Quakers Labor with Jemima Wilkinson—1794

NOTES ^DOCUMENTS QUAKERS LABOR WITH JEMIMA WILKINSON-1794 By Edwin B. Bronner* When the new American government began to negotiate with the Indians in the 1790's, in an effort to settle some of the disputes which had developed after the American War of Independence, the Indians requested the government to ask Quakers to attend the conferences to assist them and to guarantee a fair hearing and a fair basis for negotiations. The first attempt to write a treat}" was in 1793, at Sandusky, Ohio, and six Friends participated in that conference. Id the next year a second gathering met at Canandaigua, New York. Two of the Quakers who had been present the previous year, William Savery and John Parrish, were joined by two others, David Bacon and James Emlen. They arrived in Canandaigua before the Indians, and remained at the conference until the end, even though winter was fast approaching when they began the trip home in midNovember .1 Of the four men, William Savery was the most prominent, and is best remembered. Born in 1750, he was apprenticed to a tanner and earned his living by that trade. He was recorded as a minister in 1781; he traveled widely in America and made an extended visit to England and the Continent in 1798, where he had a decisive influence upon Elizabeth Gurney (Fry). Large parts of his journal, edited by Jonathan Evans, were printed in 1844, and a full-scale biography was published in the twentieth century by Francis R. Taylor. He married Sarah Evans in 1778 ; they had no children. He died in 1804r * Edwin B. Bronner is Professor of History at Haverford College and Curator of the Quaker Collection in the Haverford College Library. He is the author of IFtKtOJJi Penn's Holy Experiment in Pennsylvania (1962), editor of American Quakers Today (1966), and has published articles on Quaker topics in several Journals. 1 Rayner W. Kelsey, Friends and tL· Indians (Philadelphia, 1917), p. 90: Francis R. Taylor, Life of William Savery of Philadelphia, 1750-1804 (New York, 1925), pp. 50-145. i See Taylor, Life of William Savery, also the account in the Dictionary of American Biography. 41 42Quaker History John Parrish (1730-1807), the second minister among the four, did not leave a journal of this expédition. He was bom and died in Maryland, but lived most of his life in Philadelphia. He had shown an interest in Indians before this trip, and had also traveled to Barbados in 1784. David Bacon (1729-1809) and James Emlen (1760-1798) were both elders, and each left a record of this journey. Bacon, bom at Bacon's Neck, New Jersey, lived in Philadelphia, where he married Mary Trotter, and had a large family. In 1795 he accompanied Nicholas Wain on a visit to England. Emlen, son of George and Ann Emlen, lived in Chester County, at New Garden, was married to Phebe Pierce, and had six children. He died of yellow fever while visiting in Philadelphia, when he was less than forty years old.3 During their long stay in the Canandaigua area, the four Quakers often had free time when the negotations were not in progress. The community named Jerusalem founded six years earlier by Jemima Wilkinson was nearby and they had several visits and conversations with her during this period. Jemima Wilkinson (1752-1819), born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, in a Quaker household, was an unusual religious leader. In 1776, after a severe illness which she believed to be fatal, she abandoned her former name and called herself the Publick Universal Friend. She seemed to suggest that she was a new incarnation of Christ, come to minister to her generation.4 In Philadelphia, during the period of the American Revolution, a number of Quakers had joined the patriot's cause, which led to their disownment by traditional Friends. These persons organized a new body known as the Free Quakers and built a meetinghouse at Fifth and Arch Streets in 1783. When Jemima Wilkinson came to Philadelphia to preach and proselytize, she was welcomed by some of the Free Quakers, especially Christopher Marshall, and held several meetings in their building. She made converts among...