed and 
 deeds, conveyances and assurances in the law whatsoever, for 
 the better and more perfect assurance and confirmation of the 
 said described lot or piece of ground, hereditaments and 
 premises hereby granted or mentioned or intended so to be, 
 with the appurtenances, unto the said Christopher Marshall, 
 Nathaniel Brown, Isaac Howell, Peter Thomson, Moses Bar- 
 tram, Jonathan Scholfield, Benjamin Say, Joseph Warner, 
 and Abraham Roberts, and the survivor and survivors of them, 
 and the heirs and assigns of such survivor forever, in trust, for 
 the uses aforesaid, and to and for no other use, intent, or 
 purpose whatsoever, as by their or either of their Counsel 
 learned in the law shall be reasonably devised, advised, or 
 required. 
 
 In witness whereof, the said parties have interchangeably 
 set their hands and seals hereunto, dated the day and year 
 first above written. 
 
 Sealed and delivered in ^ 
 the presence of us 
 
 Jonathan Bartolette, 
 William Perkins, 
 Ty. Matlack, 
 
 Sam'l. Wetherill, Jr., [seal] 
 Sarah Wetherill. [seal] 
 
 The tenth day of July, Anno Domini 1783, before me, 
 Plunket Fleeson, Esquire, one of the justices, &:c, for the 
 city and county of Philadelphia, came the within named 
 Samuel Wetherill and Sarah his wife, and acknowledged the 
 within written indenture to be their act and deed, and de- 
 sired the same may be recorded as such according to law. 
 The said Sarah thereunto voluntarily consenting, she being 
 of full age, separate and apart from her husband by me 
 
91 
 
 examined, and the contents thereof first made known 
 unto her. 
 
 Witness my hand and seal, the day and year aforesaid. 
 
 Plunket Fleeson, [seal] 
 
 Recorded in the office for recording deeds, &c., for the 
 city and county of Philadelphia, in Deed Book D No. 7, 
 page 193, July i6th, 1783. 
 
 Notes of Deeds to Trustees — Conveying the Real 
 
 Estate held in Trust for the Religious Society 
 
 of Free Quakers. 
 
 Deed. — Moses Bartram, Jonathan Scholfield, and Benjamin 
 Say, Surviving Trustees to Samuel Wetherill Jr., George 
 Kemble, Anthony Ruston, Joshua Lippincott, Thomas Say, 
 Samuel Yorke, and John Wetherill — Trustees — dated August 
 13, 1808, recorded February 27, 1810, in Deed Book I. C. 
 No 6, page 215 &:c. 
 
 Deed. — Benjamin Say, sole surviving Trustee to same — 
 dated same day, recorded September 9th, 1808, in Deed 
 Book E, F. No. 30, page 565 &c. 
 
 Deed. — Joshua Lippincott surviving Trustee to John Price 
 Wetherill, Edward Wetherill, George D. Wetherill, John P. 
 Wetherill Jr., Charles Kemble, Joshua Lippincott Jr., and Sam- 
 uel W. Lippincott — Trustees — dated April 18, 1853, recorded 
 April 19, 1853, in Deed Book T. H. No. 74, page 344 &c. 
 
 Z>^^^ (endorsed on above). — Edward Wetherill, George D. 
 Wetherill, John P. Wetherill (late Jr.), Charles Kemble, 
 Joshua Lippincott (late Jr.), and Samuel W. Lippincott, Sur- 
 viving Trustees to William Wetherill, John P. Wetherill, 
 Samuel W. Lippincott, William Lippincott, Samuel Weth- 
 
92 
 
 erill, Edward Wetherill, George D. Wetherill, Charles Kemble, 
 and Henry M. Wetherill — Trustees — dated November 29th 
 1856, recorded June 13, 1882, in Deed Book J. O'D. No. 45, 
 page 186, &c. 
 
 Deed. — John P. Wetherill, William Lippincott, Samuel 
 Wetherill Jr., Edward Wetherill, and Henry M. Wetherill, 
 Surviving Trustees to John P. Wetherill, William Lippincott 
 Samuel Wetherill Sr., Edward Wetherill, Henry M. Wetherill, 
 William Henry Wetherill, Christopher Wetherill Jr., Charles 
 Wetherill, and Albert Lawrence Wetherill, Trustees — dated 
 April 13, 1882, recorded June 13, 1882, in Deed Book J. 
 O'D No. 45, page 181, &c. 
 
 Of the above Trustees Samuel Wetherill Sr., John P. Weth- 
 erill, and William Lippincott, are since deceased and Edward 
 Wetherill has resigned. 
 
Appendix No. 9. 
 
 Copy of " An Act for vesting certain City Lots therein 
 
 mentioned in trustees for a burial ground for the 
 
 use of the Religious Society of Free Quakers 
 
 in the City of Philadelphia," passed 26th 
 
 of August, 1786. 
 
 Private act Recorded in Law Book, No. iii, p. 121. 
 
 Whereas the Religious Society of Friends called Free Quakers 
 in the city of Philadelphia, presented a petition to this House, 
 setting forth that the said Society hath been established by those 
 who were disowned by the people called Quakers, on account 
 of their attachment to the cause of their country, during the 
 great and important conflict for freedom and independence, 
 and have thereby been deprived of their religious rights and 
 privileges in that society, without even a distant probability 
 of a reunion with them upon consistent principles. That the 
 said Society of Free Quakers thus established through neces- 
 sity arising out of a great revolution, had with the assistance 
 of their Christian fellow citizens purchased a lot of ground 
 and erected thereon a Meeting House of their own to per- 
 form worship in to Almighty God, which having thus ac- 
 complished, they nevertheless find themselves at a loss for a 
 place to bury their dead, and therefore prays the house for a 
 grant for a suitable lot of land for this religious and benevo- 
 lent purpose. And whereas // is but right and just to forward 
 the designs of reiigiofi and benevolence, and that the virtuous 
 91 
 
94 
 
 citizens of this Comvionwealth who have been deprived of their 
 religious rights and privileges on account of their attachffiefit to 
 the cause of their country in the time of its ut/nost danger, 
 should have the encouragement of tlie Legislature. Therefore, 
 be it enacted, and it is hereby enacted by the Representatives 
 of the Freemen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 
 General Assembly met, and by the authority of the same : — 
 That Eight of the City Lots belonging to the Common- 
 wealth marked in the plan or draft of the public city lots. 
 Nos. 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, situate contiguous to 
 each other on the West side of the Fifth Street from Dela- 
 ware River in the city of Philadelphia, containing altogether 
 in breadth North and South on the said Fifth Street One 
 hundred and seventy six feet (that is to say Twenty two feet 
 each lot) and in length or depth East and West, One hundred 
 and ninety eight feet, six inches, bounded Northward by lot 
 No. 42 sold to John Taylor, Eastward by Fifth Street afore- 
 said, and Westward by the back ends of Sixth Street lots, 
 with their appurtenances shall be and hereby are vested in 
 Christopher Marshall, Joseph Stiles, Nathaniel Brown, Isaac 
 Howell, Peter Thompson, Benjamin Say and Joseph Warner 
 (members of said religious society) and the survivors and 
 survivor of them, and the heirs and assigns of such survivor, 
 forever. In Trust, nevertheless, to and for the sole purpose 
 of a burial ground for the use of the Religious Society of 
 Friends distinguished and known by the name of Free 
 Quakers in the City of Philadelphia, and to and for no other 
 use, trust, intent or purpose whatever. 
 
Appendix No. lo. 
 
 Copy of Entry on the First and Second pages of the 
 
 Book of Members of the Free Quakers, which 
 
 members of meeting sign, or in which their 
 
 names are entered by their parents. 
 
 The great end for which it pleaseth the Almighty to bring 
 Mankind into Existence, is, that they may faithfully serve him 
 here on Earth, and glorify him forever hereafter. He in his 
 infinite Goodness is constantly calling upon them to come 
 and learn of him, who is Wisdom itself: and we doubt not, 
 but that those who adhere to his divine Instructions will be 
 rewarded with Everlasting Peace, and for his manifold Mercies 
 bestowed upon us, believe it to- be our Duty, publickly to 
 assemble together, to offer to him our grateful Acknowledge- 
 ments and tribute of Divine Worship. We do therefore unite 
 ourselves together as ISIembers of this Religious Society called 
 by some the "Free Quakers": a Society established upon 
 enlarged and benevolent principles of the Gospel and hope to 
 profess true Christian Charity and that Divine Love which 
 enlargeth the Heart towards all Men and leadeth to hope and 
 believe, that however divided the Church militant may be, on 
 Earth, that yet the Church triumphant in Heaven is made up 
 of all Nations, Kindreds, Tongues and People, who with the 
 Harps of God in their hands are praising him on Mount Zion. 
 
 We think it proper to add, as we have heretofore declared 
 in an Address published in the early Institution of this 
 95 
 
96 
 
 Society, "that we have no design to form Creeds or Con- 
 fessions of Faith, but humbly to confide in those sacred Les- 
 sons of Wisdom and Benevolence which have been left us by 
 Christ and his Apostles, contained in the Holy Scriptures and 
 appealing to that Divine principle breathed by the Breath of 
 God into the Hearts of all Men, to leave every Man to think 
 and judge for himself according to the abilities received, and 
 to answer for his Faith and opinion to him who seeth the 
 Secrets of all Hearts, the sole Judge and sovereign Lord of 
 Conscience." 
 
 Being now through divine Favor in some measure estab- 
 lished as a religious Society, we trust by an adherence to those 
 Catholic Principles, we shall be favoured with the Blessing of 
 the Almighty, and therefore relying on him for Protection, we 
 do hereunto subscribe our Names and the names of our chil- 
 dren, as Brethren and Sisters in Community, the seventeenth 
 day of the Second Month, called February, in the year of 
 our Lord, One Thousand seven hundred and eighty-five. 
 
Appendix No. ii. 
 
 LETTER FROM SAMUEL WETHERILL. 
 
 To THE Second Day's Morning Meeting of Ministers and 
 Elders, of the People Called Quakers in the City 
 of Philadelphia : — 
 
 I have received a verbal message by Henry Drinker which 
 I understood came from you : On this message I propose to 
 make a few remarks. Such are the effects of long established 
 forms in society, that I have no reason to expect I shall 
 convince you of the impropriety of your message ; yet I re- 
 quest you will read what I have to offer with as much candour 
 as you can command on the occasion : I shall then be per- 
 fectly easy at whatever conclusions you may draw, or conduct 
 you may observe towards me in the future part of your 
 lives. 
 
 The message delivered to me was to the following purport, 
 and as nearly verbatim as my memory serves me : Viz. 
 " Thou must remember what is written ' When thou comest 
 " to offer thy gift if thou rememberest that thy Brother hath 
 " ought against thee, first go and be reconciled to thy Bro- 
 " ther, and then come and offer thy gift : ' Thy appearing as 
 " thou hast done has given pain to friends; we wish thee to 
 " be quiet in future ; for a person appearing on such occasions, 
 " making the appearance of a friend, and one we have no 
 " unity with ; is what friends cannot dispense with, we there- 
 " fore wish thee to be quiet in future; but if thou shouldst 
 7 97 
 
" not, friends will be under the necessity of declaring pub- 
 " Holy, that thou art not in fellowship with them." 
 
 Before I reply to the foregoing, permit me a little to pre- 
 mise. The subject is serious. It is now many years since the 
 Lord in a way not less than miraculous, visited my soul with 
 his Love and Light, giving me to see a Beauty in a virtuous 
 life far greater than any one can comprehend who has not 
 had the same Divine prospect ; for altho' most men will ad- 
 mit the necessity of virtue, yet no man living sees fully into 
 its beauty and infinite importance, until the Divine Light in 
 an extraordinary manner opens it to him. This prospect 
 ravished my soul, and begot in me so ardent a Love to the 
 Lord, as that I then knew, and felt, what it was that sup- 
 ported the Martyrs in the flames; fori thought, if I had then 
 an hundred lives, I could have sacrificed them all, if it had 
 been required, for the Testimony of Jesus. At this time I 
 entered into covenant with my God, and made a total conse- 
 cration of my heart to him. This was the day of my espou- 
 sal to the beloved of Souls. This experience thus related is 
 not meant to make a parade of superiour virtue, I am far 
 from feeling any vanity of this kind, I know my weaknesses 
 and confess them, am poor, and have often stumbled in the 
 way cast up for the redeemed to walk in ; and have much 
 reason to be concerned that so Divine a favour together with 
 many others since, have not produced a greater effect : But 
 from the day of my first visitation untill the present day, I 
 have thought it my duty, by example and sometimes by pre- 
 cept, to recommend to Mankind those things on which their 
 present and future felicity depends. That this has been done 
 but in an imperfect manner is confessed. 
 
 I now proceed to remark upon your message as delivered 
 by Henry Drinker, viz : That before I offered my gift I 
 
99 
 
 should first be reconciled to my Brother. It is not necessary 
 for me to explain what I conceive to be the meaning of this 
 text as delivered by our Lord. I expect you mean by it, 
 that I should first be restored to fellowship with you, before I 
 attempted to persuade any person to be serious, and prepare 
 for death, and that it is an exceeding great offence if done 
 upon a spot of ground in which you claim a propriety. 
 Supposing myself, or any other person among the least of 
 Mankind, on so serious an occasion as that of a fellow 
 creature being suddenly summoned into the immediate 
 presence of the great Judge of Heaven and Earth, should 
 feel a fervent wish that all might be prepared when the sum- 
 mons should be sent to them. In such a case would it be 
 absolutely necessary to suspend expressing this wish until the 
 person was admitted into fellowship with you? If so, he then 
 misses the opportunity and another may never happen. • Men 
 of all denominations are usually invited to attend the funeral 
 of their fellow-citizens; Jews, Turks and Heathens might be 
 present on such an occasion : Jews, Turks, and Heathens be- 
 lieve in a future existence and that the virtuous will be happy 
 and the wicked miserable. Now suppose the mind of either such 
 person to be deeply impressed on an occasion so serious, and 
 that either Turk, Jew or Heathen should exhort every one 
 present to be serious and endeavour to prepare for Death, I ask 
 you my Brethren what possible ground could there be in such 
 case for offence ? All who are invited to attend on those oc- 
 casions are on an equality : Death is common to all men ; every 
 one is alike interested in the awfull consequences, and there- 
 fore none can have exclusive privileges to give advice on 
 those occasions. When the Lord represents to the mind the 
 absolute necessity of preparation for Death, all have an equal 
 right in his fear to express their wish for their fellow creatures. 
 
or to exhort them to prepare for this awful change ; and 
 that any one person whatever, making a profession of Piety 
 should be offended at it is strange. I expect you admit that 
 it is every man's duty to wish well for his neighbor. And, if 
 so, then every man has a right and ought to be at liberty to 
 do good to his neiglibour, either by his advice or in such way 
 as he may think most proper, so that a real good be the 
 object : to the Lord alone is he accountable for the way and 
 manner. This is not intended to vindicate an intrusion 
 either upon you, or upon any other persons. For as every 
 Man has a right to give his advice on any important occa- 
 sion, he being accountable to the Lord, so every other Man 
 has a right also either to receive or to reject as he pleases 
 what is so offered, he or they being accountable only to the 
 Lord : so that you as individuals or as a body, have a right 
 to receive or reject, any advice which may be offered to you 
 by any person whatever. But where there is a promiscuous 
 multitude of all persuasions collected together on an occasion 
 interesting to all, there your publickly opposing what might be 
 offered, would render you highly to blame ; for there are 
 numbers not under the same prejudices with you, and what 
 you would reject, might be suited to the conditions of others, 
 and well received by them. You may say, as Henry Drinker 
 said ; we have a rule to the contrary. It may be so, but you 
 ought not to have such a rnle. It is an infringement upon 
 the rights of all Men, and not only so, but you presumptu- 
 ously infringe upon the prerogative of the Lord, you thereby 
 attempt to circumscribe his grace, and limit his Divine Light 
 upon the human soul. You may object again and say, If persons 
 have a right to come into our Graveyards and give us advice, 
 they have the same right to come into our Meeting Houses, 
 and impose their advice upon us there. To tliis I reply, the 
 
cases are not similar. That freedom which a person might use 
 innocently, or what might be the duty of him to express whose 
 mind was seriously impressed at a funeral to a promiscuous 
 multitude, might yet be very improper if exercised when you 
 were assembled in your places for worship. There is a 
 Divine reason and fitness in things which the upright see into 
 and which cannot be determined or prescribed by any litteral 
 rule. A Man, not of your society, would be either right or 
 wrong in speaking among you, according as he was either 
 especially qualified or not, and the strong prejudices which 
 you have against other Societies, altho it be your fault, it yet 
 ought to make every person exceedingly cautious, and exam- 
 ine well his authority, if he supposed it his duty, in your 
 places of Worship to give you advice ; for all should take care 
 if possible not to offend those wlio even labor under the most 
 deep-rooted prejudices. Now altho' every Man who might 
 apprehend it his duty to give you advice should be extremely 
 careful not to offend you if possible, and it is granted that you 
 have a right either to hear him, or to refuse to hear him, 
 you being accountable only to the Lord for your exercising 
 this right ; yet my brethren on this subject I will give you my 
 opinion even tho' it will have no weight. It is safest to hear 
 what any sober man may have to say on the all important 
 subject of Piety and virtue : this will give you no pain in a 
 dying hour; the opposing him might. You should not forget 
 the error of Judgment the Apostles of our Lord were under; 
 for altho' they were immediately commissioned by him to 
 preach the Gospel, and to work Miracles in his name, yet 
 such was their weakness that they forbad others doing the 
 same, because they followed not with them ; but remember 
 they were not justified for this, but reproved by their Master. 
 Friends should also remember the liberty which their fore- 
 
fathers took in going into the places of Worship of other 
 Societies and speaking among them, and in their burying 
 grounds down to the present day. To this you will say ; It 
 was their duty to do so ; But it cannot be the duty of a person 
 of another Society to come and Preach to friends. The 
 vanity of this declaration is exceeding great. If it is im- 
 proper for a person not of your Society to give an exhortation 
 at a funeral among you, or in your place of Worship, upon 
 what principle is it right in you to exhort at the funerals of 
 others, and in the place of Worship of other Societies ? Are 
 you as a Society quite compleat in all Christian Graces, and 
 have you all divine qualifications bestowed upon you exclu- 
 sively to the rest of Men, so as that it is impossible to suppose 
 the Lord could with any propriety authorize any other person 
 beside a Quaker to speak to you ? Can you shew that you 
 have an exclusive right to that divine illumination which ex- 
 pands the heart, and warms it with good will towards all men ? 
 Untill you can shew that every member among you is so perfect 
 as that friendly advice bestowed upon them is altogetl\er need- 
 less, or that qualification to give advice is possessed by you ex- 
 clusively, your forbidding any person to give advice anywhere 
 is improper. It is indeed, as has been observed, presuming to 
 limit the Authority of the Highest, and is an attempt to pre- 
 vent the Salvation of Men. But do not my friends suppose 
 from this, that I have any inclination to visit you in this way. 
 I hope that no such thing will ever happen ; it would be the 
 most painful task ever required of me, so unwilling am I to 
 offend you, or to have any altercation with you. 
 
 Having remarked as above, it may not be improper to shew 
 you, that whilst you are faulting persons and proceeding against 
 them in a high tone of unwarranted authority, for simply 
 offering advice to such as are willing to receive it, without 
 
I03 
 
 meaning an offence, or an obtrusion upon any ; you are at 
 the same time indecently intruding with your advice upon the 
 clear and unquestionable rights of others. I could illustrate 
 this by a variety of instances, but for brevity sake one shall 
 suffice. I consider the Monthly Meeting and the select meet- 
 ing of Philadelphia, as one body. Some friends by depu- 
 tation from the monthly meeting waited upon two of my 
 sons to deal with them for joining another religious Society. 
 I was present at the conversation and the friends were treated 
 with great decency and had a clear and full answer given 
 them by my sons, that they chose to go to the same place of 
 worship with their father : A visit was notwithstanding after- 
 wards repeated, at which I happened accidentally to be present, 
 and as it was in my own House, and the business with my 
 own children in whose welfare I am deeply interested, so I 
 thought, I might without any impropriety say something on 
 the occasion and more especially on such an occasion. What 
 was said, was very civilly said. I was however replied to pre- 
 cisely to the following effect : That friends' business was with 
 my children, and not with me, that I had no business there, 
 and must have come to interrupt friends in their visit. That 
 my children were of age and should judge for themselves, that 
 their father was a prejudiced person and his advice not to be 
 regarded. 
 
 If it be an intrusion of an aggravated kind for a person not 
 of your Society to walk into your burying ground to attend a 
 funeral and there to express a wish that all might be serious 
 and prepare to die, how much greater is that intrusion you are 
 guilty of, when after you had been decently received in my 
 house, and a clear and full answer given you to your advice, 
 you still repeat it, and claim a right, and exercise it too, to 
 give your advice again and again, and tell myself I had no 
 
I04 
 
 business there, that my children should take your advice, and 
 not their Father's, for his they ought not to regard. Let me 
 ask you my friends — How would you treat men who should 
 act in the same way towards you, and your children ? You 
 would I doubt not, expatiate upon such intrusion, and would 
 treat such persons with contempt. If there has been an im- 
 propriety in me in obtruding advice (which will be impossible 
 for you to prove) yet when compared with yours it is small, 
 and what our Lord said to a people formerly, who was apt to 
 find fault is applicable to you. " Why beholdest thou the 
 "mote that is in thy brother's eye, and seest not the beam 
 "which is in thine own: first take the beam out of thine 
 "own eye and then shalt thou see clearly how to take out 
 " the mote which is in thy Brother's eye." 
 
 Having made the foregoing observations on the rights of 
 Men, it remains to say a few words respecting another part of 
 your message. The writer of this has not an high opinion of 
 his gifts or abilities to promote the cause of virtue, he can 
 say however he wishes well to it sincerely, and in his feeble 
 engagements therein, sometimes feels a peace Men can neither 
 give nor take away. But yet he will confess to you, altho' 
 you have no authority to call him to an account, nor interfere 
 in his business, he at times feels some pain least he should 
 not have advanced so great and good a cause. But friends, 
 have there not been appearances among you which have given 
 you pain when the fault lay with yourselves? I was a diligent 
 attender of your meetings for near thirty years, and knew 
 that a part of your meeting were uneasy at the publick ap- 
 pearances of some whose Ministry they at length approved. 
 I well remember George Dillwyn's first appearance in the Min- 
 istry, and the opposition he met with. There was at that 
 time a particular intimacy between that friend and myself, 
 
I05 
 and as brethren we freely unbosomed our hearts to each other. 
 After repeated opposition to him both in publick and private 
 from members of your meeting, a committee told him plainly 
 that they had not unity with his appearance : And they en- 
 joined him not to break silence but to bear his burden, and 
 more especially not to appear in Prayer, for if he did, they 
 told him they would manifest their Testimony against him 
 publickly by not joining with him, and in order still the more 
 effectually to stop his mouth, one publick friend who is not 
 now among the living, but who was in his day of distinguished 
 note among you, wrote a letter to George, and in clear and 
 express words told him, that he had neither part nor lot in 
 the ministry, or, says the friend, " the Lord never spoke by 
 me." As I knew the opposition to George arose from preju- 
 dice, and having a great love for him, I related to my Father- 
 in-law what was carrying on against George, upon which my 
 father appeared much surprised and altho' he was a member 
 of your meeting, did not seem aware of what was doing ; 
 which shews there may not always be unanimity among your- 
 selves on business of this kind : for my Father immediately 
 interested himself in George's favour and spoke to John 
 Smith at Burlington (George having then removed there) and 
 requested John to use his influence in George's favour, and I 
 well knew that Mordecai Yarnal, Anthony Beneset and John 
 Smith together with some other friends, whose names I could 
 mention who were then members of your meeting, most of 
 whom are since dead, so interposed in George's behalf that at 
 length he was admitted a minister among you. 
 
 Upon the whole then. If the most eminent ministers among 
 you at times give you pain, and you do with so much deter- 
 mination oppose men of your own Society, meerly upon ill 
 founded prejudices, what must such poor creatures expect. 
 
io6 
 
 who have been declared by you not worthy of Christian fel- 
 lowship. Is it possible after such a declaration, that you can 
 possess that simplicity and candour towards them in which 
 alone there is true discernment? 
 
 Further I was informed that if I should again appear as I 
 had done, friends would be under the necessity of informing 
 such who might be present that I was not in Unity with 
 friends. 
 
 If you entertain an Idea that I wish to avail myself of any 
 reputation which might result from a supposed membership 
 with you, you are under a great mistake. It has happened 
 divers times since I have been disowned, that I have fallen 
 in company with persons who had an esteem for friends, and 
 have found some respect paid me upon a supposition that I 
 belonged to the Society, Now it ever appeared to me a kind 
 of hypocrisy if I should let a person go away under such a 
 mistake, and enjoy that sort of reputation which I was not 
 entitled to, and have always undeceived them, frankly telling 
 them I was disowned by you ; so that if such a case should 
 happen as you allude to, you have not only a right to do as 
 you say, but you have my entire approbation so to do; how- 
 ever in this explanation of yourselves, you ought to take care 
 not to defame me, there might be some persons present on 
 such an occasion, who might not be acquainted with the merits 
 of the case for which I was disowned ; such might suppose I 
 was disowned by you for some great immorality : be pleased 
 therefore to state the whole case, and I have neither right nor 
 inclination to prevent it, for I have scarcely ever met with 
 one person, either a member of your Society, or of any other, 
 who did not think I was hardly dealt with by you, and by far 
 the greater number consider you as the aggressor. A man 
 may be disowned by you, and held up as a spectacle of con- 
 
I07 
 
 tempt, who nevertheless may be owned by Christ at the day 
 of general judgment, and admitted into fellowship with the 
 Saints. But let us now enquire into the nature of that offence 
 which was esteemed of such magnitude as to render it neces- 
 sary to testify against me. It was simply for submitting 
 to the dispensations of Divine Providence, which you 
 yourselves have since done, for this no offence, have I been, 
 and am still to be, held up by you in an odious light, and 
 pains taken to stamp a prejudice against me upon the minds 
 of the rising generation, so that when both you and I are 
 dead and all of us in that most awfull state of existence, future 
 generations may treat my memory as you have done my per- 
 son. The amazing prejudices you labour under, and your 
 conduct governed by those prejudices, operate as an injury 
 for ages : And yet my friends you changed your sentiments 
 with respect to the offence for which you disowned me, for 
 you desisted from the business you begun, and many con- 
 tinued members of your meeting who yet acted as myself had 
 done : And Anthony Beneset freely acknowledged to me you 
 were wrong. The candour of this worthy Man in making 
 this voluntary confession to one who before he had blamed, 
 very much endeared him to me, it was a concession I neither 
 expected nor sought for : But you, my friends not possessing 
 his virtues, still persecute the Man whom you at first injured. 
 There are divers members of your meeting for whom I have 
 always entertained an high esteem. I have taken them to be 
 Persons of more enlarged and liberal minds than to act towards 
 me as you do, were they not under the necessity of joining 
 with you for form sake. If there are such among you, they 
 are excepted in the censure comprehended in this address. 
 But I may be mistaken, you may be unanimous, and it is 
 possible your conduct may not be so much the effect of ill 
 
loS 
 
 will towards me, as an error in your judgment, you have been 
 accustomed to certain rules, perhaps long established, which 
 you conceive indispensably necessary to observe ; how far this 
 will excuse you at the day that is hastening is not for nie to 
 say; but this dry, formal, undistinguishing sort of business, 
 leads at times to the same conduct as that of the Scribes 
 and Pharisees, who bid the Apostles be silent, and excom- 
 municated Men for believing in Christ. 
 
 . Altho' the writer of this is of little consequence in your 
 esteem, nor of much in his own, he is yet serious in this ad- 
 dress and thinks it is not inconsistent with a becoming degree 
 of modesty to request you would read it with solid attention 
 in your meeting; tho' this he does not expect. But were 
 you to do so, divested of prejudice, you might derive from it 
 some instruction which would be of future service to you, 
 both in your individual capacities, and as members of a 
 Religious Society. 
 
 The foregoing was written just before the breaking out of 
 the malignant fever, and was intended to have been sent to 
 you then, but the writer's attention was taken off from this, 
 on account of the extreem attention to his business which he 
 was hurryed into, occasioned by the afforesaid disease, and 
 the great mortality which hapened in consequence. The 
 mentioning of which circumstance brings to his memory, 
 the particulars of that exhortation which gave you offence, 
 and occasioned your message to him. The writer does not 
 pretend to the knowledge of future events, except those 
 which must happen in the nature of things ; but Divine 
 providence may make use of an instrument to give warning 
 to prepare for those things which he may intend to bring 
 about, without revealing to such instrument his particular 
 designs. The writer well remembers his mind was seriously 
 
I09 
 
 impressed with the extreem shortness of our existence here ; 
 and of the uncertainty of all things below ; and of the in- 
 finite importance of a preparation for death ; this prospect so 
 impressed his mind that he thought they were as powerful! 
 reasons for deep consideration and preparation for death, as if 
 the Lord should again at that instant commission an Angel to 
 declare, in the AwfuU manner one formerly did to John the 
 Divine that time should be no longer. This prospect the writer 
 thought it his duty to express, and which he did as well as he 
 was then abilitated to do. And, my friends, let me ask you 
 what authority have you to reprove him for it ? Has not the 
 great mortality with which the City has been visited, shewn 
 the propriety of such an exhortation from some person ? 
 And how came you by a right to dictate either who should or 
 who should not be the instrument to urge those things. What 
 was then offered did not offend all who were present, I have 
 been assured, but on the contrary was well received ; and the 
 late visitation esteemed a corroborating circumstance to shew 
 its propriety. Many who were then present are now no more 
 in mutability, and among this number is one, or more, of your 
 Meeting, and if the Ancient friend who probably reported 
 to you what happened, and no doubt agreed to the measure 
 adopted by you, had taken the advice then given, instead of 
 spurning at it, and so improved the few moments alloted to 
 him in the evening of his day, as was then sincerely urged, 
 it would have been acting a wiser part ; and altho' we may 
 hope he is at rest, together with other members of your 
 meeting, who agreed in your message to the subscriber, yet 
 their officiousness in this business is now no cause or part of 
 their felicity, nor will it contribute to yours, my brethren, in 
 the day that is hastening. Your conduct towards the sub- 
 
scriber, will not be among the good works in which the 
 righteous rejoice. 
 
 Such is the esteem which the writer has entertained for 
 divers members of your meeting, and so great has been his 
 desire to live upon the most friendly terms with them, that 
 he is sorry he is obliged to write as he has done ; he wishes 
 sincerely to cultivate the most cordial friendship for his fellow 
 Christians of all denominations ; he therefore hopes there 
 are divers members of your meeting to whom the censure 
 contained in this address is not applicable, it would give him 
 pain to think otherwise, because he wishes still to love and 
 esteem them. But if your meeting is unanimous and those 
 persons so loved and esteemed look upon the subscriber in 
 that point of view which the meeting's conduct towards him 
 fully implies, he will endeavor to bear with their prejudices 
 and patiently wait the event of all things here below, hoping 
 and believing his weak efforts to promote the cause of virtue, 
 will through his Master's clemency finally receive his appro- 
 bation. And being supported in this faith and confidence 
 he hopes when Jesus commissions, he shall undismayed at all 
 fit times and places warn Men to prepare for an Awfull 
 Eternity. Your advice and threats are therefore my friends, 
 considered in tlie same light, as if you forbid the writer, to 
 Love his Lord and Saviour. 
 
 Saml. Wetherill. 
 Philadelphia, iimo. z^rd, ijgj. 
 
Appendix No. 12. 
 
 LIST OF MEMBERS 
 
 FREE QUAKER SOCIETY 
 
 Who are Known or Believed to be Deceased. 
 
 Isaac Howell, Trustee, 1783. 
 Robert Parrish. 
 James Sloane. 
 
 White Matlack, Treasurer, 1784. 
 Moses Bartram, Trustee, 1 783. 
 Benjamin Say, Trustee, 1783. 
 Samuel Wetherill, Clerk, Feb. 20, 
 Owen Biddle. 
 
 [781, to Sept. I, 1808. 
 
 The above attended the first meeting of the Society, Feb- 
 ruary 20, 1 781. 
 
 Nathaniel Allen, 1781 
 
 Matthew Ash, 1 781 
 
 Jonathan Ash, 1781 
 
 John Bartram, 1781 
 
 James Bartram, 1781 
 
 John Bell, 1782 
 
 James Boone, 1782 
 
 Joseph Bonsall 1 78 1 
 
 Joshua Bonsall, 1781 
 
 Jonathan Bonsall, 1781 
 
 Enoch Belts, . 1782 
 
 Abner Buckman, 1782 
 
 John Buckman, Jr. , .... 1782 
 
 Nathaniel Browne, 1781 
 
 Trustee, 1783 
 
 Clement Biddle, 1781 
 
 Thomas Bryan, 1 781 
 
 Joseph Burden, ^7^5 
 
 Margaret Boggs, 1785 
 
 Margaret Boggs 1847 
 
 Timothy (son of Guy^ Bryan, 1847 
 
 William P. Bryan, 1832 
 
 Martha Bryan, 18 10 
 
 Peter Barker, 1781 
 
Samuel Crispin, 17S5 
 
 William Crispin, 1781 
 
 Thomas Crispin, 1 781 
 
 Lydia Crispin, 1785 
 
 Lydia Crispin, Jr., 1785 
 
 Samuel Crispin, Jr., .... 1785 
 
 George Chandler, 1781 
 
 Thomas Coats 1781 
 
 John Ciaypoole, 1785 
 
 Elizabeth Ciaypoole, .... 1785 
 
 Martha Coats, 17S5 
 
 Sarah Coats '785 
 
 John Chapman, I7S2 
 
 Samuel Crawford, 1786 
 
 Elizabeth Crawford, . . . .1786 
 
 Mary Crawford 1786 
 
 Charles Crawford, .... 1 786 
 Elizabeth Crawford (Jr.), . .1786 
 
 Sarah Cribs 17S6 
 
 Mary Crips, 1785 
 
 Hannah Carmalt, 1785 
 
 Isaac Collins (of Trenton), . 1781 
 Elizabeth Champion, .... 1847 
 
 William Darragh, 1 781 
 
 Lydia Darragh, 1781 
 
 Ann Darragh, 1781 
 
 Susanna Darragh 1781 
 
 James Delaplaine, 1781 
 
 Cadwalader Dickinson, . . . 1 781 
 
 Jonathan Draper, 1782 
 
 Thomas Dyer 1782 
 
 Timothy Davis, 1782 
 
 Jehu Eldridge, 1 781 
 
 Joshua Ely 1782 
 
 Nathaniel Ellicot, 1782 
 
 Edward Evans, 1781 
 
 Evan Evans, 1781 
 
 David Evans, 1781 
 
 Thomas Elton 1 785 
 
 Susanna Elton, 1785 
 
 Mary Elton, 1785 
 
 Susanna Elton (Jr.), . . . .1785 
 
 John Elton 1785 
 
 Thomas Ehon (Jr.), . . . .1785 
 
 Elizabeth Elton, 1785 
 
 Anthony Elton, 1785 
 
 Samuel Eldridge, 1785 
 
 William Fishery Jr.), . . . .1781 
 Samuel Foulke (of Richland). 1782 
 J. Fisher, 1781 
 
 Nathaniel Gibson 1 78 1 
 
 Rebecca W. Gumbes, . . .1789 
 Samuel W. Gumbes, .... 1830 
 
 Joseph Govett, 1781 
 
 Edward Griffiths, 17S5 
 
 Caleb Hewes, 1781 
 
 Henry Hayes, 1781 
 
 Samuel Howell 1781 
 
 Edward Heston, 17S1 
 
 Isaac Heston, 1782 
 
 Clara Hanna 1847 
 
 Thomas Hopkins, 1781 
 
 Sarah W. Hough 1845 
 
 Frances E. A. E. Hough, . 1S74 
 Sophia Hildebron, 1847 
 
 Robert Jones, 1 78 1 
 
 Maria L. Janeway, 1830 
 
 Jacob Karcher, 1785 
 
 Elinor Karcher, 1785 
 
 Margaretta Karcher, .... 1785 
 
 George Kemble 1805 
 
 Charles Kemble 1820 
 
 Maria Kemble 1832 
 
 Samuel Kemble 1832 
 
 Johanna Kemble, 1832 
 
 Emily Kemble, ... • 1832 
 Charlotte H. Kemble, . . . 1832 
 Elizabeth F. Kemble, . . . 1832 
 Joseph Kemble, 1832 
 
Charles Kemble, Jr., . . . . 1832 
 
 Trustee, 1856 
 
 Johanna Kemble, 1832 
 
 John Knight, 1781 
 
 Richard Leedom, 1782 
 
 Anne Lewton, 1785 
 
 Jacob Lahn, 1785 
 
 Eli Lewis, 17S5 
 
 Mary Lawn, J 785 
 
 Thomas Lang, 1785 
 
 Margaret Lang, 1785 
 
 Margaret Lang, Jr., .... 1785 
 
 Agnes Lang, 1785 
 
 James Lang, 1785 
 
 Joshua Lippincott, .... 1790 
 
 Trustee, 1808 
 
 Sarah W. Lippincott 1785 
 
 Samuel W. Lippincott, . . . 1820 
 
 Trustee, 1853 
 
 Joshua Lippincott, (Jr.), . . 1820 
 
 Trustee, . 1853 
 
 William Lippincott, .... 1820 
 
 Trustee, 1856-1894 
 
 Selina Lippincott, 1820 
 
 Mary Lippincott 1820 
 
 Timothy Matlack, 1781 
 
 William Matlack, 1782 
 
 Timothy Matlack, Jr., ... 1832 
 
 James Matlack, 1832 
 
 Ann McDonald, 1808 
 
 Mordecai McDonald, . . . 1832 
 Christopher Marshall, . . .1781 
 
 Trustee, 1783 
 
 Fairman Marshall, .... 1820 
 
 John Morris 1 78 1 
 
 Samuel Morris, 1781 
 
 Aaron Musgrave, 1781 
 
 J. Musgrave, 1781 
 
 William Milnor, 1781 
 
 Elizabeth Murphy, 1785 
 
 "3 
 
 Elizabeth Neave, 1785 
 
 Elizabeth Neave, Jr., , . . 1785 
 
 Joseph Ogden, 1781 
 
 Joseph Ogd en, Jr 1781 
 
 John Parrish, Jr., 1781 
 
 Benjamin Paschall, .... 1781 
 Jonathan Paschall, .... 1781 
 
 Sarah Paschall, 1785 
 
 J. Pearson 1781 
 
 Joseph Pearson, 1781 
 
 James Pearson, 1781 
 
 James Potter 1 782 
 
 Edward Pole, 1782 
 
 John Piles 1785 
 
 Elizabeth Parry, 1785 
 
 Esther Parry, 1785 
 
 Rowland Parry, 1785 
 
 Margaretta Pfeiffer, .... 1785 
 
 John Richardson, 1781 
 
 Thomas Renshaw, 1781 
 
 Isabella Renshaw, 1785 
 
 Abraham Roberts, 17S1 
 
 Trustee, 1783 
 
 Samuel Robbins 1781 
 
 Thomas Ross, Jr., 1782 
 
 Anthony Ruston, 1805 
 
 Trustee, 1808 
 
 Abraham Shoemaker, . . .1781 
 
 Samuel Smith, 1781 
 
 Richard Somers, 1781 
 
 Sophia Somers 1785 
 
 Thomas Say 1808 
 
 Trustee, 1808 
 
 John Small wood, 1785 
 
 Susan Smallwood, '785 
 
 Jonathan Scholfield, .... 1782 
 
 Trustee, 1783 
 
 Joseph Stiles, 1781 
 
 Trustee, 1786 
 
114 
 
 Rebecca Scholfield, 
 Sarah Stewart, . . 
 
 Peter Thomson, . . 
 Trustee, . . . 
 Elizabeth Thomson, 
 William Thomson, 
 Stacey Taylor, . . 
 Timothy Taylor, . . 
 Adam Trippe, . . 
 Catharine Trippe, . 
 Adam Trippe, Jr., . 
 Maria Tripf)e, , . 
 Elizabeth Trippe, . 
 
 Joseph Warner, . . 
 
 Trustee, . . . 
 Charily Warner, . . 
 Ann Warner, . . . 
 William Warner, . 
 Mary Warner, . . . 
 Elizabeth Warner, 
 Sarah Warner, . . 
 Sarah Wetherill, . 
 Samuel Wetherill, Jr 
 
 Clerk, .... 
 Mordecai Wetherill, .... 
 John Wetherill 
 
 Trustee, 
 
 Samuel Wetherill, 
 
 son of Mordecai 
 Samuel P. Wetherill, .... 
 John Price Wetherill, . . . 
 
 Clerk, 1S29-1853; Trustee, 
 John Price Wetherill, Jr., . . 
 
 Clerk, 1853-1884; Trustee, 
 
 180S- 
 
 7S5 
 785 
 
 781 
 783 
 785 
 785 
 782 
 7S2 
 785 
 785 
 785 
 785 
 78s 
 
 7S1 
 783 
 7^^5 
 785 
 7S5 
 7S5 
 7S5 
 785 
 78s 
 785 
 S29 
 785 
 785 
 808 
 S08 
 
 S08 
 800 
 
 853 
 830 
 
 853 
 
 Charles Wetherill 1S05 
 
 Margaretta S. Wetherill, . . 1820 
 William Wetherill, . . . .1805 
 Isabella B. Wetherill, . . .1825 
 
 Thomas Wetherill, 1805 
 
 George D. Wetherill, . . . 1820 
 
 Trustee, 1853 
 
 Maria L. Wetherill 1815 
 
 Rachel Wetherill, 1S20 
 
 Elizabeth K. K. Wetherill, . 1820 
 
 Samuel Wetherill, 1821 
 
 Trustee, 1S56-1890 
 
 Elisha K. K. Wetherill, . . 1S28 
 
 Charles M. Wetherill, . . . 1830 
 
 Joseph Bloomtield Wetherill, 1835 
 
 Isabella Wetherill, 1845 
 
 Wdliam H. Wetherill, . . . 1S35 
 
 Katheriiie Wetherill, .... 1S35 
 
 Emma Wetherill, 1835 
 
 George D. Wetherill, Jr., . . 1S35 
 
 Margaret Wetherby 1785 
 
 Martha Wetherby 1785 
 
 Clara Watson, 1847 
 
 Clarissa S. Wilson, . . . . 1S32 
 
 (dr. of John Claypoole) 
 
 E. G. Wilson, 1S32 
 
 S. B. Wilson 1S32 
 
 A. B. Wilson, 1S32 
 
 C. S. Wilson, 1832 
 
 S. C. Wilson, 1S32 
 
 R.J. Wilson 1832 
 
 Cornelius Wing, 1781 
 
 Thomas Wright, 17S2 
 
 Samuel Yorke 1805 
 
 Trustee 1S08 
 
Appendix, No. 13. 
 
 NAMES AND RESIDENCES OF THE PRESENT FREE 
 QUAKERS, 1894. 
 
 Frances S. D. Gumbes 1706 Pine St. 
 
 Isabel G. Cresson, " " 
 
 Francis M. Cresson, " " 
 
 Isabel Cresson, " " 
 
 Caleb Cresson, Jr., " " 
 
 Susan V. Cresson, " " 
 
 Georgine Cresson, " " 
 
 Mary G. Barker 425 South i6th St. 
 
 Elizabeth II. Barker, " " » 
 
 George G. Barker, " " " 
 
 Frances Gumbes, Jr., 1706 Pine St. 
 
 Dr. Charles W. Gumbes, Oaks, Pa. 
 
 Rebecca W. Gumbes, " 
 
 Charles W. Gumbes, Jr., " 
 
 Francis Gumbes, " 
 
 S. Wetherill Gumbes, " 
 
 Jos. Hildeburn Gumbes, " 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. A. Lawrence Wetherill, . iioo Spruce St. 
 
 John Price Wetherill, Bethlehem, Pa. 
 
 Ira Cortright Wetherill, 
 
 Anna Wetherill, 
 
 Florence Wetherill, 
 
 John Price Wetherill, Jr., 
 
 William C. Wetherill, 
 
 C. A. Hecksches Wetherill, .... 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Samuel P. Wetherill, . Edgewater Park, N. J. 
 
 Samuel P. Wetherill, Jr., 
 
 Georgine W. Smith, 
 
 Sarah Wetherill, 
 
 Christine N. Wetherill, 2d, ... . 
 Isabel Wetherill 
 
 "5 
 
ii6 
 
 William C. Wetherill, Joplin, Mo. 
 
 Elizabeth C. Wetherill, " " 
 
 Gertrude Wetherill, " " 
 
 Mrs. Georgiana W. Cox, Bethlehem, Pa. 
 
 Walter W. Cox, 
 
 William John Cox, " " 
 
 Sarah W. Cox, 
 
 Eugenia Cox, " " 
 
 Madeleine Cox, " " 
 
 Mrs. Thyrza A. Wetherill 421 School Lane, Germantown. 
 
 Elisha K. K. Wetherill, " 
 
 Maria K. Apperson, " " " " 
 
 Jacob J. Janeway, Greensburg, Pa. 
 
 Lawrence W. Janeway, " " 
 
 Joseph B. Janeway, " " 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Price W. Janeway, . . Media, Pa, 
 
 Price W. Janeway, Jr., " " 
 
 Helen H. Janeway " " 
 
 Maria K. Janeway 2316 Locust St. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Herman Burgin, ... 72 W. Chelten Ave., Germantown. 
 
 Mrs. Rachel W. J. Hodge 2316 Locust St. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. John L. Janeway, Jr., . Phoenixville, Pa. 
 
 John L. Janeway, 3d, " " 
 
 Augustin S. Janeway " " 
 
 Sibyl Kent Janeway, " " 
 
 Mrs. Emily M. Foster l7loPineSt. 
 
 Mrs. Martha \V. Brinckerhoff, . . . . " " " 
 
 William A. Foster, " " " 
 
 Elizabeth W. Douglass << « <c 
 
 Mrs. Mary C. Wetherill, La Fayette, Ind. 
 
 Mrs. Anna B. O'Ferrall, 
 
 Dr. Richard B. Wetherill 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Henry M. Wetherill, . . 15 East Penn St., Germantown. 
 
 Charles Wetherill, 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Henry M. Wetherill, Jr., . 2208 Locust St. 
 
 Mrs. Rebecca W. Tiers 126 Pomona Terrace, Germantown. 
 
 Rebecca W. Tiers, Jr., " " " 
 
 Mary Tiers, " " " 
 
 Paul L. Tiers, " " " " 
 
 Helen Tiers, " " " 
 
 Thomas M. Wetherill, New Orleans, La. 
 
 Mrs. Julia W. Baker 
 
 Mrs. Margaretta M. Kernan " " 
 
117 
 
 Clive N. Keman, New Orleans, La. 
 
 Mayer Wetherill, Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 Mrs. Margaretta M. Diehl, 2312 Spruce St. 
 
 Mrs. Margaretta W. Wallace, .... Staten Island, N, Y. 
 
 Mrs. Mary E. W. Smith, 1613 Spruce St. 
 
 Edward I. Smith, Jr., " " " 
 
 Mrs, Susan D. Edson, 2312 Spruce St. 
 
 Charles W. Diehl, " 
 
 William E. Diehl, " 
 
 Thomas J. Diehl " " " 
 
 Samuel Wetherill, . . 1835 De Lancey Place. 
 
 Col. John M. Wetherill, Pottsville, Pa. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. William H. Wetherill, . 37th and Walnut Sts. 
 
 H. Emerson Wetherill " " " 
 
 Herbert Wetherill, " " " 
 
 Abel P. Wetherill, " " 
 
 Webster K. Wetherill, " " " 
 
 Francis M. Wetherill, " '*. " 
 
 Mrs. Rachel Hewson, 1434 Spruce St. 
 
 Isabel Hewson, " " " 
 
 Emily Hewson, " " " 
 
 Mrs. Mary H. Booraem, 
 
 Addinell Hewson, M. D. 1508 Pine St. 
 
 William K. Hewson, 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Frank D. Wetherill, . .1723 Pine St. 
 
 Isabel Wetherill, " " " 
 
 Brinton Wetherill, " " " 
 
 J. Lawrance Wetherill, " " " 
 
 Caroline B. Wetherill, " " " 
 
 Lt. Charles S. Riche, U. S. A., 
 
 Capt. Alexander M. Wetherill, U. S. A. 
 
 Mrs. Agnes Dundas Lippincott, . . . 1333 Walnut St. 
 
 James Dundas Lippincott, 509 South Broad St. 
 
 J. Wurtz Dundas, 1333 Walnut St. 
 
 Benjamin W. Richards, 45 South 17th St. 
 
 Mrs. James Constable, 1820 DeLancey Place. 
 
 Miss Constable, " " " 
 
 Howard R. Constable, " " " 
 
 Stevenson Constable, " " " 
 
 Mrs. Augustus H. Richards, .... 4049 Locust St. 
 
 Mary Lippincott Richards, " " " 
 
 Alfred Wetherill, Elkton, Md. 
 
 Miss Jane Wetherill, 3915 Woodland Ave. 
 
ii8 
 
 Miss Ellen Wetherill, 3915 Woodland Ave. 
 
 Miss Sarah Y. Wetherill, " " " 
 
 Mrs. W. W. Young, " 
 
 Miss Marion Yorke Young, . . . . " " " 
 
 Miss Ella Young, " " " 
 
 Miss Julia Young, " " " 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Edward Wetherill, . .1413 Spruce St. 
 
 Miss Edith Wetherill, '• " " 
 
 Miss Marian Wetherill, " " " 
 
 Miss Blanche Wetherill, " " " 
 
 Miss Irma Wetherill " " " 
 
 Miss Cora Wetherill " " " 
 
 Miss Rebecca Wetherill, 1340 Walnut St. 
 
 Miss Ida Cushman, " " " 
 
 Miss Alice Cushman " " " 
 
 Mrs. Susan M. Miller, 2036 Yine St. 
 
 Mrs. Anna Wetherill, 325 South 1 6th St. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs George D. Wetherill, . " " " 
 
 Thomas Wetherill, " " " 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Wetherill Jr., 5532 Morris St., Germantown. 
 
 Mrs. Percy Browne Roxbury, Mass. 
 
 Miss Katharine W. Browne, .... " 
 
 Percy Browne, Jr., " 
 
 Mrs. George Northrop Edgewater Park, N. J., 
 
 Mrs. Isabel N. McHenry, " " 
 
 Dr. Katharine Northrop, 316 South 1 6th St. 
 
 Mrs. Morris Hacker, (In Europe). 
 
 Miss Beulah Hacker, " 
 
 Mrs. Isabel H. Dixon 58th St. near Elmwood Ave. 
 
 Charles C. Wetherill, Kingston, Md. 
 
 C. Whittington Wetherill, " 
 
 Samuel Wetherill, Jr " 
 
 Edward Wetherill, " 
 
 Alfred N. Wetherill Strafford, Pa. 
 
 William S. Wetherill, 
 
 Morris H. Wetherill 
 
 Mrs. A. T. Zeising, 2029 North 8th St. 
 
 Miss Zeising, " <« «« 
 
 Miss Anna Maria Kemble, " •< << 
 
 Mrs. Sarah Kemble Eichler, . . . . " " " 
 
 Nicholas Helverson, " «• «< 
 
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