Notes and Queries

32 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY. NOTES AND QUERIES Quakers and Parliament, 1659. In W. C. Braithwaite's Beginnings of Quakerism, pp. 454, 455, there is an account of one of the most striking incidents in early Quaker history—that where "one hundred and sixty-four Friends, from London and other parts, came together in Westminster Hall on the 15th and 16th of April, 1659, and sent in to the House a paper offering their bodies, person for person, to lie in jail in the place of their imprisoned friends." The following reference to this petition occurs in a newspaper of the time or what answers to a newspaper , the "Mercurius Politicus." ICOMPRISINGI The sum of Foreign Intelligence, with| the Affairs now on foot in the Three NationsI OF| ENGLAND, SCOTLAND and IRELAND\ F°r Information of the PeopleI—Ita vertere Seria { ^"?ß? | From Thursday, April 14 to Thursday, April 21, 1659. 1 Friday, April 15. This day, and the following, a great number of a sort of People called Quakers, come up to London from several parts, assembled themselves in Westminster -Hall, with intent to represent somewhat to the House touching the men of their way. Saturday, 16 April. A Paper (written on the outside thereof, with these words, namely, For the Speaker of the Commons assembled in Parliament. These are for him to read to the House of Commons) was this day read. And upon the reading thereof, the same (amongst other things) referred to another Paper, entituled, A Declaration to the Parliament, etc., Delivered the Sixth day of the second Moneth called April, 1659, to the then Speaker of the said House. The said Papers were presented by certain persons commonly called Quakers; and some of them being called in by Order of the House, received the Answer following at the Bar, vis. That this House hath read their Paper, and doth declare their dislike of the Scandals thereby cast upon Magistracy and Ministry ; and doth therefore Order, That they do forthwith resort to their respective Habitations, and there apply themselves to their Callings, and submit themselves to the Laws of the Nation, and the Magistracy they live under." This reply is what might have been expected from the Parliament of Richard Cromwell. The documents above referred to may be found in Besse's Sufferings, vol. L, iv., v., and also in A. R. Barclay's Letters of the Early Friends, pp. 62-69, where the names of the 164 Friends are given. NOTES AND QUERIES. 33 SWARTHMOOR OR SWARTHMORE Again.—Professor W. I. Hull, of Swarthmore College, has an interesting and full paper in the Friends Intelligencer for Third month 8, 1913, on "Swarthmore" and " Ulverstone." In this the history of the spelling of the word is exhaustively treated so far as the writings of Friends are concerned. He finds that " in Norman Penney's verbatim et literatim edition of George Fox's Journal the name is spelled in six differentways. Swarthmooreoccurs 52 times; Swarth moore(two separate words) 2 times; Swarthmoor 3 times; Swarthmore 9 times; Swarth More 2 times; Swirthmor 2 times; and Swarchmor 1 time . . . It is interesting to note that a deed, dated the 16th of Ninth month, 1687, speaks of "George ffox of Swarthwori? in ye County of Lancaster, gentleman ," and a Latin document of 1697, speaks of " Swarthmore in Com. Lancastriae. ..." The first editing of Margaret (Fell) Fox's Journal, (" A Brief Collection ," etc.), published in London in 1710, uses the form of Swarthmore throughout, except that in one place Margaret spells it Swarthmor." Professor Hull goes on to quote Sewel, who, in both the Dutch and English editions of his History, uses the form Swarthmore. The ancient pronunciation of the name, he argu ée, from the forms moore and more, must have been "more." "As to the origin of the name," Professor Hull says, " it is now generally accepted to have been derived from the Swart, or Black Moor which in early times covered a large portion of the Furness district of Lancashire, in which Swarthmore Hall was built. Professor Hull's conclusion is "that while our British brethren may well continue to write Swarthmoor and XJlverston if only for...