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Margaretta Walton Family Papers
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Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the 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
Margaretta Walton (1829-1904), eminent Quaker minister of Ercildoun, Chester County, Pennsylvania, left an extensive series of journals (1846-1902) describing her spiritual growth, travels in the ministry, and family life. She was the daughter of Joseph Shoemaker and Abigail (Mann) Walton and a birthright member of Fallowfield Monthly Meeting. Her parents were farmers and active Quakers; their diaries reflect their work with Indians in New York State and other visits accompanying Quaker ministers, including Joseph Kersey.
In 1854, Margaretta married Jesse Pusey Walton (1825-1859), a distant cousin. After his death from consumption, she devoted herself to Quaker service and worship. As well as serving as a visiting minister, she served as clerk of the Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly Meeting. In the last two decades of her life, she lived with her brother George's family, first with George and his wife, and later with their son, Joseph Solomon Walton, who became headmaster at the George School in 1901.
The Walton family was a long-time Quaker family, with many generations of the family active in Quaker concerns. Margaretta Walton devoted her life to Quaker ministry and affairs, and her correspondence reflects this, with accounts of Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, and other types of meetings and of the messages of ministers. The collection contains diaries and correspondence of Margaretta Walton and her husband, Jesse Pusey Walton; business papers and memorabilia; sermons; and related papers. Correspondents include Hannah Clothier Hull, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Sarah M. Griscom. Also included in the collections are journals (1836-1853) of her father, Joseph Shoemaker Walton, who was companion to several traveling Quakers ministers, especially Jesse Kersey.
The collection is divided into seven series.
- Diaries and journals
- Memorabilia
- Business papers
- Sermons by Margaretta Walton
- Pictures
- Correspondence
- Reference Material
- Diaries and Correspondence, Margaretta Walton, 1829-1904, compiled by George A. Walton and J. Barnard Walton, 1962.
Accession information:
Donor: George A. Walton, 1963
The collection was given by George A. Walton, grandnephew of Margaretta and Jesse Pusey Walton.
The papers were sorted, labeled, and annotated by the donor who also donated the Joseph Solomon Walton Papers, RG5/ 158, and whose own papers were given to Friends Historical Library by the George School (George A. Walton Papers, RG 5/ 157). The order and the folder units and titles have been retained, with papers organized chronologically within each folder.
The following materials, originally part of the collection, have been recatalogued:
- Marriage certificate, 4/13/1854, Margaretta Walton to Jesse Walton, filed in Chart Case
Subject
- Publisher
- Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- FHL staff
- Finding Aid Date
- 1963
- Access Restrictions
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Collection is open for research
- Use Restrictions
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Some of the items in this collection may be protected by copyright. The user is solely responsible for making a final determination of copyright status. If copyright protection applies, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns to reuse, publish, or reproduce relevant items beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to the law. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/.
Collection Inventory
23 items
3 items
Includes notes on his travels as companion of itinerant Friends' ministers to the following places:
Physical Description11 items and fragment
By John Comly. Published in Phila., Kimber & Sharpless.
3 pictures
3 pictures
2 pictures
Includes a diary of Margaretta Walton's Virginia trip with Hugh and Anne T. Foulke (8/1868) and letter from Jesse P. Walton to Joseph S. Walton, her father.
Includes a letter containing a brief description of a wedding in the Clothier family home, 2 letters from Abigail Foulke to Margaretta Walton, and 6 letters from various authors to Abigail Foulke.
Describes scenery on visit to Alaska.
Mentions preparations for opening year at the George School.
Describes "beautiful Japan."
Includes mention of the uniting of Instruction and Household Committees at the George School.
Announcement of her engagement to Dr. William I. Hull.
Refers to the death of Howard Jenkins.
Includes a description of the Polyglot Petition against intoxicating liquors and opium and a copy of a note from Phillips Brooks to Whittier on his 84th birthday.
Includes photograph of J. Dunbar Wright.
The family believes the speaker in the picture is Margaretta Walton (See letter in this same series, Esther F. Sharples to George Walton, 1/20/1958, with an account.)
Recipients include Deborah F. and William Wharton, Solomon and Sarah Pusey. Also includes a circular from the Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children on the Reservation.
Recipients include John Comly, William and Sarah Sharpless, Amos Willets. Also includes:
Visits were to New Jersey and Virginia Meetings, 1840, and Maryland and Virginia Meetings, 1850.
Includes notes from donor, 1961, with information about Joseph S. Walton and his work with the Indians, together with two volumes from Joseph Walton's personal library.
Mainly verse
Concerning permission to send supplies to Quakers imprisoned at Winchester, Va.