Of an earlier period, when Evans was deputy-governor, there are some characteristic letters (1704, etc.) in a memoir of Evans communicated by E. D. Neill to the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., Oct., 1872 (p. 421).
There is a biographical sketch of Sir William Keith in the Penna. Historical Society’s Memoirs (vol. i.).
There is a pencil-drawn portrait of Sir William Keith, with a painting made from it, in the gallery of the Penna. Hist. Society. Cf. Catal. of Paintings, etc. (nos. 77, 162), and Scharf and Westcott’s Philadelphia (i. 177). Some of the rare tracts in the controversy of Governor Keith and Logan are noted in the Brinley Catal., ii. pp. 197-8. Cf. Hildeburn’s Century of Printing.
As to the position of the Quakers upon the question of defensive war, there is an expressive letter, dated in 1741, of James Logan, who was not in this respect a strict constructionist of the principles of his sect, which is printed in the Penna. Mag. of History (vi. 402). Much of this controversy over military preparation is illustrated in the autobiography and lives of Benjamin Franklin; and the issues of Franklin’s Plain Truth (1747) and Samuel Smith’s Necessary Truth, the most significant pamphlets in the controversy, are noted in the bibliographies.[537] Sparks, in a preliminary note to a reprint of Plain Truth, in Franklin’s Works (vol. iii.), states the circumstances which were the occasion and the sequel of its publication. In Ibid. (vii. 20) there is a letter of Richard Peters describing the condition of affairs.
A mass of papers, usually referred to as the Shippen Papers, and relating to a period in the main antedating the Revolution, have been edited privately by Thomas Balch as Letters and Papers relating chiefly to the Provincial History of Pennsylvania, with some notices of the writers. (Philad., 1855, one hundred copies.)
First of importance among the published travels of this period is the narrative of an English Quaker, Thomas Story, who came over in 1697. From that time to 1708 he visited every part of the colonies from New Hampshire to Carolina, dwelling for much of the time, however, in Pennsylvania, where he became, under Penn’s persuasion, a public official. The Journal of the life of Thomas Story, containing an account of his remarkable convincement of and embracing the principles of truth, as held by the people called Quakers, and also of his travels and labours in the service of the Gospel, with many other occurrences and observations, was published at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1747.[538]
George Clarke, born in 1676, was made secretary of the province of New York in 1703, and came to America, landing in Virginia. We have an account of his voyage, but unfortunately the book does not follow his experiences after his arrival;[539] but we have the Letters of his private secretary, Isaac Bobin, which, under the editing of Dr. O’Callaghan, were printed in a small edition (100 copies) at Albany in 1872.
George Keith’s Journal of Travels from New Hampshire to Caratuck, on the Continent of North America, London, 1706, is reprinted in the first volume (1851) of the Collections of the Prot. Episc. Hist. Society, together with various letters of Keith[540] and John Talbot.[541]
Benjamin Holme, another Quaker, came to the colonies in 1715, and extended his missionary wandering to New England, and southward beyond the middle colonies,[542] as did, some years later, 1736-1737, still another Quaker, John Griffeth, whose Journal of his life, labours, and travels in the work of the ministry passed through many editions, both in America and Great Britain.[543]
The records of missionary efforts at this time are not wholly confined to the Quakers. The narrative of the Rev. Thomas Thompson reveals the perplexities of the adherents of the Established Church in the communities through which he travelled in the Jerseys.[544] Similar records are preserved in the journals of Whitefield[545] and his associates, like the Journal of a Voyage from Savannah to Philadelphia and from Philadelphia to England, MDCCXL., by William Seward, Gent., Companion in Travel with the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield (London, 1740).