Early Books of Discipline of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

12 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION EARLY BOOKS OF DISCIPLINE OF PHILADELPHIA YEARLY MEETING By Rayner W. Kelsey ON A happy day a few years ago a Haverford graduate presented to the Quaker Collections of the college a beautiful copy of the Book of Discipline of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting issued in the year 1719.1 At once this small volume became one of the treasured possessions of the college and one of its favorite exhibits on public occasions. It is a manuscript booklet, written so evenly and beautifully in a square script that almost everyone at first sight supposes it to be printed. After some study it was found that the little volume of 1719 was the second Book of Discipline of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. It served the Yearly Meeting for more than forty years, until 1762, although some additions to it, extracted from minutes and epistles, were sent down to the quarterly meetings by the yearly meeting of 1747. Naturally a search was started for other early issues of the discipline. Strangely enough the next one was secured from a dealer in England. It turned out to be the third Book of Discipline, referred to in the Minutes of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1762, as follows: "The Clerk acquainted the Meeting that the Alphabetical Collection of the Rules of Discipline, & Advices given forth by this Meeting from the first establishment thereof hath been compared with the Original minutes pursuant to the Direction of the Meeting last year, and a number of Copies for the use of the Quarterly Meetings are also transcribed , and most of them examined, and ready to be delivered ; He is therefore desired to deliver a Copy to the Clerks of each Quarterly Meeting when the necessary minutes now agreed upon, are added thereto." !Presented in 1930 by Ralph Mellor, class of 1899. The little volume, of 61 pages, 4 ? 6t/> inches, has a beautiful modern binding. It has a very complete subject index at the end. It contains also the following inscriptions: "Sarah Bonsall her Book." "J. Paschall." "Hannah Bonsall Wilmington Delaware." In place of a title-page is the following inscription , in beautiful, large, hand-made print : "Thomas Lewis of Haverford in the County of Chester is the owner of this Book." Two Pages of the Manuscript Discipline of 1719. Original in the Quaker Collections at Haverford College. Title-page of Manuscript Discipline of 1704. Original in the Quaker Collections at Haverford College. EARLY BOOKS OF DISCIPLINE13 This is a large volume, the pages measuring 8 ? 12 inches, and bound in old parchment—a solid, venerable tome, brimming with the lore of early Quakerism. As described in the above minutes, the subject matter in it is arranged topically and alphabetically . The table of contents contains forty-seven headings, ranging from Arbitrations, Appeals, and Affirmations, to War, Wills, and Yearly Meeting. Space is left after each topic for adding the testimonies of succeeding Yearly Meetings. It is interesting to note the number of concerns that have been modified or discarded since 1762—such as Gaming, Grave-Stones, Mourning, Sorcery, and Taverns. Friends may be conservative but they can, on occasion, discard the traditions of the elders. In the search for old books of discipline, naturally the greatest desideratum was the first one issued. A copy of it came to Haverford College by friendly chance. A student of another institution, who had used the Haverford Quaker Collections, wrote to the Curator that he had seen in an old book shop in Providence, Rhode Island, an epistle of 1704 from a Yearly Meeting held at Burlington, New Jersey. The book dealer, on request, sent the so-called epistle for examination. With the epistle, it transpired, was bound up a communication of the yearly meeting to the quarterly meetings, from the same year, in such form as to suggest that it probably was a discipline of earlier date than the discipline of 1719 which the college already possessed. Thrilling possibility! When the Curator's office had made some study of the old minute books of the yearly meeting, the fact became apparent that this was indeed a copy of the Discipline of 1704, the first real Book of Discipline...