A Letter of Sarah (Ellis) Woolman

30 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY held at Curies in 1768,* being composed of 2 Quarterly Meetings . ... i, Cedar Creek Quarterly Meeting. . . . composed of 3 Monthly Meetings. ... 2, Black Water Quarterly Meeting composed of 2 Monthly Meetings. VI. The Yearly Meeting in North Carolina is held at the old Neck in Perquimons County the 4th 6th Day in ye 10 mo annually being composed of 2 Quarterly Meetings Viz.: 1, Perquimons & Pasquetank. . . . which is composed of 5 monthly Meetings. ... 2, New Garden & Cane Creek Quarterly Meeting. . . . being composed of 2 Quarterly Meetings." The " General Meetings " or " General Meetings for Worship " seem to have been purely religious meetings held once a year at suitable places in the Yearly Meetings. None are given for Virginia or North Carolina; whether this is because there were none, or because of lack of knowledge does not appear. The latter reason is not improbable, for the information given regarding those Yearly Meetings is less detailed than that regarding the other Yearly Meetings. It would have added much to the interest of the book had there been even an estimate of the number of members. Some of the spelling of the names is here given : Leister (Leicester) ; Marrineck (Mamaroneck) ; Shapaquash (Chappaqua) ; Ancocus (Rancocos) ; Nantmile (Nantmeal) ; Potapsco; Trentown; Newberry (Newburyport). A LETTER OF SARAH (ELLIS) WOOLMAN. The accompanying letter has recently come to light among a bundle addressed to members of the Morris and Smith families. It was written by Sarah Woolman, the widow of John Woolman, who had died in England four years before the date of this letter . She survived him until ( ?) Her house was at Mount Holly, New Jersey, and all the persons named were members of the same Monthly Meeting. John Smith, whose welfare thus rested upon the mind of ?This date would seem to imply that the data regarding this Meeting were based on information received not later than 1767. A LETTER OF SARAH (ELLIS) WOOLMAN31 Sarah Woolman, was the son of Hon. John Smith, of Philadelphia , Burlington, and Franklin Park (near Rancocas), who married Hannah, the daughter of James Logan, William Penn's Secretary of State. John Smith, 2nd, was born in 1761, and was therefore fifteen years old when this letter was written. His father died in 1771, at the early age of forty-eight, and his mother at his birth. The care of their four orphans devolved upon the uncles of the children , and it is therefore to Samuel Smith, the historian of New Jersey, and to William Logan, son of James Logan, that Sarah Woolman refers in her letter, which is unfortunately without superscription. John Smith married, 1784, Gulielma Maria (1766-1826), daughter of William and Margaret (Hill) Morris of Burlington, New Jersey, and his death, of a pulmonary complaint, took place in 1803, at the a?e °f forty-two. He was never robust, and his life was chiefly spent upon his farm at " Green Hill," three miles from Burlington, where Samuel Jenings had once lived. The father of his wife had been a promising young physician, who was one of the many yellow fever victims of the awful summer of 1793 in Philadelphia. Mindful of the professional ambitions and the prominent social connections of Dr. John Morris, Sarah Woolman may have feared that John Smith would be led into " worldly ambitions." But he chose to devote his time to the cultivation of a highly productive and successful farm, and the dear lady's fears were therefore groundless. Amelia M. Gummere. [Endorsement] [Mount Holly in iBt mo: 1776.] Dear friend a Concern hath rested on my mind in behalf of John Smith Remembring what Inocence his Dear Creator Bestowed upon him and what a Lamentable Case it should be lost or mard for want timely Care or Chusing a trade may be most for his Spiritual advantage rather than worldly profit may his friends and near Relations dwell Deep in their mind before him whose dwelling is on high may you seek to be directed by best wisdom in so waty a 32 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY matter and have a watchfull Care over this Beloved youth for his Incouragement in ye Blessed way now hath my mind...