Subject: Quakers -- Pennsylvania / Year: <span class="single" data-blrl-single="1849">1849</span> - Philadelphia Area Archives Search Results

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]

Extent:: 1.28 cubic ft. (4 boxes)
Abstract:: William Baxter (1824-1886) was a Philadelphia Quaker wool merchant who later settled in Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana. He was active in social reform, particularly in the temperance movement. This collection contains Baxter family pictures, in the form of albums and loose photographs.

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

Extent:: .5 linear ft. (1 box)
Abstract:: The collection contains photographs and other images of members of the Richardson and Yarnall families, Pennsylvania Quakers who lived in Philadelpia and Byberry, Pennsylvania. The families were united by the marriage in 1816 of Nathaniel Richardson and Hannah Yarnall of Byberry. Of special interest are the silhouettes of members of the Richardson and Yarnall families created in the Peale Museum, Philadelphia

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

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]

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]

Extent:: 1.5 linear ft. (3 boxes)
Abstract:: The Lightfoot family was a Pennsylvania Quaker family descended from Thomas Lightfoot, a Quaker minister who emigrated from Ireland to Kennett Monthly Meeting in 1716 with his family. The collection includes three journals which have been attributed to his grandson Thomas on the basis of contextual detail. These accounts document visits to meetings in the mid Atlantic region, New Jersey to Virginia, from 1757 to 1760. Jacob Lightfoot, a son of Thomas and Sarah Lightfoot, married Mary Bonsall, a prominent Quaker minister. The journal of her 1757 religious visit with Grace Fisher to Quaker meetings in the Concord Quarter is included in the collection. Mary and Jacob's grandson, Thomas Lightfoot, was an Indian Agent in southeastern Nebraska during the period of Quaker involvement in President U.S. Grant's "peace policy." Another descendent, Thomas Montgomery Lightfoot, did extensive genealogical research on the Quaker families that settled in Maiden Creek. The papers of Thomas and Mary...(see more)

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

Extent:: 24.417 linear ft. (49 boxes)
Abstract:: The Painter family was an early Pennsylvania Quaker family that married into the Minshall family of Delaware County. In 1681, William Penn granted Thomas Minshall a land tract which now includes the Tyler Arboretum. The property was home to eight generations of the same family. The collection includes family correspondence, business and legal papers, property records, papers on interests and concerns of the Painter brothers, genealogical papers, and miscellaneous deeds and other papers collected by Minshall Painter. It is a rich source of information not only on the Painter family of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and the origins of the Tyler Arboretum, but also on agriculture, social life and customs, and nineteenth century Quaker concerns through day books, account books, financial records, correspondence, and other documents.

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

Extent:: 2 linear ft. (4 boxes)
Abstract:: Florence E. Taylor was the descendant of a Quaker family whose roots went back to the settlement of Pennsylvania. Her parents were Frederick W. Taylor (1848-1919) and Emily Hunt Taylor (d. 1942). Fred Taylor, a wealthy Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist to the Society of Friends, was the son of Charles Maus Taylor and Anna E. W. Sterling Taylor. His grandfather was Israel Taylor (1782-1850). The collection includes correspondence of Israel Taylor (1782-1850) and Charles M. Taylor (1817-1893), diary (1932-1939) and other writings of Emily H. Taylor, and biographical data concerning the Taylor and Sterling families, including memorabilia and pictures.

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

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