Builders of the Quaker Road (review)

106Bulletin of Friends Historical Association of the period have rarely handled these MSS in a way that would satisfy modern standards of accuracy, not to say of honesty. Braithwaite is a shining exception and his Beginnings of Quakerism which covers the same period shows how far he had accurately placed and interpreted this mass of material. Nuttall shows also how well this material meshes with early printed Quaker material and he makes good use of several of the less known early Quaker pamphlets. He also goes beyond any of his predecessors in showing the non-Quaker religious background, and in identifying the local churches, preachers and officials referred to in the correspondence. He contributes a full appendix on one of the obscurest contemporary groups, the Manifestarians (pp. 293-297). His own extended introduction is the best interpretation of his achievement and should be thoughtfully read by every aspirant at Quaker historiography . A few impressions of the material may be mentioned at random. Little reference is given to the addresses on these letters, their seals, or carriage prices, or to some early evidences of numbering or arrangement . In the wealth of other detail few readers will count this an omission. The letters are curiously uneven in distribution, the nine years beginning with 1652 are represented by the following number of letters each: 19, 27, 67, 107, 133, 71, 43, 37, 69. I may add that the collection contains also letters for the next fourteen years but in very much smaller numbers. Of over a hundred and forty correspondents more than half are represented by only one letter. But of several persons the letters (with others in other collections) are so numerous as to provide not only abundant evidence of their usual spelling and manner of speech but also of their characters. The index of subjects is nearly half of it references to Baptists—a fact significant for the principal contacts or contests of Friends in this period. The Ranters come next, but a poor second. The references to Friends who caused trouble to sober Friends by their misbehavior, even excluding Nayler and his crew, are strikingly numerous. The extravagant language used to George and Margaret by their correspondents, often omitted by editors and even crossed out by Fox himself, is noted in these letters. Identifications are given by the editor of several quite unusual or obsolete English words used by these writers. Harvard UniversityHenry J. Cadbury Builders of the Quaker Road. By Caroline Nicholson Jacob. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company. 1953. 233 pages. $3.50. Q AROLINE NICHOLSON JACOB has followed up her Road to Our Meeting House with Builders of the Quaker Road, a series of brief biographies involving twenty-four Quaker men and women quite evenly distributed through the three centuries of Quaker history. She is admirably fitted to write in a style equally intelligible to younger and Book Reviews107 older readers. For she was accustomed to teach children for many years at Westtown and to serve as recording clerk of Arch Street Yearly Meeting in Philadelphia. Little fault could be found with her selection of personalities from George Fox to the late lamented Sergei Thomas—that promising Westtonian and Haverfordian whose career was recently cut short in an accident. Her task was not to discover new facts, but to present what was known with skilful brevity and pleasing style. The book will be of great use in young people's classes in Quakerism and for older readers, who cannot fail to learn much from this well-balanced presentation. It is unfortunate that the appearance of this book in March, 1953 cannot be noticed in the Bulletin until much later, but it is to be hoped that many Friends will take advantage of the opportunity now presented to inform themselves of historic Quakerism as exemplified in this impressive series of worthies. Haverford CollegeWilliam Wistar Comfort Thomas Mifflin and the Politics of the American Revolution. By Kenneth R. Rossman. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 1952. xii, 344 pages. $5.00. CHOMAS MIFFLIN (1744-1800) was a prominent second-rate figure in the period of the American Revolution and continued to play an active role in Pennsylvania affairs until...