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Start Over Subject Lay ministry -- Society of Friends Year 1869

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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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Sharpless-Reeve family papers, 1852-1957 (inclusive)

Extent:
2.5 linear ft. (5 boxes)
Abstract:
The collected papers of the Sharpless and Reeve family of New Jersey and Philadelphia. Much of the correspondence is between Edward Sharpless (1831-1894), a New Jersey Quaker minister, and his sister, Anna N. Sharpless, who married John Newbold Reeve in 1857. Their daughter, Mary Offley Reeve, worked as a school teacher when young and became involved in temperance and evangelical Christianity. She shared these interests, reflected in diaries and other writings, with Annie Way Smith, a long-time friend and member of Fishertown Monthly Meeting. The collection illustrates Quaker responses to early twentieth century social and religious trends.

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

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Mary Bradway correspondence, 1829-1886 (inclusive)

Extent:
.1 linear ft. (.1 linear feet (8 folders.))
Abstract:
This collection includes the personal correspondence of Mary S. Bradway with John Comly, John and Judith Cornell, and John Hallowell. The letters are personal in content, with some discussion of the nature of contemporary Quaker spirituality.

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

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Conrow-Hunt Family Correspondence, 1786-1886 (inclusive)

Extent:
.1 linear ft. (.1 linear feet (2 folders.))
Abstract:
Contains three letters, 1786-1787, with later manuscript copies, to Quaker minister and diarist, John Hunt, from Darling Conrow. John Hunt added a biographical note concerning Conrow to the final letter. Also contains a letter, 1886, concerning Hunt genealogy.

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

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Nicholas Hallock papers, 1835-1884 (inclusive)

Extent:
.1 linear ft. (.1 linear feet (2 folders.))
Abstract:
The collections contains a draft or copy of a letter dated 6 mo. 1846 from Nicholas Hallock to Elizabeth Paxson which explains his religious beliefs; an 1848 letter from Henry Titus and others, Jerusalem, Long Island, NY, expressing their thanks for Hallock's religious visit; a copy of a letter dated 1835 from George Hull to Hallock, dispirited by the divisions among Friends; a record of the births of the family of Edward Hallock, younger brother of Nicholas; and a copy of the minute adopted by the New York Yearly Meeting in which Marlborough Monthly Meeting was laid down. Also typed transcripts of these documents, typed extracts from an 1884 manuscript by Nathaniel Hallock, and biographical information supplied by the donor.

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

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Mott Manuscripts, 1831-1898 (inclusive)

Extent:
3 linear ft. (6 boxes)
Abstract:
Lucretia Mott was a prominent Philadelphia Quaker minister and a leader in reform movements, especially antislavery, education, peace, and women's rights. She was born in 1793 in Nantucket, Mass., the daughter of Thomas and Anna Coffin, and educated at Nine Partners Boarding School in Dutchess Co., N.Y. In 1811, she married James Mott and they settled in Philadelphia, Pa. The Motts were active Hicksite Quakers, and Lucretia served as clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and traveled in the ministry. James Mott died in 1869, and Lucretia died in 1880. The bulk of the collection consists of material which was assembled at the time of the publication of Life and Letters by Anna Davis Hallowell in 1884. It includes original correspondence of Lucretia Mott and her husband, James M. Mott, with family and other reformers of their day. Also contains sermons, essays, and antislavery documents, and the diary of Lucretia Mott's trip to England to attend the World's Antislavery Convention of 1840.

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

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