A Church Quarrel and What Resulted

90BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY. A CHURCH QUARREL AND WHAT RESULTED. By Julia S. White. " Rachel Wright a friend of the Minestry and wife of John Wright one of the first beginers of a Meeting at Bush River Departed this life the 23rd Day of the 12 mo. one Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy one 1771 aged about 52 years." It is thus that the records of the Friends' meeting at Bush River, South Carolina, chronicle the death oi one, who, despite her being " a friend of the Minestry," had given the church considerable trouble, trouble so far-reaching that this good woman would have stood aghast at the consequent results. For it was about Rachel Wright that one of the greatest church quarrels of North Carolina Yearly Meeting centered. In the quarrel there came first the disownment of Herman Husband from membership with Friends, a fact which left him free to become the leader in the Regulation movement, culminating in the Battle of Alamance , and that without doing violence to the peace principles of the church. The second notable result of this church quarrel was the settlement of Friends in the State of Georgia at Wrightsboro. One of the factions led by Joseph Maddock and Jonathan Sell swarmed off and made this settlement; and knowing their sympathies in the Rachel Wright affair, one is not surprised to find the name of the meeting such as it is, i. e., Wrightsboro. It is for defending the Friends of North Carolina in a careful adherence to their peace principles which is the object of this paper and not to defend or to condemn our " Friend of the Minestry," Rachel Wright. As is well known, the storm center of the Regulation movement was in what is now Alamance and adjoining counties. The Friends' meeting of that section at that time was Cane Creek, a meeting still vigorous and the oldest Friends' meeting in the Piedmont district of North Carolina. This meeting was established in 1751 and has maintained itself ever since. The original members of this meeting were a part of that great wave of colonization coming largely from Pennsylvania, and pouring A CHURCH QUARREL AND WHAT RESULTED.91 southward through Maryland and the valley of Virginia into Piedmont, Carolina, and then on across the line into South Carolina and yet on into the hill country of Georgia. These people were largely Scotch-Irish and brought to Carolina an influx of sturdiness and of thrift which soon gained recognition from, and ere long precedence over, the eastern section of the State which at that time (1751) had been settled about one hundred years. In the second year of the existence of the Cane Creek meeting Rachel Wright asks for a " certificate to travel in the service of Truth in Lower Virginia." In 1753 she makes a visit to Friends of the Cape Fear (N. C.) section. In 1758 she visits families and thus she seems quite active as " a friend of the Minestry." However, in 1762 she " hath been guilty of some disorders" (its nature is not recorded). She offers a paper of condemnation and the same is accepted. By the next year she has moved to South Carolina, and when her certificate is asked for the trouble begins ; for some Friends think " there was lack of sincerity " in the paper of condemnation which was offered the meeting and the certificate is withheld. Rachel Wright appeals to the Quarterly Meeting (Western), and this meeting, after careful investigation, decides Cane Creek Monthly Meeting " to be rather too exact or strenuous." The committee appointed by the Quarterly Meeting reversed the decision of the Monthly Meeting aiid issued the certificate. This, of course, left Cane C^eek Monthly Meeting in a turmoil. Twelve Friends of the Quarterly Meeting are appointed to try to settle matters at Cane Creek, but in nth month, 1763, they report as follows: "There still appears a great disorder in the said Monthly Meeting of Cane Creek occasioned by a party not only contending with and opposing the proceedings of the Quarterly Meeting but also making a division and separation in the said Monthly Meeting by endeavoring to uphold, maintain and...