Call Number:

SC.269

Repository:

Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Extent:

.1 linear ft. (.1 linear feet (4 folders.))

Preferred Citation:

Cite as: Baltimore Yearly Meeting draft epistles collection, SC/269, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.

Date:

1776-1815 (inclusive)

Creator:

Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

Form:

Epistles

Abstract:

Collection of manuscript drafts of epistles prepared by Baltimore Yearly Meeting to send to the Yearly Meetings of Philadelphia, New York, Rhode Island, and North Carolina. Most concern the education and treatment of Indians, African Americans, and Quaker children; also, opposition to war and the production of liquor by Friends. All are handwritten with corrections.

Yearly meetings are regional bodies in the Society of Friends that meet annually to conduct business and worship. Baltimore Yearly Meeting is one of the oldest yearly meetings in North America, meeting as half-year general meetings in 1672. Beginning in 1775, the meeting began to meet just once a year. Epistles were letters prepared and exchanged between the yearly meetings to articulate Quaker doctrine and share matters of concern.

Organized into folders: Folder 1: Manuscript epistles addressed to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1776-1814. Folder 2: Manuscript epistles addressed to Rhode Island Yearly Meeting. 1804-1815. Folder 3: Manuscript epistles addressed to New York Yearly Meeting. 1804-1815. Folder 4: Manuscript epistles addressed to North Carolina Yearly Meeting, 1805-1815.