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Rhoads Family papers
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Held at: Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections [Contact Us]370 Lancaster Ave, Haverford, PA 19041
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Sarah Wistar (1839-1920) married William Gibbons Rhoads (1838-1880) on November 28, 1866. This event joined three Quaker families, the Rhoads, Gibbons, and Wistars, beginning a long correspondence between them all. Samuel Rhoads, Jr. (1806-1868) was born on September 19, 1806, the son of Samuel and Sarah (Garrett) Rhoads. Samuel Rhoads, Jr. was a manager of Haverford College and the publisher and editor of the Friends Review from 1853 to 1867. On March 15, 1837, he married Anne Gibbons (1809-1890). Gibbons was born on September 28, 1809 and died on February 16, 1890, at the age of 81.
The Free Produce Assocation of Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting was a Quaker organization, founded in 1845, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Free Produce Association was a boycott movement against "produce," which referred to anything produced through the labor of enslaved people. Its constitution begins: "We believe that slaveholding is diametrically opposed to the whole spirit and tenor of the Christian religion, and that while it sustains the traffic in slaves, it is mainly supported by the traffic in and the consumption of the productions of slave labor. In order therefore to promote the use and facilitate the acquirement of goods, supplied by free labour, we unite in an Asssocation under the title of the Free Produce Association of Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting."
Papers include letters, journals, diaries, commonplace books, miscellaneous papers, photographs, and silhouettes. The letters were mainly written to Anne (Gibbons) Rhoads and Samuel Rhoads by English Friends, 1840-ca. 1889, including Thomas Clarkson, H.J. Sturge, Joseph Sturge, and Mary Wright, who discuss abolition, the free produce movement in Britain, and the Free Produce Association of Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. There are also letters from Thomas Charles Potts (1872-1955) to his wife, Ethel Rhoads Potts, and many letters of sympathy on his death. Journals and diaries include Anne Rhoads's record of a trip to England, 1847, and diaries of Samuel Rhoads, 1822-1834 and Ethel Rhoads, 1896. Commonplace books include that of Samuel Rhoads, 1828, giving an account of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, just after the Separation of 1827-1828. Miscellaneous papers include an address by William Gibbons Rhoads, read before the Haverford College Euethean Association, 4mo. 16, 1858. Pictures include a water-color painting of West Hill, home of Eliza Paul Gurney, and silhouettes of members of the Dymond family.
- Box 1: Letters and geneological information
- Box 2: Miscellaneous Letters and Papers; Pictures and Silhouettes
- Box 3: Journals, Diaries and Letterbooks
The Rhoads Family papers were donated to Special Collections, Haverford College in 1959 by Ethel Rhoads Potts and in 1963 and 1991 by Sarah Potts Benson.
Original finding aid author unknown; processed March, 2007.
People
- Clarkson, Thomas
- Dymond family
- Potts, Ethel Rhoads, 1870-1962
- Rhoads, Anne Gibbons, 1809-1890
- Rhoads, Samuel, 1806-1868
- Rhoads, William Gibbons, Jr., 1838-1880
- Sturge, Joseph, 1793-1859
- Wright, Mary W. (Mary Willets), 1820-1904
- Rhoads family
Organization
- Philadelphia Free Produce Association of Friends
- Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends Library
Subject
- Publisher
- Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections
- Finding Aid Date
- March, 2007
- Access Restrictions
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The collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
-
Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17).
Collection Inventory
needs further investigation
Letters from Allen, Elizabeth, to Anne Rhoads. 8 items, Liskeard, 1847-ca.1849.
Letters from Backhouse, Elizabeth, to Anne Rhoads. 6 items, York, 1847-1870.
Letters from Barclay, Charles, to Anne Rhoads. 2 items, 1853.
Letters from Candler, Maria, to Anne Rhoads. 1 item, Oak Tree Cottage, 8mo. 27, 1853.
Letters from Casson, Isabel, to Anne Rhoads. 2 items, 1847.
Letters from Clarkson, Thomas, to Samuel Rhoads. 2 items, May 1, 1846, and copy of same. [Addresses Samuel Rhoads as Secy. Bd. of Managers of Free Produce Assoc. of Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting; speaks of British cotton and sugar trades and work to abolish the use of the labor of enslaved people therein; also, about Fox's, pamphlet of 1791-92, about evils of slavery on sugar plantations, and its effect on English people.]
Crosfield, Elizabeth H., to Anne Rhoads. 5 items, Oaklands, near Liverpool, 1865-71.
Letters from Dymond, Sarah Eliza, to Anne Rhoads. 3 items, 1847-1872.
Letters from Dymond, Sarah John, to Anne Rhoads. 18 items, 1847-1873.
Dymond, Sophia to Anne Rhoads. 1 item, Wilmslow. near Manchester, 5mo. 29, 1873.
Letters from Fry, Sophia G... to Anne Rhoads. 1 item, Darlington, 7mo. 17, 1872.
Gibbons, William, to Anne Gibbons (later Rhoads), Westtown School. Leacock, 3mo. 16, 1826. [News of family and friends]
Pease, John, to Samuel and Anne Rhoads. 1 item, Darlington, 9mo. 9, 1847
Pease, Sophia, to Anne Rhoads. 3 items, 1847-1866.
Letter from Priestman, [P ?] to Anne Rhoads. 1 item, Summerhill, 9mo. 24, 1847.
Letters from Potts, Stacy. Letter to Jonathan Sergeant, Maidenhead. Trenton, June 18, 1766
Potts, Thomas to Ethel Potts, his wife, while en board ships, 1913. 8 items. [detailed accounts of social life aboard ship and almost hourly accounts of his other activities in Sweden and England. In the Lake District his companion was "Stanley"
Letters from Thomas Potts' children at the time of the death of Thomas Potts, 1955. 3 items.
Sympathy letters to Ethel Potts on the death of her husband, 1955.
Sympathy letters to Ethel Potts on the death of her husband, 1955.
"Pottsco Angles," Thomas Potts' business newsletter, 1955, with an obituary of Thomas Potts.
Potts. Thomas Maxwell. 2 letters to John Potts, Camden, N.J. (with envelopes) Canonsburg, Pa., Nov. 6, 1884, and Dec. 31, 1884- Jan. 8, 1885. [Concern genealogy of Potts family]
Richardson. Anna H., to Anne Rhoads. 2 items, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 10mo. 25, 1872 - 1mo. 27, 1873. [Second letter encloses printed notice about anti-slavery meeting]
Satterthwaite, Sarah B., to Anne Rhoads. 2 items, Maryport, 12mo. 16, 1873 - 1mo. 6, 1882.
Sellers George, to Samuel Rhoads, Blockley. [n.p.] 8mo. 5, 1824. [Concerns a mathematical conundrum]
Stacey, Mary George, to Samuel and Anne Rhoads. 2 items. 1849.
Sturge, E J , to Anne and Samuel Rhoads. 4 items, 9mo. 23, 1847 - 7mo. 20, 1848. [Discusses effort to get English people interested in buying only cotton grown by free people ("free-grown"), rather than cotton grown by enslaved people]
Sturge, Joseph, to Samuel Rhoads. 2 items, Birmingham, 1846-1859. [Encloses letter from Thomas Clarkson; discusses anti-slavery activities, especially promotion of free produce movement, growth and marketing of free-grown cotton.]
Sturge, L. E., to Samuel Rhoads. 1 item, Birmingham, 5mo. 18, 1859. [Encloses notice of death of Joseph Sturge]
Sturge, M. C., to Anne Rhoads. 1 item, Birmingham, 9mo. 9, 1847.
Thistlethwaite, H[annah] to Anne Rhoads. 19 items (4 enclosures) in 2 folders, 1872 - ca.1889.
Thistlethwaite, H[annah] to Anne Rhoads. 19 items (4 enclosures) in 2 folders, 1872 - ca.1889.
Thompson, S. M. , to Anne Rhoads. 2 items, Liverpool, 1847 - 1869.
Wanton, Mary. Letter to Mrs. Elizabeth Green, Warwick, [R.I.] [Newport] August 4, 1739.
Wright, Mary, to Anne Rhoads. 1 item, Bristol, 3mo. 28, 1848. [Mentions free produce movement]
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Women's Meeting. 2 photographs [1891?]
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. 2 photographs, 1891.
Rhoads, Edward, M.D., son of Samuel and Anne (Gibbons) Rhoads. Letterbook, containing copies of his letters to his parents during his visit to Europe, 1865-66. Laid in: Genealogical note about him, by Sarah R. (Potts) Benson.
Letterbook of Phebe Haines, Rancocas, 1869-1874.
Commonplace book and diary of Samuel Rhoads. 8mo. 5, 1822-1828, including account of his departure from Westtown School, 10mo. 10, 1822.
Diary (fragment, in pencil) of [Samuel Rhoads] 11mo. 28, 1828 - 7mo. 4, 1829.
Diary of Samuel Rhoads, 7mo. 1, 1829 - 2mo. 17, 1830.
Commonplace book of Samuel Rhoads, including notes taken of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1828, Just after the Separation of 1827 - 1828. [Back of book devoted to scientific problems. Pages numbered 1- 154, starting at back.]
Diary of [Samuel Rhoads] 2mo. 21, 1830- 7mo. 12, 1830.[Loose pages, 2mo. 21 - ca. 4mo. 1, 1830. Laid in: Letter from Anne Rhoads, 4mo. 4, to her sister Sarah]
Diary of Samuel Rhoads, 12mo. 23, 1830 - 1mo., 21, 1832; 3mo. 22, 1833; 7mo. 6, 1834 - 8mo. 8, 1834 [telling of voyage to England]
Diary of Samuel Rhoads, 2 vols. 1mo. - 3mo., 1833, while traveling on a religious visit to Canada. with Jacob Green of Ireland.
Journal of Hannah Pusey Gibbons telling of visit to Cape May with her father in 1830.
Ethel Rhoads diary and account book entitled "Europe, 1896;" account book and diary, including description of birth, breast feeding, etc. of her daughter Sarah Rhoads Benson in 1907.
Anne Rhoads' account of Journey with Sarah B. Satterthwaite in 1877.
Journal of Anne Rhoads' trip, to England, 1847.