USA > Maryland > The early Friends (or Quakers) in Maryland : read at the meeting of the Maryland Historyical Society, 6th March, 1862 > Part 2
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The Records for the "General Man's Meeting at West River the 18th of: 3d Month 1678" contain a Minute that a Committee of nine persons,-one from each local or "particular" Meeting,-should be appointed to "make
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enquiry into the estate, condition and usage of orphans and their estates, and to give an accompt to every respec- tive half-year's Man's Meeting," "so that they be in no wise abused nor their estates wasted, and that poor orphans may be provided for."
These early Records show their solicitude for the poor and helpless; and so marked has been this characteristic of the Quakers, that it has passed into an adage, that "no Quaker is found begging, or in the Alms House."
Subsequently there was a standing committee appointed, which was termed a "Meeting for widows and orphans," and held its sessions at least as often as the General Meet- ings, to which it reported. Some of these Minutes are curious in the circumstances and cases reported as claim- ing attention.
As a specimen, a minute of 1679 may be quoted, which is as follows: "The widow Ford hath referred herself to our Man's Meeting for advice and assistance in the matter relating to her outward estate,"-and a special Com- mittee was appointed " to examine how matters are with her."
The custom of these primitive people was very marked in regard to their care of the temporal affairs of their members. Many instances occur where matters of a purely private and personal nature, relating to the estate, condition and character of individuals, are made the sub- ject of their meetings' consideration and action. In the records of their subordinate meetings, particularly, do these occur; which circumstances would render a general or unrestricted exhibition of their manuscripts. manifestly improper,-and hence the specimens of their Minutes which are here selected, are such as can by no possibility injure or wound any, who may, by descent or otherwise, be connected with those persons named therein.
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The subject of marriages, involving the delicate and important questions of the legitimacy of children and descent of estates, at a very early period engaged the most serious attention of the Quakers ; as according to the law of England, marriages " might be adjudged void when solemnized without license or publication of banns in the church of the parish."
The opposition of the sect to all alliance or affinity with the established church, induced it in this matter to take a stand that was bold and difficult to be maintained ; and . in no particular have they manifested a more distinct and determined position.
In 1652, George Fox issued a paper advising Friends about to be married " that they might lay it before the faithful in time, before any thing was concluded, and afterwards publish it in the end of a meeting, or in a market, as they were moved thereto. And when all things were found clear, being free from all others, and their relations satisfied, they might appoint a meeting on purpose for the taking of each other in the presence of at least twelve faithful witnesses." *
In 1661, a Quaker marriage was brought to the test of a legal tribunal in England, and the Judge, (Archer, of Nottingham Assize,) instructed the jury favorably to its validity, saying, that "there was a marriage in Paradise when Adam took Eve and Eve took Adam, and that it was the consent of the parties that made a marriage." The verdict of the jury established the validity of the marriage in question. t
In no particular does the society appear to have exer- cised greater caution and care, than in that of their mar- riages ; requiring two or three .applications to as many meetings, so as to ensure publicity of intentions, and to
· Janney's Hist. 2, 49.
t Ibid. 2, 51.
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guard against all things that might, in their quaint style, "be contrary to the order of truth," or bring discredit on their membership.
In the old manuscript records of the Maryland Friends, numerous instances are found of their proposals of mar- riage,- one of which, in 1678, may be given as a curious specimen, viz:
"Obadiah Judkins and Obedience Jenner, acquainted this meeting, and also the women's meeting, with their intentions of coming together as husband and wife, ac- cording to the order of truth; now inasmuch as the young woman is but lately come forth of England, and Friends noe certaine knowledge of her, the advice of the men and women's meeting is that they forbeare, and proceed noe further till certificate be procured out of England from the meeting where she last belonged unto, of her being cleere from others, and as to the manner of her life and conversation, that so the truth may be kept cleere in all things; both the partys being willing to sub- mit to the same, and also to live apart in the mean time."
Among the earliest "testimonies" of the Quakers, their objection to oaths is prominent; and as a conse- quence they encountered great difficulties in many par- ticulars. Their efforts were continuous to be relieved from the disabilities they encountered as witnesses, admin- istrators of estates, guardians of orphans, &c.
In 1673, Wm. Penn addressed a letter to Friends in Maryland in which he says, "it fell to my lot to manage your concerns with the Attorney General of the Colony and the Lord Baltimore, about oaths."-and gave some advice in relation to the matter .*
In May, 1674, a petition was presented from certain Quakers to the upper house of Assembly of Maryland,
· Janney's Life of Penn, 166
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asking to be relieved from the necessity of taking oaths, and that they be allowed to make their "yea, yea, and nay, nay;" if they break which that they suffer the same punishment as they do who break their oaths or swear falsely .*
The petition was not acted on at this time.
In 1688, Lord Baltimore was pleased to issue a procla- mation to dispense with oaths in testamentary cases; which was gratefully acknowledged in an address from the Friends' Quarterly Meeting at Herring Creek, on the 7th of the 9th month, 1688.f
·- In 1702, (chap. 1, sec. 21,) an act was passed which fully relieved the Quakers of this difficulty.
Subsequent to this period, the favor of both the Home and Provincial Governments was manifested towards Friends, which they repaid with a grateful loyalty.
Tradition relates that for many years it was custo- mary to reserve seats for the Provincial Governor and his suite on the raised benches or forms, called the " Preacher's Gallery," which they occupied at times dur- ing the sessions of the Yearly Meetings.
The General or Yearly Meetings had from their com- mencement been in the habit of enquiring into the state of the society at large, and requiring reports from the subordinate meetings, touching various matters, both spiritual and temporal. These reports, as may be sup- posed, were of an irregular character; each meeting re- porting on such subjects as happened to attract its atten- tion. A remedy for this was found by instituting a set of questions, which the lower meetings were required to answer, thus ensuring uniformity of subject, if not simi- larity of reply. These questions have been altered from
· Ridgley's Annapolis. 62. t Besse quoted in Janney's Hist. 2, 364.
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time to time, but the Friends of the present day may recognize in the following set of queries, the original and rude foundation on which has been reared the more polished structure of modern phrase. This list was adopted by the Yearly Meeting in 1725, and is copied from the Manuscript Records.
"1. Are all careful to keep meetings, both weekly, first days and monthly, comeing in due time, and bringing forth their families?
"2. Are all careful to keep out of sleep and drowsiness in time of meeting?
"3. Doe those that have children train them up in the nurture and fear of the Lord, restraining them from vice, wantoness, and keeping company with such as would teach them vain fations and corrupt ways of this world to the misspending of their precious time and substance?
"4. Are all careful to keep their word and pay their just debts and contracts in due time?
"5. Whether any differences among friends, are they speedily ended, otherwise refer themselves to two or more honest friends, and if they cannot end the same, then refer them to the Men's Meeting?
"6. Doe none commence or defend any suit of law except such have the advice of the Men's Meeting; but those that defend may give their appearance or sue for a Bond on a just debt?
"7. Are all careful to keep up their antient and christian testimony against tithes, Priest's wages, repairing of their houses, called churches, or any other ceremony of . that nature?
" 8. Have all Friends been advised to make their wills and testaments, and have them well attested?
"9. Is there no tattlers, tale-bearers, busy bodys med- ling themselves with other men's matters which they are
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not concerned with, which tends to strife and discord among brethren?
"10. Doe all keep to plainess of speech ?
"11. Doe all keep out of superfluity of meet, drink, and apparel, at all times?
"12. Doe all keep out of ye abuse of smoaking and chew- ing tobacco att all times ; and doe none use it but such as can render a reason the good they receive by it and loss they sustain for want of it, and that such observe conve- nient time and place for it ?
"13. Doe non practice any clandestine way of trade which is to the dishonour of truth, which the testimony of truth is already given forth against?
"14. Is care taken and Friends advised that none too nearly (related) proceed in collateral marriages, and that none marry within the third degree of affinity and the fourth degree of consanguinity according to former advice?
"15. Whether there is any masters of trade that want apprentices or children of Friends to be put forth, that they apply themselves to the Monthly Meetings before they take those that are not Friends, or put forth their children to such ?
"16. Whether have the children of the poor due educa- tion so as to fitt them for necessary employment?
"17. Whether there is any fatherless or widows that want necessarys, yea or nay, and if any want are they supplied ?
"18. Doe Friends every where behave themselves orderly both in their converse and commerce, so as to answer the witness of God with them with whom they are concerned?"
The subject of using tobacco had been acted on in 1705, when an advice was issued against its immoderate use, and Friends were admonished in relation thereto.
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Negro slavery existed in Maryland and other British colonies, at the time when the Quakers first settled in them ;- and it does not appear that slave-holding was then considered by them, as inconsistent with their principles. Numerous instances may be adduced of the fact that they were slave-holders.
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Janney in his History of the Quakers quotes the will of one Alice Kennersly, of Maryland, who bequeathed "her negro woman Betty and her child to Dan. Cox in consideration that he should pay twenty shillings annu- ally for thirty years to the Meeting, for the paying of travelling Friends' ferriage in Dorchester County, or whatsoever other occasions Friends may see meet, " and the Meeting recognized the bequest by advising Dan. Cox to be present at the next Monthly Meeting to answer such questions as may be asked him concerning the premises.
In 1671, George Fox issued an advice to Friends in Barbadoes "respecting their negroes" "to endeavour to train them up in the fear of God," "and after certain years of servitude they should make them free."*
Whilst in Barbadoes he was assailed with a calumny that he "taught the negroes to rebel, " which he declared was "an abominable untruth," and "it is a thing we utterly abhor."
The earliest movement or the part of the Quakers in America, in a Meeting capacity, relating to slaves, was by some German Friends at Kreisheim, near Germantown, Penn., in 1688, when they addressed a paper to their Yearly Meeting "concerning the lawfulness and unlaw- fulness of buying or keeping negroes." No action was then taken on it by the Yearly Meeting. t
In 1700, Wm. Penn having made provision for the liberation of the few slaves he held, brought the subject
.Fox's Journal, 2, 134.
+ Janney's Fox, 458.
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before a Monthly Meeting in Philadelphia, but the ex- tent of its action was merely to direct that the negroes and Indians should be encouraged to attend Friends Meetings. *
. From this time forward it is said that the subject of slavery continued to attract the notice of the Quakers in various parts of America ;- but no Minute upon the ques-" tion appears in the Manuscript Records of Friends in Maryland until the 6th month, 1759, when upon a revi- sion of their queries, a new one was adopted as follows: " Are Friends careful of importing or buying of negroes, and doe they use them well they are possessed of by inheri- tance or otherwise, endeavoring to trane them up in the principles of Christian religion?"
In the 5th month 1760, the Records of the Yearly Meeting at West River, relates to "some oneasiness" with some Friends respecting the words, "buying of negroes," "agreed to last year," and the Meeting thinks, "Friends at present are not fully ripe in their judgments to carry the minute farther than against being concerned in the importing of negroes."
At the Meeting in the 10th month of the same year, at Treadhaven, the minute relative to this subject is that "this Meeting concludes that Friends should not in any wise encourage the importation of negroes, by buying or selling them, or other slaves."
In the 5th month 1762, the Meeting at West River declares: "It is their solid judgment that no member of our society shall be concerned in importing or buying of negroes, nor selling any without the consent and appro- bation of the Monthly Meeting they belong to."
The Manuscript Records teem with the subject of sla- very ;- nearly every year was it brought before the Meet-
.Janney's Fox, 468.
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ings, and it gradually grew from a concern relating only to the importation of negroes, to the retention of them as slaves. Great caution is apparent in their Minutes upon the subject, and as it encountered serious opposition by many of their members, it was not until 1777 that slave- holding was made a disownable offence .* In 1770 the Yearly Meeting of New England had arrived at the same point, and in 1776 the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting had also come to the same conclusion. In 1777 the North Carolina Yearly Meeting, (which embraced the Friends of South Carolina and Georgia) contemporaneously acted in concert with their brethren in Maryland, t but it was not until 1784 that the Virginia Friends adopted the ex- treme measure of disownment for holding slaves .;
It thus appears that nearly a century elapsed between the first introduction of the subject in the Society in 1688, to its final settlement in 1784 :- while the Maryland Friends consumed eighteen years in the discussion of the question, before arriving at the position they have since maintained in relation thereto.
We have no means of ascertaining the pecuniary sacri- fices made by the Maryland Quakers, to their conscientious convictions on this momentous subject, but tradition re- lates that one family alone liberated 200 slaves.
From the fact that a large number of Friends lived in the slave-holding counties of Anne Arundel, Prince George's and Montgomery, and others on the Eastern Shore, where the great mass of labor was performed by slaves, it is easy to believe that in the aggregate the sac- rifice was very great ; and perhaps has no parallel instance where such pecuniary loss was voluntarily incurred for conscience' sake.
. MSS. Records of Md. Friends.
t Pamphlet Report of N. Carolina Yearly Meeting on the subject of Slavery. ¿ Janney's Fox, 463.
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The General Meetings of the Society in Maryland con- tinued to be held at West River and Treadhaven, until the 4th of the 6th month, 1785, when, in accordance with a Minute of adjournment of the previous Yearly Meeting at Thirdhaven, as it was now called, it was for the first time held at Baltimore Town. It had now become strictly an Annual or Yearly Meeting, and was held the next year, 1786, at Thirdhaven; in 1787 again at Baltimore Town ;- in 1788 at Thirdhaven; and in the 6th month, 1789, for the third time at Baltimore Town; and from that period has continued to be held in this city ; the autumn being chosen for the time, instead of early summer as heretofore. The present Meeting House at the corner of Aisquith and Fayette Streets, was built in 1780, and the particular Meeting moved thereto in Jan- uary 1781, from an older house which stood on the site of the Quaker burying ground on the Harford turnpike, a short distance beyond the present city limits. The older Meeting was called "Patapsco," and the lot of ground it occupied was given by Joseph Taylor. This Meeting is first mentioned in the old manuscripts in 1703; but it was then probably held at a private house. Mr. John Giles, the first of the family of that name who have since occu- pied a prominent position in this state, settled near the present site of Baltimore, about 1700, and at his house the Quakers held their Meetings .* His son Jacob Giles
erected a large brick dwelling about three miles from Havre de Grace, which is still standing, and in its octagon hall the Friends of Harford County held their Meetings for many years. No vestige of the building known as Patapsco Meeting now remains, but the ground is still used as a cemetery by both of the sections into which the Society is now divided. Aged persons recollect the
. Griffith's Annals of Baltimore.
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earliest Yearly Meetings, in this city, when the throngs attending were so great that a large tent was erected for their accommodation, on the then green lots south of the present site of the Second Presbyterian Church at the corner of East Baltimore and Lloyd Streets.
The location of many of the oldest meeting houses is still known, the house at West River has long since dis- . appeared, but the ground is still used as a public ceme- tery, and is now called the "Quaker Meeting lot." It is on the road leading from Galesville to Owensville, one mile from the river; and the venerable trees that stand within its precincts keep faithful watch over the resting places of many of the first Friends of Maryland, whose rigid simplicity permitted no monumental stone to tell who sleeps beneath their shadows.
The original meeting house at Easton, or Treadhaven as it was formerly called, has been replaced by a more modern structure, which however occupies the same spot, once called Edmondson's Point. From the frequent reference in the Records relative to repairs to the old house, it is probable that it was a very poorly built structure, though doubtless it taxed the finances of the Society at that early period to erect it .*
* The Rev. Ethan Allen has kindly furnished the following abstract of the proceedings of the Governor and .Council of Maryland on the 24th May, 1698. (See "Council Proceedings," Liber H. D. No. 2.)
"In obedience to an order of his Excellency, the Governor and Council. dated the 10th of August, 1697, commanding the several Sheriffs of this Pro- vince to return a list of what Romish Priests and Lay Brothers are resident in their respective Counties, and what Churches, Chapels or places of worship they have, -what manner of buildings they are, and in what places situate, - and return also a like account about the Quakers and other dissenters from the Church of England, and of their places of worship, &c."
The Sheriff of Anne Arundel County return3, "the Quakers have one timber- work meeting house built at West River upon land formerly owned by Mr. Francis Hooker, by them purchased to the quantity of two acres, where they
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Thomas Chalkly an eminent minister of the Society, in his curious and interesting journal, under date of 1706, says "Aquila Paca, High Sheriff of the County (mean-
keep their Yearly Meetings,-which is at Whitsuntide :- Also a Quarterly Meeting at the house of Samuel Chew :- Also a Monthly Meeting in Herring- Creek meeting house, standing on land purchased of Samuel Chew :- Also a Weekly Meeting at the same house :- Also Monthly and Weekly Meetings at the house of Wm. Richardson, Senior, West River :- Also a Weekly Meeting at the house of Ann Lumbolt, near the head of South River :- Also a Monthly Meeting at the house of John Belt. So far as I have the account from Mr. Richardson, I can understand of no preachers they have in this County but Mr. Wm. Richardson and Samuel Galloway's wife."
The Sheriff of Baltimore County returns, "that there is neither teacher or place of worship of Roman Catholics or Quakers."
. The Sheriff of Calvert County returns that "the Quakers have one very old meeting house near Leonard's Creek, and one place of meeting in the dwelling house of George Royston, at the Cliffs."
The Sheriff of Prince George County returns that there is "no Quaker meeting house."
The Sheriff of Charles County returns that there "are two Quakers, but none of their meeting houses."
The Sheriff of St. Mary's. County returns, "as to Quakers and Dissenters none in the County."
The Sheriff of Somerset County returns "no Quakers."
The Sheriff of Dorchester County makes a similar return.
The Sheriff of Talbot County returns, "as to the Quaker's places of worship, they have a small meeting house at Ralph Fishbourne's and another at Howell Powell; another at between King's Creek and Tuckahoe. These are clap- board houses about twenty feet long. Another framed house at the head of Treadhaven Creek, about fifty feet long."
The Sheriff of Kent County returns that "the Quaker place of worship is upon a branch of a Creek running out of' Chester River, called Island Creek. The house is about thirty feet long and twenty feet wide, with a partition after the manner of a tobacco house, near which is a piece of ground paled in, where they bury their dead, abont fifty feet square."
From Cecil County no return appears to have been made.
At the Yearly Meeting at Treadhaven Creek, the 5th day of the 8th month, 1697, (see MISS. Records of Maryland Friends, ) enquiry was made "into the estate and welfare of every Weekly Meeting belonging to this Yearly Meeting, viz : South River, West River, Herring Creek, Clifts, Puturent, Cecill, Chester,
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ing Baltimore County,) living at the head of Bush River, near the main road, built a meeting house at his own charge, and had it licensed, at which we had many good Meetings."
There is now standing a venerable stone building, until recently known as the "old Quaker meeting house," about two miles from the head of Bush River, and on the line of an old road that passes just above the heads of the many estuaries that make up from the bay. Whether this is the house built by Sheriff Paca is not known, but its location nearly agrees with that mentioned by Chalkly. Another meeting house, built of brick, until recently stood on the line of the present road from Ab- ingdon to Bush, in Harford County, but was of more recent date than the stone house, and had not been used by the Friends for several years previous to its destruction by fire.
The earliest history of Friends shows them to have been at first a society of Propagandists ;- each convert seems to have become a misionary to extend the principles of the new sect ;- and every accessible part of the world appears to have been visited by them within a few years after they appeared in England. The continent of Europe was visited as early as 1655; and in Germany and Hol- land considerable success was met with. Some went to the Holy Land, some to the Grand Turk, some to Poland, others to Algiers; and as we have seen, many sought the wilds of America where to plant the standard of their faith; and here appears to have flourished most the new
Bayside, Tuccahoe, Tredhaven, Choptank, Transquaking, Monnye, Annamesser, Muddy Creek, Pocatynorton and Nosswaddor.
The apparent discrepancies between the returns of the Sheriff's and this list of Weekly Meetings, may possibly be explained by the fact that some of these Meetings were held at private houses, which some of the Sheriff's may not have considered as embraced within the order of Council, while others included them in their returns.
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doctrines they promulgated. It is estimated by some of their best authors that four-fifths of all the Quakers now in the world are in America.
Not only by travelling and preaching did the zealous founders of their faith seek to establish it. Books of various kinds, tracts, and pamphlets, appeared in great numbers. So early as 1708, a catalogue of Friends' writings was published by John Whiting, himself an author, which contained the names of five hundred and twenty-eight writers, and the titles and dates of about twenty-eight hundred books and tracts. Since that date, a vast mass of their writings has accumulated, and no one who has not had occasion to look into the Quaker libraries, can have an idea of the number of books, by their authors, that now are to be found in them.
They have, from the time of their establishment, been in the habit. of keeping with care the minutes of their meetings for discipline,-memorials of their most eminent members, and general records of their proceedings; these added to other means, render the materials for the history 'of the society both abundant and reliable; and as such have been well used by some of their modern authors, -- among whom Bowden and Janney, (the former of England and the latter now living in Virginia,) have contributed largely to their general history, and from whose pages many of the circumstances here related have been gleaned; while still more has been derived from those old manu- scripts herein before mentioned, which in their quaint simplicity, and unaffected directness of style and diction, give the best delineation of those, who in the earliest days of our State, found here a home, where, at that period, they enjoyed greater ease and liberty than either in the Mother Country, or in the more advanced provinces of New England.
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The Maryland Yearly Meeting at one period embraced the State of Ohio within its church jurisdiction,-but in 1812, their members had so increased that a new Yearly Meeting was established, to include all west of the Alle- ganies. At a later period, the Yearly Meeting of Indiana was set up ; and still more recently, still pushing west- ward, other meetings have extended across the Missis- sippi River; and as civilization marches towards the great West, the Quakers accompanying its footsteps, appear to be belting the continent with their meetings ; each new one in succession springing out from the next older ; and finding their common mother in " the General Meeting for all the Friends in the Province of Maryland," established by George Fox in 1672, as an original and independent organization.
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