My Irish Journal, 1669-1670 (review)

Book Reviews139 Jones and others have shown how the mystical element recurring throughout Christian history finds expression in Quakerism, but until recently there was insufficient knowledge of the way in which Quakerism grew out of the religious life of England. Geoffrey F. Nuttall's work on The Holy Spirit in Puritan Faith and Experience (1946) was primarily a contribution to the study of the Holy Spirit, but it also conclusively showed that Quakerism was a consequential development of the English Reformation, its logical conclusion expressing that which was implicit in it. The fact that in doing so it rediscovered the Light as a unifying principle and check to individualism, and therefore wedded Protestantism to group mysticism, makes its unique position. A book that is so good deserves to pass through many editions. With this in mind, two small criticisms may be in place. To say that "the word 'Quakerism' has only recently come into use" is somewhat misleading; Penn published his Quakerism a New Nickname for Old Christianity in 1673 in reply to Faldo's Quakerism No Christianity, and the word was in use as early as 1656. The suggestion that Friends "from the earliest days" did not manufacture or sell intoxicating beverages , is, alas, not true for English Friends. The listing of the chapter subheadings in the Contents would make it much easier for the reader to find his way and to use the book for reference. WoodbrookeL. Hugh Doncaster My Irish Journal, 1669-1670. By William Penn. London, New York and Toronto: Longmans, Green & Co. 1952. 104 pages. $3.00. Edited by Isabel Grubb, with an introduction by Henry J. Cadbury. ÜENN'S Irish journal, which covers a period of nine months from A September 15, 1669, to July 1, 1670, was written when he was twenty-five years of age. His father, Sir William Penn, had sent him to Ireland to settle many matters pertaining to his landed estates, which comprised more than 12,000 statute acres scattered about in seventy-odd places in east and west Cork. As Isabel Grubb points out, the Journal has historical value as a source book on landlord-tenant relationships during an early period in the Protestant ascendancy. The experience Penn gained in estate management during several such trips was good business training for the role he was soon to play as one of the trustees of West Jersey, as chief proprietor of Pennsylvania, and-as one of the Twenty-Four Proprietors of East Jersey. As a result, the land systems of the Quaker colonies were less doctrinaire than those of many of the proprietary colonies. At this time in his career Penn was already a convinced Quaker and was received by leading Irish Friends as a coequal. He associated with William Edmundson and other influential Friends and took a prominent part in the National Meeting in Dublin. He was active in opposing the restrictions suffered by Friends and interceded personally with the Lord Lieutenant in an effort to gain Telief for them. As a Public Friend, Penn 140Bulletin of Friends Historical Association visited and spoke at many meetings. He also engaged frequently in religious disputation with non-Friends. He found time to work upon two tracts, A Seasonable Caveat against Popery . . . and The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience Debated and Defended, both of which were soon published. Thus the Journal is particularly illuminating with respect to Penn's early writing. Henry J. Cadbury contributes a valuable history of this manuscript, a small (2%"x5") parchment-covered pocket-book containing less than 12,000 words, which is now in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. In 1910 Norman Penney published a proofedition of fifty copies in the expectation of receiving information on the countless names and places which Penn had abbreviated. This difficult task has been to all intents and purposes achieved by Isabel Grubb, who has succeeded in identifying practically all the persons cryptically mentioned, as well as the place-names. Her maps of the Penn lands in east and west Cork, appearing as end-papers, are a witness to her thoroughness. For the student of the Quaker colonies, this work has an added interest. Of the fifty...