Philadelphia Area Archives

Start Over Subject Society of Friends -- Hicksite Separation Year 1750 to 1799

Robinson Family papers, 1723 - circa 1980 (inclusive)

Extent:: 3.25 linear ft. (6 boxes, 3 volumes)
Abstract:: Primarily the letters of Mary Robinson Morton (1757-1829), a member of the Society of Friends, reflecting the social and cultural attitudes of the day.

Held at: Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections [Contact Us]

Joseph Scattergood diary, 1792-1820 (inclusive)

Extent:: 0.125 linear ft. (1 volume)
Abstract:: Joseph Scattergood, an Elder of Green St. Monthly Meeting, was a signer of the first letter of concern by the Elders of Philadelphia to Elias Hicks regarding the doctrine he was preaching (1822). Diary entries describe Quaker meetings, social calls and family news, visits to family and friends in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, births, deaths, and marriages within the Quaker community, and Scattergood's work as a school teacher.

Held at: Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections [Contact Us]

Charles Evans papers, 1681-1860 (inclusive)

Extent:: 1 linear ft. (2 boxes)
Abstract:: Jonathan Evans's papers, ca. 1818-38, shed light on the religious, doctrinal controversies, and differences arising among the members of the Society of Friends related to the preachings of Elias Hicks, Nicholas Brown, and Elisha Bates. There are also letters of the Cope and Evans families relating to the Hicksite Separation.

Held at: Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections [Contact Us]

Jennings-Clark-Eldridge Family Papers, 1768-1871 (inclusive)

Extent:: 0.5 linear ft. (1 box)
Abstract:: Hannah A. Jennings was the daughter of Phebe (Glover) and John Clark of Gloucester, N.J. She married Levi Jennings, a bricklayer, in 1832. The collection contains correspondence (1805-1861), household accounts, and miscellaneous papers of Hannah A. Jennings, her husband, Levi Jennings, and her mother, Phebe (Glover) Clark Eldridge. Includes a manuscript account of a sermon by Priscilla Hunt at Merion in 1823, the renunciation of Maria Emily (Imlay) by Ann Jones in 1826, and letters discussing the Hicksite controversy.

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

Balderston Collected Manuscripts, 1735-1822 (inclusive)

Extent:: .1 linear ft. ((19 items.))
Abstract:: Most of the correspondence in this collection is addressed to Henry Drinker concerning trivial and more substantive matters of his business and that of the Society of Friends, including a letter from William Savery in 1794 from Canadagua describing a visit to the Oneidas. Also included are a document from the Philadelphia Committee to Joseph Elkinton in Tunesassah (1822) and a subscription list (1831) for J.J. Foster's publication on the New Jersey Crosswicks trial, signed by Roberts Vaux and others.

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

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]

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]

Richard Mott papers, 1799-1863 (inclusive)

Extent:: .75 linear ft. (2 boxes)
Abstract:: Chiefly letters (1799-1853) by Richard and Abigail Mott addressed to Margaret Allinson (later Parker), John Cox, William Rotch, Jr., Samuel B. Toby and others, as well as letters (1799-1856) to Richard Mott from Richard Carpenter, John Cox, Jonathan and Thomas Evans, Joseph John Gurney, John Pease, William Rotch, Jr. and other. Topics discussed include Elias Hicks and the Separation of 1827-1828, John Wilbur and the Wilbur-Gurney controversy.

Held at: Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections [Contact Us]

Ferris Family Papers, 1737-1940 (inclusive)

Extent:: 15 linear ft. (36 boxes)
Abstract:: The collection contains correspondence, journals and other writings, business and legal papers, and miscellaneous items of the Ferris family of Wilmington, Delaware, a prominent Quaker family. Of particular note are the correspondence and writings of Benjamin Ferris concerning the Separation in the Society of Friends, as well as the journals and diaries of Anna M. Ferris, David Ferris, Matilda Ferris, Benjamin Ferris, and Henry Ferris. Correspondents include William Lloyd Garrison, William Gibbons, Isaac T. Hopper, Joseph Bringhurst, Mary Gibbons, William Poole, Mary Biddle, Joseph Rakestraw, Halliday Jackson, and John Jackson. This collection includes a great variety of family correspondence that reveals much about the life of a Quaker family in Wilmington and of the reform activities of members of the Society of Friends.

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

Halliday Jackson Manuscripts, 1755-1833 (inclusive)

Extent:: 0.42 linear ft. (1 box)
Abstract:: Halliday Jackson (1771-1835) was a Quaker minister from New Garden and Darby, Pa.. From 1798 to 1800 he joined the Quaker mission to the Seneca Indians organized by the Indian Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Shortly after his return from the mission to the Seneca, Halliday Jackson married Jane Hough and moved to Darby, Pa. Following Jane's death in 1830, Halliday Jackson remarried in 1833 to Ann P. Paschall (1792-1874), also a Quaker minister. These records contain documents relating to the work of Halliday Jackson (1771-1835), Pennsylvania Quaker minister to the Indians. Includes correspondence, journals, copy work in prose and poetry, a history of the Separation of 1828, papers on Indian affairs. One journal concerns a visit to the Quakers in Ohio in 1816. Correspondents include Benjamin Ferris, Edward Garrigues, David Seaman, Micajah Collins, George Dillwyn, William Poole, Jesse Kersey, Halliday Jackson, John Jackson. The correspondence deals extensively with the...(see more)

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