Call Number:

SC.039

Repository:

Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Extent:

.1 linear ft. (.1 linear feet (5 folders.))

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College, Benjamin Ferris Family Papers, 1839-1842.

Date:

1839-1842 (inclusive)

Creator:

Ferris, Benjamin, 1780-1867, Essler, Fanny, Ferris, David, 1821-1908, Ferris, Anna M., 1815-1890, Ferris, Deborah, 1813-1897, and Ferris, Hannah, 1793-1860

Abstract:

This collection includes letters between Benjamin Ferris and his wife Hannah, his daughters Deborah and Anna M., and his son David. The letters primarily concern farming and local news. One letter by Benjamin Ferris to his daughter describes in detail his encounter with the dancer Fanny Essler. Also included in the collection are several invitations to Deborah Ferris.

Benjamin Ferris was a prominent member of the Hicksite branch of the Society of Friends in Wilmington, Delaware. He was born a Quaker in 1780, the son of Ziba and Edith (Sharpless) Ferris. Benjamin Ferris married Francis Canby in 1804. Among their ten children were Deborah, born in 1813, Anna M., born in 1815, and David, born in 1821. Fanny Ferris died in 1833 and Benjamin Ferris married his second wife, Hannah Gibbons, in 1835. He died in Wilmington in 1867.