Annual Meeting, 1921

ANNUAL MEETING, 1921.61 held here. The Monthly Meeting of the ist day of the 12th Month, 1777, was held in Thomas Ellicott's blacksmith shop, owing, as the records state, to the fact that the Meeting House was given over entirely to the soldiers for hospital purposes, while down on the meadow bank, at the foot of the hill, also the Meeting House property, tents were erected for small-pox cases. Many soldiers died here and were buried in a plot by themselves on the bank along York Road, just beyond the little stone horse stable and some seventy feet from the Meeting House door. In 1856 the Turnpike Company regraded Buckingham hill and in doing so exposed the bones of several of the soldiers. These were carefully collected and reinterred in a safer location back from the roadside. In this very Meeting House, all about where you sit today, many a poor soldier breathed his last and was laid to rest, in an unmarked grave, without the walls of the graveyard, his only monument those primeval oaks that have stood watch and warder over him all these years. Today, in your pilgrimage to Buckingham, you are honoring the memory of these brave men who at that early day gave their lives to uphold what they believed to be the principles of human liberty—gave their lives, as we would say today, for an ideal, the giving of which always ennobles a nation. ANNUAL MEETING, 1921. On the evening of Eleventh Month 28th, 1921, the Annual Meeting of the Friends' Historical Society of Philadelphia was held in the Twelfth Street Meeting House. The President, Lucy B. Roberts, gave a brief report of the activities of the Society for the year. Of especial importance was the announcement that desk room had been granted at the Friends' Library, 142 North Sixteenth Street, Philadelphia, which will hereafter be the address of the Society. Officers were elected as stated on page 56, above. After the business had been transacted, various members of the Society exhibited manuscripts and other articles of historic interest , explaining briefly in each case the origin or significance of the 62BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY. object shown. The following is a list of the exhibitors and the things exhibited : Biddle, James.—Marriage certificate of John Biddle (1707-1789) and Sarah Owen, dated Philadelphia, First Month 3rd, 1763. Brinton, Walter.—A surveyor's compass with the following inscription : "Made by Benjamin Rittenhouse for Enos Thomas." Cadbury, Richard T.—Bible of Richard Tapper, probably with him in Southgate Prison, Exeter, in 1683 ; 14 volumes of diary letters written by Ann Warder, Philadelphia, 1786-1788, describing social life of the younger married Friends of that day ; an old box for holding church-warden smoking pipes. Eastbum, Samuel C.—Old manuscripts, including: 25 sheepskin indenture deeds for lands in Bucks County, Pa., 1682-1688; receipts by Thomas Penn for commuted quit-rents, 1729-1731 ; store account books of Joseph Richardson, 1731-1735. Also old books. Enden, James.—A large glass tumbler, about ten inches high, bearing on the side arms of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the words, "Virtue, Liberty and Independence"; also, "New Bremen Glass Manufactory , 1791." The piece once belonged to Anne Guest, an ancestress of the present owner. Jenkins, Margaret.—A sampler, worked by Elizabeth Guest, showing a great variety of beautiful' embroidery stitches. Myers, Albert Cook.—Bronze handle of a knife. See frontispiece and article, pp. 29-31, in the Bulletin, Spring Number, 1922. Paxson, Henry D.—A tomahawk presented to James Logan by an Indian chief as a token of friendship. Rhoads, Samuel N.—Choice items from his bookshop, including Francis Bugg's " A Bomb Thrown Amongst the Quakers in Norwich." Saunders, Jennie C.—Letter book of Joseph Saunders (1712-1792) covering the years 1766-1775 with valuable references to the Stamp Act, the Townshend duties, and the non-importation agreements. Scattergood, Anne Theodora.—Journal written by Mary Wheeler in 1806 describing a journey from Philadelphia to New York by sailing-packet and carriage. Turner, Joseph Brown.—A power of attorney granted in 1711 by William Penn and others to Edward Shippen and others, authorizing the sale of the...