Sewel’s History of the Quakers[822] is a work which possesses great value, not only on account of its freedom from error, but because it was written at an early period in the history of the Society of Friends. Its author was a native of Amsterdam, and was born about 1650. His history was written to correct the misrepresentations in Historia Quakeriana,[823] by Gerard Croese, which had been largely circulated. Sewel’s work was published in Dutch at Amsterdam in 1717, and a translation by the author was issued in London, 1722. Gough’s History of the Quakers is a compilation of nearly all that was accessible at the time of its publication. The Portraiture of Quakerism,[824] by Clarkson, treats of the discipline and customs of the Society. The History of Friends in the Seventeenth Century, by Dr. Charles Evans, contains nearly everything that most readers will require. It is an excellent compilation, and presents the subject in a compact, useful form. The same can be said of a History of the Religious Society of Friends from its rise to the year 1828,[825] by Samuel M. Janney. The author was a follower of Elias Hicks, and his work contains a history of the separation of the meetings caused by the doctrines preached by the latter. In Barclay’s Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth[826] the attempt has been made to trace the origin of the Society of Friends to an earlier period than the preaching of Fox. The author of the work was Robert Barclay, of the same family as “the Apologist.” The work, which is an able one, was reviewed by Dr. Charles Evans.[827] A terse criticism was lately made on the book by a Friend, who in conversation remarked, “Robert Barclay seemed to know more of what George Fox believed than George himself.”
The chief manuscript depository of the Friends is in Devonshire House, Friends’ Meeting-House, 12 Bishopsgate Street Without, London, E.C., England, where what is known as the Swarthmore manuscripts are preserved. The collection was made under the direction of George Fox, and many of the papers are indorsed in his handwriting. It consists “of letters addressed to Swarthmore Hall from the Preachers in connection with Fox, giving an account of their movements and success, to Margaret Fell, and through her to Fox. Up to 1661 Swarthmore Hall was secure from violation, and these letters range over the period from 1651 to 1661.”
John Whiting’s Catalogue of Friends’ Books, published in 1708, is the earliest gathering of titles concerning the Quakers. The work, however, has been fully done in our own day by Joseph Smith, who published, in 1867, at London, A Descriptive Catalogue of Friends’ Books, in two volumes, with critical remarks and occasional biographical notices; and in 1873, his Bibliotheca Anti-Quakeriana; or, a Catalogue of Books adverse to the Society of Friends; with Biographical Notices of the Authors: with Answers.[828]
In following the history of the Quakers, particularly in America, the recorder of their career in Pennsylvania must leave unnamed some of the most important books, because their contents concern chiefly or solely the story of their persecutions and progress in the other colonies, particularly New England.[829] Bowden’s History of Friends in America, as it is the most important of the late works, must also be mentioned. Its author enjoyed great advantages in preparing it, having the manuscripts deposited in Devonshire House at his command. In it many original documents of the greatest interest are printed for the first time, among which we may mention a letter of Mary Fisher to George Fox, from Barbadoes, dated Jan. 30, 1655, regarding Quaker preachers coming to America, and of Josiah Coale to the same person, in 1660, in relation to the purchase of a tract of land, now a portion of Pennsylvania. The work is spirited and readable, and while it is written in entire sympathy with the Quakers, its statements are so carefully weighed that but little exception can be taken to them, and then only in cases where the fundamental views of the author and of his readers are at variance.
A defence of the early Friends in America will be found in Colonial History of the Eastern and some of the Southern States, by Job R. Tyson; see Memoirs of Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. iv. part ii. p. 5. For the colonies other than New England, a few references will suffice. For New York, O’Callaghan’s History of New Netherland and Brodhead’s New York can be consulted. For those at Perth Amboy, 1686-1688, see Historical Magazine, xvii. 234. The Annals of Hempstead, by Henry Onderdonk, Jr., treats of the Quakers on Long Island and in New York from 1657 to 1826; cf. also the American Historical Record, i. 49; ii. 53, 73. The Early Friends (or Quakers) in Maryland, by J. Saurin Norris, and Wenlock Christison and the Early Friends in Talbot County, Maryland, by Samuel A. Harrison, are the titles of instructive addresses delivered before the Maryland Historical Society, and included in its Fund publications; compare also E. D. Neill’s “Francis Howgill and the Early Quakers,” in his English Colonization in North America, chap. xvii., and his Terra Mariæ, chap. iv. Henning’s Statutes at Large give the laws passed in Virginia to punish the Quakers. The Journals and Travels of Burnyeat, Edmundson, and Fox should also be consulted. A far from flattering picture of the Quakers living on the Delaware shortly before the settlement of Pennsylvania, will be found in the Journal of Dankers and Sluyter, two followers of John Labadie, who travelled in America in 1679-1680. Their account of the condition of the country on the Delaware at that time is very interesting.[830] A Retrospect of Early Quakerism: being Extracts from the Records of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, etc., by Ezra Michener, Philadelphia, 1860, is also a useful work, as it gives the dates when meetings were established.
William Penn.—The collected works of William Penn have passed through four editions;[831] these contain but few of his letters in relation to Pennsylvania.[832] The biographical sketch which accompanies the edition of 1726 is attributed to Joseph Besse. It appeared but eight years after Penn’s death, and has been the groundwork of nearly everything which has since been written concerning him. The Memoirs of the Private and Public Life of William Penn, by Thomas Clarkson,[833] was for many years the standard Life. Later evidence has shown that in some particulars the author erred; but it is generally accurate. It however treats more of William Penn the Quaker than of William Penn the founder of Pennsylvania. The same criticism is applicable to The Life of William Penn by Samuel M. Janney.[834] It also is a trustworthy book. All that was in print at the time it was written was used in its preparation, and it is to-day, historically, the best work on the subject. It contains more of his letters regarding the settlement of Pennsylvania than any other work we know of, and they are given in full. The “Life of William Penn,” by George E. Ellis, D.D., in Sparks’s American Biography, second series, vol. xii., is an important and spirited production, the result of careful thought and study.
William Penn: an Historical Biography,[835] by William Hepworth Dixon, is probably the most popular account that has appeared. Its style is agreeable, and it is full of interesting facts picturesquely grouped. In some cases, however, the authorities quoted do not support the inferences which have been drawn from them, and the historical value of the book has been sacrificed in order to add to its attractiveness. Those chapters which speak of the interest taken by Algernon Sidney in the formation of the constitution of Pennsylvania are clearly erroneous. These views are based on the part which Penn took in Sidney’s return to Parliament, and in a letter of Penn to Sidney, Oct. 13, 1681. Without this last, the argument falls. No reference is given to where the letter will be found. It was first printed as addressed to Algernon Sidney, in vol. iii. part i. p. 285 of the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. In vol. iv. ibid. (part i. pp. 167-212) other letters of Penn are printed, one of which is addressed to Henry Sidney, the brother of Algernon. To this a note is appended, stating that the letter in the former volume was undoubtedly written to the same person. As Mr. Dixon used extracts from these letters, it was, to say the least, unfortunate that he should have overlooked the importance of the note. La Vie de Guillaume Penn,[836] par J. Marsillac, is a meritorious compilation, but its chief interest centres around its author, who styles himself “Député extraordinaire des Amis de France à l’Assemblée Nationale, etc.” He was of noble birth, and an officer in the French army. He joined the Friends in 1778. Being convinced of the unlawfulness of war by the arguments in Barclay’s Apology, he determined “to change his condition of a destroyer to that of a preserver of mankind,” and studied medicine. During the French Revolution he took refuge in America, and resided in Philadelphia. He afterward returned to France, “and threw off at the same time the garb and profession of a Friend. He devoted himself in Paris to the practice of his profession, and obtained under Napoleon a situation in one of the French hospitals.”
Chapters in Janney’s Life of Penn and in Dixon’s Biography are devoted to a refutation of the charges of worldliness and insincerity brought against Penn by Macaulay in his History of England. We append below the titles of other publications of the same character, as well as of additional works which can be consulted with profit by students of his life.[837] The Penn Papers, or manuscripts in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, relate chiefly to the history of the province while under the governorship of Penn’s descendants. There are, however, in the collection some papers of personal interest in relation to Penn, and some of his controversial writings and documents connected with the history of the province at the time of its settlement. The history of this collection presents another instance of the perils to which manuscripts are exposed. After having been preserved for a number of years by one branch of the Penn family with comparative care, subject only to the depredations of time, they were sold to a papermaker, through whose discrimination they were preserved. They were catalogued and offered for sale by Edward G. Allen and James Coleman, of London, in 1870.[838] The collections were purchased by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, but not until some papers had been obtained by persons more favorably situated. The general interest of the whole, however, was but little lessened by this misfortune. From 1700 until the Revolution the series is remarkably complete, and there are but few incidents in the colonial history of Pennsylvania that cannot be elucidated by its examination. A portion of the papers (about twenty thousand documents) have been bound and arranged, and fill nearly seventy-five folio volumes.[839]
General Histories of Pennsylvania.—The first historian of Pennsylvania was Samuel Smith, author of the well-known History of New Jersey; but his work up to the present time has not appeared in a complete form. It is a history of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Smith’s manuscripts are in the Library of the New Jersey Historical Society. What appears to be a duplicate of the Pennsylvania portion is in that of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Hazard printed the latter in his Register of Pennsylvania, vols. vi. and vii.[840]