America's First Quakers Revisited: A response to American's First Quakers—Where, When and by Whom?, by Kenneth L. Carroll

America's First Quakers Revisited: A response to American 's First Quakers— Where, When and by Whom?, by Kenneth L. Carroll Jay Worrall, Jr.* Kenneth L. Carroll critiqued the first chapter of my history titled The Friendly Virginians: America's First Quakers, in the Fall 1996 issue of Quaker History. He analyzed the question as to where American Quakerism first appeared, and his analysis differs from mine. He believes that the first American Quakers appeared in the Colony ofMaryland, while I find they appeared first in the Colony of Virginia. He, Kenneth Carroll, thinks I have erred because ofa "lack offamiliarity with a good deal of important material as well as a lot of later literature." He feels that I do not understand, in his words 1 . "The full meaning of the designation or name Virginia during the 1650s." 2."The work ofElizabeth Harris" (the first Quaker messenger to come to America). 3."The activity of Thomas Thurston and Josiah Coale" (who followed Elizabeth Harris to America as exponents of Quakerism). So let us deal with each of these three topics in turn. The Meaning of "Virginia" during the 1650s is important in fixing the place where Quakerism first appeared in America. It is important in the context ofthree letters and two sets of financial records. Friends wrote all five documents during the 1650s. All are extant excepting portions ofthe financial records. Two of these five documents figure in Kenneth Carroll's analysis and three do not. The two he used are 1) a letter Gerard Roberts wrote to George Fox, July 16571 and 2) a November 1657 letter from Robert Clarkson to Elizabeth Harris.2 He did not use 3) Josiah Coale's 1656 letter to Margaret Fell3 or 4) and 5) the records ofthe Kendal Fund and ofthe National Stock Fund (funds that supported traveling Friends in the 1650s.)4 Kenneth Carroll holds that "the term or name Virginia in the 1650s applied to a much larger territory than the present state by that name." I agree, but will add that the larger territory was generally known as "Old Virginia." The "Colony" ofVirginia was understood to be a distinct entity * Jay Worrall Jr. is a member ofCharlottesville (Virginia) Monthly Meeting. His book, The Friendly Virginian, was nominated for the National Book Award (nonfiction) in 1995. America's First Quakers Revisited5 1 from the time its legislature first met in 1 619. Maryland became a separate colony with its own government in 1635. Gerard Roberts' letter to George Fox notes that: The ffrend who went to Virginey [Elizabeth Harris] is Returned in a pretty Condision: and There shee was Gladly Rec[eive]d by Many who meete together: the Governey is Convinsed.5 And Robert Clarkson's 1,700 word letter (he was a resident of Anne Arundel County, Maryland) reveals that Elizabeth Harris came to his home neighborhood and planted Quakerism there in 1656 or 1657. In Kenneth Carroll's view these two letters, combined with the knowledge that "Maryland was often identified as being in Virginia" are decisive. Theyprove, ashe sees it, thatElizabethHarrisplanted the seed ofAmerican Quakerism in the vicinity ofAnne Arundel County, Maryland, and in no other provable place. To support his view Kenneth Carroll cites three maps: The first two of these maps are "the famous John Smith map of 1612" and a 1625 map of"The North Part ofAmerica." But these two maps have nothing to do with the present issue since the Maryland Colony did not exist until 1635. The third map, the map ofVirginia sold by E. Stephenson in London in 1651, is titled across its face "OuId Virginia & nem." It clearly marks the location of Mary Land bounded on the south by the Potomac River and north by the "Sweeds Plantation." According to the evidence provided by this 165 1 map then: ifElizabeth Harris planted Quakerism in the Anne Arundel vicinity and nowhere else, Gerard Roberts would properly and probably have referred to her as "the Friend who went to Mary Land" or as "the Friend who went to Marylandin -Virginia", and not as "the Friend who went to Virginey." As Kenneth Carroll notes, Charles Bayly, one ofElizabeth Harris's Maryland converts...