Historical News

Historical News Friends Historical Association The Spring Meeting of Friends Historical Association was held at Chesterfield Meeting, Crosswicks, New Jersey, on Fifth Month 16, 1959. Many of the 130 members and guests who attended took the opportunity before the meeting of visiting places of historic interest in the neighborhood, including Copany Meetinghouse —now remodeled as a private residence. Arthur Brick, a member of Chesterfield Meeting, opened the afternoon program by sketching the history of the meeting, which dates from 1677. The principal speaker was Professor Theodore Thayer of the Newark Colleges of Rutgers University, whose subject was "Nathanael Greene: His Views of Eighteenth-Century Quakerism." At the conclusion of his address a number of Friends spoke informally and extemporaneously on a variety of historical topics. From Quaker Libraries Among the more important recent acquisitions at the Quaker Collection of the Haverford College Library are a letterbook of Mary Davis, a minister of Dartmouth Monthly Meeting in Massachusetts , written during her religious travels from the 1820's into the 1850's and reflecting her opposition to the doctrines of Joseph John Gurney; and a letterbook of Hannah Hall of Harrison County, Ohio, giving an account of her travels in England, Scotland, and Ireland. The Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College has lately acquired twenty-five authograph letters of James Pemberton , prominent Philadelphia Friend of the eighteenth century, including some written from his exile in Virginia during the American Revolution. Other recent accessions include a large collection of papers of Moses Sheppard, founder of the Sheppard Asylum in Baltimore; miscellaneous papers and a grangerized copy of the autobiography of Sarah Cleghorn, Quaker poet; a group of letters of Jane Rushmore, long active in the affairs of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Race Street) ; and microfilms of the records of meetings in Northern Ireland from the depository in Lisburn. 133 ...