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ARCHIVAL INFORMATION New Information on the Wilburites of New York: Discovery of the Wilburite Friends' Meeting for Sufferings Minute Book Christopher Densmore* During the Wilburite controversy of the 1840's New York Yearly Meeting recognized the legitimacy of the "larger body" New England Yearly Meeting. Sympathy for the "Wilburite" smaller body of New England Yearly Meeting appears to have been limited to Scipio Quarterly Meeting in the Finger Lakes region of New York state and Ferrisburgh Quarterly Meeting in Vermont which was part of New York Yearly Meeting. Divisions in these two quarters in 1848 and 1851 resulted in the establishment of independent Wilburite quarterly meetings. A report by a committee appointed by New York Yearly Meeting to investigate conditions in Scipio Quarter in 1848 reported 117 Wilburites, 257 Orthodox and seven undecided.1 Including the Wilburites of Ferrisburgh Quarter, and a few others from Hartland and Farmington meetings in Farmington Quarter in western New York, the total number of Wilburites in New York Yearly Meeting was probably not much in excess of two hundred. In May 1853 representatives of Ferrisburgh and Scipio met at Poplar Ridge in Cayuga County, New York, to re-establish New York Yearly Meeting on its "ancient foundation."2 The most complete accounts of New York Yearly Meeting at Poplar Ridge are those of William Hodgson, a Philadelphia Quaker , in 1875-1876, and A. Day Bradley's 1979 article in Quaker History.3 Record books of some of the monthly meetings compris- * Christopher Densmore is Associate Archivist of the University Libraries, State University of New York at Buffalo. 1.New York Yearly Meeting (Orthodox), Minutes, 1849. 2.Hodgson, William. Society of Friends in the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1875-1876), vol. 2, p. 183; Minutes of the Meeting for Sufferings of New York Yearly Meeting (Poplar Ridge), 1853-1868, [p. I]. 3.Hodgson, op. cit., pp. 167-190, 250-263; and A. Day Bradley, "New York Yearly Meeting at Poplar Ridge and the Primitive Friends," Quaker History, vol. 68 (1979), pp. 75-82. 130 Archival Information131 ing the Wilburite yearly meeting are in the custody of the Haviland Records Room of New York Yearly Meeting, but until 1983 all records of the yearly meeting itself were lost. In February the record book of the Meeting for Sufferings of New York Yearly Meeting at Poplar Ridge for 1853 to 1868 was offered for sale by a book dealer in Geneva, New York, and was subsequently acquired by the Haviland Records Room of New York Yearly Meeting. The major function of the Meeting for Sufferings was the "oversight and inspection" of proposed publications concerning Quaker religious principles or testimonies.4 The minute book documents the consideration and pubHcation of memorials to Joseph Hoag and Phebe Taber and several pamphlets written in defense of the position taken by the yearly meeting. Two to five hundred copies of approved works were printed. Owner's names on surviving copies of pamphlets published by Wilburite Friends in New York indicate that they were read by Friends in Ohio, Philadelphia and New England Yearly Meetings. In one case the editorial function of the Meeting for Sufferings led to conflict. In 1846 Joseph Hoag (1762-1846), an acknowledged minister of Starksboro Monthly Meeting in Vermont, placed his writings in the hands of Hannah and Ezra Battey because they contained portions "in opposition to the doctrines propagated by Elias Hicks and many of those written by Joseph John Gurney."5 When New York Yearly Meeting at Poplar Ridge was established, Ezra Battey became a member of the Meeting for Sufferings and Hoag's writings were considered for publication. In 1856 the committee having charge of preparing Hoag's journal for publication received permission to send it to William Hodgson in Philadelphia.6 Hodgson edited the journal and returned it to Meeting for Sufferings. Hodgson omitted some passages from the edited journal. According to his account this excision included passages by Hoag which were critical of Job Otis (d.1856) whose family was prominent in the yearly meeting.7 The minutes of the Meeting for Sufferings reveal that the committee in charge of the manuscript was 4.Discipline for the Yearly Meeting of Friends...

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