Number of Friends in America, 1845

NUMBER OF FRIENDS IN AMERICA, 184543 NUMBER OF FRIENDS IN AMERICA. 1845. [The following brief paper is taken from " The Friend, (London), Seventh month, 1845. Vol. 1, p. 142. Editor.] The following statements are made upon good authority; many of them are the result of a careful investigation of the members in each particular meeting. The total number of Friends in America appears to be about 80,000. They are distributed as follows : i. fThe Yearly Meeting of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, etc., commonly called Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, contains 86 particular meetings and about8,686 members 2.The Yearly Meeting of Virginia* contains eleven meetings, and about331 do 3.The Yearly Meeting of New York, which includes Canada, contains about11,000 do 4.The Yearly Meeting of New England contains 103 meetings, and about8,021 do 5.The Yearly Meeting of Ohio about18,000 do tice of the Peace, together with a proper Charge to be given at the Quarter Sessions. 1681." "Godolphin," John Godolphin (1617-1678), " The Orphan's Legacy or a Testamentary Abridgement; .... Executors, Wills and Legacies. 1674" and many subsequent editions. Justinian's Institutes. Of this great ancient compilation of Roman Law, there were several editions current in Penn's day. ?We understand that this Yearly Meeting is to be laid down, and a Six Months Meeting constituted in its place, belonging to the Yearly Meeting of Baltimore. This was resolved upon at a Conference of Committees from several neighboring Yearly Meetings with Friends of Virginia. Additional Note.—This plan was carried out in 1845. The depletion in the membership of Virginia Yearly Meeting was chiefly owing to the existence of slavery in Virginia, making free labor unremunerative , and the position of non-slaveholders almost unbearable. See S. B. Weeks, " Southern Quakers and Slavery, Baltimore, 1896;" A. C. and R. H. Thomas, " History of the Friends in America," 4th ed., 1905, pp. 191, 192. [Editor of The Bulletin.] 44 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY 6.doIndiana do30,000 do 7-doMaryland, otherwise Baltimore Yearly Meeting, contains twelve meetings and about562 do 8. The Yearly Meeting of North and South Carolina about4,500 do N. B. There are about 800 Friends in the new state of Michigan, who belong to the Yearly Meeting of New York, though 1000 miles distant. Of late years some Friends have settled beyond the Mississippi in the district of Iowa, where they amounted, some time ago, to no families; these belong to Indiana Yearly Meeting. The number of Hicksites in the United States, is thought to be about 23,000. DINIDOCK, TINICUM, OR TINECONK. In the Bi-cent. edition of George Fox's Journal (1891) and in the reprint (1901), it is stated (vol. 2, p. 177) that George Fox on his way from New York to the South crossed the Delaware at " Upper Tinicum Island." In all previous editions the island is called " Upper Dinidock." No island answers to either name. The context in the Journal, and geographical conditions, alike make Tinicum near Chester, Pa., impossible. Benj. Ferris, in his " Original Settlements on the Delaware " (Wilmington, 1846), gives what seems to be the true solution. He says, " The name of the island was called Matineconk or Tiniconk, which G. Fox, by a slight mistake, understood to be Dinidock. It was called Upper Tineconk, to distinguish it from the island on which Burlington stands, then called Lower Tineconk" (p. 131, note). The island was on the regular trail from New York to the South. Curiously enough Dankers and Sluyter in their Journal, 1679, note that Matineconk and Tinicum were confused in their day. (Mem. Long Island Hist. Soe, vol. 1, pp. 175, 177, 178.) Additional light is thrown on the matter elsewhere. Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, 1850, pp. 390, 391, 396, 461 ; Mem. Hist. Soe. of Pa., vol. 7, p. 140 ; H. A. Brown, " The Settlement of Burlington ," 1878, pp. 41-43. ...