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Shaw 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

Samuel Shaw (1710-1781) was a Quaker farmer of Richland, Pennsylvania. He emigrated from Ireland to New Garden Monthly Meeting, Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1729, and by 1741, he had settled in Richland. In 1737 he married Mary Nixon (1713-1794), who had been born in England. They became members of Richland Monthly Meeting at its inception and were active in the affairs of the meeting. They had seven children. Their first child, Hannah (born 1738) married William Hicks, and their granddaughter, Lavinia Penrose, married William Heacock. The first series in this collections contains primarily business papers of the Shaw and Rawlings family. Jesse Heacock, the father of William Heacock, was connected to the Rawlings family by marriage.

The second to youngest child, Samuel (born 1756) married Susanna Rea. They had two children, John and Letitia. Letitia married Israel Griffith at Westland Monthly Meeting, Pa. John moved to Cincinnati and married Elizabeth Wright in 1814. Their daughter, Rebecca, married Jesse Hutton of Richmond, Indiana. Their son, Edward Shaw, married Peninnah Hill, daughter of Robert Hill. The Hill family moved from North Carolina to Cincinnati, Ohio, about 1802, and then to Richmond, Indiana, about five years later. Edward and Peninnah were the parents of Susan Shaw, the donor of the second series of Shaw Manuscripts. This series contains genealogical papers on the Shaw and Hill family, business papers, correspondence, and reminiscences of crossing the Allegheny Mountains in 1805 and the life of John Hill in Ohio.

The fifth child, William (born 1750) was married to Sarah Carr in 1777. Their son, Jonathan, married Mary Miller, and their grandson, Samuel, married Anna R. Penrose, the daughter of Enoch and Esther Penrose. Members of this branch of the family moved to Ohio, and the series contains primarily correspondence, 1737-1870, written from Pennsylvania and Ohio. The letters give an interesting account of the daily life and custom of Quaker families of that period and of the hardship endured by the pioneers.

Accounts, correspondence, indentures, and family papers which relate to Samuel Shaw (1710-1781) of Richland, Pennsylvania, his descendents, and members of the Heacock, Penrose, and Rawlings families. Letters from family members in Ohio give details of daily life and customs of Quaker families and sense of the hardships endured on the frontier.

This collection is divided into three series:

  1. Shaw Ms (Hannah Shaw and William Hicks)
  2. Susan and Samuel Shaw papers
  3. Shaw-Heacock papers (William and Sarah Shaw)

The collection, concerning descendents of Samuel and Mary (Nixon) Shaw of Richland Monthly Meeting, unites papers from more than one source. In 1944, Mr. W. W. Reller of Richmond, Indiana, gave papers which had descended to Susan B. Shaw. Susan Shaw was a descendent of Samuel Shaw, born 1756, the son of Samuel and Mary (Nixon) Shaw. These papers included Shaw material from Susan Shaw's father, Edward, and her grandfather's family, the Hills. These were apparently added to papers already deposited in the Library, at least some of them from Mary Emma Shaw of Quakertown, Pa., circa 1935.

Donor: Mary Emma Shaw, ca. 1935

Donor: Mrs. W.W.Reller, 1944

These papers were originally three groups: Shaw Manuscripts, Susan B. Shaw Papers, Shaw-Heacock Papers. Sometime before 1967, the three groups were combined into one collection, designating the groups as three series: 1. Shaw Ms (W); 2. the Susan Shaw papers as Shaw Ms (S); and 3. Shaw-Heacock papers as Shaw Mss (H), the initials representing the Shaw progenitor of each group, all children of Samuel Shaw (1710-1781) and Mary Nixon Shaw (1713-1794) of Richland M.M., now Quakertown, Pa. In 1988, the collection, formerly known as Shaw Manuscripts, was transferred to Record Group 5 and retitled Shaw Family Papers. In 11/2001, a new finding aid was produced.

Publisher
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Finding Aid Author
FHL staff
Finding Aid Date
2001
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

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

Scope and Contents

Hannah and William's descendents married into the Heacock and Rawlings families.

Archival Resource Key. Heacock Family, Business papers, 1823-1862.
Box 1
Archival Resource Key. Heacock Family, Miscellaneous Papers, 1819-1859.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

Includes letter from inmate of Bucks Co. Jail arrested for nonpayment of military fine (1819)

Archival Resource Key. Rawlings Family, Business papers, 1818-1827.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

Joel Heacock of Rockhill served as power of attorney for Margaret Rawlings

Scope and Contents

Samuel and Susanna's children moved to Ohio and Indiana and married into the Hills family.

Archival Resource Key. Shaw family record of births, death, marriages.
Box 1
Archival Resource Key. Griffith family of York County, Pa. records.
Box 1
Archival Resource Key. Account of a trip across the Allegheny Mountains in 1805 by Rebecca Hill, the aunt of Edward Shaw., 1858.
Box 1
Archival Resource Key. Hill family records, ?-1942.
Box 1
Archival Resource Key. 31 indentures, mostly to Robert Hill., 1813-1850.
Box 1
Archival Resource Key. Letters, Rebecca Shaw Hutton to her father, John Shaw, 1856.
Box 1
Archival Resource Key. Correspondence of Edward and Penninah Shaw, 1839-1840.
Box 1
Archival Resource Key. Letters, Edward Shaw to Charles and Elizabeth Shute, 1843-1845.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

Typescript copies of letters. Letters contain references to the Green Plain Anti-slavery separation and underground railroad movement.

Archival Resource Key. Letter, Benjamin Hill to Robert Hill, his father, 1843.
Box 1
Archival Resource Key. Account of life of John Hill by Edward Hill, his son, 1876.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

Includes description of Separation in Ohio Quakers

Scope and Contents

Primarily correspondence among Shaw, Foulke, Penrose families.

Archival Resource Key. Correspondence, Anonymous, 1737-1856, n.d.
Box 1
Physical Description

6 ALsS

Archival Resource Key. Sarah Bolton to Samuel Foulke, 1750/-1751.
Box 1
Physical Description

ALS

Archival Resource Key. Jane Foulke to E. Foulke, Sarah Shaw and friends, 1870.
Box 1
Physical Description

ALS

Archival Resource Key. John Foulke to lawmaker, 1832.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

letter is "in the U.S., plea for justice and equality"

Physical Description

ALS

Archival Resource Key. Keziah Foulke to S.D. Roberts, 1862.
Box 1
Physical Description

ALS

Archival Resource Key. Samuel Foulke to Thomas Foulke and to Jesse George, 1771, 1758.
Box 1
Physical Description

ALS

Archival Resource Key. Samuel Foulke, received from Leenard Thompson, 1870.
Box 1
Physical Description

ALS

Archival Resource Key. ? Foulke, re: their arrival in Ohio, 1810.
Box 1
Physical Description

ALS

Archival Resource Key. Mehetabel Jenkins to David Bacon, 1802.
Box 1
Physical Description

ALS

Archival Resource Key. Enoch Penrose, family letters received, 1823-1829.
Box 1
Physical Description

10 ALsS

Archival Resource Key. John T. Penrose to Martha Penrose (sister), n.d.
Box 1
Physical Description

ALS

Archival Resource Key. John T. Penrose, letter received, 1840-1857.
Box 1
Physical Description

6 ALsS

Archival Resource Key. To Amos Richardson, from Jos. and Margaret Fisher, 1831.
Box 1
Physical Description

ALS

Archival Resource Key. Abigail Shaw, letters received, 1808-1837, n.d.
Box 1
Physical Description

9 ALsS

Archival Resource Key. Letitia Shaw to Anonymous, 1805.
Box 1
Physical Description

ALS

Archival Resource Key. Mary Shaw, letter from Levi Miller, 1796-1809.
Box 1
Physical Description

2 ALsS

Archival Resource Key. Samuel Shaw, received, 1771-1773.
Box 1
Physical Description

2 ALsS

Archival Resource Key. Sarah Shaw to Anonymous, n.d.
Box 1
Physical Description

ALS

Archival Resource Key. Sarah and/or William Shaw, family received letters, 1797-1816.
Box 1
Physical Description

34 ALsS

Archival Resource Key. Shaw family miscellaneous papers, 1787-1790.
Box 1

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