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Start Over Subject Lay ministry -- Society of Friends Year 1826

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Sharpless Family Papers, 1792-1892 (inclusive)

Extent:
2 linear ft. (4 boxes)
Abstract:
The collection represents two branches of the Sharpless family of Pennsylvania descended from Joseph and Lydia (Lewis) Sharpless). It contains correspondence between extended Sharpless family relations including Sharpless, Hunn, Jones, Drinker families and journals of Joshua Sharpless, a Quaker minister who worked with Native Americans and visited Quaker meetings in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Canada. Correspondence covers various topics including the travels of women ministers, yellow fever, and contemporary events. The second series contains primarily nineteenth century correspondence of the extended family of Townsend and Mary Brinton (Jones) Sharpless. It includes letters written by Henry H. G. Sharpless during his European tour and extensive correspondence received by Ezekiel Hunn who served briefly in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]

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Collection of Bringhurst Family Correspondence, 1780-1811 (bulk) 1780-1941 (inclusive)

Extent:
6 linear ft.
Abstract:
Contains the collected correspondence of the Bringhurst family, largely compiled by C. Marshall Taylor. It includes correspondence, 1780-1806, of Philadelphia Quaker businessman James Bringhurst and his letters received from John Murray of New York City. Bringhurst corresponded with family and prominent friends including John Dickinson, Job Scott, Nathan Hunt, James Pemberton, Jesse Kersey, Lindley Murray and Moses Brown. Of particular interest are descriptions of life in Philadelphia and the conditions of free blacks, as well as Quaker religious and social concerns and visits from traveling ministers. A second group of letters contains primarily letters from Joseph Bringhurst, the brother of James, to his niece, Elizabeth Foulke while she was traveling in the ministry.

Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]

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Public Friends manuscripts collection, 1656-1899 (inclusive)

Extent:
.3 linear ft. (1 document box)
Abstract:
While the Society of Friends is a "ministry of all believers," historically certain members have been recognized for their spiritual gifts. Those who undertake to travel and preach with the approbation of their home meeting are known as Public Friends. Especially in the 17th, 18th, and 19th century, traveling ministers served a key role in forming Quaker social and theological networks, fostering unity within the Society of Friends, and providing spiritual enrichment to Quakers across the world. Ministers who felt a spiritual opening directing them to travel would tell their Monthly Meeting, and if approved, the meeting would write a minute for the minister to carry on their journey and present to the Meeting(s) they visited. Quaker Meetings would often keep records of the Public Friends who visited them. This collection consists of lists of Public Friends, as well as minutes from Quaker meetings approving ministers to travel. Items were written by various Quaker meetings or...(see more)

Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]

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Friends Historical Library collection of memorials, 1760-1920 (inclusive)

Extent:
.1 linear ft.
Abstract:
Memorials are brief biographical essays which testify to the spiritual values of a Quaker's life. Early meetings only wrote memorials for ministers, but today some meetings continue the practice to memorialize all deceased members. In the 19th century, in particular, some Yearly Meetings periodically published compilations of memorials. This collection consists of miscellaneous memorials, from various meetings and regarding various Friends, collected by the Friends Historical Library over time.

Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]

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Smedley Family Papers, 1751-1996 (inclusive) 1821-1950 (bulk)

Extent:
12 linear ft. (23 boxes plus photographs)
Abstract:
The collection contains correspondence, journals and other writings, business and legal papers, and miscellaneous items of the Smedley family, a large and prominent Quaker family of Penncrest Farm, Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The family was related to the Kite and Sharples/Sharpless families of Chester and Delaware Counties. The papers include significant correspondence of the Kite family, especially Thomas Kite (1785-1845) and Mary Kite (1792-1861), both prominent Quaker ministers, and Thomas's daughter, Susanna Kite (1809-1844) who married Aaron Sharpless. Their daughter, Elizabeth S. Sharpless married Edward G. Smedley of Middletown, thus merging the Smedley-Sharples-Kite families. In the 20th century, the property became the home of Edward Smedley's nephew, Walter Smedley (1862-1939), a Philadelphia architect, and his wife, Ida Wilkins Roberts Smedley (1896-1993). She married second C. Canby Balderston. The papers cover a wide range of subjects...(see more)

Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]

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Hunn-Karsner Family Papers, 1809-1985 (inclusive) 1947-1974 (bulk)

Extent:
4.75 linear ft. (10 boxes)
Abstract:
The collection contains correspondence, writings, and other papers of the family of Ezekiel Hunn and Lydia Jones Sharpless Hunn, Philadelphia and Delaware Quakers. The papers were compiled by their granddaughter Katherine Hunn Karsner (1899-1993). She was a Philadelphia Quaker minister and married Joseph Reed Karsner in 1930 under the care of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting (Hicksite). The bulk of the collection is composed of correspondence from their daughter, Mary Ann Karsner Kegler (1932-1983) who moved to Alaska in 1950 and was one of the founders of Chena Ridge Monthly Meeting. The collection also contains earlier family correspondence between Ezekiel and Lydia Jenkins Hunn and other members of the Hunn family. The writings include diaries and writings by Katherine Hunn Karsner, her sister Lydia Hunn Williamson, Joseph Karsner, and Mary Ann Karsner Kegler.

Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]

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Ann Jones Papers, 1793-1831 (inclusive)

Extent:
6 folders
Abstract:
This collection contains letters and other manuscripts relating to visits of English Friends to America in the 1820s and the controversies which led to the Hicksite-Orthodox Separation. Also included are letters from Elizabeth Rathbone, Liverpool, England, to "My Beloved Uncle;" Joseph Bringhurst, Philadelphia, to "My Esteemed Friend;" also Abel Thomas to Thomas and Mary Wistar (copy) as well as some miscellaneous Quaker papers.

Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]

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Ash-Schofield Family Papers, 1796-1933 (inclusive) 1833-1912 (bulk)

Extent:
1.5 linear ft. (3 boxes)
Abstract:
Samuel Shinn Ash and his wife, Sarah Jane Schofield Ash, were prominent Quakers, active in a variety of philanthropic activities, including anti-slavery, peace, temperance, women's rights, and education. Samuel Shinn Ash was apprenticed as an engineer and machinist and worked in manufacturing. This collection consists of family papers, manuscript letters and memorabilia, largely of a domestic nature. Includes some descriptions of Meetings and religious journeys, of the early struggles of Samuel S. Ash in engineering and business, and references to the Schofield Normal and Industrial School in Aiken, S.C. of which Martha Schofield, one of the correspondents, was Manager. The exchange of letters between Mary S. Ash and her mother, Sarah Ash, describes student life at Swarthmore College in the 1890's.

Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]

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