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Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends records
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Held at: Quaker Meeting Records at Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections and Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Quaker Meeting Records at Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections and Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. 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
Opened at Old Kennett, Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1853 as a separation from meetings in the Western Quarterly Meeting of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Hicksite). Progressive Friends were part of a reform movement which developed among Hicksite Friends in the 1840s, but also included many non-Quaker liberals and radicals. The largest group became formally organized as the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends, which met at Longwood in Chester County, Pennsylvania, from 1853 to 1940. Progressive Friends advocated a religion of humanity which stressed the inherent goodness and perfectibility of humankind and promoted such reform causes as abolition of slavery, temperance, women's rights, opposition to capital punishment, prison reform, homestead legislation, pacifism, Indian rights, economic regulation, and practical and co-educational schooling. A similar group organized in Waterloo, N.Y. as the Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends.
Records of the Longwood Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends, 1851-1941. Includes minutes 1853-1862, 1892-1916, Representative Committee Minutes 1892-1904, Records of Disownments from Kennett Monthly Meeting, 1851-1892, 1925, Minutes of Kennett Monthly Meeting c.1851- c.1874, Financial Association Minutes 1892-1914, 1924, Financial records 1870-1937, Histories and clippings 1856-1941, Hymnals and printed hymn leaflets 1864-1869, 1919-1922, Bible 1853, miscellaneous records 1885-1940.
The collection was processed and a finding aid produced in 2020, based on an earlier preliminary inventory.
Organization
Subject
- Publisher
- Quaker Meeting Records at Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections and Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- FHL staff
- Finding Aid Date
- 2020
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is available for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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Friends Historical Library believes all of the items in this collection to be in the Public Domain in the United States, and is not aware of any restrictions on their use. However, the user is responsible for making a final determination of copyright status before reproducing. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/.
Collection Inventory
The minutes of the first session are handwritten. The minutes of the other sessions are the printed form glued into the book.
Printed
Manuscript
Programs and announcements for Annual Calls 1858, 1885, 1890, 1893, 1896-7, 1900, 1902-3, 1906-16, 1919-25. 1927-32, 1934-1940
List of individuals to receive Annual Calls about Y.M. Includes a draft of a letter to Helen Garrett from Mabel Foulke about disbanding of the Financial Association, detailing the history of the Financial Association, the purchase of the land for the meetinghouse, and controversy related to both the Financial Association and the Trustees.
Minutes from Kennett Quarterly Meeting, from its establishment in 1852 until it was laid down in 1861, and the printed constitution of the Longwood Religious Society. In addition, various materials relating to Longwood (Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends), 1879-1882.
According to the Financial Association's constitution, "The Longwood Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends not being an organized body has no means of raising the funds necessary for defraying he expenses of its said Yearly Meetings other than by voluntary contributions." The Financial Association was created to be "a permanent financial auxiliary" to handle the financial needs of the Yearly Meeting. This file also contains: Representative Committee, Minutes, 1919-1927; List of members, 1893; Minutes, 7mo./15/1933 (one sheet); Minutes of Executive Committee, 4mo./9/1932 (one sheet); Cash Book, 1911-1927 (contains, at front, the Constitution of the Association); Constitution, n.d. (5 copies).
Includes material about the settlement of Agnew Estate, Longwood Music Fund, Account balances and ledgers, Receipts for printing and groceries, Correspondence with Wilmington Daily Commercial Newspaper, Suggestions for Young Friends to be invited to Y.M., Letter from Henry Cadbury to Josephine Pennock, Open letter by George Cadbury (3 copies), Deposit receipts (1 small booklet).
Quaker testimonies reflect the concerns of their times. This file contains testimonies from 1925, on the means of securing peace between nations, on interracial relations, on law enforcement, on industrial relations, and on the freedom of speech and assembly.
Speech of Isaac Fisher, Assistant to Booker T. Washington, before the Annual Meeting of Progressive Friends, at Longwood, PA, June 15, 1900. Fisher describes his hopes for a better future through education and details a school in Tuskegee that combines academic, manual, and Bible study, as well as a work-study program to help poor students pay their fees.
This is the text of an address given to commemorate the centennial of Theodore Parker's birth (and the semicentennial of his death). Includes extensive biographical information.
A summary of a speech or sermon given by John S. Durham. Portions are directly quoted, while others are paraphrased. A clipping about Dr. Rebecca Moore's manual training school in Philadelphia is referenced and included in these pages.
This file contains includes lists of people who were disowned from Kennett Monthly Meeting "for associating, under the name of Progressive Friends, in order, the more freely, to work for the Abolition of Human Slavery." Contains: Trustees, 1857-1892; Disownments from Kennett M.M, c.1851-c.1858 (2 lists); Excerpts from Minutes of Kennett M.M., c. 1851-c.1874 (2 notebooks); Longwood Record, including details of disowned members being invited back to Kennett M.M. and of which members did or did not accept the offer.
Yarnall, Howard E., Jr. "Longwood Meeting". Bulletin of Friends' Historical Association Volume 17, No. 2 (Autumn, 1928) pp. 49-54.
Missing pages 5-8. Includes information about the founding of the meeting, sermons made by Theodore Parker, the reasons for the split with Kennett MM, the sentiments of Kennett MM towards both slavery and "mingling with the world," regret for the disownments, and Pennock's health at the time that the letter was written.
According to this document, Theodore Parker visited the meeting twice, in 1855 and in 1858. This account details his visits, his sermons, and his demeanor.
A history of the YM. Includes information about the location, the purpose of the yearly meeting, its openness to all who wished to attend, how the Progressive Friends were different from the Hicksite Friends, details on the disagreement over working methods that caused the split between the Progressive Friends and Kennett MM (the dispute was not over slavery itself), a "party" or partisan spirit that existed within the meeting, and other aspects of the meeting's history.
Biographical information about Chandler and Hannah (Monaghan) Darlington, as well as references to Hannah's father, James Monaghan, and to Lea Pusey, Emalea Pusey Warner, Hannah Jackson (mother of Hannah Monaghan Darlington), Anna Jackson Monaghan, and a reference to a visit from Lucretia Mott.
Provides hstory of Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends at Longwood. Arranged for the final sessions of Longwood Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends, Sept. 7 and 8, 1940.
An account dictated by Josephine Pennock describes attending the meeting as a small child, her encounters with some of the speakers who came to the meeting, and the emphasis placed on temperance, abolition, and women's suffrage.
Signed "E.P.W.," this is a history of the founding of the meeting, written in verse form.
Includes biographical information about Caleb Sharples Jackson and Mary Ann Gause Jackson, as well as he author's request that they be put on the record among the founders and earliest members of the meeting.
J. Williams Thorne, who was one of the founders of the Society of Progressive Friends of Longwood and an active member of the Underground Railroad. The remarks provide biographical information, including his time as clerk of East Fallowfield MM, his subsequent resignation of his post and membership in the meeting, the founding of the Longwood meeting, the people who came to speak at the new meeting, and his education.
A history of the founding of the meeting. Important documents relating to the beliefs of this and other meetings were placed in a sealed jar and then put into the cornerstone of the meetinghouse so that their principles might guide future generations who would gather there. This history specifies which documents, who was present at the laying of the cornerstone, and the crowds that were in attendance for speakers.
Incldudes information about the differences of opinion regarding anti-slavery agitation and action that led to the disownments, how these members were later welcomed back, and other details of the founding of the meeting.
Tribute to Alice Jackson Chambers and Rosamond Chambers Trump written after their deaths, including some biographical information.
2 copies of the same book, which includes both sheet music and words to hymns.
Note on inside cover says "Unity Choir, San Francisco"
Many of the printed hymns, including the card from 1866, were printed expressly for use at Longwood Meeting. Also included are some printed booklets of hymns published by Friends General Conference.
Proceedings at the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Free Religious Association, Held in Boston, June 1 and 2, 1871. This is the printed book form of the proceedings, published after the annual meeting was held.
A Bible used by the YM. Inscription: "This Bible was the property of Longwood Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends--Presented to the Friends Historical Library by the Trustees 1940. Jesse H. Holmes, Clerk."
Includes correspondence, 1940; Songs of Natural Religion, n.d. (3 copies), list of names of meeting's supporters, n.d.; financial notes and figuring; miscellaneous other papers
Chronologically arranged. Articles about and references to Longwood, including William Logan Fisher's 1856 account (32 pages)
Pictures of Meeting Houe and of Theodore Parker and his wife
A letter from the Chester County Historical Society, inquiring about whether any of the meetinghouse furniture might be preserved and displayed in its museum.